I woke up to an interesting dilemma on Tuesday morning, the eve of our AFCON quarter final game with South Africa as I pondered on a mail from CAF that there would be an “excursion” to the Giza Pyramids for accredited journalists.
The time for the visit was 11am but the Super Eagles’ official press conference for the South Africa game was slated for 10:30am. I literally felt what Paul said in the Bible in Romans 7:23; “But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind……”
After finishing the war in my members, I concluded to, like many others, sacrifice the Press Conference on the altar of one of the Seven Wonders of the World – The Giza Pyramids!
We joined other tourists at the headquarters of the Egyptian Football Federation from where we were driven in a 40-minute trip to the desert where Giza Pyramids is situated. We were told that; to gain entry inside the Pyramids on a regular day, it costs 50 USD per head. Well, it was free today all thanks to the LOC and CAF.
The visit started with a brief narration where the man disclosed to us that the Pyramids was built with a total of two million and three hundred thousand blocks (2,300,000) blocks. Amazing, isn’t it?
The narrator continued by informing us that an American tourist back in 1919 helped in the further discovery of the Pyramids after he fell in a hole where he discovered the salary of the builders which was beer, bread and salt fish.
There were lots of pictures that would only be released in the future but after about an hour of the tour, we started the journey back to the EFA office. I really couldn’t wait to leave though because the sun was extremely scorching that I had to buy the hat in the picture. By the way (BTW), I wore my customised Akwa United jersey to the tour as a way of celebrating the club’s chairman Etubom Paul Bassey – a very good man – whose birthday was on Tuesday.
We went back to our apartment briefly before heading to the El Shams Club to catch a glimpse of the Super Eagles in their final training session before the South Africa game. There, I met my birthday mate, Abdullahi Shehu for the first time in Egypt. He was delighted to see me and asked when I came in. Refreshing to see him again.
Wednesday was Match Day! We were quite relaxed in the apartment. Perhaps, the stress of the competition was already kicking in so folks went low key until we had our usual breakfast – bread, tea and egg – around 10am local time.
We further downloaded Eba and Egusi soup into our bellies shortly before we left for the Cairo International Stadium at about 5pm local time for the Nigeria vs South Africa game. It was a successful day.
At the stadium, I saw my boss Calvin Onwuka for the first time after he arrived from London early on Wednesday morning. It was a very hot evening for everyone but we were indeed grateful that the Super Eagles gave us a soothing victory.
That’s all for now, time to sleep (at 5:15am local time on Thursday).
Cheers, ALOHA!
