As I pen my last personal note from Gabon, I am on board Rwanda Airlines flight WB 215, seat 12 A (Economy class) from Libreville to Entebbe via Douala and Kigali cities.
On my right hand is a beautiful Cameroon lady, who later reveals her identity as Michelle Doudou heading to Dubai for personal business.
Michelle keeps stealing an eye on my note pad throughout the journey, possibly curious of what I am writing.
I pose a bit and tell her that Cameroon Indomitable Lions are the champions of the 31st edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) football tournament.
With surprise, she smiles as we exchange business cards.
Back to business – Henri Hugo Broos’ coached side defeated 7-time record winners Egypt 2-1 during a tense, thrilling and action packed final watched by the biggest crowd at the tournament – 38,218 spectators.
For over the three weeks of action, I, the Kawowo Sports CEO, Joseph Owino and two other Kawowo Sports workmates Ismail Kiyonga and Aminah Babirye filed up-dates, stories and images live from Gabon on the fast sprouting sports website.
Personally, it will remain a very great experience in my life having covered a tournament of AFCON’s stature, arguably the biggest on the continent.
I am extremely indebted to the company CEO, personal friends, family members, fellow journalists, sponsors (Airtel Uganda and Nile Breweries Limites) the Uganda Football Federation, the continental football body (CAF), the people of Gabon and my fans across the world.
Each of the aforementioned pushed me in one way or the other.
The Gabon experience will remain fresh in my mind for ages.
First, it was a learning plat form from all fronts of life.
Having previously covered a continental footballing event as CHAN (for the locally based national team players in Africa), I was not stranger to the entire setup of most things in Gabon.
Learning how to work under the tightest time frames and successfully managing to beat deadlines, also gave me something better to hope for.
For instance, at Kawowo Sports, we file line-up stories, half time, full time reports and reaction stories almost within the duration of the game at the same time running live updates on the main website and social media platforms.
All those tasks were manageable to say the least within the expected deadlines and to perfection with the back room editorial staff who remain the unsung heroes time immemorial.
Traveling from one host town to another was yet another exciting yet a bit challenging experience.
Of course with the availability of the media shuttles and the famous Afri Jet flights sponsored by the local organizing committee, the traveling experience became enjoyable.
Baptized the Hayatou Express, the free flights were a joy to many journalists (me inclusive) as they could conveniently enable you to commute to the most distant venues within minutes and execute the work tasks before the table.
I was extremely happy for Uganda Cranes returning to the biggest footballing stage – AFCON after 39 years.
The team itself even though bowed out during the first round stage learnt a lot from the tournament which will be a strong basis for the planning of future competitions – more so, with the AFCON 2019 qualifiers around the corner (Uganda is in Group L with Cape Verde, Lesotho and Tanzania).
Sharing plane seats, meals, press conferences, media center and tribunes with the great football legends of the game was also another memorable experience.
From Roger Milla, Patrick Mboma, Samuel Eto’o, El Hadji Diouf, Jeremy Njitap, Joseph Antonine Bell, all could be available for comments at any time of the day or night.
This brought to my attention the high degree of the level of humility from these former super stars vis-à-vis how our current stars should behave and conduct themselves.
First, the legends have a lot of money, fame and fortunes but they remain down-to-earth even to a primary kid in their midst – It was too humbling.
The language challenge was one of the biggest headache aspects for most of the Anglo-phone speakers.
But, steadily, we succeeded as the interpreters and the powerful sign language did the job best.
Breathe taking football action from the continent’s stars, passionate fans as well as explicit organization from Gabon, the local organizing committee (COCAN), excellent services in the transport sector, hotel and lodging, awesome hospitality, good security stand out as the key highlights at AFCON 2017.
Cameroon players and officials paying tribute to the late Marc-Vivien Foé was also another eye catching and memorable moment.
To my brothers and sisters in Cameroon including my new friend on board Michelle, I say congratulations.
Viva Viva Cameroon.