One last look at Kumba

Sponsor A Team: From SWFC to OFSA

Also as part of CFDP’s “Sponsor A Team” initiative, we have presented Olympic Fruiting Sporting Academy, which is based in Kumba Town, with a set of jerseys donated by Sports World Football Club of East Windsor, CT. We see it as a gift from a youth sports academy in Connecticut to a youth sports academy in Kumba.

Below is a picture with Mr. Tembon Wilfred, the founder and director of Olympic Fruiting SA, with a jersey representative of an entire set that will soon arrive in Kumba.

Sponsor A Team: From Suffield, CT to Barombi, Kumba

This summer, CFDP has started this cool, new initiative called “Sponsor A Team.” Our goal is to encourage soccer teams in the United States to sponsor a team in Kumba by donating uniforms, balls, and other sorts of equipment that is necessary for a team to operate, but extremely difficult to access in Cameroon. In return, we want to thank donors in the US by fostering some sort of cultural exchange by putting Cameroonian coaches in touch with their American sponsors, creating pen pal friendships between players of partnering teams, sending photos to American teams to display on their websites, etc.

As part of this initiative, we presented MBS FC of Kang-Barombi community in Kumba, one of the strongest teams participating in CFDP’s Youth Enrichment Football League, with a set of uniforms donated to CFDP by the Suffield Soccer Club of Suffield, CT. (The full set has actually not yet arrived in Cameroon, but MBS FC have received one jersey that is representative of the entire set.) For CFDP, we see it as a gift from the community of Suffield to the community of Kang-Barombi. Kinda cool, right? 

Check out the video and pictures below:

On the left is Emmanuel, the coach of MBS FC and a close friend of mine. He is a good person and a passionate leader.

Kumba Economics 101

The staples of Kumba’s economy are… Cocoa and beer! 

Cocoa is grown, harvested, and exported to Europe to producers of chocolate by farmers all around Kumba. There are two colors of cocoa: Red and green/yellow. The first two pictures below show green plants growing from a cocoa tree. The third picture below shows cocoa seeds drying under the sun, as they must do before they are okay for export.

As for beer, well, people here drink a lot. Some say Cameroon consumes more beer than any African country, but this is yet to be confirmed as a fact. The last picture below shows a Kadji beer bottle. Kadji is one of only two, purely Cameroonian beer makers. All other beers, although brewed in the country, are products of European companies. Also, you’ll see the bottle is large—22 oz.—compared to those we have in America. This is the standard size of one beer in Cameroon.

The Pittsburgh Steelers in Kumba

As you are well aware, CFDP is an organization based jointly in Kumba, Cameroon, Africa, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Part of the organization’s mission involves facilitating a sort of “cultural exchange” between Cameroon and the United States so that people in the United States can learn more about Cameroonian culture and people in Cameroon can learn more about American culture. This summer, to help fulfill this mission, CFDP helped to create the first Steelers bar in Cameroon.

If you know Pittsburgh, you know that the Steelers, the city’s [American] football team, are basically synonymous with the city’s name. Everyone here LOVES the Steelers. Watching the Steelers on Sunday is as “Pittsburgh” as eating apple pie is “American.” The Steelers are so important that they have truly become more of a livelihood than a team for the people that live here. This is evident by the fact that there are Steelers bars not only around the United States from Connecticut to Florida, but around the world in countries such as Italy and France. When people leave Pittsburgh, they carry Steeler pride with them.

So, our CEO, Justin Forzano, thought why not bring the Steelers to Cameroon. He gifted a small, local bar in Kumba known as Mbacho’s Place with all sorts of Pittsburgh Steelers paraphernalia. Check out the pictures below: