Daniel Susu, the Ghanaian South-North volunteer at the NM head office, describes how he experiences sport in Germany.

In Ghana I always loved playing volleyball. So I was really happy when a colleague invited me to join his volleyball club in Bremen. I’m allowed to play there free of charge.

This is the first time I have ever played indoors. In my hometown of Tatale, we always play outside. The sports hall in Bremen looks completely different, and training there is great fun. It’s a men’s team with very different players: some are from Germany, others from Eritrea and Albania. The youngest is 14 and the oldest is 78, and they all train together. I had never experienced anything like that before. The people on the team are very kind to each other and support one another.

I found it funny when they told me to come to training in the evening. In Ghana you can’t play after 5 p.m. because it’s already dark. Most volleyball courts are outdoors, so there’s no training in the evening. Here we play in the hall in the evening, and I especially enjoy that.

I’ve been in Germany for four months now, and I’ve noticed how well organised sport is here. There are trained coaches and good sports facilities. Germans train with a lot of tactics, discipline and punctuality, and they take training very seriously. In Ghana, on the other hand, there is a lot of talent all over the country and a great passion for sport. But there is often a lack of money and good facilities for this talent to develop properly.