AIMS-Cameroon organized an in-house table tennis tournament to relieve student stress and strengthen friendship ties among her students, tutors and visiting staff.

A fun dinner time event that lasted the better part of three hours on 16 March 2022, saw students transfer their in class competitive drive to the campus ping-pong tables, fighting for a generous cash price and some bragging rights.

The tournament whose organization was led by the Nessma Adil Yousif, alumna of the 2018-2020 cohort who is currently a visiting tutor for the block, had students compete in two separate gender based pools and the winners from each pool playing a “break the bias” final.

As the players took turns on the tables, students who had little or no appetite for the embarrassment that followed a loss, joined the college of cheerleaders to applaud the players at every point.

And as the tournament tiptoed to its penultimate round, the focus drifted to betting on who had the best chance of winning the day. This too was fun, and a perfect cap to what had been an evening free of all the pressure that usually envelopes life on our campus. The relief, the fan fair and laughter that filled our lunch room was testament to how much we had missed times like these, how much we had logged for reset.

And when it was all over, we waited endlessly to see who had emerged champion, in the final game that pitted two of our favorite players against each other. Their play was art, stroking each ball with care and leaving everyone to sway from one camp to the other, wishing both could win but knowing only one will. But who did ?