Friday, Reflections on Kenya – Pete

Learning cricket is not easy, but learning in your second language is tough, and it’s tricky for coaches too. Since we first arrived the quality of our coaching has gone up every day. In the first few sessions it was as much as we could do to try and get the coaching points and AIDS awareness message across at the same time whilst trying to make it fun, but over the last few days we’ve really started to get to know the young people we’ve been coaching – and that starts with something as simple as finding out their names.
 
On Tuesday, at the Nakuru Teacher Training College, we met a young man called Teves. Teves had travelled 400km to attend the school from the village he shares with the family of an obscure American Politician called Barack Obama. He had the sort of batting power most can only dream of, and an eye to go with it and from a standing start he was coaching the other students by the end of the day. His talent and aptitude are indicative of the potential for cricket in this country.
 
At the end of the day we were approached by another young teacher called Bernard. He told us that he had travelled to Nakuru from Tanzania where he hoped to teach once he was qualified. Like Tevez he’d never played cricket before but now he was determined to take the game back to Tanzania and use it to promote and HIV/AIDS awareness message too – that’s exactly what we are trying to achieve and it’s fantastic news.
 
After a grueling four and a half hour journey, admittedly punctuated with a quick stop off at a waterfall and lunch at a trout farm we arrived at picturesque Nanyuki in the foothills of Mount Kenya. Once there we went straight to Tumaini Children’s Home where we met the inspirational manager, Purity. Purity runs the home for 56 children living with HIV and AIDS, and she loves cricket. Gareth has already explained what an incredible emotional and inspiring experience the day was so I’ll just add that it is one none of us will ever forget.
 
Purity is a great supporter of CWB and she’s really bought into what we are all about. So much so that today, she was with a couple of our top level tutors taking her level 1 coaching certificate, so she can carry on using cricket to fight HIV/AIDS when we’re not here. To have someone get involved as clearly on the frontline of the battle against this terrible disease as Purity, is a real point of pride for Cricket Without Boundaries.
 
On top of the teacher training and the orphanage we’ve been in to what feels like countless schools already – everyone with their stars. In Nakuru there was Esther with a cannon of a right arm, and Priscilla who, completely uncoached, was generating some reall offspin. At the Primary school this morning there was Marion with her Manchester United shirt and fantastic smile, and I’ve just left a game with a young lad called Samuel who in a two hour session became a frighteningly good righthanded batsman with shots all around the wicket – if he was given proper coaching not one of us has any doubt he could be something really special.
 
Enough of me, I’m off for a pint or two of Tusker.
 
Pete