Saturday morning came around and it was time to make the trip north to Francistown. Having surfaced at around 7.30am Africa time, we crammed ourselves into the bus with all of our bags as well as our new found kit straight from the airport. With Andrew wearing fresh pants to the relief of the rest of the team, we embarked on a long 5 hour journey. There were various games going on in the bus including 'Guess the Song' and a new game called 'Card Concussion' which Paul seemed to adopt quickly managing to smash his head against the ceiling at every given moment.

 

After several hours, a couple of rest stops and thankfully no incidents involving the police we arrived at a hotel to meet our main man Clement who organises as much as he possibly can in Francistown. Next up was a stop at a deaf school where we were greeted by several children climbing on board the bus for high fives, hand shakes and hugs. This was inevitably going to be the start of an emotional visit. With the weather looking decidedly cloudy, we headed out to the sports field to start the fun and games. In typically English fashion, the heavens opened and we were forced inside. This however did not stop the coaches from setting up various improvised catching drills in the hall with balls flying everywhere. It was only a couple of moments before we were back outside where the games continued. This did not last long of course with the team once again making a trip inside before another trip outside followed by presentations of t-shirts and wristbands. There was also a sizeable donation made by Gemma and the sporting community of Handsworth which was gratefully received with a silent thank you as loud as any thank you we had had on previous days.

 

With the realisation of how hard life would be, not only for the children but also for the matrons who work at the school, the team were pretty self-reflective and quiet on the next bus journey. Having said this, the journey did not last long with the #Invincibles bus arriving at an orphanage a matter of moments later. Having opened the door of the less than invincible team bus (which consisted of untying a piece of string holding a sliding door together), the team once again disembarked and entered onto a new emotional rollercoaster holding sessions and crucially putting huge smiles on all the faces of the young children. As well as some cricket sessions, there were various Olympic events taking place for the younger ones in the group. This involved helping children onto a crossbar and seeing how long they could hold on. The result of this was that David walked away with some war wounds from several children using him as a climbing frame.

 

After a quick stop off at the local supermarket for a food and drink stock up, chef Paul whipped up some delicious chicken/tuna pasta to the delight of the tired team. An early night was in order for some whilst others (Gem, Adam, Paul and Scott) stayed up till the early hours for a mini safari tour around the premises. Unfortunately, no snakes were seen nor any other very interesting animals apart from themselves.

 

Tomorrow we have a rest day!


P.S due to technical issues we haven't been able to upload any photos however when we are back in England, there will be photos uploaded.