Today was the first day of coaching in Francistown and the team got off to a slow start to say the least. With the departure time set at 6.30am, the team of #Invincibles wandered slowly out of their rooms and onto the bus for about 6.50am. This was the start of a chaotic morning. Next, we were told we were meeting Clement at a TOTAL Garage, which one of course, was information not divulged to anyone but the driver. Already late, we rocked up at a TOTAL Garage where we expected Clem to be but after 5 minutes and a phone call later, we were on the road once again travelling to the other side of Francistown to find a different garage.

Finally, having picked up a decidedly unimpressed Clement we headed back out of Francistown passing many a TOTAL Garage including the one we had first stopped in. When we arrived at Ramokwebana Primary School a whole hour late, we were greeted by a bunch of teachers who were expecting to be being coached but were instead standing and waiting. However, at this point, the morning started to get better and with coaching underway, our 12 teachers all had smiles on their faces. In this week the teachers will have 2 days of coaching and then be assessed to see if they can become a qualified ICC CWB Level One Coach with the ones that don't meet certain criteria being awarded an ICC Introduction to Cricket certificate (similar to the first week). This meant that there was more pressure on the coaches to not only put plenty of effort in but also attend both days.

After a reasonably successful morning of catching up on time and a couple of meals at a nearby Hotel, which for some people was pleasantly tasteful but for others was simply inedible, the team and some teachers went back to the playing field to commence the fun and games with the children.

With 200 children attending, a mixture of timing issues and some questionable food, you may think that the day was as typical as a day can get with CWB. During the games with the children we were joined on the playing field by a Scotsman named Stan and an American named Chris. Although this may sound like a bad joke, it was actually quite a brilliant coincidence as these men were from a charity named Top Banana which works with local communities helping people have a better quality of life. They were interested in the work we were doing as they help many living with HIV/AIDS and the result of their visit was that a meeting was arranged for the next day for several members of our team to go and see the work that they were doing and hopefully help find a way to form a long-term partnership between Top Banana and Cricket Without Boundaries.

On the journey home, with schedules all over the place, and on-board a man who lives with tight schedules in his day job  (Paul) throwing a TOTAL moody, an innocent question was asked of said team member as to when dinner might be. The answer to which we are unable to post on this blog however it seemed to sum up his mood from the day…

Back at Woodlands, with Chef Paul with knife in hand, the rest of the team headed to the pool to let him prepare a soon-to-be delicious curry.