Todays blog is brought to you by Mengxi Hu:
Language can be a funny thing – “Outer Lobaste” and “Out of Lobaste” may sound similar, but could, in reality, mean about an extra hour and a half. On gravel roads. Squeezing in 15 in the back of our 12 seater minibus.
Not quite as congested as the kids had to withstand on day 2 
but getting closer to the true African experience.
Day 4, the final day of the first week of this programme, began with the above-mentioned journey to Morajane school. We were honoured with the addition of a coach from BCA and one Shameelah Lara Iglesias Mossweu, captain of the Botswana under 19s female national team (so named after another cricketing legend, courtesy of her cricket-mad father’s ingenious, surreptitious and unsanctioned last minute addition to her birth certificate).
We were also lucky enough to have three Lobatse teachers from Day 2 return for another round – they obviously wanted to witness, just one more time, Tom’s famed Botswana pull shot in action. And a good thing it was that these teachers were on hand – upon arrival, we were informed that unfortunately no other teacher had been able to make it, but that nearly 60 eager kids had already showed up. (Being school holidays in Gabarone, it was not unexpected that this was going to happen – in fact, it’s having only happened once this week is a testament to relentless efforts of the CWB organising team.) These kids seemed a little less well versed in English, which made our jobs a little harder, but made the presence of the teachers and other coaches much more valuable.
A different audience requires a different show – under the guidance of head coach Adam and his quickly adapted game plan, we implemented a slightly different program than those carried out on earlier days. In addition to the usual drills in the first session and a rapturously revelsome round of rapid fire, the sessions rounded off with three games of Kwik Kricket in the afternoon.
One of my personal highlights was witnessing the teachers who had joined us from Day 2 really get their hands dirty as part of the various drills and activities. Two days ago, these women had never played a game of cricket in their life; today, they were proactively coaching the students on proper stance, grip, technique. If nothing else, this just goes to show exactly how accessible the CWB program is, and the legacy we hope to help develop here in Botswana.
There were a couple of close calls – a talented young batsman hit a boundary into the long grass – commonly termed “black mamba territory” – and Tim was not shy about encouraging (read: sacrificing) one of his fellow teammates to collect the ball.
A couple of coppers also turned up at one point – we thought they had mistaken Simon’s iridescent skin for a distress flare, but it turned out that they had a few kids playing in the Cheetah v Lion game taking place at centre court and wanted to witness the action.
Although a shyer, quieter crowd, the kids nevertheless came together in enthusiastic response to the ABCs and to Shameelah brilliant speech on her personal motivations in playing cricket. After a healthy stop for finger licken chicken licken late lunch, we headed back to Gabarone to trial the Bull and Bush – trust the Brits to sniff out the only British pub in Gabarone.
The difference in English ability and numbers on day 4 compared to the previous days, although a challenge, really allowed the CWB team to learn about interacting with a different group and develop our non-verbal communication skills. The success of the day shows that it doesn’t really matter if you have 50 or 500 kids show up to a session – a bat and ball, an adaptable team and an exaggerated elephant walk can nevertheless get the message across.
a great days report.
Well done