As first time volunteers, we met at Heathrow (rather than meet at cafe Nero we ended up in a bar – is that the way the project is going to go?!), a bit apprehensive and unsure what to expect. After three flights and a 3 hour wait at passport control in Johannesburg we arrived in a wet and not particularly warm Francistown – home from home! With resident Batwoman in the group, just stepping off the plane we spotted hoards of bats (the flying kind not the cricket kind!)- a very noisy welcome but project leader Lee was thrilled.
After a much needed night’s sleep, our first day coaching arrived and despite feeling like we had no idea what to do, we just had to jump in and get going. The training that we did a few weeks ago seemed to have simply vanished from our minds! The first session, run by Lee was coaching primary school teachers to coach cricket to children, introducing the idea of using the game to teach the HIV and AIDS awareness message. The teachers pretending to be children was met with much enthusiasm and brought back what we’d learned so by the end of the morning we felt more confident. A couple of teachers in particular seemed to really enjoy the session, with one demonstrating the perfect bowling action. They even requested an extra day of coaching which we will squeeze in on Wednesday.
Then in the afternoon we split the team and each worked with hundreds of primary school children, highly excited and eager to get their hands on a tennis ball. The sessions were fast and furious, and a bit of a shock to the system after working with teachers who listened to instructions!
I was a little terrified when 45 children started running over to my coaching station to learn close catching! But with a bit of help from experienced volunteer Greg, we got them organised (the hard part was getting them into rows without a demonstration!) and by the end of it they were throwing and catching like pros, being faithful to their partners (one of the messages promoted about HIV/AIDS).
A game of Rapid Fire with 60 children all keen to get involved had moments of madness and one or two friendly scuffles, but the children all got to bat and field, with my team coming out victorious (of course!). they must have enjoyed the session as the only way we could get them to let go of our arms was to go into the nearest bar – what a shame!
All in all a very full on first day but we were overwhelmed by the welcome we received. The kids and teachers were excited to learn, and in a way we were learning with them. Roll on tomorrow!
Great start team! Keep up the good work…