Day Six and the four “Guns of Gaberone” (eat your heart out, Gregory Peck) continue their good work with a morning session at a large primary school in Molepolole. With some of the earlier ‘confirmed’ bookings falling by the wayside, this visit was arranged at very short notice by Gnaouan, one of our female volunteer coaches based in Botswana, who also volunteers at the school – another example of the way in which the team often has to improvise when in-country.
An hour’s drive into the country brought us to the school, with a cluster of new-looking class-rooms fronted by an expanse of flat, sandy playing-field – nothing wrong with that at all but it would probably be advisable to insert the opposition on winning the toss. After all, it’s better to chase a total in the relative cool of the evening.
Vards again took control, helped by the teachers and with the numbers of children now swelling to around 250, quickly established four ‘play-stations’. Technical input was at a minimum, because of the numbers but my own throwing station caused immense hilarity amongst the children, trying to knock over the stumps and then chasing long distances to ‘be faithful’ to their own ball. By the end of the session the lunch-break had arrived and with more children joining all the time, the team took the opportunity to ‘protect’ their equipment, wrap up the session, distribute bands and then beat a hasty retreat.
An extended lunch-break next to the highly impressive Molepolole sports complex (astroturf football pitch with floodlights and stands, athletics track, tennis courts but no obvious cricket provision) was followed by an afternoon visit to another primary school close by, an impressive set-up with very new class-rooms and an expansive playing area. Unfortunately yet another disconnect in the line of communication meant that numbers of children were again huge and the planned three-station session was curtailed after two, when the children disappeared to take on water and then get transport home, never to return. Happily, the school seemed to be pretty advanced in its ABCT’s, so all was most definitely not lost.
(A note for future visits could be that there are 19 primary schools in the Molepolole area, so although the visits involve a 45-minute trip from Gabs, they could well be fertile ground for CWB)
So a slightly disappointing day on the coaching side but compensated for by “Dancing Queen” Shameelah, another of our young local volunteer coaches (opening batsman for the National Ladies and known as “The Beast of Botswana”) who consulted her vast list of contacts and set us up with a table at ‘JJ’s” Mexican restaurant, where a rump steak the size of Wiltshire was priced at 90 pula (£5.50 in proper money). Happy Days!!!