Day 12
Wherever in the world you are, the sound of children singing will always have the same effect on the heartstrings. One lone soloist, leading the voices of an innocent choir will always create the same feelings. Be it at the local village church, in the heart of the English countryside or here in the heat of the Botswana landscape.
As the children sat under the shade of the tree, I shamelessly recorded images of the singing masses that I would almost certainly watch time and time again in the months and years to come. For that afternoon at Mabadzane Primary School definitely was the real face of Africa and Botswana.
Children stood together, sat together, played together with faces beaming, happiness there for all to see. While the action took place on the school field, ten tiny reception children played on the swings. Of the four swings, only two were in a useable condition. While the fortunate two children played on the swings, the remaining children stood around them. They waited patiently for their turns, with no malice or anger, faces beaming with smiles from ear to ear.
The previous day had started with a rarity for this trip, cloudy skies and rain drops. Note that it wasn’t rain, it was just raindrops….and this is the rainy season! However, this morning was just perfect. Deep blue skies, bright shiny sun and a gentle cooling breeze.
The second week of this trip in Francistown has a sense of repetition. With four mornings of coach education taking place at the local vocational college, followed by four afternoons of school visits, we get to take the same journey into “work” each morning. The journey feels slightly similar to my rush hour car drive each morning in the UK. The road is the same day after day, but the scenery is never the same.
Dogs chasing goats alongside the busy main road. A man pulling his golf clubs through grasses and scrublands which hopefully forms the heavy rough of the local golf course and not the middle of the fairway. A mother and two children walking through the middle of a building site, unaware while a digger bears down upon them.
A long lasting image of Botswana would be of construction and building sites. Everywhere new buildings are shooting up from the ground, miles and miles of new roads are being laid with the landscape of the countryside changing on a daily basis.
Over the four mornings of this week, we have delivered 2 two day coach education courses. Over 70 coaches will have been trained once we get through Thursday. While the course content is relatively simple, the participants are like sponges taking on board all the information given to them. Due to the CWB coaches lack of knowledge of the local language, the whole course is delivered in English. As a result, it is understandable that the students are initially reserved in their delivery. Imagine attending a volleyball coaching course in the UK and being tutored by a French tutor who expects you to speak only French on the programme!!!
However the students are incredible, despite their initial knowledge of coaching and the game itself. The majority of the students are aged between 20 and 25, with no knowledge of the game of cricket at all. Despite only receiving nine hours of coaching tuition, seven of the participants of the first course, join with us to attend Mabadzane School on Wednesday afternoon. By the end of the 90 minute session, they are successfully leading a 20 minute coaching station, under observation of the CWB coaching team.
The Mabadzane School is our first real taste of what we were expecting of coaching in the middle of the African continent. The school field resembled more a farmers field than a lush grass covered playing area. The ground had clearly been last “ploughed” a period ago. The ground was furrowed with trenches the length of the field. Gaps between these furrows were about four foot across and the surface of the earth had a distinct curve to it.
However, despite the issues that this caused, CWB still managed to deliver a successful circuit of stations for the assembled masses. The teachers sat under the nearby tree, overlooking the scene (sometimes accompanied by the BCA representative Clem as well) while the events unfolded in front of them. Despite the clear blue skies, the gentle breeze blew dust into the air and, in no time, the equipment was covered in a fine layer of dust.
The more we repeat the ABCT message, in both coach education sessions and school delivery, the easier it becomes and the more realistic the message feels. Wednesday’s cohort of students made the ABCT message their own, with chants and songs being commonplace in their delivery, especially in our schools delivery.
With this being my final blog of the programme, overriding memory of the trip will be of blue skies, smiling faces and hats! In the 12 days since arriving in Botswana, from Gaborone in the South, to Francistown in the East, the array of headwear has been spectacular. I could name many of the hundreds that I have seen. However the most memorable was on that final sunny Wednesday in Francistown.
It brought together building and hats in a wonderful combination. H&S in Britain would have had a field day. Picture the scene, mature thin woman, wearing a large black floppy sun hat, long flowery summer style dress, black sandals, shovelling cement in the middle of a part built classroom extension.
You have got to love Africa, all of life is here.