{"id":253,"date":"2014-03-28T07:35:09","date_gmt":"2014-03-28T07:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/?p=253"},"modified":"2014-03-28T07:35:09","modified_gmt":"2014-03-28T07:35:09","slug":"how-did-i-find-myself-back-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/2014\/03\/28\/how-did-i-find-myself-back-here\/","title":{"rendered":"How did I find myself (back) here?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\tFive days before departure to Cameroon I posted the first &lsquo;experience&rsquo; blog entitled, &lsquo;How did I find myself here?&rsquo; Re-reading that blog post there are three sentences\/objectives amongst the jokes, bravado and blatant plug for sponsorship that now, post-trip, stand out.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t<span style=\"font-size:14px\"><span style=\"color:#0000CD\"><em><strong><span style=\"line-height: 1.6em\">&ldquo;I have not placed too much energy on wondering what to expect&#8230;. I&#039;m looking forward to discovering Cameroon for myself and enjoying the whole experience.&rdquo;<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tI&rsquo;m glad I didn&rsquo;t spend too long wondering what to expect. Beyond coaching nearly 2000 kids in two wholly enjoyable weeks I&rsquo;d never have come up with this batch of bucket list items;\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\tPlay&nbsp;for &lsquo;Team Commonwealth&rsquo; in a cricket match against Cameroon in front of Government Ministers!\n\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\tAttend&nbsp;the national &lsquo;Commonwealth Gala Dinner&rsquo; with the Minister for External Relations and the British High Commissioner!\n\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\tMeet the President of the Cameroon Olympic Committee and the Committee, all of them!Experience a full-on Tropical Storm &#8211; Thunder, lightning, rain, wind &#8211; at 4am!\n\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\tMeet with the Ministry of Sport &amp; Physical education!\n\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\tTeach a nun how to play cricket!\n\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\tAppear&nbsp;on Cameroonian National TV &ndash; TWICE!!\n\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\tMeet ROGER MILLA!!!&nbsp;Legend!\n\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\n\t<a href=\"http:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/files\/2014\/03\/8685.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"8685\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-290\" height=\"300\" src=\"http:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/files\/2014\/03\/8685-258x300.jpg\" width=\"258\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/files\/2014\/03\/8685-258x300.jpg 258w, https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/files\/2014\/03\/8685.jpg 289w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 258px) 100vw, 258px\" \/><\/a><span style=\"line-height: 1.6em\">And all the above was just the first five days!<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t<strong style=\"line-height: 1.6em\"><em><span style=\"font-size:14px\"><span style=\"color:#0000CD\">&ldquo;This trip&#8230;will hopefully re-ignite my passion for coaching, bring the smiles back to coaching, provide smiles for the participants and provide friendships for life.&rdquo;<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/files\/2014\/03\/Day-8-Coach-Ed-Buea-38.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Day 8 - Coach Ed Buea (38)\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-262\" height=\"298\" src=\"http:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/files\/2014\/03\/Day-8-Coach-Ed-Buea-38.jpg\" style=\"float: right\" width=\"448\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/files\/2014\/03\/Day-8-Coach-Ed-Buea-38.jpg 448w, https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/files\/2014\/03\/Day-8-Coach-Ed-Buea-38-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 448px) 100vw, 448px\" \/><\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t<span style=\"line-height: 1.6em\">I&rsquo;m not sure that my passion for coaching a junior club side in England was reignited, but the experience of coaching a &lsquo;new&rsquo; sport, at its most basic skill level to enthusiastic and highly competitive children, who in turn want to both learn and to please is, I have found while writing this, indescribable. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t<span style=\"line-height: 1.6em\">(Believe me it&rsquo;s taken 15 minutes to try and find the words only to settle on the wholly inadequate &lsquo;indescribable&rsquo;!)<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t<a href=\"http:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/files\/2014\/03\/Day-13-Buea-Festival-14.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"SONY DSC\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-264\" height=\"298\" src=\"http:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/files\/2014\/03\/Day-13-Buea-Festival-14.jpg\" width=\"448\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/files\/2014\/03\/Day-13-Buea-Festival-14.jpg 448w, https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/files\/2014\/03\/Day-13-Buea-Festival-14-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 448px) 100vw, 448px\" \/><\/a><span style=\"line-height: 1.6em\">In terms of &lsquo;providing smiles&rsquo; the photo library amassed shows little else, across everything we did and everywhere we went. Cameroon smiled on us and we could only do but smile back. If you have a spare 20 minutes take a look at the Flickr set in the link here &#8211;&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cricketwithoutboundaries\/sets\/72157642927873134\/\" style=\"line-height: 1.6em;font-size: 13px\">http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cricketwithoutboundaries\/sets\/72157642927873134\/<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t<a href=\"http:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/files\/2014\/03\/Day-3-Commonwealth-Dinner-101.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Day 3 - Commonwealth Dinner (10)\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-260\" height=\"336\" src=\"http:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/files\/2014\/03\/Day-3-Commonwealth-Dinner-101.jpg\" width=\"448\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/files\/2014\/03\/Day-3-Commonwealth-Dinner-101.jpg 448w, https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/files\/2014\/03\/Day-3-Commonwealth-Dinner-101-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 448px) 100vw, 448px\" \/><\/a><span style=\"line-height: 1.6em\">And friendships? In the main, eight strangers met at Heathrow one Saturday morning. Two weeks later eight friends landed. We ate, trained, coached, joked, travelled, milled about and played together, a group extended further to include the local coaches. We worked hard. We laughed a lot. We laughed an awful lot, and laughed especially at the limitations of our &lsquo;Tricolor&rsquo; inspired education of the French language. All are now connected via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the rest!<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t<span style=\"color:#0000CD\"><span style=\"font-size:14px\"><em><strong>&ldquo;There is also a small part of me that wants to enjoy the trip so much that I do it again, and in future with my son too!&rdquo;<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t<a href=\"http:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/files\/2014\/03\/Day-12-GHS-Buea-Town-10.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-263\" height=\"336\" src=\"http:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/files\/2014\/03\/Day-12-GHS-Buea-Town-10.jpg\" width=\"448\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/files\/2014\/03\/Day-12-GHS-Buea-Town-10.jpg 448w, https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/files\/2014\/03\/Day-12-GHS-Buea-Town-10-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 448px) 100vw, 448px\" \/><\/a>Would I do it again? YES! Without any hesitation. The only real questions are, &lsquo;How soon?&rsquo;, and &lsquo;Where?&rsquo;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tI will certainly return to Cameroon one day with CWB (provided they want me to!) but not too soon, as I would like to see how the programme develops over time, both in terms of cricket development and truly making inroads into breaking the stigma associated with HIV\/AIDS and testing, and depending on finances and the generosity of donors I would potentially like to experience CWB in another country.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThat said, I hope that, enthused by this trip and enthused by the work CWB does, that I can be of some use to CWB in this country, be it in assisting with recruitment, training weekends, presenting my experiences and the charity&rsquo;s work to schools, cricket clubs and other interested parties&#8230;.anything!\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tFirst stop is a presentation to Year 8&rsquo;s, currently studying the demography and prevalence of HIV\/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa in Geography, at Colston&rsquo;s School in Bristol on April 30th&#8230;&#8230;that is after I&rsquo;ve checked Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc, and catch up with the shenanigans of my new, and hopefully lifelong friends to be.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t<span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 1.6em\">Thank you to CWB for this fantastic opportunity.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThank you to Jo, Dave (38), Jono, David (52), Jules, Roger &amp; Liam for a truly memorable life experience.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThank you to Penny &amp; Sam, my fantastic family, for supporting me all the way there and back, even if it was on the proviso that the life insurance was up to date and &lsquo;to the max&rsquo;! But one&nbsp;time Sam,&nbsp;you&#039;re coming too!\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Five days before departure to Cameroon I posted the first &lsquo;experience&rsquo; blog entitled, &lsquo;How did I find myself here?&rsquo; Re-reading that blog post there are three sentences\/objectives amongst the jokes, bravado and blatant plug for sponsorship that now, post-trip, stand out. &ldquo;I have not placed too much energy on wondering what to expect&#8230;. I&#039;m looking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":37,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":297,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions\/297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/cameroon14\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}