Out of the City

For once this morning I woke up before the alarm went off, and despite having plenty of time I forgot so many things it was embarrassing (my hat, my glasses, sun cream, insect repellent, electrolytes to drink). I had also lost my voice, having stretched my vocal amplitude to its maximum, and beyond, in some noisy but massively rewarding sessions yesterday.

Leaving at 8.00, after a drive out of the city past road-side ramshackle shacks, jungle with bananas, mangos, dates, cocoa plants and various wildlife (including a baby goat that Danny thought was a cow)  we arrived at our first school for the day, Lycee Tchnique Obala, at 9.00. Very much a rural school with limited resources.

On arrival we were greeted by 120 children, a large playing area that was Africa flat (i.e. flattish but with rocks lumps and bumps that don’t exactly lend themselves to cricket coaching but are about as good as one could expect in rural Cameroon).

Some basic drills for batting, bowling and fielding, in which Kirsty kindly stepped up to the plate by leading a bowling session with me as I couldn’t manage much more than a bizarre squeak with my voice (Kirsty is not a cricketer and had never coached bowling before but truly did a phenomenal job), were followed by games of quick cricket which the children seemed to enjoy immensely.

After the obligatory group photos, we were invited to join the teaching staff for some palm wine. As far as I could tell this was pretty much the local equivalent of moonshine served out of a large plastic container reminiscent of the bottles of screen-wash I put into my car. One of our hosts went through the custom of drinking some of this (a huge glass full) to show that it is okay before offering to their guests. Of course we only took small glasses as we still had further coaching to do after.

As we left lots of the children, as usual, were pestering us to give them tennis balls to keep. I personally find it heart-breaking that we cannot realistically give balls to individual children as we do not have enough to give to every single one and leaving balls with just a few precipitates full on fist fights for ownership of the balls as they are so highly prized.

On to our next school of the day, Institut Agricole Obala. This was a very different affair to our previous visit as this was a very well-funded school with the majority of the money coming from Switzerland. On arrival we were introduced to the headmaster who informed us that we would have to wait for an hour before the children would be ready to be coached (Pretty much the typical type of time keeping and communication that can be expected in Africa, where all schedules are perpetually a work in progress).

To fill the time the headmaster himself gave us a tour of the facilities of the school. These were indeed impressive for an African school, including substantial buildings, an extremely plush (by African standards) canteen, and even research facilities into crop irrigation.

Once the children were available, as we only had fifty five minutes to work with them, we opted to start the children off with some warm up drills and then move straight into a couple of games of cricket with the usual ABCT messages for HIV/AIDS prevention.

After leaving the school we had time to visit a local market. I don’t have the wordsmith skills to explain to anyone who hasn’t visited Africa quite how this feels. I was however surprised to be informed that I should put my camera away as taking photos could cause offence and lead to “trouble”. After some serious bartering and a few purchases of local textiles, Cameroon football shirts and various gifts we headed back to Yaoundé.

Once there our group split with a few of the group returning to the accommodation whilst some of us, including myself, heading off to watch the national cricket team train.

I have to admit that despite the obvious athletic ability of the players, I was disappointed to see the standard of technical skills and the training drills imparted were not of the level I would have expected them to be for a national team, even for one so embryonic as Cameroon. In order to help improve this standard our lead coaches, Danny and Chandra, will be working with the national team coaches to raise the level in the time we have available before we leave the capital.

Then the rain came. Big time.

In the evening we were invited to join the Cameroon Cricket Federation President for a meal, which he generously treated us to. At long last we were taken to a restaurant serving traditional Cameroonian faire. A fantastic meal of barbequed fish and chicken was enjoyed by all, washed down with some of the local beer.

After returning to our accommodation, possibly slightly the worse for wear after another long day and the effects of the local libations, a hilarious game of Cards Against Humanity ensued before bed beckoned.

Tomorrow will be another interesting day, different to what has anything that has been experienced so far, but you will have to read that in the next blog to see why.

I hope you will be back again to see how our Cameroonian adventure continues.

Clive.