As our time in Yaounde comes to an end, in true CWB fashion it was time for a festival to test the cricket skills of the schools we have worked with in the last week. I have to admit when I was told last night that the venue for today’s festival had been changed to a school we had not coached at I feared the worst but was pleasantly surprised by the facilities and lots of HIV/AIDS messages were included throughout the day. It was the first school we weren’t ferried into the head teachers office though, disappointing!
Having asked for teams of 8-12 from 8 schools, it was natural that our 5 school teams consisted of 25, 29, 30, 24 and 173 respectively. The larger “team” were students at our host school and had never played cricket before. So superstar coaches Danny, Kirsty, Clive and Winston worked wonders showing them the basics away from the tournament.
With just four teams, the tournament ran smoothly under Ben and Chandra’s expert eyes. A well spectated tournament saw Eboug-Ebe Bapist School, Mario School, Emana School And Ecole Rouveque battle it out to take the Yaounde crown. An excellent final saw a team of 11-13 year olds from Rouveque leaving victorious against a team of supposedly similar age students from Emana. The number of beards and moustaches suggested they may have been just a touch older!
Spectators included journalists from several national newspapers and TV channels and I’m looking forward to seeing the interview. Mostly because my facial expression when I was asked my first question of national TV “How do you feel the children here in Cameroon” will be quite entertaining!
An early finish here today is welcome after a long busy week in hot and humid weather at the start of the rainy season here in Cameroon. The team here are fantastic and I can’t thank them enough for putting up with the constant changes in schedule and numbers. For such a high proportion of first time volunteers, soaking up their first experience of Africa, the level of confidence, adaptability and energy has been phenomenal.
Tomorrow we play the Cameroon national team so check in to the blog. Should be a good’un.
Good luck with your international match tomorrow.