Our amazing project in Cameroon and especially Bamenda may be nearing the end but that certainly hasn’t meant we haven’t taken our foot off of the gas.
A busy morning at GBHS certainly symbolised the high intensity the team was working at. The work began once again at crack of dawn. Team leader Booth warmed up the awaiting class and coaches with a routine not seen since the days of Mr Motivator on GMTV. Like a well oiled machine the kids and classes came thick and fast every 50 minutes. Thankfully for the team, the development of the local teachers has been exceptional so as we neared lunchtime we went from coaches to mentors, allowing the teachers to polish their newly found skills both in coaching and delivery of the HIV/AIDS awareness messages. Sadly however to the distress of the onlooking classmates one of the students had quite a severe seizure. Thankfully our team of coaches and more importantly “the saviour of Bamenda” Dr Patrick were on hand to help safely let the seizure play out and look after the girl afterwards. All of our thoughts and wishes go out to the girl and hope she is back to full strength soon. Also a thank you to the other students for cooperating with us as we looked after her.
After a long lunch of bruschettas and 2 footw baguettes, the team were back on the road and out to more schools. With one half of the team off to PSS the other half were sent to CCC, the home of local coach Dennis. Dennis is held in high esteem by the CWB team, his coaching is excellent even if he does sound like a Omid Djalili impersonation of an African cricket coach that brings us much amusement. The session may have been relatively small but no less productive.
As the evening was the last night the team would be together at full strength and the birthday celebrations of Madam Fabulous, it seemed only fit to let our hair down. After dinner a trip to a local cabaret bar followed the local night club resulted in standard CWB performances. The shapes that were thrown looked similar to that of a person playing etch-a-sketch whilst sitting on a violent Jack Hammer.
For me personally, today was the last day of my personal trip. Starting in Kigali, Jinja, Thika and all the way to Bamenda, it has been an experience I will never forget. Old friends revisited and new friends made will live long in the heart and in the memory. My last session was at PSS and it couldn’t have finished in a better way, a game of rapid fire with a group of 30 big strong athletes was wrapped up with a serious conversation about HIV/AIDS. I love coaching the primary schools and saying the ABC message but there is something about having a adult conversation with these young adults. I feel I can really get the through to them to not only understand the message but pass it on to others. Proven by Deborah telling me about the results from her surveys being some of the strongest she had got all project.
For one last time in Africa, whilst fighting back a few tears.
This is GMac saying farewell for now Africa, over and out!