A cricket-loving 40-something in need of a new challenge… having previously been to Botswana and Kenya with CWB, it took me about two seconds to sign up for my third trip. There is nothing quite like the smile on kids faces as they hit a few balls and the sound of their laughter as I attempt to dance with nothing like their natural rhythm! I play and coach cricket at Ickenham CC as well as play netball for Dark Planets. We are a small but mighty team who I am sure are going to have a trip to remember.
Jo Clarke – Country Manager
Sport is my absolute world… I am lucky enough to combine my passion of sport through my job at Leeds Trinity University and outside work by playing and watching sport (mainly tennis).. I consider myself to be an adopted Yorkshire girl but originate from Burton on Trent in the Midlands. This is my fourth trip with CWB, and third to Cameroon. As the Cameroon Country Manager my role is to work with Cameroon Cricket Federation on long term planning aspects of Cricket development and HIV/Aids awareness. For the most part of this trip I will be conducting fieldwork interviews for my PhD about the sport-for-development sector in Cameroon. I am most looking forward to catching up with familiar faces of the enthusiastic Cameroon Cricket coaches and teachers.
This would be my second trip with CWB so my cricket expertise is 2 training week-ends and a wonderful experience to Kenya in 2014. I know the basics and my enthusiasm does the rest! I am excited to work with CWB as I have witnessed last year what an amazing job it does. The schools we visited made us feel very welcome, the kids fuelled you with an indescribable energy and the people we met (teachers, staff and coaches) are passionate about their sport and see it as a fabulous way to help promote the message about AIDS/HIV. Vive le Cameroun!
I’ve been obsessed with Africa since I heard those opening lines of the Circle of Life as an impressionable 3 year old on her first trip to the cinema. At 21 I made my first trip to the continent and haven’t stopped trying to constantly find ways to go back since! This will be my first trip to West Africa. My knowledge of cricket unfortunately is limited to a few games in the garden and a Cricket Without Boundaries training weekend. My bowling still has a way to go but I’m keen to make up for that with lots of enthusiasm and I can’t wait to get out to Cameroon!
David Gidney – 1st time Volunteer
Cricket has been one of my great obsessions since I was a small boy watching games on a black and white telly with my granddad. I have played (with little success) for nearly forty years and coached young players for my club and district sides for the last ten years, with more success. Cricket Without Boundaries offers me the chance to use the game I love to support a great cause and travel to some wonderful new places; an irresistible combination. This is my first CWB trip and my first foray into Sub-Saharan Africa. I am looking forward to working with a splendid team of people and doing my best to put a big smile on the faces of the teachers and kids (that may be the easy bit). I live in the middle of glorious Devon with Muriel and my two kids, Tom and Isobel, only one of whom is quite as mad about cricket as I am (and rather better at it too!) “ih too fine” my friends and its all kicking off in just a few days.