Day 12 – Kisumu Orphanages, Coach Education and Braeburn Kisumu International

We set off at 7.30am to head to the equator!! After another rocky ride on the Kenyan’s pot hole roads and witnessing a petrol lorry in the ditch on the side of the road, we made it safely to the Equator where we played cricket and volleyball over the Northern and Southern Hemisphere.

We then went to Kisumu Academy to drop off Dan, Brian, Vas and George to deliver coach education to 15 teachers all who gained an ICC level 1 or 2 coaching certificate, whilst the rest of the crew headed to three very different orphanages in Kisumu.

The first orphanage, St Teresa’s, was for babies to 6 year olds, 82 children live at the orphanage and 4 of the children tested positive for HIV. It was a great experience to meet the children and play some fun games with them and leave them food and gifts.

We then went on to Agape Children’s Home for primary school aged children, they educate the children at the Home, it was shocking to see the dorms and that so many children live in tiny dorms with each other, we spoke to over 30 children in a classroom and left them footballs and cricket equipment, plus food etc.,

We then went on to New Life Orphanage for babies – toddlers, this was the most heart-breaking and touching experience. The orphanages rescue the abandoned babies who have been left on the streets and take them in, there was one baby who was 6 weeks old and she was found on the streets at 1 week old! There were other toddlers who had severe special needs, one was deaf and blind and could not feel! The group were fighting back the tears as we continued playing with the babies and toddlers and giving them as many cuddles as we could!

The Coach Education Course at Kisumu Academy delivered by Dan, Brian, Vas and George went exceptionally well, and we are confident that the teachers will be able to continue the cricket development and ABC HIV/AIDS legacy that CWB has brought to Kenya!

In the afternoon we delivered cricket coaching to over 50 children at Braburn School, the children were very enthusiastic about their cricket, which was great to see!

We then had a lovely lunch on Lake Victoria and spotted a HIPPO swimming in the lake! This was truly amazing! We also saw local Kenyans fishing with

nets in the lake, old hunter style way!

Later back at the Duke of Breeze Hotel there was an almighty thunder storm that sent the electrics up the spout! After a few hours of candles and torches we eventually had our electric back! We have had a very eventful day, one that will never be forgotten! From the Orphanages, to the Hippo, to the Crazy thunder storm! It has been amazing!!

Tracey

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Day 11 – Shady Garden Academy and Jalaram School

Today we set off from The Duke of Breeze Hotel at 9:30 a relatively late start for the team. We headed to Shady Garden Academy, to coach 26 senior students and around 90 primary students. Showing again how adaptable we are we managed to maintain enthusiasm and motivation in the circuit sessions where the maximum number of kids in a group was 6. Even though the name ‘shady’ garden suggested a cool covered playing area it was anything but. The heat beating down on us at around 30 degrees it was very tough to keep energy levels high.

Only 20 minutes into the first hour session the school sent out all the primary kids who instantly jumped into each sessions. This was unexpected as we where anticipating them to come once the senior session had finished. So once again our amazing team of coaches instantly modified the stations into a fifth group where Princess Tracey and Redeye Rob set up a singing and dancing activity. This went from the Official CWB Kenya 2011 chant to songs such as ‘Hokey Cokey’ and ‘Time Warp’

We then started the Primary session where the 90 kids rotated round the circuit, engaging in activities such as running between the wickets, distraction catching, hit the stumps, target bowling and batting gauntlet. The batting gauntlet being where the kids are lined up with a bat, ball and tee and all hit the ball whilst the coached run in front of them trying not to get hit! Extremely good fun, except when you have about 10 little Sachin’s who middle everything right at you! Expecting this activity to be the most injury prone for coaches it was actually Dan on the Hit the Stumps who sustained an injury. A ball pinged in at the yellow plastic stumps and hit the base and rebounded right into Dan’s you know what! But he trooped on even though he looked at me on the station next to him with a green look on his face. Loads of HIV messages where incorporated into the sessions as usual and the use of orange balls and blue bat grips to represent the virus were extremely effective and a great visual aid to portray our message.

We then headed into town for a little bit of souvenir shopping at dinner. Derek a Sports Teacher from a school in Kisumu who joined us again today after enjoying the first day with us, sent the iceman to what the told us a Souvenir Shop. Expecting an actual corner shop or mall store we arrived in a back street full of around 30 straw shelters whose owners eyes lit up with dollar signs as soon as we rolled up. But luckily all the huts had some impressive items on sale. We turned our apprentice heads on and bartered all asking prices down to a minimum acceptable price. The loser of the task was Redeye Rob who purchased a small black elephant model, which when we arrived back at the hotel, its trunk had fell off! After a bit of retail therapy we headed for lunch at a more convenient and cleaner place than yesterday. Scott and me risked another plain pizza hoping it would come with just tomato and cheese unlike yesterdays onion, chicken, pepper and dog hairs! Luckily we were safe and dinner was ate.

We then travelled in the blue mean machine to Jalaram School to set up our circuit for 60 kids and 2 games run by EEEEEEEEE – AAAAAAAANNNNNNNNN (Ian) and Princess Tracey to accompany 23 boys and 30 girls respectively. Another great afternoon session with another bunch of great kids. This school weren’t really aware of the ABC method but by the end of our session we had them rhyming off Abstain, Be Faithful and Be Careful like poetry. The schools are all amazing and unbelievably the kids match them. Seeing all the smiles on their faces is one of the biggest rewards any of the team could have!

After the session had finished we headed back to the hotel to freshen up before Me, Redeye Rob, Desperate Dan, Resident Scott, Aussie Ian, Major Brian, George and Vassanova headed to Aga Khan sports club. We where met by Derek, now christened Delboy, and his Table Tennis coach. With Derek being the Kenyan Number 2 table tennis player and winning the Kenyan Open in 2008 we knew we had a stern test. And a stern test it was. Great fun all around and with myself playing Delboy on a ‘next point win’ basis I came out victorious in the last game of the night. Pulling out the classic Freddie Flintoff celebration I was down on one knee and arms aloft, with some pretty strange glares from the Badminton players and Aerobic workout athletes.

Another outstanding day with inspiring schools and inspiring people.

Cheers
CF

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Day 10 – Kisumu Junior School and Kisumu Secondary School

Our first morning in Kisumu started off with a very quick visit to Lake Victoria. We then headed to Kisumu Junior School. The school contained children from the Asian community of Kisumu, as well as a few local Kenyan children. Again the CWB team pulled out all the stops to coach over 200 children in the morning whilst still placing the importance of the ABC messages.

In the afternoon we were back at the same field to coach children from the secondary school on site. Again around 100 children were taught new skills and able to talk about HIV/Aids. The school had a massive field and red ash area, ideal for us, and the children. Another successful and rewarding days coaching was celebrated by the team in the school’s pool. After temperatures of 35 degrees all day a dip in the pool was much needed. A water polo game soon started with varying success for the participants. The eventual winning team of Dan, Scott, Rob and Cameron left for the hotel celebrating and happy in the knowledge that the debriefing of the losing team (Ian, Vas, Tracey and Jamie) would go long into the night!

Scott

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Day 9 – Kericho Coach Education, Arrival in Kisumu and Resident Scot’s Birthday

An early start and we jumped on board the Ice Man fun bus as we set off for the CWB new adventure in Kisumu about an 100KM (ish) journey to the north east of Nakuru. All started off well on the journey as the roads were impressive and the scenery along the same lines. Then the turn in fortunes happened as a large diversion sign sent us off into the middle of nowhere and a journey that will not see our backs recover before Christmas, and team leader Princess Tracey’s pants having to be changed a few times due to some of the locals driving. Thankfully Ice Man lived up to his name and kept his cool. The up side was the amazing scenery that we encountered en-route and the many strange parodies that were sung to many a classic song, and invented a new game of wave tennis with the locals.

Along are journey to Kisumu we were invited to stop at Kericho Teacher Training college one of the largest primary teacher training colleges in Kenya. Despite arriving a little late due to our diversion we set up a Coach Ed that was set out for 30 trainee teachers and ended up being 100! In two hours we managed to get everyone through an Introduction to coaching course to the soothing sounds of the college choir in the background. We were unfortunately only stopped by an amazing thunderstorm that made the sports ground look more like a paddy field than a sports ground. The college kindly offered us lunch though Princess Tracey was thankful that we were not staying the night with the toilet facilities that were on offer.

We left Kericho at 2.30pm and headed on the final 2 hour journey to Kisumu and was again welcomed by a diversion that shook the bus. We arrived in Kisumu at 5pm to be welcomed by The Daily Breeze hotel that brought up a few concerned looks from the CWB Bus. But once the Roof Top terrace was found and Jamie’s birthday celebrations begun this was soon forgotten, and the fondest memory of the day apart from the bumpy Road, the 100 new coaches, the lightening storm has to be Birthday boy Jamie finishing his 25th Birthday Party sitting on a Giraffe!

Dan

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Day 8 – Lake Nakuru Safari

A 6am wake up call (on our first day off) was not what the group needed however the opportunity to go on safari in Lake Nakuru National Park was too good to miss and soon everyone was on the bus waiting for the Ice Man to take us!

The day started slowly with it taking 45 minutes before we were allowed in the park however the fun then began! Within 2 minutes around 50 buffalo had threatened to charge the bus, 30 minutes later we were stuck in the mud! 4 times the CWB team had to pile out of the bus to get the Ice Man’s bus out of another sticky mess. Flip flops not the most appropriate footwear (Dan and Jamie!) nor the fact that whilst we were wandering around the safari park pushing the bus, lions were spotted very close by (we later found out!)

Rhinos, giraffes, hyenas, water bucks, gazelles, monkeys, baboons, zebras, owls and many other animals were all spotted and helped make it an enjoyable day off for the hardworking CWB team.

The pictures speak for themselves!

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Day 5 – Crater, Nakuru Day High School, Nakuru Boys High School and Afraha High School

We started today at Crater Primary School; a school of about 700 children. We were able to use their big field (complete with long grass!) to continue our cricket and HIV/Aids awareness and education of the local children. Once again the children showed us their cricketing skills whilst we taught them a couple of dances and songs to help them along. They were so happy and thankful for us coming, and the looks of enjoyment on their faces will stay with us for a long time.

We then carried on to Nakuru High School for Boys where we played games with around 40 boys aged from14-18 years old. We managed to finish the games just in time for the lawnmowers to come and cut the grass (a herd of about 50 cows!)

Our busy day continued in the afternoon where we split into two groups. One group going to Nakuru Day High School, and the other to Afraha School. The first group coached around 45 children continuing the messages of HIV/Aids Awareness whilst the other group who finished slightly later ended up playing cricket in a 10 foot x 10 foot shelter due to the heavens opening. The ability of the coaches to adapt to different scenarios and situations is unbelievable and one of the major reasons this trip is really making a difference to the children here.

Scott

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Day 7 – Coach Education

Today was Coach Education Day. We were expecting around 30 local teachers, head teachers and members of the community to come to learn how to coach their children. In typical Kenyan fashion the 9am start soon became a 10:30am start! 25 people spent 6 hours learning games, songs to help children remember the coaching points and also the ‘how to coach’ skills of Organising, explaining, making it fun and safe, demonstrating and observing. The enthusiasm and willingness of the teachers to learn in order to provide their children with new games/skills was infectious.

By the end of the day all had passed with an ICC Introductory Certificate, Level 1 or Level 2 qualification. We have been able to reach 1500 children this week but by training the teachers in how to coach and also the ABC messages they have the ability to reach tens of thousands. The teachers stayed around long after the course chatting to us and asking us questions not only to find out more about us but what else we could tell them in order to help them. These teachers go far above and beyond in trying to provide their children with more opportunities, a truly inspiring group of people.

Scott

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Day 6 – St. Joseph’s High School and Jamhuri Primary School

Today we started at St Joseph’s Primary School. A school of 1200 children all of whom came out to greet us and spent 30 minutes ‘high five-ing’, touching and talking to us. An amazing experience to see how amazed and excited all of these children were to see us. Over the next 3 hours we coached around 300 children, all of whom learnt some new cricket related songs as well as the important ABC messages.

In the afternoon we headed to Jamhuri Primary School, one of the poorest schools we had been to. A lot of the children here were from the local orphanages and literally had nothing. To be able to engage, entertain and provide enjoyment for these children, as well as talking to them about the life saving messages of HIV/Aids was something that will never be forgotten by the group.

This brought to a close our coaching in schools in Nakuru. Over 4 days we were able to reach over 1500 children, not only giving them the opportunity to play cricket but also talking to them about the ABC’s and HIV/Aids. Memories of these 4 days will never be forgotten. We hope that we have helped to change some of the lives of these incredible children.

Scott

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Day 4 – Kisulisuli and Langa Langa

We arrived at Kisulisuli Primary School and yet again another poverty stricken school in Nakuru, Kenya. We delivered various coaching stations and dancing and singing, and had some great talks with the children about HIV/AIDS, asking them if they know how they catch it, and telling them about how they can get tested and treated, and reinforcing the ABC messages.

The children had not played much cricket before so it real treat for them to have all of us coaches come out and show them some new skills and have heaps of fun with them.  We coached over 100 children in the morning.

We then went on to Langa Langa secondary school, where we had over 100 children, we had some great ABC AIDS awareness messages put into various cricket drills and skills. like protecting your stumps, and that you only have one chance not to be out! and so much more., the children were really getting to grips with the ABC’s. It is amazing that in a very short time with a group of children how much impact you can have in what is potentially life saving to them!

All the CWB volunteers are doing a fantastic job, and it is amazing where all our energy is coming from to keep going and working hard to give us much as we can to as many as we can out here. Cricket is a universal language and it is making a significant difference to many lives in Kenya 🙂

Tracey D xx

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Day 3 – Flamingo Primary School and East More Girls School

Our first experience of coaching cricket in schools in Nakuru! We went to our first primary school where over 1000 children came running out on the playground aka dusty area. We coached 6 sets of 100 children every half hour with the rest of the school watching and cheering there school mates and us along. It was an incredible experience, the children are fascinated by us and stroke our skin, pull your hair, love high 5’s and hand shakes. We got in to the various stations of batting, bowling, catching, and dancing/chanting – the children love to sing and dance and this went down a real treat. The children are so poor, with torn clothes and some no shoes! But there smiles are something you cannot describe, there smiles light the whole place up! We delivered some great HIV/aids awareness messages to the children who took them on with surprise distinction.

In the afternoon we moved on to an all girls secondary school! They were absolutely full of joy and excitement for us, they were fantastic at cricket and we were able to deliver some excellent coaching sessions for them with the HIV/AIDS awareness messages being the key part. At the end we had all the girls singing and dancing, and chanting, they love to sing and dance and they loved hearing from us what England was like. It was an amazing experience, the joy is infectious! Memories that will last a lifetime of how much enjoyment we had this day and how much we were able to share messages of HIV/aids awareness to these girls, and show them how talented they were in cricket and in whatever they choose to love! 🙂

Tracey D

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Day 2 – SCANN Orphanage

As the team woke into another hot stuffy day we set our sights to visit a local orphanage. We all boarded the mean machine and arrived at the SCANN Orphanage in Nakuru. This being our first experience of the slums in Africa both shock and excitement kicked in.

We set about doing some coaching for the morning and performed a 4 station circuit with drills for batting, bowling, throwing and catching. Engaging around 75 young orphans we brought them together to play a massive game of ‘Heptaganol’ Cricket.

After the session we gave out CWB ‘Bowling AIDS out of Kenya’ t shirts and CWB Wristbands to the participants.

For our first day coaching it was certainly and amazing experience and an eye opener to the world that we live in and the fortune we have.

Off to go watch a 50 over game at the Rift Valley Sorts Club… Could this one last for more than an hour though????

Cheers
CF

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Day 1 – Arrival

Bright and Humid as the 8 volunteers (no Ian) enter Kenya for the first time, except Vas! Directed to the Taxi bay we waited for our transport unaware of what to expect. We were hoping for something of a relative size just to fit our kitbags in! With numerous tiny minibuses and vehicles passing the nerves where settling in. But luckily in pulled the blue mean machine, which was perfect size for both kit and ourselves. Simon our driver may have struggled to look out his rear window but seeing the driving in our first 10 minutes in Nairobi we didn’t think that was a problem!

Soon we where joined by the Man Utd of East African Cricket, top of the league in their respective championship. The bus had now doubled in capacity not only in people but also in kit! The roof was now in use! All aboard the bus we set off towards Nakuru and The Rift Valley Sports Club, arriving some 5 hours later, due to Vas (the ex local) directing our driver to take a ‘scenic’ route!

Pleased with the accommodation and facilities we un packed and settled down in the clubhouse to watch a very quick Twenty20 game between a team from Nakuru and Nairobi.

Sore bums from bumpy roads and long haul journeys, we deserve a good night sleep.

See you tomorrow!
CF

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