On day five in Kenya, Sarah, the baby of the group reflects on coaching, choreography and congas…

So today started rather early with the daily preacher yelling at 4.30am, pretty average wakeup call really. A few hours later we were on the bus and ready for a full day of coaching.

The first three schools in the morning were pretty similar. By now the five stations were drilled in, and quickly set up. Jamie, Barbara and me did high catching, which was rather amusing, considering each group was meant to consist of the same number of students however, with every rotation we seemed to gain at least 20 people. Nevertheless we had great fun and seeing how enthused the children were was great.

I don’t think I could go without mentioning Holly’s choreography skills, they were pretty epic – not going to lie! Who knew our international cricketer had her ways with playground clapping games. The video must be viewed!

The afternoon consisted of two schools, one secondary school and another primary. The secondary school brought out all boys until the CWB coaches stepped in and soon the girls were involved too. Myself, Luke and Jack – one of the teachers we had trained on days two and three – ran the ‘Hit the stumps’ game, which I was pretty nervous about. Seeing the large group of kids all running towards me, with pretty much all of the boys towering over me, made me feel quite bad for Holly to be honest, being only five foot and all. But I had great fun and soon realised I had nothing to worry about and the kids were great, I was extremely impressed with the arms on both the girls and the boys. 

I think it’s fair to say that the final school was our biggest challenge. Having been told we would only be coaching 50 children, it turned into 500 which was pretty overwhelming to say the least. Despite our humungous kit bags we had nowhere near enough kit for all the children, but we improvised and it certainly paid off. Every child had a chance to play cricket, whether it was batting, bowling, fielding or catching as well as understanding the positive messages of HIV/AIDS we were putting across. To top the day off was the giant conga – 250 children big!

Let’s just say it wasn’t that easy to organise but once we got going it was ace. With 250 children chanting ABC and knowing the message of ABC, it was extremely humbling and so much fun.

After the schools session we decided to have a few drinks at the bar (mine Fanta of course) we were joined by the Kenyan level two coaches who were excellent in the coaching sessions throughout the day. After only one and a half Smirnoff’s, Maggie, one of the coaches, took to the dance floor. I don’t think I’m actually allowed to describe what I saw, I think it’s a ‘what happens in Kenya stays in Kenya’ moment but I know for a fact Jamie loved it no matter what he says – the rest of the group will need to keep an eye on him…

In the evening we had tea at Taidy’s, and I have to admit the food was good, although I didn’t quite realise just how big a ‘super meaty’ pizza was going to be, think I may have been better sharing. After our long days work, we all felt shattered, but no more than Jezza who managed to fall asleep at the table, however his kip was quickly interrupted by Luke’s nudge of the table. The night ended at 11.30pm when we all felt it necessary to get a good night’s sleep ready for the tournament tomorrow.