New friendships formed and another successful day

A switch in focus for the blog today as I’ll attempt to keep the words to a minimum but instead provide a few more photos to give our avid followers (hi Mum) an idea of what we’ve been up to the last couple of days.

Today we completed the coach education in the morning, finishing the work we started yesterday with a number of local coaches, who will continue to teach cricket in the Kisumu area and, at the same time, use it to emphasise the HIV/AIDS awareness messages that they already teach.  Here’s a few photos from today, including the sessions in action, the presentation of certificates and t-shirts at the end of the morning and a team photo.

(Nicolas and Safdar educating the local school children)

(our trusty tour bus)

(Gelllers in full coaching flow)

(Carl reinforcing the ABC messages to the coaches)

(SHOT! This ball actually hit me in the knee but at least I got the photo)

(Gellers handing our coaching cetificates)

Our next stop was the New Life orphanage, which takes in abandoned babies and children (up to 3 years old), including those with special needs.  We spent an hour or so with the kids, which brought out the best motherly instincts in Beth and Sarah, who virtually had to be dragged out of the building.  We donated a box of food to the orphanage before we left. 

(Saf and Ian with the youngsters) 

(Beth and Sarah didn't want to leave the orphanage)

Our final stop was HOVIC, which is a project that caters for homeless children in the local area and aims to provide them with the chance to get their lives back on track, as many of the children there come from broken homes or have complex family backgrounds.  We spent an hour there playing catch and other simple games and getting across some ABC* messages.  The kids loved it.  There were a few special personal moments that came out of this particular visit, expect to hear more soon.  Importantly, we also established a link between CWB and HOVIC through Derrick, our local contact in Kisumu.  Derrick has promised to arrange for the children at HOVIC to use the playing fields at his school to play cricket in the future.  This is an important development for the centre as they have limited access to outdoor space at their own site.  The plan is to also involve the kids at HOVIC in future CWB coaching sessions in Kisumu.  Hopefully this is the start of an important and long lasting relationship between the two organisations and the visit this afternoon has definitely been one of the highlights of the trip so far.

(The children and coaches at HOVIC)

In other news, Carl and Gellers have taken the team spirit to the next level by insisting they share a room despite having originally been given separate abodes, David and myself have finally had a hot shower (you’d have thought an ex-plumber would be able to fix a faulty shower!) and Ian’s bought a powerful cowboy hat. 

Callum

*ABC stands for Abstain, Be faithful and use a Condom, which is the crux of the HIV/AIDS prevention messages that are so important to the work that CWB does.