Our time in Busia draws to an end

A couple of days’ worth of action to catch up on.  The past two days have been challenging with the heat, travelling and local food beginning to take their toll on the team.  However, we’ve pulled together and managed to complete a couple more school visits, run a cricket festival and raise some more money for CWB!

Yesterday, we ran two schools sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  The morning session was at the same venue that’d we’d been at for the coach ed sessions for the previous two days.  It was beginning to feel a bit like we were commuting.  Nevertheless, as we turned up it was heartening and somewhat unusual to see around 50 school kids already there, playing two or three games of cricket amongst themselves.  The session was run as preparation for the tournament today, with around five schools bringing boys and girls teams to participate in some pairs cricket games.  We rotated the teams and ran a skills station as well, making sure everyone got a go at batting and bowling.  Around 150 children took part, which was a good number considering it was a public holiday. 

(Pairs cricket practice for the tournament)

Morning session over, Beth moved her lunchtime café to a new location and proceeded to fire out the sausage, egg and jam sandwiches to order (picture below).  Having spent all week informing us how she hated eggs, Sarah provided some light entertainment for the team after Ian devilishly challenged her to eat one.  Ian promised to donate £100 to CWB if Sarah ate a whole boiled egg.  To her credit, she took up the challenge and completed it, although the photos below suggest Sarah may not have enjoyed it much.  Nevertheless, another £100 will soon be winging its way to CWB.  Well done Sarah!

(Beth's cafe finds a new residence)

(Om Nom Nom Nom – Sarah really enjoyimh her charity egg)

In the afternoon, we were finally afforded a change of scene, moving to new school for the first time in two and a half days.  Once the heard of lawnmowers had been moved back to cow corner, we commenced our second schools session of the day.  We had around 70 kids from four schools taking part in pairs cricket games.  A couple of hours later, we wrapped up the session, with Carl’s and Gellers’ stepping up their acting while reinforcing the ABC messages in the summary – Gellers’ going all Lawrence Olivier and Carl taking the pantomime route.  Messages reinforced, we were thanked in the traditional way with a dance, led by a couple of the kids.We the returned to base and planned for today’s festival. 

(Beth inspecting cow corner)

(One of the teams leaving the field of play with a traditional dance)

The festival started promptly after Dun had told the schools to arrive around an hour earlier than the scheduled start date.  We successfully ran the festival, incorporating cricket Kenya’s rules and regulations.  The team did a great job in coordinating 18 teams from nine different schools, with over 200 kids participating.  With the festival brought to a close, we had completed our cricket coaching in the Busia region.  Overall, it’s fair to say that there are some encouraging signs that cricket is beginning to take hold in the region, although there is plenty more that can be done. 

(Cricket festivals Busia style)

(The crowd watching the final boys game of the day)

Tomorrow sees us leave Busia and head for Nakuru, although this involves a drive back along the dreaded “road” that massively extended our journey time from Nairobi to Kisumu at the beginning of the trip.  Regardless, we’re charging all of our speakers and getting ready to sing our way through it, with Carl as chief selector. 

Callum