Yesterday was primarily a travel day, although we squeezed in some important PR and an orphanage visit. Saf has penned a few words for us:
“Having promptly loaded our van, our team left the hotel to travel to Busia town as we had been invited to meet the Governor of the county. Unfortunately, the Governor was called away, but we were instead met by Hon. Grace Matinde who is the County Executive for Communication, Development, Gender, Sports, Culture and Social Services. We were told of the efforts by her office in tackling various social problems.
After a photo session, we were calling at an orphanage set in a beautiful location with vibrant green hills all around. We were accompanied by Hon, Grace on our visit. She expressed her people’s gratitude for the work we had done. I had a lengthy chat with her and she was extremely concerned with the social problems. She implored CWB to continue its work in the region and visit other parts of Busia county where HIV/AIDS is even more prevalent.
The children at the orphanage were overawed and flabbergasted at being introduced to cricket. We set up four stations and after a few demos, the kids quickly took to Kwik-Cricket.
At the end of the session, we left the orphanage with a bat, a few balls and cones and a set of stumps. Each child also got a CWB wristband. The expressions of joy at the end of the session was memorable.”
After week finished at the orphanage, we made tracks to Nakuru, stopping off in Kisumu to drop a large bag of cricket kit off to Derick. Our journey to Nakuru took us through tea country around Kericho, where we were greeted by more stunning scenery, this time of an alpine flavour.
Sadly, upon hitting Kisumu we had to bid farewell to Lead Tutor Gellers, who had to fly back a couple of days early to keep the ECB ticking over.
I think it’s fair to say that the whole team have thoroughly enjoyed having Gellers on board and it’s in large part down to him that the coaching sessions and festivals have run smoothly. We’ve also all enjoyed listening to his many stories (apart from maybe the green mamba story which has given Carl the heeby jeebies for the rest of the trip) over a few Tuskers. While I could gush on for a few more paragraphs, I’ll save Gellers the embarrassment and simply say a big ‘cheeky’ Thank You from all of Team Kenya Autumn 2013.
After the emotional farewells at Kisumu International, Carl went through two boxes of tissues alone, we headed for Nakuru to find our contact PJ and also try and find somewhere to stay, with our original booking having cancelled on us less than 24 hours previously. However, PJ came up trumps and we’re now in the Alpine Hotel which has treated us superbly so far and has internet!
Callum (with thanks to Saf for his contributions)