WOW. What a day. One very happy team leader reporting back here today. Sat with a well earned beer after a fantastic team debrief with an exhausted team. Finally we have had a day free of comparisons to England!
At the beginning of our trip we were told we would coach 200 children in our first town (Murang'a). Today alone we coached 527 children, taking our total to over 800 for the trip so far.
The morning started well with Cameron hobbling to the coach with a calf problem. Once we got him into the bus, we managed to make our way to Makuyu Boys School where we coached 163 new secondary school kids. There are some classic photos and videos and they will all find their way onto the internet soon.
And then the hectic afternoon began! We arrived expecting 100 children over 4 hours and we ended up with over 300 children from St Paul's Thomas school and Wairuri school. A good welcome to Africa for the new coaches on our trip! Everyone took a a leading role in different coaching sessions and there were so many smiling faces by the end of the day. Even the shy girls who were scared of joining in ended up singing, chanting and laughing along with all the others. We even managed to get a few more kids to join us who had originally been sitting on the side of the ground watching us. By the end of the day they had all been coached and had big smiles on their faces and tennis balls to take home.
Sammie, Kelly and Reilly made a new friend with an adorable young girl who followed them around the field. And we experienced the joys of organising group photos to the full extent today. It is safe to say that a few of the volunteers experienced some levels of unwanted attention!!
There are so many amazing quotes but a favourite has to be: 'you have empowered us so that we can empower the youths in our area' from. a newly qualified coach.