{"id":136,"date":"2016-06-23T05:00:46","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T05:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya16\/?p=136"},"modified":"2016-09-04T10:10:49","modified_gmt":"2016-09-04T10:10:49","slug":"day-3-challenging-and-changing-attitudes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya16\/2016\/06\/23\/day-3-challenging-and-changing-attitudes\/","title":{"rendered":"Day Three – Challenging and changing attitudes"},"content":{"rendered":"

For anyone who thought we were coaching in hot sunny conditions, we are just slightly north of the equator in Laikipa and it is the Kenyan equivalent of winter out here at the moment… well as close as you can get to winter when living on the equator . It is more akin to English summertime, fleeting glimpses of warm sunshine but often grey, overcast with the immanent threat of rain just around the corner.<\/p>\n

This makes heading out to Benjamen and Daniel’s home town Bendana\u00a0more entertaining as the roads are mud tracks, and taking a minibus through mud is never going to end well.\u00a0Following an attempt to drive through the African savannah\u00a0and getting even more stuck in the mud, we leave James (aka Maverick who is the bus driver) to look after the bus whilst we take the last 2 miles by foot across the terrain.\u00a0As we enquire with Daniel to the risk of being eaten by a lion, he duly informs us of ‘No chance’<\/em>. When we ask about the risk of leopard, the simple response is ‘ You don’t want to know’<\/em>. Crashingly reassuring.<\/p>\n

We all make it to\u00a0the school in one piece with only the sighting of a giant tortoise on route in terms of the wildlife, for which we were all grateful for. As we set up the coaching stations, the storm clouds out towards Mount Kenya to the east of where we are coaching are\u00a0brewing and we are conscious that we will be spending the day running away from the rain clouds.<\/p>\n

On the entrance to the school we read the pupils stats for the year, which show a steady increase of girls and boys taking their national exams (exams taken on leaving school). Like the school yesterday they have also started to take in girl borders, and have taken in two girls recently who were at risk of early marriage.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160622_083252\"<\/p>\n

There is still a way to go to change attitudes. During the FGM awareness session Esther had a challenging conversation with two of the participants who could not understand what the problem of FGM was. As\u00a0blog writer\u00a0I (Jules) was engaged in a conversation where it was quite explicitly stated that the Maasai\u00a0girls would do their primary education, up until the\u00a0age of\u00a013 if no gaps in education,\u00a0but then would not continue as they were Maasai and that’s not what Maasai girls do. The Maasai girls stay at home.<\/p>\n

It would be easy to condemn. On going on this project people ask ‘How can something barbaric take place in this day and age?’<\/em> This is something that is so entrenched in\u00a0the culture, not just FGM but the severe gender inequality, that it is seen as the normal. If you think about it, its only within the past\u00a0100 years that back in the UK (and other developed countries to\u00a0be fair)\u00a0that women have had the right to vote,\u00a0right to be heard and have broken\u00a0down barriers to secure a living\u00a0themselves. In reality\u00a0there are women all over the world still battling for equality. Its only by challenging and breaking these barriers that women have\u00a0been able to move forward.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160622_082206\"<\/p>\n

This project’s ultimate purpose, through cricket, is to challenge what is perceived to be normal and to offer differing viewpoints for a generation who can make\u00a0that change within their community,\u00a0whilst also\u00a0being there to support those battling inequality.<\/p>\n

Day two stats<\/strong><\/p>\n

Number of schools coached: 2<\/p>\n

Number of children coached: 450<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For anyone who thought we were coaching in hot sunny conditions, we are just slightly north of the equator in Laikipa and it is the Kenyan equivalent of winter out here at the moment… well as close as you can get to winter when living on the equator . It is more akin to English […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions\/156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}