Michaela Smith – aka Mac
This is my first CWB trip and I can’t wait for what I hope will be a completely new experience and a bit of a reality check on comfortable life in sleepy Oxfordshire! I am the non-cricketer in the group (apparently I am going to be educated!!) but with a lifetime of multi-sport experience I am sure I will pick it up (can’t be that tricky judging by the people I know who play it!). Not quite sure how I got roped into being a team leader (something about needing a woman to be in charge from memory!) but now I have met ‘Team Kenya’ I am looking forward to being chief nag, agony aunt, bottle opener, map reader and all those other things that women do so well! I am especially looking forward to working with the kids who live in orphanages (thanks Mum and Aunty Lesley for all those knitted bears!) and if our HIV awareness work saves the life of just one child then I couldn’t ask for anything more.
A big thank you to all those who have sponsored me through my justgiving page (www.justgiving.com/Michaela-Smith3 ) and all the people at Bucks Sport who have put on a few pounds since I started selling cakes…remember it is all in a good cause and nothing that a little workplace activity wouldn’t burn off!
Tracey Davies – aka Sherlock (twitter @TraceyDavies83)
This will be my second trip to Kenya with CWB, and I absolutely cannot wait to go again 🙂 I have recently been appointed as the CWB volunteer Kenya Country Manager, which means I get to help the teams prepare for the projects and support them throughout the process.
Up to now I have worked for Essex Cricket as Head of Cricket Development, which has been fantastic, however when I return from this Kenya project I will be starting a PGDip in Nursing at University of Southampton, this is to follow my recent realised dream of Nursing in Africa.
The Orphanages had a massive impact on me, their are 2.4 million Orphans in Kenya, 1.2 million due to AIDS.
CWB do a fantastic job in using cricket to teach HIV/AIDS awareness messages, this education to thousands of people that we will reach on the projects could save many from getting HIV/AIDS.
I am very sporty and I love to sing and dance, so as well as coaching cricket, I will also be singing and dancing with the children at every opportunity I get 🙂
Richard Davies – nickname to be determined, don’t rule out ‘Dicky’
Hi, Rich Davies here. Tutor for the Kenya project. My job in Kenya is to make sure all the volunteers stand in the sun all day having great fun with the kids whilst I supervise from the shade of the nearest large tree.
This will be my eighth trip with the charity. First got involved by working with trustee Andy Hobbs at Sussex CCC. Having already coached in Uganda and Kenya I was asked to take the first project to Kenya and have stayed involved since. Each time is different seeing new towns and kids in each country through the eyes of all the new volunteers. It’s been a great journey watching the charity evolve and flourish with a superb group of volunteers taking on management tasks within the charity.
My background in cricket began by scoring for my village cricket team at the age of 7. Moved to New Zealand and was playing mens cricket from 11, returning to England at 16 captaining the ESCA side in 1972. Army and Comined Services Cricket for 4 years, a year with Warwickshire CCC (obigatory one first class match), Berkshire CCC and professional at Arbroath lead to working as cricket professional at Worksop and Lancing Colleges for 28 years. Taken the last two years off to live on Crete and enjoy life.
I became an ECB tutor back in 2001 and ran Level 1 and 2 courses plus the workshops in Sussex. I have managed county age group sides, taken 5 school cricket tours to Australia and played in 15 countries.
Life changing experience. Survived the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise in 1987. Enjoy every minute of life and give something back.
Graham Clinton – aka Clinty
So this is me, Master Blog, Captain Pen, the Lyrical Diarist. It’s my job to keep this updated and lots of fun, so if it all goes wrong, you can blame me…I won’t mind, I’ll be thousands of miles away on this brilliant project! It is brilliant too, combine the sun, cricket, enthusiastic children, opening my mind to the rest of the world, stepping foot in Africa, meeting new people…and cheap Kenyan beer!
Little bit about me, I was a qualified accountant for over a decade before deciding that life probably gets better than sitting at my desk pouring over numbers. So I trained as a cricket coach, worked damn hard for lots of different people and have just got to the stage where I’m doing well enough to quit the accountancy, 3 weeks ago, scary stuff! It’s all about quality of life for me, now I get to spend every day doing something that is my biggest passion in life, and what better way to spend my freedom than getting involved with Cricket Without Boundaries.
Biggest things I’m looking forward to are seeing hundreds of smiling faces greet us (hopefully!) every day and being able to sit down at the end of the day and reflect on making a real difference to all these lives we cross. There’s so much going on I hope I’ll be able to keep you updated with it all!
David Jamieson – aka DJ
Amardeep Singh – aka Deeps
I should explain how I became a CWB volunteer. Last summer while working on a job application, I decided to take a break and ‘google’ a charity I had heard of, called ‘Cricket Without Boundaries’. I visited the website not really knowing anything about the charity’s remit, a day or so later, I had applied to be a volunteer. I have since wondered whether it was just a coincidence that I ended up being interviewed to become an HIV awareness volunteer, two days before an interview to become an HIV pharmacist. The latter is now my full time day job.
The great West Indian author CLR James once asked the question, ‘what do they know of cricket who only cricket know?’ To me CWB is about knowing the point to cricket, not just as a game but a vehicle for transformation. The charity combines three passions of mine, cricket, HIV and Africa, somewhere I have wanted to volunteer for many years. I see this trip as a stepping stone to further volunteering opportunities in the continent, preferably working in my clinical specialism. I also hope to stay involved in the charity after my tour is complete. This may be as a volunteer on a future trip or simply as someone who offers a particular clinical perspective on the HIV awareness work the charity is doing. I’d like to see the focus move a little closer to discussing treatment of patients and further promoting inclusion of HIV sufferers in wider African society.
My role within the team is as the ‘Welfare Officer’ the main jobs are ensuring everyone is healthy, hydrated, well fed and have taken their antimalarials. I have also set the group a task. In my day job I spend a lot of time explaining the importance of good ‘medicines adherence’ to HIV patients. A patient using HIV antiretroviral drugs is required to take their tablets at the same time each day, in practice this means if they set a time of 0900, they cannot take their medicines before 0830 or after 0930, if more than 5% of their doses are missed in a calendar month, the control of their HIV will be ‘suboptimal’ and they’ll increase their risk of treatment failure.
I am asking the Kenya team to take Malarone tablets the way an HIV patient might take their antiretrovirals, they are also, not to take their tablets in front of anyone else, many HIV positive patients in Africa (and elsewhere for that matter) have to go to great lengths to hide their status to avoid stigma. The aim is to give the group a taste of this, allow them to empathise with HIV sufferers and include their thoughts in the blog for the trip.
I can’t wait until we head off now, the trip will be a chance to visit another continent, learn about a different culture, share an experience with some very interesting people and become a fully fledged cricket evangelist! I look forward to keeping everyone updated!
Tim Noble – aka The Moth
Ti-moth-y (For those of you that care). I am 21 years old and by FAR the baby in this group of dinosaurs. I have recently graduated from Brighton University and like most young people in my position I am not entirely sure what I want to do next!
I am a keen cricketer and enjoy working with children. So when one of my good friends told me about his experience with Cricket Without Boundaries and the fantastic time he had in Rwanda, I soon realised that this was right up my street.
It’s hard to say what I’m NOT looking forward to on the trip. How CWB integrate HIV/AIDS awareness messages into their cricket coaching is fantastic and I’m certainly looking forward to getting stuck into that challenge. Having never really been to Africa before I think the culture shock is something I cannot prepare for and I’m sure it will be a real eye opener. However the prospect of sleeping next to Graham for 2 weeks with his disturbing habits is certainly an experience I’m sure I will look forward to ending sooner rather than later.
Please sponsor me and give to this great charity by visiting www.justgiving.com/timstriptokenya
Nishant Joshi – nickname to be determined, don’t rule out a swear word!
Raised in London, Nishant Joshi busked his way across Europe and is now a medical student in the Czech Republic. A fan of Sangakkara and VVS, he is editor of the cult cricket blog, AlternativeCricket.com.
Now you’ve read all of that, try to match the names with the pictures below…10 moral bonus points for the person that gets it all right!
