Day 10

Day 10. Last full day in Kericho. Bye-bye Manuel.
Another great day of cricket coaching today with almost 400 children coached at two schools.
The day started as usual with Breakfast at the Hotel. This time with the added bonus of fried bacon ! Soon all the necessary kit was loaded onto the fun bus and we were off to our first primary school of the day, Chep Kolklo.
As we turned off the highway and onto the rough dirt track that lead up to the school Charles, our driver finally found the limits of the fun bus as we grounded out and couldn’t go any further.
We all quickly evacuated the bus, and with the help of a few locals managed to extricate it with only the partial loss of the rear bumper.
Having decided to remove all the kit from the bus, we headed up the track to the school about one kilometre away. On the way up we managed to see some of the local crop of tea being hand-picked by the hard working plantation staff.
When we arrived we were confronted with a full size football pitch. Although this had a good covering of grass it also had some huge cavernous holes in the pitch. After the twisted ankles of the last few days all the CWB team, including Ollie who had only twisted his ankle yesterday, were extra vigilant where they placed their feet and all survived without any further mishaps.
The now well-oiled (not with Tuskers at this time of day) machine of CWB coaches sprang into action and after some warm-ups and HIV/AIDS messages the carnage of kwik cricket shortly ensued. It was great to see the teachers from Chep Koklo, one of whom had previously been on a CWB coach education day, fully taking part.
Whilst this was all going on Carl led approximately one hundred and twenty very small children in renditions of the Hokey-Cokey before they shepherded him into the bushes where it took him some time to escape. One very small child was content to spend the entire morning rolling an old tyre round the field oblivious of the activities going on all around him.
In all around 190 children were coached along with Carls mini captors.
After the coaching we headed off back down the track, seeing stuck vans and helping a local whose motorbike had fell into a ditch before we set off to the next school, Kericho Primary with the promise of lunch being provided.
With two sessions of around one hundred children in each ahead of us the usual routine swung into action. As we completed the first session the rain started and we retired to the school hall for lunch. We entered to a great reception from all the children and were ushered up to our seats of honour on the stage. It really felt like we were rock stars with all the kids cheering, waving and chanting.
After a great lunch of curry and rice we ventured outside to see blue skies. On my way back to the playing field I passed the nursery and after many shouts of “Jambo” and high fives through the chain link fence I shouted to the little ones “I have to go” and as I headed off to coach my ears were ringing with little children chanting “Have to go, have to go…”.
After packing up the kit we headed back to the hotel. For our last night we had decided to eat elsewhere, but we couldn’t leave without saying our goodbyes to our regular hotel waiter, Moses AKA Manuel and the hard working barman Robert. A presentation of cricket shirts to both of them outside the front entrance to the hotel followed.
A great meal at a local restaurant/bar followed with Ollie getting involved spinning some disks as he took over from the resident DJ.
Back to the hotel for a quick night-cap. And then off to bed, shattered after another full, tiring but enjoyable day.¬¬

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