A look back at Laikipia

By Luuuuuuuukkkkkkkkeeeeee
With its dirt roads, ‘wild west’ settlements and rugged beauty Laikipia is never anything less than ‘interesting’.

I visited the area with CWB in 2012 and from the on-the-pitch battles of the Massai Cricket Warriors to the off-the-pitch fight against FGM, early marriage and HIV/AIDS I was fascinated to see how things had changed over the past two years.

First to the cricket.

Since my previous visit the Massai Cricket Warriors – who we had met, trained and worked alongside – have played at Lord’s (in a Last Man Stands competition) and are in the process of having a piece of scrubland turned into a home ground complete with changing facilities and an artificial pitch.

On the down side they have parted company with the woman behind their formation – South African Aliya Bauer, their captain is studying a significant distance away and it would appear that many of their good intentions regarding coaching in local schools have fallen by the wayside.

Although we were joined in our schools coaching by two of the Warriors – Daniel and Benjamin – it was impossible to escape the feeling that some of the momentum that appeared to be building in 2012 had been lost. This was emphasised by a visit to the St Francis Girls High School in Dol Dol. Proudly displayed inside the principal’s office were two autograph bats commemorating victories in CWB festivals in 2011 and 2012. It appears that there has not been a festival since.

On the positive side the appetite for cricket in the schools still very much exists with both teachers and pupils asking about further opportunities to play the game.

We also discovered that some of the girls from the One More Day For Children rescue centre who we had coached in 2012 are now helping teaching cricket to some of the other residents. The home – which was set-up to help girls fleeing early marriage, beading and other horrific domestic situations – has doubled in since my last visit and now also takes in orphans of both genders.

The HIV/AIDS situation was less easy to gauge.

Despite being frequently told by teachers and other local people that it wasn’t a big problem it felt like a slightly unconvincing answer. With many of the practices (mentioned above) that can lead to the disease being transmitted still common in many tribal communities it was hard to work out whether the answers were realistic, optimistic or ignorant.

The feeling that HIV/AIDS was some way down the agenda came during a chat with teachers at Kiwanjanbdege School. On asking them of the challenges they faced their list included (in order): elephants – trampling through school grounds, the drought – causing farming families to move away and ebola – despite the nearest case being more than 4000 miles away. Although I am not informed enough to judge where HIV/AIDS should sit in their list of concerns it did feel as though it may not have been as high up as it should be.

But although cricket and HIV/AIDS awareness in Laikipia appears at something of a crossroads this did nothing to detract from a fantastic three days that the team can feel very proud of. Nearly 1000 children coached, elephants, and giraffes on the way to ‘work’ and a few adventures along the way (see previous blog). Enough said.