Mania in Muranga

By Steve

If Thursday had been a trial of endurance and stamina, then there was certainly no letting up or cruising into the weekend on Friday as two large schools and over 700 children awaited us at Manganjo and Kari-guini schools.

To cope with the larger numbers the team quickly got to work setting up additional stations and bus driver James was even enrolled as support, translating my English into Swahili for the younger children.

The three hour stint at Manganjo ended with two riotous games with class eight and an inclusive coaching session for a small number of pupils with disabilities. Ranging in age from around 10 to mid-thirties they had the first ever go at batting and took part in a few close catching and relay activities. Despite some of them having quite severe disabilities it was moving to see the flicker of sheer joy pass across their face when they hit a ball or took a catch.

The afternoon session proved to be the hardest of all. Not due to numbers of children necessarily but more by the issue of crowd control of younger children. Our bus arrived at break-time and within seconds of entering the school gates we were swarmed by what seemed like an army of nursery children, encircling the bus with scant regard for their own safety. If they’d have known who Justin Bieber was and if he had a backing band then we could easily have been mistaken for his tour bus (especially with Robbie onboard), such was the screaming and excitement of the awaiting crowds.

In the glaring afternoon sunshine I made the fatal mistake of setting up my cross-fire throwing station in the middle of the field. That meant I got all the sun and was also nearest to the exit. As a result I continuously ended up playing monsters with the little ones in order to shepherd them off the field.

Eventually Greg had to intervene took the strays off to another field to play rocket ball with dozens of little ones running helter skelter round the field chasing tennis balls.

Robbie and Tracey did some sterling work on the catching stations, Luke and Julian did running and fielding relays, Glenn did his best to keep control of the bats and balls on his batting drills whilst Kevin (local coach) managed bowling. Anouck, leg strapped and now walking without a Gunn & Moore cricket bat as her crutch, ended up taking over my station as growling like a monster earlier in the afternoon had put paid to my vocal chords mid-way through the session.

My experience of being a human exhibit earlier in the week was today unleashed on Glenn and Luke, though not a day goes by where we aren’t experiencing this. Glenn was taken a little aback when he was called a “monkey” due to his facial hair and told to “climb a tree” and Luke was asked for an “exchange” i.e. he was allowed to touch their hair if they could touch his. The girls are not getting off lightly either. Tracey’s blond curly hair is attracting lots of attention with the girls and Anouck had her hair pulled too. When speaking with the teachers we were told that it is due to the fact that the area is primarily an agricultural one, meaning they get no tourists or business travellers. Hence a party of white people that they get to interact with is a completely strange phenomenon for them.

Back at the hotel, the VIP area in the upstairs floor of the bar was transformed into a CWB Table Tennis competition with Robbie and Luke battling out the final. At 2-2 the decider is yet to be played.