Day 6 – Three schools, 500 kids, and one very special orphanage

After a fantastic karaoke evening on Wednesday, with a little bit of reminiscing from the training weekend and an incredible duet of I’m a Barbie girl by me (Colette) and Max, not to mention a future number one version of Stand By Me by Sam and Leigh, we were all feeling a little more drained on Thursday morning. However we were on a mission…. three schools and an orphanage.

All three schools have had coaching from CWB before, and all were delighted to see us back. At each of Kisulisuli and Flamingo Primary schools, we arranged games for the older children while the younger ones rotated round skills stations. I (Sarah) was coaching and umpiring games at both, and was very impressed with the standard of cricket, with one talented Kisulisuli girl, Flavia, standing out by bowling the day’s only maiden over (to a boy who proceeded to flay the other bowling around the field!). The kids were also very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their A-B-Cs. It’s fantastic to see the work of previous CWB groups in developing the game and promoting HIV awareness here really coming to fruition, and we hope that we’re now part of the same happening in Kericho and Murang’a.

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Langalanga, alma mater of Mary and Charilitah, two of our fab local coaches, was the first secondary school we’d visited. Because many had played before and we were short of time, we went straight into games with the 150 participants split into eight teams. There was a lot of talent on show, and most games went right to the wire. It was tougher to get the HIV messages across to this audience, with the “A” especially perhaps being too late for many, but they engaged well with A-B-C once we linked with the cricket they had just played (abstain from hitting it in the air, be faithful to your partner, use your bat for protection). We coached 500 kids in the day, taking our running total for the trip to nearly 1,500.

This afternoon was a tough afternoon for me (Colette). Everyone speaks of that one experience that really hits you while you’re on a CWB trip and stays with you afterwards – Emmanuel Orphanage was that for me when I was here last year. I meet a young man called Gerald who supported 16 children in one room in the slums in Nakuru, but the passion he had was incredible. That first trip really hit home to me how fortunate we are, and through some work with my local church I developed a link with the orphanage to raise funds including to build a new classroom and dormitory. Walking back in yesterday brought all the memories back and to see the smiles on the kids’ faces was incredible. To speak to Gerald again and see the developments the orphanage has made in the last 12 months was very touching. As a team we found the experience very emotional, as it is very different from and much more deprived than the previous orphanages we have been to. Gerald gave a heartfelt vote of thanks in the new classroom before we went outside to play… with balloons, naturally!

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It was another hugely rewarding day to end our first week in Kenya… bring on week two!

– Colette and Sarah

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