{"id":106,"date":"2015-10-11T19:06:15","date_gmt":"2015-10-11T19:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya2015\/?p=106"},"modified":"2015-10-13T03:33:14","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T03:33:14","slug":"reflections-on-week-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya2015\/2015\/10\/11\/reflections-on-week-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on Week 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sam Rose<\/em> \u2013 Week 1 went quickly for me; it took a couple of days for it to sink in I was back in Kenya for my second CWB trip but it soon became real once I was in the thick of it coaching in the schools again with kids shouting “Mzungu!” left right and centre! The ability level of the children differed greatly between Kericho and Nakuru which shows the good work CWB have been doing in Nakuru, but also how much more we need to do. The ABC messages seemed to work well within both areas, but was quite reliant on how much the school had been teaching on AIDS awareness and what the A, B, and C messages meant. My personal highlight of the week was meeting Isaac again, who I met as a 15 year old 2 years ago and sponsored to play cricket at the Rift Valley club. Isaac is still playing and is working hard at school and wants to become a doctor! I was lucky enough to meet his family which was another eye opener of the different world we live in, but he seemed perfectly happy which was pleasing. Onto Muranga and looking forward to a week of coaching and seeing how it has developed from the first trip I came on 18 months ago.<\/p>\n

\"Sam<\/a><\/p>\n

Leigh Rees<\/em> – I\u2019ll be brief as I always am. The cricket and ABCs have been typical CWB, although I was very impressed with some of the kids in Kericho given they haven\u2019t had so much exposure to the game. Highlights – 1) I can\u2019t believe I\u2019m part of such a good team for the second year running. I\u2019m blessed. 2) Meeting old friends Nicholas, George, Ice Man, Mary, Daniel, Benjamin. 3) Helping the street kids in Nakuru 4) Amazing meal at George\u2019s house. 5) Emmanuel Good Hope Orphanage. Heartbreaking but soul cleansing.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0697a\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Colette Gooding<\/em> \u2013 12 months on and I\u2019m Kenya for the second time. It was great to catch up with the guys in Kenya that I volunteered with last year. I have also been very lucky to work with a good team and everyone has been more than happy to get involved with coaching or a bit of yoga in the evening. The first week has flown by and we have visited both Kericho and Nakuru and have worked with 1,500 school children and 60 coaches and it seems crazy that we still have another week to go. For me personally some of the greatest times have been spent in the orphanages talking to those that volunteer in the orphanages and that look after the children that are there. Also listening to the stories that some of the older children have to say and the experiences they have had. Emmanuel Orphange is something that has touched me very deeply and spending the afternoon there on Saturday is something that I will never forgot just sitting with children counting up to ten. It\u2019s the simplest things that can touch you most.<\/p>\n

\"Colette<\/a><\/p>\n

Sarah Berman<\/em> \u2013 I can\u2019t believe that only eight days ago I was at Heathrow, having never set foot in Africa or met any of the wonderful Kenyans that I now call my friends. In one way it feels like I\u2019ve been here five minutes and in another way like it\u2019s been a lifetime. London and transport consultancy certainly feel a very, very long way away (sorry to anyone from SDG reading this, but you did all encourage me to forget work for a few weeks!) Picking a highlight from such an incredible week is impossible, but of all the schools visited I think it\u2019s Kericho Primary on our second day of coaching that will stick in the memory the longest. The kids were so enthusiastic that we couldn\u2019t get them to stop singing Waka Waka after the team photo, and it\u2019s while marshalling their games of rapid fire with Leigh that I realised (or, more accurately, remembered) how much fun and rewarding coaching is. After a great weekend off, can\u2019t wait to get cracking again tomorrow morning.<\/p>\n

\"sarah\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Max Winchester<\/em> \u2013 Given that this is my first trip to sub-Saharan Africa, there are countless things about Kenya that I have been amazed, delighted and, at times, saddened by: hordes of children running after our bus shouting \u2018Mzungu!\u2019; vibrant, bustling and often overwhelming high streets; the incredible enthusiasm and excitement of children at our coaching sessions; and the fact that almost every interaction with Kenyans, from bartering, to asking directions, to directing on the cricket field, is accompanied by a huge smile. This first week has certainly been a learning curve as I have become more and more aware of the enormous privilege and comfort inherent to our lifestyles back home, which we regularly take for granted. I am hugely looking forward to this next week and hope to further improve the quality and impact of our HIV message at schools so that we continue to make a real difference.<\/p>\n

Philip Gooding<\/em> \u2013 This is my first visit to Africa and have been amazed at so much, the culture shock as well as the obvious environmental changes but the thing I was most looking forward to when coming on the trip was seeing how disabled children get treated\/get on in Kenya. I was very thankful for the visit to be arranged to a disabled school, I was really impressed that the children were treated as equal. Talking to the teacher we met she said that they all get a chance in normal school before being put in their school. The school itself was made of two classes of twelve, girls and boys separated and all put together regardless of age or disability. This shocked me a little at first but I got the understanding that it was the easiest thing to do as the children themselves were not diagnosed at all, I believe that the real thing that was lacking in the school was the support networks which I\u2019ve become so used to in my job back in the UK. The enthusiasm from the teacher and all the children who were responsive was amazing and could tell they really enjoy the cricket sessions that are put on for them. I truly believe with more support networks in place and further support from CWB that the lovely smiling children that I met can progress in life and get the most out of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sam Rose \u2013 Week 1 went quickly for me; it took a couple of days for it to sink in I was back in Kenya for my second CWB trip but it soon became real once I was in the thick of it coaching in the schools again with kids shouting “Mzungu!” left right and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions\/128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/kenya2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}