3600.
That’s the number of kids we have coached in two and a half days.
3600. It’s an unbelievable number.
In some sessions we have taken an entire school of 500 kids into a dust-filled field, with sharp long grass, wondering how we could ever run a session for that many kids of varying ages. From the moment we arrive, they are charging at the bus, waiting for the bus doors to open. We brace ourselves, tie up the hair under the hat and smile. As we step off the bus it’s all high fives and Jambo and it’s impossible not to get caught up in the kids’ tidal wave of energy.
It’s chaos much of the time, the kids stampeding towards our stations, but with each day that passes we’re getting better at wringing order from the chaos. How could it be otherwise, when you’re leading an entire school through cricket drills they’ve never done? The heart pumps, the adrenaline rushes, but you do what you can, and invariably it proves to be enough.
Each session has its golden moments – the kid with the particularly bizarre outfit, or the one with the incredible throwing arm, or the one who takes it upon herself to get the other kids into line. And then there’s the best moment of all, when you take a step back and just take in the noise and the dust and the joy of five hundred kids having fun.
Rachel and Sian
This is truly amazing to reach so many chikdren – 500 wow and to provide the education with fun. I am in awe of the scheme plus the volunteers especially my bestie Sian who is no shrinking violet .