Woke up looking forward to my first hot shower in a week. But nooooo. No hot water! Aargh. Still, at least it was a shower, which is one better than The Luke Hotel. Also, first time waking to clear blue skies, and able to make a coffee in our room! Breakfast in Taidys Hotel not dissimilar from The Luke – omelette, pineapple and a coffee.
At 9am headed off to meet the kids at community coaching at Nakuru Day Secondary School. Community coaching is where the local team The Pirates put on voluntary coaching for kids to come along, 9-1pm, then they all get a hot lunch. These are kids who want to play cricket, so they make the effort to turn up every Saturday morning. We showed up at 9am, and drove past the herd of cows grazing and doing their business on the school football pitch. Which was grassed, not red dust like in Thika. As we parked up, Monika was leading 60 kids in laps around the cricket field as a warm up. Half of them were wearing cricket white trousers, with a variety of sports tops. One Man City and a couple Arsenal. Why, people, why? There are at least 4 better teams in London to support. Yet everywhere I go in Kenya there are Arsenal shirts. I’ll console myself with the thought it may be support for Emirates, rather than the football team itself.
The kids were split in to groups of around 10-12. I bowed to peer pressure and took a group of my own as lead coach. Fortunately Alvin from the Pirates came and joined my catching group so we could work together. After all the groups had warmed up with basic cricket skills drills Nico set up 5 pairs games on the outfield ( although I noticed Gemma and Mark snaffled the astroturf wicket pretty quickly). Playing with a windball on a very rough field, avoiding cow pats and very dodgy bounces, and then actually having the herd of cows walk across the area I was fielding in? Challenging, but these children do it every week. And do it very well with big smiles on their faces! One of the girls in my group plays for Kenya U19 women – great left handed all rounder. What I loved about this morning training was that all the children played together, whatever their ability, encouraging the newer and younger players. And the Pirates players like Alvin, Monika, Queentor, MJ and Anthony give up their Saturday mornings to coach these children, the next generation of Kenyan cricketers. And of course, George.
Anthony is also in the Kenya U19 squads. Cricket in Kenya is centred around Nairobi, 3 hours drive away. To play in the league, the Pirates leave at 5am to drive to Nairobi, play 50 overs, and drive back. Those in the national squads have training camps to attend, and matches, based around Nairobi. Luckily the adult Pirates like George support the juniors.
Nico ran an assessment of all the players, so after the drinks break, teams were switched around. Specialist batting and bowling sessions were run for beginners and improvers, and others carried on having fun in games. I batted with Jackson, about 6 years old. Thought I’d have to coach him along, but he presented a perfect batting stance and smashed the ball to long on. Impressive.
Once the kids were knackered, CWB plus Nico, George and Joseph played a short game against the Pirates. It’s really hard playing with a windball, on a concrete base ripped astroturf and well dodgy outfield – ball all over the place! It ended in a tie – nice result but we were actually trying to win!
Back to the hotel for a lazy afternoon for a desperately needed cold swim on the roof terrace
At 4pm 4 of the Pirates came to take us shopping around the local markets and mall for souvenirs. Queentor and Monika were brilliant and dedicated personal shoppers- Queentor disappeared on a moped and came back with 2 Kenya football shirts for Gemma! The first market was a cramped line of stall of Masai traders, selling jewellery, paintings, carvings and a variety of other artefacts. Oh, and a persistent man walking around selling caps. Lots of invasion of personal space – I was touched and pulled in to stalls far too often and had a little freak out. Had to sit on a stool away from the melee to calm my breathing. Yet still the man selling caps found me! MJ and Anthony, the 2 male Pirates, and Dylan, formed a security detail around me to escort me out of there before I totally lost it. I wasn’t completely off the pace, and knew I should buy things to support local traders, so bargained my way to a beaded bag, Kenya football shirt and a Masai warrior fridge magnet! Staple tourist gifts! Cap man continued to follow us, but this time realised I wasn’t going to buy so we joked around. A little boy started following us, begging for money to buy food as he was so hungry. Felt so sorry for him, but knew that if I gave in to him, would be surrounded within minutes and my security detail would be overwhelmed.
Walked to a mall (found the staple worldwide KFC) and stocked up on provisions for our safari tomorrow. In the evening went back to the mall to Regina’s restaurant for a decent meal and watch cricket on TV. Couple of beers in the sports bar of the hotel before heading off to bed, so excited for safari tomorrow
Maz
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