Day 7
With a new location comes a new hotel, a new breakfast with variations on the toast, boiled eggs, sausages, pancakes and fruit that we’re used to, but with the added bonus of yoghurt, a very welcome and more improved start to the day for the majority of the team.
All travelled but along with Sian and Joe who are still not 100%, today saw Nico join the ‘Flu Club.’
Arriving at our first school, Freehold Primary, we were greeted with lots of smart red uniforms & buildings with glass in the windows! We were also joined by ten coaches, players from Nakuru Pirates, organised by our Ambassador George’s coaches, including Queinta, Kenya Cricket’s Women’s Captain, and Daisy, her predecessor.
We set up eight skills stations as we were expecting nearly 400 children to come out & play. The children at Freehold had not had any coaching & had no knowledge of ABCT so we taught them through card discussions and chants and quickly they learnt from us.
Such a big impact in such a small amount of time.
All went well until another 70 children were sent out late! In stepped Gary, who took them over to an unused corner of the field and did some catching exercises with them with a little help from Daisy! Then, just as we thought we were to capacity, lots of little people came over! Aged from four to six years old perhaps. Gary and Sacha entertained them with ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ and the ‘Beans’ game. When two sets of older children came out we played some ‘Pairs’ cricket in preparation for Friday’s festival, an opportunity to practice and gain further skills. All the while this was happening Nick & Thom went around asking lots of questions, talking with students and teachers, which would prove to bring up plenty of conversation in the debrief later on in the day.
Off to the next school, Kisulisuli Primary. We were greeted with the whole school having break time & it was lovely to see children playing cricket with cows seemingly helping with the fielding! Here the children again had little knowledge of HIV & ABCT so again, as with our first school, we utilised all the resources available to us and taught and reinforced the importance of being safe and open around HIV and Aids
With an hours break to lunch and recuperate we went to our final school of the day which was Nakuru Day secondary school. Seemingly, they were not expecting us but after telling us we could coach 60 children they still managed to bring out around 280 teenagers to come and join us on the field. We decided to dedicate two stations to HIV Q&A stations where Thom & Nick spent an afternoon having some heavy and personal conversations with the older children.
Sacha
Day 8
7.30am the air is fresh and all are on the bus. All skills stations are allocated, catching (fielding..i must remember! ), batting, bowling, quiz lead and time keeper, for our next three primary schools. We’re so lucky to have the local coaches again, including four who play for the ladies Kenyan cricketing team.
After buying our daily requirement of water we were off to Nakura Primary School. With only two cows to clear the grass and provide milk the grass was a tad long! I’m just glad I was catching, although the others found a couple of flat places. Phew! The energy built, we learned new words from the kids, skiza (listen) snd simama (stop), both very helpful to the crowd control needs of the project and said with a smile from all.
Kaloleni Primary School next…set in a stunning position and set against a backdrop of Lake Nakuru. The boundary of the school was double fenced (one electrified!) due to the national park on the other side and whilst we undertook our activities approximately 40 baboons took a stroll up the hill in park without a second glance to what we were doing.
Kaloleni gave us some very well behaved children, aged around 10 yet seemingly so small in stature and it rocked my emotions for a moment. Ryan (Pirates) was passionate about how good these kids are with their learning and behaviour, and I think this school became his favourite. The HIV education was ongoing, the children sponges for learning. My highlight was teaching the ‘Pirates’ players Rapid Fire Cricket, and a great opportunity to consolidate the teams work on batting and fielding. As a non cricket player this felt good, and made me feel proud of my development too.
These skills were consolidated at our third school, Flamingo Primary, with 3 cows grazing, and again dramatic views of the hills and safari park, with the storms rolling around. We managed a three skills session and a game before the heavens opened.
The teams together were buzzing at the end if the day.
Sian
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