We awoke for our first day in Muranga to discover that a third of the team were feeling less than tip top. By the end of breakfast it was apparent that together we could ruin Joe’s enjoyment of the entire trip if we let him come out play, so we left him at base in the hope that a day’s rest would ultimately speed his recovery and ensure full participation for longer.
A forty minute bus ride took us to Mihango School. The six station, six game plan devised last night, and rehearsed in the bus, became, on arrival, a five station, five game session with almost 200 children. As has been developing over the past three days the change of plan, the exercises, transitions and games became smoother with each rotation and today was pretty slick from start to finish.
From Mihango it was a short drive to Ndera Primary School where, in the full Kenyan sunshine the team did their stuff with 245 children aged from 6 to 13. There were some incredibly noisy games coming from the Nico/Matthias sections of the field and both Gabie and Gary absolutely smashed 3 rotations and a game of rapid fire cricket all on their own!
We also had Nick roaming with the phone questionnaire and data collection for the charity’s research throughout the day, and it was in Ndera that taking the positive decision to devote one person all day to this task really paid off. Look out for a special blog later in the trip, but suffice to say there were long and powerful conversations with school teachers at Ndera that left an impression on both Nick and Sian, that we will write about more fully in due course.
After a well earned lunch that included, across various plates, French Toast (eggy bread – ed) Masalla chips! Eggs, sausages, black beans and samosas all washed down with sugary drinks and many varieties of tea, we retraced our tyre-tracks back to Muranga College Primary School.
Once again, under blistering sun the team delivered.
Nick again collected some fascinating data, and engaged a group of teachers in conversation about HIV. He even got some very ‘cool’ older teenage boys singing ‘Always wear a condom!’ As the games came to an end we were invaded by the smallest children in the school, curious to see what all the noise was about and even more curious about the ‘Muzungu’s’ in their School.
More of the same tomorrow please, Kenya.
Thom
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