1-2-1 let’s go!

Fresh off the excitement from day 1, team Kenya23 began their day visiting the Mihanga primary school, which just so happens to be where coach Mathias, our local CWB ambassador, attended for 15 years in his youth.

We coached 74 girls and 71 boys, a whole new ball game than what we had seen on day 1. The sessions went well overall. There was a great level of participation, including some of the school’s teachers who oversaw the training and aided with communication where translations were needed. Though some of us faced some challenges in the beginning, we left the school confident that a good time was had by all.

Our next stop was Ndera primary school where we coached the largest number of children yet, 158 girls and 172 boys for a grand total of 330 kids. This session was undoubtedly more demanding than the last and we quickly had to learn to think on our feet, changing our coaching plans to adapt for the greater number of kids.

The enormous amount of enthusiasm exhibited by the children at Ndera was both refreshing and overwhelming at times, with communication being one of our biggest problems and a great appreciation for some of our coaches’ hair the other! We started to employ different tools to aid us in our sessions. Most notably, some coaches used music to entertain the kids and hold their attention, including having them sing memorable lines from songs like “dreadlock holiday” or leading them off to their next coaching station to the tune of “Jerusalema”.

After the session we all came to understand our individual limitations. We evaluated things we thought we did well and what we believed we could have done differently in order to ensure that everyone would have the opportunity to participate and get the best experience from the sessions possible.

Following a brief stop for lunch, we visited the last school of the day – Muranga college school, where 221 eager and enthusiastic kids awaited. Amongst the group were some familiar faces! We had the opportunity to talk to some of Mathias’s cricket team from day one, including Lilial Muthoun and Trevor Karanja. They told us how they started playing cricket over a year ago and have been building their skills ever since, learning to bat, bowl and field, and getting to compete with other schools. Lilial expressed how she really enjoys the game and even when her school doesn’t win she still has fun. Trevor said that he believes that cricket can help you in your future, something that may very well be true as Trevor is just one of a selected group of kids who might get to travel to England in August to play cricket internationally!

This upcoming trip is something we hope to learn more about in the coming days, but overall our last session ran smoothly, with each kid receiving the same experience as the last. With a total of 684 kids coached, today was great preparation for the week to come, lessons were learned, hair was played with, and we are all re-energized for what the next few days has in store! It was truly memorable day, and the joy and excitement we saw in these kids will forever stay with us.