Our first day coaching in Arua began with the amazing site of around 20 of the 30 teachers already on the ground as we arrived at 9.30 for our usual 10 start, the fact that they had been informed we started at 9 by the local sports officer is a fact we chose to ignore in order to focus on the positives.

We will now be stationed for the next 5 days on the playing fields that seem to be used both by a local school and also by Arua Christian University, we have found a nice flat basketball court that is perfect for coaching with the only issue that unlike the last two venues the area is filled with school children at breaks and after school which provides a large crowd which I think some of the teachers found a bit intimidating as they were wrestling with new found cricket skills.

As a whole first impressions of this group are that they are equally as enthusiastic and willing to learn as their counterparts in Lira and Gulu and if anything seem to be more athletic which was demonstrated by how quickly many of the group took to the first bowling demonstrations. A slight logistics problem with lunch meant that we were around 40 minutes late starting the afternoon session and it looked like this would be cut short as we became surrounded by ominous dark clouds but luck stayed with us and the rain did not arrive until around 4.30 when were where back in the hotel.

As with the other two areas today was focused on getting teachers to have some fun with bats and balls as with the exception of one teacher they have never before played the game, only in the afternoon did we start to demonstrate some more formal coaching and also our methods of delivering HIV/AIDS messages alongside the cricket.

The only current issue is that the internet in the hotel is beyond slow meaning that I seem to have spent most of my time tucked in a small office trying to upload videos and pictures, we did also find an internet cafe at lunchtime where I managed to get about 90% of the way through an upload before the network vanished. I will keep trying on the video front but it may just be words and photographs from Arua. The big positive to the hotel is the food and last nights Chicken Biryani was a dream, looks like pizza tonight as we spotted one being served and it looked the business.

Our home for the next 5 days coaching.

The teachers we will be working with

A gentle start with some catching games

The coaching cards once again proved popular