Potato Fields, Runways & Condoms

Potato Fields, Runways and Condoms

Awoke to a Aussie sending me pictures of breakfast fruit and tea, welcome to Rwanda, Kris sleep longer…

Quick chat over breakfast as to what the day would hold in store for us and the advance party were off to do some teacher training, leaving a few of us to either relax by the pool or in true CWB fashion get out there and meet the people.

Needing to get some cash Alex, Ella and myself decided to go walkabout and see what was what in the vicinity of the hotel. Cash obtained from the local ATM we ventured further with many a “hello” and “how are you” to the inquisitive locals, most dressed immaculately in their Sunday best.

We decided on a circular route back to the hotel but after completing three quarters of the route we discovered there was no road going our way. Okay, go back to our training in Coventry, think on your feet was a recurring theme and so the obvious choice was to go off road, across a potato field, overthe local grass runway, which I don’t think has been used for a while, and that is as far as we got before a local popped out of the long grass and gestured for us to stop. Apparently there is no path from there but we were rescued by a lovely local lady and her high fiving children who allowed us to go through her back garden, weave around a warren of small concrete building and eventually on to the road back to the hotel, our first African adventure.

The advance party arrived back and off we all went to a college of 14 to 20 year olds and threw ourselves into cricket games and social messaging, the students were great to talk with and really engaged with the messages we were trying to get across.

On to our next session at the local University where we has a group of students very keen to learn about cricket and the perfect audience for our messaging. As with most sessions younger local children just turn up once they see you and I spent a rewarding hour playing catch and “whack the ball” which made me think that this is just what I signed up for, laughing children having fun.

Running a bowling game for the university students I remembered to throw in all of the ABCT references and then we finished up with a game of rapid fire, or crazy duck as I like to call it, I was nominated as one of the team captains. We became Team Rwanda and added a bit of spice by making the other Team Burundi, it was now a matter of national pride to win. Excellent team work, a great deal of luck and Team Rwanda prevailed, national pride upheld, Team Burundi congratulated on a good effort.

We finished the day with a Team Rwanda group huddle and at this point I realised how far I had already come along the CWB road, I delivered a wrap up chat and spoke about HIV, sexual behaviour and how to put a condom on properly and I did it all so naturally I surprised myself, the students opened up to me and I had the feeling I might just have made a small difference.

Back to the hotel for a debrief over a pint of the local Skol beer, dinner and bed. I am so looking forward to tomorrow.

Nick