For situations we thought we would have to deal with on the trip, we expected to be cricket coaching around 100 students at any one time. We expected to be asked questions about HIV/AIDs and we expected some experimental culinary exploits when trying out the local Rwandan delicacies (for the record, curried goat appears to be a winner so far). What we didn’t expect was trying to negotiate a cricket session at a local school in Shogwe, with a group of nuns (at 9am on a Tuesday morning) who were not expecting us and were not keen on the idea. For the record the nuns won, but we did manage to secure a coaching session with a school just up the road. 

So after a second visit to Steady Eddy’s favourite buffet, we descended onto G.S. Shogwe, which, as we pulled up to the drive, unexpectedly had 25 kids already playing cricket on the school field. Rather than teaching the basics of cricket, this was an afternoon to be refining the skills that the boys already possessed, whilst still delivering those important HIV/AIDs awareness messages. 
 
 
Now for most of the CWB Rwanda team the majority of us, during our fundraising, were asked how cricket coaching and deliverance of HIV/ AIDs awareness messages could work together. Here is how:
 
The bowling coaching for G.S Shogwe introduced run-ups to the bowling. Here we taught the boys to abstain from bowling front-foot no balls (‘A’ Abstain in the HIV message).
 
The fielding station tested the boys’ fielding partner-work. This demonstrated the benefits to the boys of being faithful to your partner when throwing the ball (‘B’ – Be Faithful). 
 
The batting drill was an introduction to the different styles of bowling the batsmen would have to face, so the the boys learnt to protect themselves and the wicket (‘C’ wear a Condom and protect yourself). 
 
Once the coaching was over, everyone had the chance to play a game of cricket which would test the boys’ skills they had just learnt and the boys would have to remember their status – the amount of runs they scored so that we knew who won at the end of the game by making the most runs (encouraging the boys to get themselves tested to see if they have HIV, so that they would know their status).
 
 
Day 3 – ‘Of the day’ Awards
 
Batting of the day:  January (third from left in cricket whites in the batting picture above). Despite numerous bouncers bowled by Jim and Carl, January was totally unfazed by them. 
Bowling of the day: Debate still going on between Kevin’s vote for the G.S Shogwe’s paceman, who was definitely the quickest faced so far, and Jules’s vote for the lad in the Manchester United shirt, who despite having no credibility in his football allegiance, had definite credibility in his bowling, despite having never bowled before…he managed to get a hat-trick!
Item balanced on the head: Trophy Cabinet