Today was the first day of the group divide which would continue for another two days with some of the team heading North for Kinihira. Today saw project leader Rob, Alex and James heading north along with CWB ambassador Mary – The rest of the group were staying in Kigali with Eric.
As the team set off at 7 (well it wasn’t 7 as everyone is late in Rwanda) the journey took 2 hours but as the skipper (Rob) had told the team the drive was far for boring with some amazing views as the team eventually turned off of the main road and onto a dusty track they eventually saw the first tea fields which went on forever.
The team arrived at the ground in Kinihira and began to play launch with the kids there (for anyone that doesn’t know launch … you basically hit a ball as high as you can all the kids try to catch it then one will throw or bring it back). The game didn’t last long as they had to head to the tea plantation factory (Sorwathe tea plantation) to meet the man who would be directing them around – this man was Remi who was a really interesting guy who seemed to really enjoy cricket and spreading the ABC messages and was constantly joining in throughout the day.
After meeting Remi the ream travelled to the first school which had a mixture of primary + secondary and there was a lot of children and unfortunately a very small space which just happened to have a massive + steep drop each side so the team spilt the kids into four and proceeding to do some catching drills before somehow managing to all squeeze a game of hit and run in with their groups – the session ran rather smoothly considering the space available and this was the first time they saw Remi in action who really did jump into action spreading the ABC message very well.
The team then headed to the tea factory for lunch to sum it up shortly:
The view… Wow absolutely amazing!!!!!
The food… Wow absolutely amazing!! – Especially the potato curry dish
And of course being at the tea factory the team all had a cup of tea to wash their lunch down.
The team then headed to another school where they had the primary kids for one hour + the secondary kids for one hour with bowling, batting + catching drills – in fairness the groups could have been split up better as James was left batting on his own as Alex + Rob had help from Mary + Remi and Alex was the first to admit he should have gone to assist James.
One of the main reasons he didn’t was Jasmine (Alex in first person now). As I was coaching the drill I spotted a cute street kid watching and went to give her a high five but she ran away scared of the mazungoo (me) after she saw me high five another street kid she ran up to me wanting a high five. She didn’t leave my side for the rest of my session’s whether she was just standing beside me, holding my hand or high fiving me. Towards the end of the session I gave her a CWB wristband and an empty water bottle I had in my bag and I have never seen anyone look so happy (she even hugged me and said “thank you Alex”) – it was amazing to see that I had made her so happy with so little. As she walked to the bus with me and then ran around to the other side where I had sat just to wave goodbye I must admit I felt emotional that I was just driving away from her. It is the biggest life changing, inspirational + proud moment I have had!
UPDATE FROM THE KIGALI SECTION OF TODAY COMING SOON VIA LEWIS HOBBS
Tea and cricket – two of your favourite things in life, Rob! It must be great for you to see how cricket has developed in Kinihira since your visit last year. Thanks to the team for the fascinating blogs, which I am really enjoying reading.