Day 2, and our first day of teaching all day in the schools of Musanze, Rwanda began in typical African fashion with a delayed start as we had planned to leave at 8 so we could pick up lunch on the way for a nine start. Unfortunately that didn’t materialise so instead we headed for our first of three sessions at Kabaya school in Musanze. With little expectation of what to expect we were straight into the thick of it, coaching 214 very eager but exceptionally polite school children in school years three to four. With minimal English and no knowledge of cricket you would have thought of this as nigh on impossible, not for the CWB team.
Armed with our ambassadors who acted as translators, and an already highly skilled team of coaches to give visual demonstrations the school children where soon off and away learning the new concepts such as bowling, fielding and batting while regularly chatting and dancing ABC chants in between drills which can’t help but put a beaming smile onto your face.
Next came the Rwandan ‘rainy season’ within minutes of us finishing our first session, lighting and thunderstorms greeted us which meant we had our first rain delay of the trip. Not to worry, this resulted in a game of hotel car park cricket to keep the vibe going.
Being that a CWB trip is all about adaptability, and our first time volunteers soon realised what this meant. As a charity CWB never want to let children miss out on a session so in the afternoon we decided to split the team so the children we postponed on this morning wouldn’t go home disappointed and would still hear vital ABC HIV messages.
5 coaches headed off to a new school Muko Spritus school in Musanze while 6 of us returned to this morning’s school. Between the 11 of us we coached 440 children the game of cricket and delivered fun HIV messages in the meantime, this even resulted in over 300 delighted children playing quick cricket at the same time in a yard no bigger than half a football pitch. Which coach wouldn’t want to witness this?
Onto day three.
(Danny)
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