There was no rest for the wicked on Sunday morning as me, Tim, Ian and Kev along with our three Rwandan coaches set of at 7.30 for the three hour drive to the Northern Territories and the Ruhengeri University to work with their team and others who were interested. We think this is a first for CWB as no other trip has taken cricket out of Kigali.
We had already met the Challengers team as they are called when we visited the oval earlier in the week this was only their fifth training session but there is some real quality and also their captain is a fantastic young man full of confidence and enthusiasm. Me and Tim worked with 26 players from the team while Ian and Kev took the other who were learning the game.
In total we must have worked with around 100 people at the uni on their football pitch which is in a beautiful setting surrounded by mountains. The big problem they have is that they only have 3 balls to practice with and so they were over the moon when we left them a few more and even gave them a new cricket ball for their next full match. We also promised to speak to the RCA to see if they could get any of the kit we brought over up to them. The session lasted 3 hours and finished just before a short rain shower, we then grabbed some food in the nearest village before readying ourselves for the long trip back.
It was then that Geofrey one of the Rwandan coaches dropped the big surprise of the day that we were going to another school. This involved about a 45 minute drive up a dirt track to the top of one of the biggest hills the scenery on the way was truly stunning and the village and school at the top is I think the poorest area we have been to. There is no running water and it has to be carried up the hill every morning from the valley below. We ran a one hour session in the school playground and then packed up for the return journey.
All was well on the way back until it got dark and we hit the biggest thunder storm we have seen since getting here, visibility on the roads on the mountain tops was down to a few metres and the lightning was incredible. Credit to Teo our driver who got us back safely at about 6.30.
We then hooked up with the rest of the group and nipped up the road for noodles, I was then tucked up in bed asleep by about 9.30 and boy was it good to get some at last.
Click here to view all the videos from the trip on our YouTube Channel.
