CWB – Rwanda 2011

We awoke to the expected sight of yet another blue sky so we all knew there was a hot day to come. However we did not expect the events of yet another enjoyable day in unpredictable Africa filled with driving minibuses, driving tests and driving tennis balls!

Our long journey to Gitarama started at 8am and within an hour we were pushing the minibus, which had broken down in the middle of a busy Kigali junction,  to the side of the road. As we were stranded we started an impromptu game of catch with some curious children who had wandered towards our marooned minibus. After a forty minute wait, the bus was fixed and we carried on our journey to the sports stadium which we would be using as a base for our coaching for the day. This trip took us to more rural parts of the country which were filled with stunning scenery and plenty of hills, Rwanda is lovingly known as the land of 1000 hills and I am pretty sure we drove over most of them today.

When we arrived at Gitarama we were greeted by a stadium full of adults who were taking their written driving test so we had to stay in the bus and keep as quiet as possible as we were getting a few stern looks from armed police. Despite the breakdown, we managed to be forty five minutes early which we have learnt by now is typical Africa.

We got use of the vast sports field so we could spread out so the kids could hit the ball as far as possible! Paul and Martin took two sessions of coach education where they gave some local teachers (12)  a crash course in cricket coaching which seemed to be very successful. Once again we coached over one hundred children today so the game is spreading very quickly and hopefully this will inspire the local school to create a school team as there were children who had real potential.

Our trip home was accompanied by CWB FM which played a multitude of golden oldies from Ian’s mobile phone so the journey went very quickly and we even witnessed our first Rwandan rain storm which was torrential and quite a sight to see.  Tomorrow we are going to Greenhills Academy which is a private school so once again we are hoping for some nice flat ground and maybe even some grass!

Day Three started early with the expectation of another long hot day. Today’s plan was to go to two schools and coach over 300 children who had never heard of or seen cricket before.

We arrived at Giporoso School at 9.00am to find an improvement of facilities such as the

help of a grassed area (size of a tennis court). The children seemed to understand our English a little more than yesterday, which helped our coaching techniques.

Coaching in Rwanda starts with what you have and then add a few more and more and more. What you start with is not what you finish with. Except that the smiles on children’s faces tells you something. Whether its hitting or catching success is measured in smiles! At

one point we thought Kevin Pietersen had surreptitiously arrived as two huge sixes disappeared over the school building one sticking in a drain!

After lunch of locally bought fruit and Rowey amusing the ladies in the market as he delved into his shorts to…………….(censored)…….find his cash! Headed for Kagarama High School with the footballers having to move over for cricket for once over 110 children being

coached in a carousel for an hour before the school teams had a chance to develop their skills.

A long dusty day topped off with a visit to the developing Rwanda Cricket Ground and the National Squad Training session.

Day Two was filled with both highs and lows with the thrill of our first training session at Nyakabanda School in stark comparison to the visit to Kigali’s Genocide Memorial Museum.

After a long and deserved sleep, we set out on our visit to Nyakabanda in our cramped team minibus along Rwanda’s hilly tracks with a few near misses with the local’s zipping around on motorbikes. As this was our first session we did not know what to expect and as you can see from the attached photos, the playing surface was interesting to say the least. Over the three hour session we coached 130 children with some novices and most had never even heard of cricket so we took it back to basics with some catching and the enjoyment of hitting the ball. This got us into some trouble as the tennis balls were flying into classrooms which drew some stern looks from the school teachers.

During the school break time there was controlled chaos with children from both the primary and the secondary school looking to use this new exciting equipment and meet the coaches so we employed Jono as cricket bag security which is a role he excelled in.

After a well deserved lunch, we travelled to the Genocide Memorial which was opened in 2004 to mark the ten year anniversary of this tragedy. It was a challenging couple of hours as we found at about the history of this very recent tragedy. It also gave us an opportunity to reflect on the enthusiasm of children and young adults at the school in the morning even with this event that has affected everyone in this beautiful country.

Tomorrow will be a mix of complete novices as well as some hardball coaching with a school team so once again our ever evolving coaching skills of adapting will be put to the test!

Day one on African Soil was hot, slow, and extremely long. When we finally landed at Kigali airport at 1.15pm (LT) our expectation of losing a bag was not to come true, after 20 minutes of our own bags arriving meant that we were waiting on the two soft ball bags for our coaching sessions in the morning.

When we finally got them we walked outside to meet the Rwandan Cricket Association (RCA) who took us to our apartments. Which are clean, smart but basic. The first thing we had to do was fight over the bedrooms, one apartment with three and the other with four. As we checked in and signed the paper work the RCA gave us one hour to unpack and get a cold shower before we were to meet up in the other flat to discuss the two week agenda.

Once we got the agenda sorted we were told that we are invited to the RCA party tonight. RCA always welcomes CWB with a meal on the first night of arrival, but this year was going to be a special one as the Rwandan cricket team won T20 African regional Div 3. Everyone was so welcoming to us which helped us all to get into the party mood, after a long day of travelling. The party went into the night with a well deserved presentation for the players and a brilliant BBQ.

Our official Rwanda 2011 blog will start tomorrow as we set off from Heathrow T3 at 8:15pm.

I would like to take this opportunity to ask you all to get your friends, family or work colleagues to register on our website. This will show what exactly we will be doing over the two weeks and what their money is being spent on. If people haven’t already donated I’m sure they will once reading our blogs and looking at our pictures and videos.

Our blog offers a wide range of facts and things to do on Rwanda, the cricket without boundaries charity, and the great team of volunteers that are going out there who have put endless hours into the project. From the feedback I have been getting it seems that as a group we have raised over £7000.00 and which none of the money goes to anyone here or is spent on us getting there. Just where it is needed and the equipment!!

Speak to you soon

And Thank You

With two weeks to go, a short message from the Project Leader.

Welcome to the CWB Rwanda blog.  After a great training weekend in Birmingham the team are all excited and raring to get the 2011 Rwanda project off the ground.  The team has really good mix of skills which we hope can be put to good use with the Rwandan Cricket Association in developing the game while pushing the HIV/AIDS awareness messages.  The trip promises to be fun but hard work!  Escaping the UK winter for equatorial Africa is a bonus.

All of the team will contribute to the blog on a regular basis; we hope you enjoy our posts and look forward to reading your comments.

Thanks

Brian

Project Leader