{"id":262,"date":"2011-03-16T19:04:12","date_gmt":"2011-03-16T19:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/rwanda2011\/?p=262"},"modified":"2014-01-09T20:28:32","modified_gmt":"2014-01-09T20:28:32","slug":"day-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/rwanda2011\/2011\/03\/16\/day-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 11 – Disability Cricket"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another early start and long trek in the bus was the order of the day as the team headed to the southern province of Rwanda and Butare.\u00a0 A few nerves were felt as we embarked on a day in which our relative inexperience in disability cricket had been talked through the night before.\u00a0 We arrived at the Deaf School in Butare to be greeted by 35 kids, keen to get on with the cricket.\u00a0 We set up, divided the kids into groups and got going \u2013 catching drills, ground fielding, batting drills and to wrap up, a number of games.\u00a0 The session illustrated the value of good demonstrations and with that anyone can get on and enjoy cricket.\u00a0 The kids were amazing \u2013 undaunted by the challenge that 7 \u2018muzungi\u2019 presented them and thoroughly enjoyed the morning.\u00a0 We handed over a number of the CWB T-shirts, boxes of pencils and some kwik cricket kit, all of which was received enthusiastically.<\/p>\n

After a short lunch break we moved onto Gatagara High School, which, whilst a main stream secondary school, had a number of kids with physical disabilities and learning difficulties.\u00a0 Here again, the numbers we were expecting proved to be variable and we ended up with about 70 new cricketers aged 14 – 18.\u00a0 This was tackled with a 4-station carousel \u2013 batting (pull shot), bowling, catching and ground fielding with the afternoon ending with a series of games.\u00a0 If the noise was an indicator of the level of enjoyment then the session was a resounding success; able-bodied or not, everyone seemed to have a great time and we had an impassioned plea for kit before we left.<\/p>\n

Another great day! Any nerves about delivering coaching to disabled cricketers were quickly dispelled.\u00a0 The interest and enthusiasm of the young Rwandan cricketers we met in Butare will be long remembered.<\/p>\n