Day 1 – Taxi for Jommo

After a relatively easy check in to Heathrow airport and only the one bag having to be altered on weight (33kg down to 32kg), we were finally on our way! After what seemed an eternity on a plane to Nairobi, part one was over. Up to this point, no hiccups! Cue Chris Haines’ (newly named Jomo) amazing discovery! His connecting flight was leaving Nairobi a further 7 hours after the rest of the group. Apparently, the long wait was not worth $258, so we carried on to Burundi (where some of us would’ve started coaching here had it not been for Lee’s quick feet!) and Kigali one member of the team short.

After dropping all the kit at the apartments, we had a chance to go watch the Rwandan U19s in a training game, vying for spots in the squad in the African Div 2 50 over tournament being held in South Africa. For Jono and Lee, it was a chance to see and catch up with some old faces who they met on previous trips. For the rest of us, it was a great opportunity to see some of the talent that’s on show in Rwanda. It’s fair to say we were all very impressed with what we saw. It was also the first real chance to see some reminder of the atrocities that happened here in 1994. Seeing goalposts still with bullet holes and recognising the site of where Shooting Dogs is filmed suddenly made it all very real.

Once we’d taken a stroll round the pitch and taken a few snaps, we moved on to the Kigali Genocide Memorial on a heart-wrenching but vital visit in to the country’s history. It was a very up close and in-depth tour round the memorial but we all agreed that it was needed. At this point, we were re-joined by the final member of the team, with many a joke to be had at his expense. We were treated to an amazing meal by the RCA at Zaaffran and it put a great end to a gruelling couple of days (for some more than others, ay Jomo). Bring on the next two weeks!