A review of Day 5 through the eyes of Chris ‘Jomo Kenyatta Steven Hawking Brains’ Haines.
Since arriving in Rwanda, a few short hours after the rest of the CWB Team, I have seen some great places and sights and some encouraging, inspirational and fantastic people. Some of the schools we have visited and some of the organisations we’ve spoken with have been amazing. One of the most astonishing sites however, out of everything, has been seeing George when he is neither Skyping nor sleeping.
We started the day with a typical example of a Rwandan coaching session. We were confidently expecting a manageable class of fifty kids from a school near the national team’s training ground called St Esprit. As the gates opened we watched at least 300 children coming through for their morning break. One of the most impressive things I saw was the two local coaches, Eric and Sam, running off and entertaining at least a hundred children each with one tennis ball and one bat. The session we then had was very good, although it was possibly the hottest day of the trip so far. The children were well versed in the ABCs and their enthusiasm never waned.
At lunchtime we met up with Ajay, who had been with us from day one, but was leaving for the UK via Uganda in the afternoon. I only worked with Ajay on one session but his enthusiasm for the coaching and the kids was infectious, he got them singing, dancing and always energised. We bid him a fond farewell and prepared for our next session. Once again we would be down a few coaches as Lee and Jono were off to the International Women’s day celebration at the Kigali Sports Centre.
After grabbing a sandwich from the hotel next door we headed out to the afternoon session which was at Lycee de Kigali. This time we were working with older children and were able to work in a few more complicated skills. Some of the children are very quick learners and there were some with a lot of natural talent.
As has quickly become a tradition we relaxed with a cold Mutzig and then headed out to a local restaurant, a Chinese restaurant this time, with a very loud chef, a kung fu film on DVD and some very nice (and generously portioned) food.
