Day 2 – If in doubt cow it out

Today was our second day of coaching in Gitarama, Rwanda and it was day full of mixed emotions.

In the morning we went to a school in Muhanga which consisted of both Primary and Secondary school children. Our first coaching session involved teaching the primary school children key cricket skills like bowling, catching, throwing, batting and teamwork. The session started very well, however once break time came for the whole school we were then bombarded with around 200 more children and all our organisation skills went out the window!

Once all the primary school children had gone back to class and we rounded up the equipment, we taught the secondary school children the same vital cricket skills and played rapid fire along with cross fire. Within this session, we used whiteboards to try and get the children thinking how they could protect themselves from HIV/AIDS, how they could make Muhanga a better place and what countries in the world they could name.

This was used to get the children thinking and to be creative with their answers. After many goodbyes and Murakoze’s (thank you’s), we headed for some lunch which consisted of crisps, sweet bread and fanta lemon; very delicious! We then travelled to our next destination which was a school for disabled children.

Many of the children had physical and mental disabilities but despite this, they were very enthusiastic about taking part in all the varying activities and games that we played. Our main objective was to make every single child enjoy themselves, feel included and to just have FUN!

It was very heart-warming to see all the children and teachers getting involved with the games we played and they even taught us their version of ‘Duck, Duck, Goose’. It was very sad to leave the children, however it made us all feel very proud that we had made every child smile!

We then headed out to our final adventure of the day which was to two orphanages, one male and one female. Both orphanages are run by a lady called Mama, a physiotherapist who has been running both the orphanages for 19 years. She showed such passion in what she did, she is such an amazing lady!

Both orphanages consisted of disabled children and adults; the male’s age-range was from 24 years to 45 years old and the female’s age-range in the orphanage was from 1 year old to 22 years old. A lot of the females had epilepsy so they were sat in wheel-chairs the whole time we were there.

We all handed out sweets and skipping ropes to the girls and they were all very happy that they received such a small gift which meant a lot to them. I feel very privileged that we brought happiness to those less fortunate than us and so far, this has been a very moving and eye-opening trip.