Today’s start was 8.15am and I immediately started packing as we had to leave by 9am. Once we had all piled into Eddie’s mystery machine, we headed to the ground. We stopped off at a Simba Supermarket and I had a healthy breakfast of 2 vegetable samosas and a chapatti with some chicken flavoured Gorilla snacks. The morning was very chilled as we were all splayed out on the grass drinking Fanta Citron and watching our dear friend Vero hype all the girls up on the Cricket team – she is my idol! I didn’t want this morning to end, and of course the time flew by as we were having so much fun. When Lee gave the signal to pack up and go, I felt very sad as I knew I would never see this beautiful country for a few years at least.
I donated my favourite Harry Potter flip flops and my bright yellow rain mac so that Rwanda would have something of mine to remember me by! The drive to the airport took minutes and we said goodbye to 2 of my favourite people out here: Eddie and Eric. On behalf of the group, I can’t say thank you enough to Eddie for taking us everywhere and staying with the mini bus for hours on end whilst we coached, but he still gave us his dazzling smile after every coaching smile! We will miss you Eddie!! Eric is such a good coach, one of the best. He forms bridges with the children to make them feel more comfortable and to view him as a friend rather than a teacher. The gentlest giant, I will miss you and your photography skills dearly.
As I’m sat in Ethiopia Airport (and have been for the past 4 hours) I realised how much this trip has impacted my life. Doing something completely out of my comfort zone, going to a country I have never been to, teaching a sport which I have never played before, and delivering an extremely important message about HIV/AIDS to children…I would do it all again in a heartbeat! There have been ups and downs on the trip but mainly ups. A young boy in an orphanage came up to me and said “Thank you very much for coming to visit us here, it is very important that we stay happy here and you have made us all very happy” – I will always cherish that moment.
I hope you have enjoyed reading our blogs as much as we’ve enjoyed living these moments and please spread the word about this amazing charity CWB and what they do! If you ever have the opportunity to do something like this, don’t hesitate! Just do it! You can change so many lives for the better just like we have!
Grace
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