Festival Day!

Venue – Ecole Etoile

Game – Rapid Fire Cricket

After a successful week of visiting schools around Rubengera it was time for us to put their skills to the test.

The scene was set and the playing field at Ecole Etoile Rubengera was primed and ready to go,

Us coaches set out 4 pitches of rapid fire cricket, the one thing that was missing were the teams… as they trickled in over the next half an hour we could feel the excitement building. Everyone knew the rules, everyone could hold a bat, with 10 boys and 10 girls on each team we were ready to go. Well nearly, two secondary schools were yet to arrive.
We were off, the games were played with great skill, enthusiasm and respect – not to mention the unwavering support from their teachers.

The players even performed admirably in the face of an unexpected influx of spectators brought about by break time at the local schools – with crowd control equally impressive.

Playing a final and choosing a winner would have been unfair on all schools involved, so after handshakes all round – cricket was the winner.

Its been an absorbing, chaotic, insane, endearing and wholly joyful week of cricket coaching. A huge thank you has to go to Freddie and Mannasseh, our coaches and reps from RCA who helped and guided us admirably.

On to Kigali we go!!

(Written by Ben)

Our Bus Journey to Kigali: A Friday Evening Adventure

What should have been a straightforward bus ride to Kigali turned into a five-hour saga thanks to the notorious Kigali Friday evening rush hour traffic! Determined to avoid the worst jams, we decided to take a detour off-road onto some side dirt tracks. Little did we know, that move would lead to an unexpected challenge.

On one of those dusty dirt roads, a massive rock—really more like a boulder—got wedged inside the back left tyre of our bus. For about 30 minutes, our driver Eddie and the team tried everything to dislodge it, but the stubborn rock refused to budge.

Luckily, some friendly locals appeared on the scene, kindly lending us a hammer. With a lot of banging and some basic physics, we finally managed to pop that rock free. “Yahooo!” we cheered, ready to continue our journey.

But of course, no adventure would be complete without hitting yet more Kigali rush hour traffic before finally reaching the hotel. Despite the delays and challenges, this journey gave us a memorable story to share—proof that sometimes the unpredictable moments make the best memories.

(Written by Aarin)