By Clare Ross
"I'm positive"
Something I was told, completely unprompted, within the first 5 minutes of today's cricket. This and the rest of the day's ABCs has reinforced how important not only the cricket, but also the HIV/AIDS messages are as part of CWB's work.
Luke had got everyone: CWB'ers and the teachers, doing a little icebreaker – what you know about cricket and what you knew about HIV/AIDs. And my first partner didn't know much about cricket, but clearly knew about HIV, as he told me straight off the bat that he was positive. And that set the tone for the rest of the day in a way – making sure the HIV/AIDs was front and centre of what we doing. To the point where the last coaching action of the day was encouraging over 100 school kids to shout "use a condom"!
Today has been as predictably unpredictable as we were warned; Luke awoke to an 'en suite' swimming pool, while Daniel ended the day with a 'lad pad'.
On the cricket pitch we started the day with a teacher training…With no teachers. Well not at the start time anyway (perhaps fair enough on a Saturday), however they trickled in and we found some lads on the street who were keen to get involved too. From 0-40 in record time and we found space for everyone to get playing in between the cows and the bogland. And the national bird in the backdrop.
The afternoon session started in a similar vein, no kids to coach and then a good hundred! Having to think on our feet, the whole team got involved, making sure all the kids who rocked up were included. That was until we realised most tennis ball were missing. Luke 'Sherlock' Sellers disappeared for 20 minutes only to return with 20 balls that were being 'looked after' by some of the local school kids…in their pockets, in the long grass and hidden under t-shirts!
We end the day with smiles on faces and the sounds of "ABC CWB!" ringing in our ears and we go in tomorrow expecting more of the same – cows, cranes, chaos… and hopefully a load more teachers in the morning and kids in the afternoon.