By Rebecca Lockyer
We were back in Kilembe for a full day of schools coaching; we arrived to a number of schools already waiting patiently with their teachers/ coaches from yesterday. ‘Africa time’ must not have made it up the valley.
The dedication and enthusiasm from these guys has been awe inspiring. One school walked for 3 hours to reach us for the morning’s cricket session. Their energy amazes me as the teachers had them playing games and warming up whilst we sorted the kit and stations, all before 10am!
Today was International Day of the Girl Child which supports more opportunities for girls and increases awareness of inequality faced by girls worldwide, and we were pleased to see lots of female faces amongst our pupils and teachers for the day.
It was a successful morning of coaching, with almost all the teachers/coaches getting involved with running the sessions. They were very keen to show the children what to do and to ensure they understood. I think every CWB’er was very pleased with how involved they were. Personally, it gives me real hope that once we leave, our HIV messages and coaching will continue.
The afternoon session was equally as effective. I moved over to the throwing station with Clare and we were joined by two young local coaches: Mubarack and Monday, these guys had been with us all of yesterday and the morning and showed real enthusiasm and promise. They observed both Clare and I run a session each and then took on the last two sessions of the day, incorporating both the cricket coaching and HIV awareness messages. This is very encouraging in ensuring that the young coaches continue with the CWB messages, once we are long gone!