Today’s blog is written by the team’s resident ‘psychoanalyst’ and newly appointed social secretary, Dan Pledger

Optimized-S0751653After being around for several years you could be forgiven for thinking that all the crazy firsts for CWB would be pretty much done. Today proved that this is definitely not the case! We arrived this morning at Army school, which is situated within a military base, expecting around 250 children across 2 hours. Instead we ended up coaching over 500 children in the same time period! We had around 120 children already present before we noticed we had acquired a large crowd of several hundred additional children. Courtesy of heroic efforts from Luke, Bec and David taking huge groups of children and running chant sessions we ensured no child was left just to watch.

Once the session ended we discovered that the school had not followed the correct protocol for us to be present on the army base. We were detained for around an hour before the school was able to provide enough proof of who we were to release us!

Once our minor diplomatic incident was over we headed to Bomaschool for the second time. Many of the children had either been involved in the previous sessions or had heard from their friends about the chants, which led to us arriving to a rapturous chorus of “CWB, ABC.” That moment is something I will personally never forget! As Luke described it, it is the closest that a cricketer could get to being treated like a rock star!

photoAfter we finished an almost textbook session at Boma with around 150 children, we travelled to Ntara School, former school of several African prime ministers and possibly the smartest school in Uganda. They also appear to be taking a very active approach to fighting HIV, as evidenced by a scattering of signs around the school. After an hour long session with some older children with incredible throwing arms we called it a day, feeling tired but elated

Off the pitch the team continued to grow closer. Andrew and David sharing a romantic meal for 2 in the evening, whilst the rest of us used the time to practice balancing spoons on our noses! Bec continued her exotic food diary with ‘Fish genesis.’ Luke received some unwanted attention from one of the hotel staff who informed him that she loves his hair when it is wet. Clare and Rocket continued their epic dance off, with no sign of a clear winner. Radio Alpha has been well and truly back in business, playing the CWB Jackson five remix at any and all opportunities. Finally Bec has also asked David to teach her the Charleston dance

Tomorrow we have our first festival of the trip. We are all determined to give Mbara a good sendoff and already have several schools sending teams to take part. Let’s hope they arrive on time!