Day 4 – African Beats and Coaching Feats

ugand2Coming back as a returning CWB volunteer, I thought I had experienced some amazing days that could not be surpassed and then today comes along.

Waking up to yet another amazing Ugandan sunrise over the Lugazi Sugar Plantations, the CWB team loaded up on another fine breakfast at the Villa Anona and headed once again for the Mehta Stadium. We were greeted on arrival by not only the smiling faces of several Africa children but some funky African beats from the resident DJ.

The plan for the day was simple, engage the newly trained local coaches and get them to run the sessions. After an enthusiastic warm up led by Graham where ABC was shouted with gusto, we split once again into four stations with a mixture of CWB volunteers and local coaches on each station. The plan was for the CWB volunteers to run the first session and the local coaches to observe and then run the second session of the day…….there was no chance of that the local coaches were straight in and demanding to run the first sessions. The quality of these sessions were fantastic with cricket skills and HIV messaging being expertly integrated.

ugand3The next highlight of the day was a conversation between a newly qualified coach / local teacher Florence and Liam. Florence was smiling from ear to ear to tell us that the previous evening all you could hear in her village were happy children chanting ABC CWB

Tom’s highlight of the day was seeing one of the local coaches Bernard not only successfully running a session with no input from Tom but seamlessly adding batting progression and advanced HIV ABC messaging into his coaching session.

In a day of highlights Richard oversaw another sixty people tested for HIV at the testing station set up on the field. This was on top of the seventy one adults and children tested yesterday.
If ever anyone needed to see how sport has the power to unite communities, bring boys and girls, young and old from different schools together, then the scenes during the mid-afternoon break were amazing. Whilst the majority of children were watching one of the finest display of African drumming and dancing one could imagine, across the field there were several games of cricket spontaneously sprouting up with smiling children perfecting their cricket techniques.

As the final sessions finished everyone headed to the grandstand of the Mehta stadium where the best after match party / school disco one could experience was going off. 271 children and 5 adults bouncing up and down to some classic African tunes.

ugand1Whilst it has been odd being in the same place for three days and essentially coaching the same children and having the same local teachers and coaches with us, the development of all concerned has been a joy to see. There is a real feeling amongst the CWB team that we have left a sustainable legacy that CWB Ambassador Isaneez Emmanuel can build on.

The day was rounded off with a tour of the Mehta Sugar factory that dominated this town and the team returned to the hotel smiling from ear to ear and still on a high after a great CWB day.

Ross Opie

One comment to “Day 4 – African Beats and Coaching Feats”
  1. Glad that you are having a good time. Dr Mishra is a fantastic person – things go well in Lugazi when he is involved. Enjoy the rest of the trip. Best wishes to my ‘son’ Joseph. Mike and Veronika Reeves

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