Another amazing sunrise over the Rwenzori Mountains greeted the CWB team on Palm Sunday. After six very rewarding days of coaching it was time for a well-earned rest day and time to reflect on week one of the trip.
We had bid farewell to the amazing CWB Ambassador Emmanuelle on Saturday evening as he boarded the 7 hour overnight bus to Entebee to play in a big Uganda premier division game, promising us he would be back in time for Mondays coaching session.
The first week has taken us to Lugazi and Kasese. Lugazi provided some real highlights for the team and a place CWB has been to before. It is showing some real positive signs that our work is working. An HIV testing station at the cricket ground in Lugazi during our stay saw 171 people tested and only one person tested positive.
We trained up 27 new coaches in Lugazi including a lady called Juliet. Juliet confided in us that she has been HIV positive since 1994. She is living proof that been testing and knowing your status is crucial to leading a healthy life. She learned of her status early in her life and she said that knowing that she was HIV positive has been crucial In allowing her to get the treatment she has needed. She is passionate about training as a coach and being able to use cricket to educate her children.
The level of knowledge of the ABC HIV/Aids awareness message amongst the children of the Lugazi was encouragingly high. The volume of the children at the end of the day when shouting Abstain, Be faithful, condom use and testing was incredibly loud. We were informed by the newly qualified coaches that the ABC CWB Awoga chant was ringing around the local villages late into the evenings.
We then moved onto Kasese where according to AFOD (the Kasese regional HIV service) there is still an increasing problem with HIV due to its close proximity to the Congolese border.
We have spent two days in Kasese so far where it has become apparent that the level of HIV awareness amongst the local children and adults is not as high as it is in Lugazi especially in the outlying schools we visited on Saturday close to the Congolese border. We have been fortunate on this trip to have had the amazing Johnson with us on this trip helping us. Johnson was trained by CWB last March and again In October and has gone on to volunteer for the Uganda Cricket Association. He has been all over Uganda teaching the ABC messages using cricket and is a real example that CWB coach education really works.
We have also encountered some real raw cricket talent amongst the children of the Kasese region especially with the girls. One girl in particularly called Linda produced a fine opening over in a pairs game of cricket and organised the fielders like a fine captain. She told us her aim is to play for Uganda.
The CWB team enjoyed a great day off which in brief included an impromptu game of cricket on the Equator which attracted a fair crowd and a fantastic safari in Queen Elizabeth National park. Having been treated to the sight of Elephants In the wild, the team headed back to the hotel ready to plan week two which will take in two more days in Kasese before moving onto Fort Portal.
Ross Opie