We were back to coaching the children of Mbarara on the Monday and we had been briefed by Mani on the plan. We were splitting into two groups Tom, Karl, Julie and I were being dropped at St Aloysius School where we were also joined by St Helens for session 1. Session 2 we were also joined by 30 kids from St Mary’s and over the 2 sessions we coached the best part of 300 kids. One of the big observations we noticed was how intelligent and well educated the children were. Their behavior was exceptional with them all smiling and being faithful to one and another. We had some great answers on the cards from all 3 schools which showed that they were all being taught the ABCT message.
The other group had headed off to the local golf course to coach Uganda Martyrs and Booma School. After some avoiding of the golf balls even though they had been promised the course would be empty they got to coaching. Unfortunately they only managed to get pupils for the first session so headed over to our group to assist. This was really helpful and meant we could sit down with the sheets and pens and get some great answers. One thing is for sure Mbarara is not going to be short of doctors if they all manage to make it into their dream job.
We then headed back to the hotel for a couple of well earned Mirinda orange and some lunch. Although the food took a little time to come we still managed to get on the bus for 13.45 and headed off to our afternoon locations.
We stayed in our same groups as the morning with my team heading off to Mbarara Municipal where we had 136 P5 which turned out to be the entire year group. We met at the school and were marched round to their playing field just next to the local prison. Because of the time it took we decided on not having stations but going for relays followed by 3 games of Rapid fire. We wanted to get the kids prepared for Festival Day on Tuesday where they would be playing this. Again some really great kids who were very knowledgeable on their ABC’s. Karl was timekeeper and because we had so many helpful teachers he managed to float around between the games. In doing so he also sat down with each group to get them answering some questions on the cards. A great session but unfortunately the only one as the deputy and head teachers would not allow anymore kids for the final session of the day. We still managed to coach some P2 students from a local school for 15 minutes and Tom also got to show off his football skills with the local Ugandan league 3 team.
Team 2 headed off to Nyamityobora School and Army Barracks also joined in. They were a lot more fortunate and managed to coach 2 sessions with almost 300 kids.
So another successful day with well over 800 kids going away with massive smiles and we were also safe in the knowledge that the town of Mbarara understand the need for good health education.
Matt
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