CWB – Uganda 2011

Welcome to the last of our Uganda 2011 blog. Veronika here.
On Friday, the day after Chris left for UK, we arrived at Nyakasura school for one last time. A few children were already there, waiting for us and their teachers, who usually turn up on assorted motorbikes.
The morning session was nice and organised, because we had fewer schools than we expected and the children were keen. We went through our ‘spiel’ – CWB, a cricket charity, that links the game with HIV/AIDS awareness. By this time we all had so much experience with delivering the messages, that we could afford to make the children laugh in the process. All the apprehension and awkwardness of the first session was gone. The participants were very perceptive and soon we had the kids shouting: ‘Where are you throwing that? You are not faithful to me!’
At lunch time we set off on an exploratory nature walk with John, who proved to be rubbish at identifying plants and trees. Next time, John… The way back from the close by woods involved all of us climbing through a barbed wire fence. I am pleased to report, that we weren’t chased away by alarmed locals. Instead they kindly directed us back to our bus.
After the afternoon session and awards ‘ceremony’ for the pupils and teachers we rushed to and orphanage on lake Nkuruba. Some of us visited the orphanage last year and the place (and the living conditions – see photo of a kitchen) made a mixed impression on us. This time round we donated 12 mattresses, 12 blankets, 12 bed sheets, some donated clothes and a big bag of rice. The children were very happy and after a short tour around the living block they took us to the opposite hill, where Pastor Bosco (who looks after the orphans) manages a picturesque camp site. It is a bit out of a way, so the income that should be helping the orphanage is almost non-existent.
The children danced and sung for us and we were invited to join them for a cup of tea and a pancake. A little bundle of energy (about 4 years old boy) took a shine to me and it was very difficult to return him to Pastor, when we were leaving!
The evening was spent at the Ruwenzori Guest House at the communal dinner table with the rest of the guests. The whole establishment was amused by Jack’s stories about Marabu Storks used as messengers in the war. At one moment I left the room for a few minutes and when I came back, all guests (CWB as well as non-CWB travellers) were crying and wiping their tears. The laughter was infectious and poor Jack cracked and had the leave the room to calm down.
On Saturday morning we travelled from Fort Portal (or Port Fortal, as Helen likes to call the place) to Kampala, where we delivered an HIV awareness session to coaches and national team players. They were very interested in the discussion that we had and asked a lot of relevant questions. Then we just took a few photos with all the kit that we’d brought to Uganda and rushed off for a quick dinner with Uganda Cricket Association. On the way to the airport we all said the same thing: ‘We are not ready to go home yet.’
We had fantastic two weeks, everybody worked hard and in my opinion the team functioned like a well oiled machine. Mike, the team leader, did a great job of organising our accommodation and transport and never lost his cool.
Good bye, Uganda. We will be back.

Back to Nyakasura school to receive four primary schools, 52 in total, keen, enthusiastic and skilled reflecting the hard work put in by the coaches we trained last year. At break time all of the Nyakasura primary school children invaded the field and headed for Chris, he’s our own pied piper, masses of children following him around the field.
Sadly we say goodbye to Chris who has to return to England, hopefully with great memories of the trip.
A strange lunchtime concert was held in the corner of the field as a fundraiser for a local singer who is wheelchair-bound. His music was played over a loud speaker with a local dancer, painted white, wearing a sky blue spandex jump suit with large bundles strategically placed front and rear. Extraordinary!!!
The afternoon saw four senior schools arrive; 56 girls arriving on a coach and 23 boys from the back of a pick up truck. Amazing school transport.
Jeremy decided his school would challenge Helen’s to a match, so at four p.m. the game followed. Report to follow. Highlight for Jeremy was a return trip to Fort Portal on the girls’ coach.
An evening of pool and TV in the town eased the pin of waiting two hours for burger and chips.
Helen and Jeremy’s Match Report
We decided to stay behind to umpire a school match between Kyebambe and Nyakasura girls. We soon had a large crowd on the boundary, mainly from the local primary school. The girls from Kyebambe play a lot of cricket and were the stronger of the two teams putting in a disciplined innings to chase down a total of 34 in a few balls short of the ten overs, despite a slow start – unfortunately aided by too many wides from Nyakasura. The turning point of the match was the hat trick over by the leading Kyebembe bowler.
We hitched a lift back to town on the girls’ bus which was lively to say the least. Once Jeremy had argued with the drivers over the 50 pence fare, we jumped on to a couple of motorbikes back to the hotel, and delivered our ball by ball match report to the waiting team.

Hi, Jack again, After our first night in Fort Portal, which was very loud due to the pounding rain on the tin roof, we enjoyed breakfast with our Scottish friends from the previous evening! We then set off to deliver coach education to the local teachers from the surrounding area. This is perhaps the most important aspect of our work here in Uganda in terms of sustainability, as it is the teachers who will be passing our message on to their pupils after we leave.
After a quick meet and greet at the headmasters office at Nyakasura school we set off to the most picturesque sports field in the world! The surrounding hills and banana plantations provided a beautiful back drop for our days work. While waiting for our teachers to arrive, the team chose to participate in fun and games with the adjoining primary school children! We had perhaps got more than we bargained for as we were swamped with more than 200 enthusiatic kids who wanted to play catch with the “Muzungus”. This for myself was one of the best moments of the trip so far!
Our coach education session, run today by Chris and Richard, incorporated basic fielding, batting and bowling skills along with plenty of games to make things fun, as well as providing demonstrations of our important HIV/AIDS awareness messages. I must say the teachers we had today were just as enthusiastic and enjoyable to work with as those we encountered in Mbale. I hope they will use what we have taught them today to develop cricket within their schools as well as passing on our all the HIV/AIDS awareness messages. A special mention must also go to the primary school prefect who kept his class mates away from our bus at lunch time by rather brutally beating anyone who came within 10 yards of it with a stick! Our afternoon working at the school finished with a game of kwik cricket, Cricket without boundaries vs Fort portal teachers, embarrassingly the Fort portal teachers came out on top! However this only acted as proof of how great at coaching we are!
We enjoyed a cold beer at the mountain garden restaurant with our driver Joseph and John our Ugandan Cricket Association representative here in Fort portal, before nipping back to the hotel for a quick shower, then returning to the restaurant for an enjoyable dinner. We enjoyed a quick drink before bed as it is Chris’s last night with the team. On behalf of the rest of the team I would like to thank him for running some excellent coaching and tutoring sessions, as well as having a being a great laugh! We are now all off to bed, looking forward to our first batch of children in Fort Portal tomorrow!

Czech: Dneska jsme byli ve Fort Portal a zacali jsme novy program s uciteli. Zitra nam privedou deti a vsechno zacne na novo. Fort Portal je nase nejoblibenejsi misto.

Chris here for the final time before an early departure on Thursday.
Following the relative stress of yesterday’s journey the well earned reward of a day at Mweya Safari Lodge was greeted well by all. We woke at 6 am for a 6.15 meet prior to the game drive we had arranged. Mike arrived looking like a broken man after sharing a room with what he thought was a snoring hippo – it turned out to be Richard leaving Mike with no more than an hour or so sleep! The rest of the group were ready to go and looking forward to more sights this beautiful country had to offer. We left for the drive at 6.30 – on time which was a first for the trip so far! Over the next 4 hours we witnessed an amazing African sunrise, stunning lakes, countless deer, buffalos and a number of bird species. However even going off road in our team bus did not lead us to a lion but it was evident they had been around as we came across the skeleton of a deer that didn’t get away!
We returned to the hotel at 10.30 for breakfast which was enjoyed by all – especially myself following 2 days of very little food! We hit the pool for a few hours of R and R which helped to recharge the batteries for the schools that await us over the next 3 days. 2 hours after breakfast and lunch was served – everyone manfully pushed their way through another meal although Rich and Jeremey despite ordering first and the simple dish of ham and cheese toastie were still waiting 1 hour later! They had a doggie bag made up and we were driven for our afternoon boat trip – thankfully we were late this time so we felt much more comfortable in familiar territory!
Despite our guide seemingly misplacing his smile we had an amazing 2 hours riding up and down the channel between Lake George and Lake Edward. During the time we came across – elephant, crocodiles, hippos, water buffalo, deer, birds, fishing villages and stunning scenery. The afternoon was an apt finish to our day of rest, with everyone thoroughly enjoying yet another experience Uganda has to offer. The pictures will do it much more justice!
Unfortunately as much as the hotel and surroundings appealed we set off on the 3 hour journey to Fort Portal at around 5 – sad to leave behind the idyllic surround of Mweya but well and truly recharged for the 3 days of Coaching and Tutoring that remain.
Following another difficult journey which included hours of games and general chat about the trip so far, we finally arrived at our guest house for 8.30 to find a table of 6 Scottish Volunteers waiting for us until they could begin their meal! The greeting we received wasn’t the friendliest but as soon as they began to eat we were welcomed slightly more! The blame must rest with Veronika and Jeremy who insist the “map was wrong” which was why we drove up and down the same road what seemed like 10 times!
The day was finished with another few cold beers and a chat with 2 English people who are in the middle of cycling from Cairo to Cape Town – a feat that we all agreed they could carry on their own!
As this is my last entry I must say thank you to the team, Mike, Rich, Jack, Jeremy, Helen and Veronika for their work over the last 2 weeks, to Joseph “Yogi” the driver who somehow has delivered us everywhere safely and also the UCA for their hospitality. The experience has been very rewarding and if we can have made a difference to even 1 child then in my eyes it has been very worthwhile!

Czech: Po dlouuhe a strastiplne ceste, ktera trvala skoro ctrnact hodin jsme konecne v Mweya Safari. Rano v 6.15 jsme vyjeli na safari v nasem starem rachotivem autobuse a videli jsme jeleny (antilopy), prasata (divoka) a kravy (bufallo). Takze jsme byli radi, ze ve dve odpoledne jsme meli jeste jizdu na clunu a videli hrochy, slony a krokodyly.

Jeremy wrote this in stages en route:
Well here we are on the bus after a 6.30 start! Been stopped several times at police checkpoints. They are very interested in our kit bags – but we explain they’re full of cricket equipment and we are waived through! So if want to smuggle guns or drugs just put them in a cricket holdall!

And so we continue on our journey passing through townships with mud huts, straying goats, crater-sized potholes and mountainous speed bumps and naked children running around!

Surviving on biscuits and water until a picnic lunch in Kampala at the cricket club. Passed Lake Victoria and the sugar cane plantations. Over the Nile and the Dam on the way.

Chris who was poorly yesterday with tummy troubles perked up today and asked where do all the bananas come from as he hadn’t seen one banana tree! There hundreds everywhere so we all had a laugh as we pointed them out along the way!

We had to pick up one of the local coaches on the way, but he wasn’t there so we had to sit around and wait for 90mins until he showed up just as we set off! Pretty typical Ugandan efficiency.

Because we were running late we raced along overtaking on the brow of a hill, paying scant regard to potholes, pedestrians and oncoming trucks! The road just disappeared on many occasions causing mayhem with weaving traffic.

We crossed the Equator at dusk and eventually we arrived at Mweya Lodge at 8.30pm – too late for the sunset, but in time for a late supper.

Its been a very long day in the bus but spirits have kept high and we’re all looking forward to the game drive tomorrow.
Ps Helen the maribou stork stalker overcame all her fears and tucked into 2 pork chops, fish and chicken sagwaala but had a setback with the cheesecake and coconut tart!
Pps Jack excelled himself today with clean sheet despite missing breakfast, then let himself down insisting that he wanted a single bed – refusing to share a double with Chris!

Pps Chris survived the arduous journey and tucked into spicey Chicken Tortilla soup!
Ppps Helen our hon treasurer has mislaid her money and amazed us all with her story about tomatoes at breakfast and the pine trees en route. Perhaps the dosh is in one of the 15 pairs she brought?

Helen “Mzungu” Whitehall here and as the new arrival I have got blogging duty for the day. Not much time to recover from the trip for me as we were up and at ‘em early this morning, arriving at the ground for 8 (ish!) a.m. As everyone keeps reminding me whilst they have been working hard I’ve just been sitting around on planes, trains and automobiles. The group’s hard work was in evidence this morning however as over 150 kids and about a dozen teachers turned out. All of them missing Sunday, which is the traditional family day, for the tournament.
We arrived a soldier down as Chris has managed to pick up a dicky tum so the teams were split out evenly and we each got a little around robin going with Rich keeping us all in check. I was a bit taken aback at the sheer competiveness of it all. The tears, the tantrums and the traumas…and that was just the teachers. I did genuinely make about seven children cry when I announced the winners following one game. Funnily enough they did win their next one but it was close so tricky to fix.
Another first for me was to see an event start and finish on time in Africa. We did have stragglers turning up as the day went on but more or less everything went to plan. We drew things to a close at midday and gathered around looking slightly mucky from the sticky dust to work out the winners. Five school teams were outstanding and so we decided t-shirts for them and wristbands for the rest.
All the schools got together in the stands for the presentation. We had some lovely warm words from the local organiser and a rousing chorus of the national anthem. This was followed by another song about being the children being the future of Uganda which was made all the more pertinent as Mike had just finished delivering a great rundown of the ABCs. I can’t wait to see Veronika’s footage as the song included lots of marching which we all tried to join in with.
Today was even more special for one member of the group and much to Mike’s surprise the kids finished off with “Happy Birthday” just for him. It was lovely and a memory to treasure.
Just dinner tonight and then back on the road again tomorrow. The place we are planning to eat at tonight boasts real British food but I’ll leave it to tomorrow’s blogger to reveal what they mean by that. It could be anything!

Czech: Nedele, posledni den v Mbale. Dneska jsme meli turnaje s detmi a uciteli, ktere jsme trenovali za posledni dva dny. Meli jsme asi 150 deti a kazdy z nas, dobrovolniku, organizoval 5 zapasu pro 2 az 3 skoly. Na konci jsme jim predali vyhru – tricka, naramky a certifikaty a vsechny deti a ucitele pak zpivali narodni hymnu a hlavne ‘Happy Birthday’ pro Michaela! Zbytek dne mame volno, balime se a chystame na dlouhou 9.5 hodinovou cestu do Mweya safari parku.

Hi, Veronika here.
When we looked out of the window today somebody said the legendary sentence: ‘It will be another scorcher.’ And indeed, it was. We arrived at the Mbale Municipal Stadium at half past eight and watched the football practice once again. The stamina of the players amazed us once more and after they left (apparently with some very ugly looks towards Chris…), we took over the stadium. We were expecting eight primary schools this morning and to our disbelief they all arrived.
We divided the 110 children with their teachers (who attended yesterday’s coaching) and started our spiel about CWB, cricket and the HIV/AIDS messages. I must admit, we are all very good at delivering them these days. It comes as a second nature and we might face some challenges when coaching back in the UK!
After two water breaks and a practice games of cricket – we are preparing the kids and the teachers for tomorrow’s tournament – we finally got break for lunch. Chris and I ventured to the local market, that the boys discovered yesterday. I had a great time, the further we went, the narrower the streets were and the less light was getting through the sheets of plastic above our heads. Chris took me to the ‘chapatti’ place, where a smiling man sold me six pancakes while the surrounding people watched Chris taking a picture of it. Then we got some more bananas and water and went back to the ground.
The afternoon went pretty much in the same pattern, except we only had six schools. That made 81 children. It was getting very stormy and after a very few spots of rain the dust storm arrived. We all managed to get our kit into the bags in a record time. Only Mike took his time and was caught in the wave of dust.
Helen (and her 15 pairs of pants) arrived today and by 5pm she was sitting with us in the hotel, enjoying a cold beer. We seem to be drinking a few of those, and after the scorcher, who can blame us?
The ‘twit of the day’ title was won by Richard, who about 30 minutes ago destroyed a plastic chair by simply sitting in it.
We finished a successful day by visiting the Mbale Resort restaurant. We were lucky as tonight was a ‘traditional African food’ night and we tasted matooki, goat, yam and other local delicacies. On the way back we caught boda-bodas (motorbike taxis) and had a round of crazy golf at our hotel. Needless to say that we should really stick to cricket…
PS: the Mbale teachers, who came last year were asking after Clare, our wildlife spotter from the previous project. How nice to be remembered!
Czech version for my parents and other Czechs: Dneska jsme trenovali v Mbale na stadionu. Rano jsme meli sto deset deti a ucitelu a odpoledne osmdesat jedna. Slunicko parilo a bylo jako v peci, nez kolem treti hodiny dorazilo par kapek deste a prachova vlna. Krome Mika jsme tou dobou uz vsichni skoncili, takze byl jediny uprostred hriste… Dneska nam taky prijela posledni clenka tymu Helen, tak uz je tady a uzivame si studeneho piva Club.

So after a sparrow-fart start (that’s 7.15 to you) we headed for Mbale Municipal Stadium to meet the local teachers at 8. 75 minutes later 16 teachers arrived greeted by the local welcome ( “You are late!). While we were waiting we were treated to a fantastic display of Ugandan football in the dust – half the team playing in barefeet and not one dive! There were some distinctly skilful playing and they weren’t affected by the heat and dust. We all admired the coach who barely moved yet retained total control!
Straight into it led by Chris with a quick ABC from Mike. The first move was the running and getting the leg over all 4 stumps – easy for the men but the women in skirts were disadvantaged!
After catching practice, one handed pick ups, we had some batting (the front foot drive then the pull shot). Then Chris demonstrated bowling spin, medium pace then some quickies. We decided that in this heat he should demo them all again especially the fast stuff.
So that was the morning done. After a quick bite they were al back out again in the heat to play a game of non-stop cricket. Everyone enjoyed the game and the laughter could be heard all over town!
So with plans made for tomorrow we headed back to base to regroup, have a beer, shower and swim before 3 of us headed into town on the boda-bodas (local motorbike taxis) we witnessed the local market, sampled local food and had a cold beer before heading back to base.
Now for the in-group stuff : the young pros beat the old pros down for breakfast but it was all in vain as our driver was fast asleep in the back of the bus. The rest of the day was fairly incident free ; however Jack managed to trip over a pool tile chasing after a ball he dropped whilst playing catch in the pool and Chris failed in his challenge to beat our driver (Joseph the Bear) and now we are off to town to sample some local nosh from the Indian restaurant!

 

We awoke on our last day in Jinja to the news that the local election had passed off peacefully and the crowds that we had seen on Main Street the night before had been kept apart by the security forces. Joseph, our driver and self appointed protector had been a little nervous last night and he breathed a visible sigh of relief when we were back in our hotel.

We had been told to expect more primary school children turning up to make up for the cancelled session yesterday. We were not disappointed, 159 from seven schools were divided amongst the CWB coaches and local UCA helpers. Veronika took the first group to turn up and thought that she may be able to put her feet up for a while once Walakuba West Primary School had finished at midday. Imagine her delight when St Nicholas P/S arrived after their exams had finished at, you guessed it, midday.  Jeremy made the fatal mistake of asking his group how old they thought he was. ‘thirty, forty?’ He then took his cap off – ‘ah, seventy!’

At the end of the session, a gathering of officials including the Jinja education minister and sports minister, Uganda Cricket Association CEO Justine  and cricket development manager John Trust Mayeku gathered at the Jinja SSS ground to present certificates to trained coaches and to distribute Kwik cricket sets to the local schools. As Veronika observed, they like giving speeches in Uganda, and not to be outdone,  team  leader Mike Reeves spoke (for a short time) to thank the UCA for their support and to remind everyone of the importance that CWB puts on linking cricket with AIDS awareness. (A transcript of my speech will be made available on request for a small donation).

We have enjoyed our time in Jinja and it has been made even better in the knowledge that we have tutored 17 school teachers, and coached 312 primary school and 125 secondary school children. A number of schools could not make it to the Jinja SSS ground (Busoga College Mwiri arrived after we had left yesterday) due to transport problems. Hope fully this can be solved on the next trip by CWB going out to the schools rather than asking them to come to us. The facilities at Jinja Senior Secondary School are good and we are very grateful to them for hosting us, but we could do more with greater numbers of children if we went out and coached four or five schools in the same location.

In the afternoon we set off for Mbale – a three hour bus drive away. The journey was interesting as we got to pass through numerous small villages where the local children waved at these strange ‘mzungi’ (white men) bumping along over the countless speed bumps. Speed humps are not required in Mbale itself as the craters in the road do enough by themselves to slow the traffic.

Having settled in at the Mount Elgon Hotel, Joseph ‘ the hustler’ bus driver challenged me to play pool. He tried every trick in the book – talking whilst I was playing my shots, swapping his cue for mine and even snookering me at every opportunity, but I triumphed 2-1. He got his revenge on Veronika, Chris and Richard, but I think that it was his infectious giggle when winning that sealed their fate.

Abraham, the district sports coordinator came to the hotel for a meeting to discuss the arrangements for the next three days. Friday should see 15 teachers turning up at 8am. We will see!

Mike Reeves

Czech: Rano jsme koucovali v Jinja a po velice oficialnim podekovani jsme vyjeli do Mbale, kde budeme dalsi 4 dny.

Hi, Jack here, as a member of the junior professionals on the trip, who have been unfairly reported on in my opinion, I was hoping to catch out some of the seniors at my first opportunity to add to the blog.

Our fifth day in Uganda started disappointingly, with the news from the powers that be in Ugandan cricket that our morning coaching session had been cancelled due to a bank holiday (announced at 11pm the previous evening!). Our quick thinking team leader decided that we should brush up upon our skills by going over a few basic skills at the hotel and ensure we were all suitably hydrated. After Jeremy’s sweep shot tutoring session and a brush up on leg spin from myself, we set off to Busoga College Mwiri school,  located not far from Jinja at the top of a very long and very bumpy track. Once again our plans were foiled by the unexpected bank holiday, as the headmaster was unavailable to meet us. We were consoled however by the stunning views from the hilltop looking out onto Lake Victoria (along with the monkeys that were hiding in the tree tops!).

A quick stop off back into Jinja for lunch saw our banana monitor and his minder haggling with the local traders over 1000 shillings, (about 30p between the 6 of us!) before heading back to Jinja Secondary school to coach the senior pupils from the local community. We arrived to greet some very hot and thirsty children who had been awaiting our arrival since 10.30! (A lack of communication between the UCA and our administrator Baker). We got to work and enjoyed a rewarding session, incorporating the coaches from previous days and the new pupils that had come for their first taste of cricket! In the midst of our hectic morning, along with my other responsibilities and concerns, I had understandably forgotten my shoes, meaning my feet were decidedly less white by the end of the day!

Another quick stop at the hotel for a cold shower and foot wash, and we headed out to Bujagali falls. Perhaps one of the most stunning and unspoiled places I have ever visited. On the banks of the Nile, as the Fish Eagles perched in the trees, we sat and rewarded all of our hard work so far with a cold beer in front of the glowing red sunset reflecting on the water.  We also managed to amuse ourselves by watching a local ride a jerry can through the rather aggressive looking rapids. Nutter!

A delicious meal at the Black Lantern with Sharon (a fellow Brit working within the education set up here in Uganda) was enjoyed by all as the frogs croaked into the night, this was followed by a brief visit into the town centre for coffee for the seniors and a water for myself and fellow junior pro Chris.  At this point we chose to retire for the evening, disappointingly missing out on a night cap of Waragi at the hotel due to a lack of communication between the bar staff (something which we are finding common in this country!), however hopefully we will all be ready for our last day in Jinja tomorrow as we head to Mbale!

Czech: Posledni cely den v Jinja, rano se vlada rozhodla, ze bude den volna, tak nase ranni koucovani se nekonalo. Jeli jsme se podivat do skoly na obrovskem kopci – Butoga College Mwiri skola. Sice nikdo nevedel, ze prijedeme, ale byly tam uzasne vyhlidky. Po ceste na odpoledni trening jsme si nakoupili banany, ananas a bramburky – zdravy obed – a odpoledne jsme stravili s jednou skupinou mladsich zaku a tremi skupinami zaku druheho stupne. Vecer jsme se jeli podival na Bujagali Falls, pereje na Nilu. Po jeste zdravejsim pivu jsme se vydali do restaurace Black Lantern, kde jsme se setkali se Sharon, Anglicankou, ktera uz tady 5 let zije a pracuje pro charitu. Cestou zpatky do hotelu jsme mijeli davy lidi, kteri cekali na vysledky voleb na starostu. Radeji jsme nas pobyt ve stredu mesta moc neprodluzovali a tak v 11 jsme meli vecerku! Zatim ahoj… V+M