AFTER PROBLEMS GETTING AN INTERNET CONNECTION IN FORT PORTAL – WE ARE BACK ON-LINE! THANKS TO TECHPLANET… (techplanetdc@gmail.com)

Our time in Fort Portal is being spent coaching at Nyakasura School. The school was founded in 1926 by Lieutenant-Commander Ernest William Eborhard Calwell, affectionately known as “The Commander” (a philanthropic Scot). The Headmaster, Frank Manyindo, told us that the very first game of cricket played in Uganda took place at the school in 1929!

We are bringing cricket back – and were delighted to see our first “cricket wicket” out in the provinces of Uganda. It’s a concrete strip topped with a rather warn artificial top. You can see from the picture there is some good teenage talent starting to come through in this area (boys and girl).

There seems to be one Kwik Cricket set in every town we visit. But in Fort Portal we saw the locals making their own rough hewn cricket bats – a sign of real enthusiasm for the game. Yusuf showed off one of the bats for us.

We worked with 135 primary school children in the morning – concentrating on getting the local coaches leading the sessions. We are having beautiful weather in Fort Portal – it’s very hot.

We were pleased to present the last of the “Redmile Bats” to the local schools. Each school got a couple of bats each – they were delighted.

Darren and Yusuf went to the local radio station, Voice of Toro, for their Saturday afternoon sports show. They talked for 20 minutes about Cricket Without Boundaries work – and then were asked to stay on and talk Premier League football (which is the number one sports obsession in Uganda). Yusuf has been asked to go back today for another Radio slot with coaches and children – the CWB team seem to be a hit with the local media wherever we go.

Neil is a qualified Basketball coach – so he offered his services to helps the team at Nyakasura during his lunch hours. The court is like nothing he has ever seen. He had to clear the court of large rocks before the start of play – not something he has to do much on the sprung wooden flooring back home!

He had is chance to show off his basketball skills to the youngsters. His ball spinning went down well – the locals could not do it! It made up for him not being able to copy the youngsters back flips and somersaults the other day….