Day Six: Bull Stops Play

Day six of the Uganda team visit began with allowing the Junior members of the team, Freddie, Samuel, Paul and somewhat middle aged boy Nick a day off to recharge their batteries…more on that to follow below. So the veterans carried the can onto the field of play at our latest venue in the lovely scenic surroundings of Jinja, 2 hours East of Kampala. Before play began Juma, one of our local coaches and I heading into a local school called the Victoria Nile, as they were beginning to start a link up with a school in Surrey in the UK.  We  with some tennis balls and books to the joys of the screaming children, a rugby style scrum ensued as we gave them away and so we had to throw balls this way and that in a desperate attempt to allow us to make an exit to the mornings coaching.
 
After arriving at our new school for the day Jinja Secondary School and were almost ready to start the day, we were greeted by the site of a large bull joining the outfield in a position that resembled silly point!! Much to the amusement of the local children and teachers, this delayed the start of the day by around an hour, after charging at a few children and missing, the Bull finally decided to head for the shade and we could crack on with our day. It’s fair to say the teachers were quite lade back here in Jinja, but we managed to train up another 27 for the weekend ahead and hope they come back to assist us over the weekend. The rest of the day the team splintered off and saw the sights of the Nile, Radio interviews again before finally converging for a team meal and drinks in town, it’s nice to be able to actually take in the surroundings and the chilled atmosphere gives the team some time to reflect on this amazing country.
 
Paul’s blog…
Due to the expected number of coaches required for our first day of coaching, the 'young uns' of the group were given the day off to go and explore. We began with our first ever boda-boda ride, essentially a motorbike taxi, that cruised us down towards the source of the Nile. They obviously sensed our nerves and lack of confidence as they never seemed to get above 10mph, a stark contrast to the speed they tear around the roads at usually!

To get to the source of the Nile, the mouth of Lake Victoria that combines with an underground spring and begins its journey throughout Africa to the Mediterranean, we needed to take a boat. We found one easily enough, and despite the highly inflated 'bzunga' (westerner) prices, we hopped in and got a tour of the wildlife, seeing birds and huge lizards, before reaching the source itself. The sight was akin to watching Jonathan Trott bat, no fuss or flashiness but doesn’t half rack up the runs, with their being barely a ripple in the water at the beginning before the water thunders it’s way north.

Once back on land, we headed straight for the bar to cool off, where we changed the TV to the South Africa vs. Pakistan test, doing our bit for the day to spread cricket in Uganda with many locals sitting and watching too! For the rest of the day we spent some time exploring Jinja town, stumbling upon a restaurant called Flavours that was a backpacker’s haven, full of gap year travelers and volunteers. The heat soon got too much for us though so we heading back to the hotel pool, where we regressed a little and began attempting diving catches into the water, great fun!

With the team reunited after a successful days coaching, Dave, Nick and myself heading over to Victoria FM, where we were part of an hour long phone in. We managed to get some more of our messages around cricket and HIV out to people in the Jinja region, although the main feedback from callers to the show was that we were not visiting their part of the district and they wanted their children to play, an encouraging sign for CWB for the future with the possibility of more projects!

We ended a good day with a game of killer darts at a bar, which turned into quite a vengeful game by the end with the competitiveness of everyone coming out for the first time! Granty ended up our champion, although some of us may have lost a few points with the skipper after knocking him out first. It rounded up a good day to begin our time in Jinja, with us all ready to get back to the coaching and hoping for a big turn out tomorrow.