It felt like a bit like 25 miles down in a marathon – we knew we were going to get there and we did. In some style.
By 10 o’clock there were already 6 of the 9 teams competing on testing day looking fit and ready to go at the Lango sports ground. The other three teams arrived shortly afterwards with the HIV testing team from Lira hospital getting there by 11 o’clock to the obvious relief of the team. They rapidly made up for lost time managing a remarkable 162 tests by the end of the day. Of these two showed the presence of HIV. The teachers of the children testing positive, after discussion with the hospital counsellors, forwarded the contact details of the parents. Both children will now be treated with ARVs at Lira hospital and given psychological support.
In order actively to involve the maximum number of children and fulling using the richness of cricket as a means of generating great depths of HIV awareness, the festival programme incorporated both rapid-fire games and conventional pairs cricket. We also demonstrated “proper” cricket in action with Emmanuel subjecting Adam and Reece to a barrage of quick stuff which was much appreciated by the children if not by the batsmen! We felt pretty emotional leaving the sports ground as it could be the last time we experienced the vivacity and sheer joy for life of masses of Ugandan children – not withstanding a potential brief appearance at Dr Mishra’s festival in Lugazi tomorrow if roads and traffic are kind to us.
Inevitably there was a hitch today which for a time looked pretty serious, shortly after we started truckloads of footballers arrived to play in three matches planned for the sports ground. We were victims of a double booking but we managed to negotiate a settlement with some minimal greasing of palms and a commitment to be out of the ground by 2pm “muzungu time”. And we were, having squeezed in a huge amount of cricket and HIV testing in a short time and on a very hot day. Happy times, lovely memories.