Today we split the group so that we could see the maximum number of children. We went to Mary Immaculate School this morning. It was an all girls school. The girls were fantastic and threw themselves into cricket with huge enthusiasm, even though many had never played before. This was my first real taste of coaching so it was amazing to see the energy in the group. My personal favourite moment was getting the girls to show me their moves, good Ugandan dancing. In return I showed them my ‘serving dance’, a true British disco classic.!!
The afternoon session at Bright Valley was entertaining. We got set up and were just herding 120 children into some sort of orderly mass (I said mass not mess) when the heavens opened. Lightening quick thinking from half the group who took the opportunity to lead some sessions under canopy, the rest of the group hid in the bus! Mark was awesome, he managed to squeeze ‘101 games to play on a rainy day’ into a 20 minute slot and the kids loved it, screaming and cheating at every opportunity but laughing throughout.
My triumph of the day was ‘post rain’ when I managed my first real coaching session. The kids were brilliant, high octane stuff and I got to practice my new coaching skill (thanks Rob}. To the uninitiated this involves about 40 kids in a massive bundle (me at bottom) crouching down chanting ABCT then jumping in the air shouting ‘Awoogaaaa’ at ludicrous volumes. Epic.
My day got more interesting with a visit to Radio Rupiny. Lee and I were representing CWB and looking for opportunities to promote our work and the proposed new project, the Gulu Gorillas. This was really positive with the Head of Media promising to work with us to get the game of cricket out to a wider audience and hopefully creating a positive legacy for Uganda from the seeds of The CWB work.
The rest of the group were already at the Gulu University doing a coaching session, so we grabbed a boda to join them. Again, another first for me, it’s basically grabbing a backie on a motorbike through crazy roads with no helmet etc. British health and safety would have a field day on this activity. In short, from a new volunteer, what an amazing day !!!
Written by: Lucy Holroyd
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