Our second day of coaching started in classic African fashion where we went to the wrong school to pick up the EastEnders coaches. Once that was cleared up we all bundled in to Mawagi School who are national champions despite only having 2 balls, 2 stumps and 2 bats for the entire school. To be fair that is more than most schools in this region have.
We started by splitting the group into two to play to massive games of fastest game in the world. But it turned out we had 3 year groups. So a gigantic game of heads, shoulders, knees and cone was rustled up with the remaining group.
The usual batting, bowling, throwing and catching stations were then set up and the transitions between them started to become a competition. There was dancing and chanting and plenty of smiles.
In the afternoon we headed to Kivubuka Primary school and was greeted by Joy the drama, music and dance teacher and the representative of the community. She presented the project leader with a hand sewn purse as a gift.
The highlight of this session was, EastEnders coach Ronald, who has a bright future ahead of him as leader and a coach. He has such confidence in his coaching a lovely way with the kids that they are hanging on his every word.
A suprise for the day was the school sang us a song which Steve knew all the words to!
The TIA moment of the day was when Joy had told us she had lined us up to coach another school at Buwaji and they would be disappointed if we didn’t come. Of course we said yes. And with no idea where we were going or how far we were driving Joy jumped in the bus and lead us onwards.
It was 100% worth the trip and we had an incredible session involving a mammoth awooga line, stumps flying everywhere and we busted some myths about HIV. One group thought you could contract HIV through kissing which isn’t the case. It’s really important that we continue to educate young people in right way with the right information.
Monday also saw the completion of the ICC tutor training course and the ICC level 1 course. The future of cricket in Jinja is largely driven by the coaches and leaders who can grow the fires that CWB ignites. So to see 12 new coaches delivering safe, fun and engaging sessions was inspiring. To also have 8 Ugandans who can now train coaches locally is truly remarkable. The coaches and tutors had been put through their paces the previous 2 days and were assessed on Monday, all of them passing with flying colours.
