Day 6 – With pe staff in kumi

The day dawned in Kumi and the team leapt out of bed after a restful night in their new surroundings, having arrived minibus style the night before.

After breakfast, we took an embarrassingly short minibus drive to the pitch (next to the local prison) for coach education, yes it was 1 minute down the road, yes maybe we could have walked!

We were greeted by 38 teachers ready to learn the coaching skills required to take cricket back to their schools. The team took them through batting bowling and fielding drills that could be adapted for different numbers, ages and equipment accessibility. A local teacher told me that water bottles can make good substitute wickets. This echoes how eager the community is to spread our great sport in their schools.

After a brilliant Q&A session the team loaded the bus through the window (the bags not themselves) like a well oiled machine and set off (only 10 minutes later than planned)!
For the first afternoon session, the team implemented their divide and conquer approach and split into two groups to visit The Arthur School and Kapokina, where cries of ABC bowling could be heard across the land.

We then came back together to run a session at Hilary Storm School for 171 kids. The highlights included Ellen leading 50 children in a chicken dance across the field, Yo and Jo’s head shoulders knees and cones and some of our youngest batters to date lead by Becky and the batting crew!

For our after school activity, we revisited our lunch spot from earlier. A cafe run by a missionary, Joy from South Korea, working to train young people into employment. We chatted together about Uganda as a country and good things happening.

As an aside, Jim had to do a double take on arrval at our first venue. He plays for Hutton CC in Essex, This lady arrived wearing the shirt of local rivals Shenfield CC.

It was donated by the club to Lord’s Taverners who, in turn,supplied them to cricket organisations in Uganda. Funny old world!

Joanna