Day 4 – Becky on the Orange Wave

Today started calmly with delicious samosas and watermelon and we soon got to the schools in the villages this time rather than the city. Splitting our team into two to cover two sites at the same time. I understand that one group had a bit of a walk to reach the school but it’s great that we didn’t just cover the city schools and headed more rurally.

In our first school we coached over 400 children. Several schools arriving at the one site and creative delaying of groups made it manageable. Our timing of the station rotation and getting the kids moving round so everyone had a go was strong. An inclusivity message was my main aim to leave the children with. Where “all the girls batted and all the boys batted, cricket is for everyone”.

Aaron helped translate a few instructions in the local dialect which added lots of value. The team work amongst the CWB coaches and local coaches has been so great. Both working side by side and learning from each other. Taking it in turns to lead as someone’s voice needed a rest.

Aaron went ahead to buy everyone Rolex wraps. A tasty omelette and chapati combination. Enough energy to fuel the afternoon session.

A small group of us went up to meet the headteacher and see the school. We said a year or two would be about the right number. However, I think there were about a thousand in this primary school and word soon got round. I think most of us will have the image of an orange wave of children coming down the hill from the school etched in our memory. We’d already set up the cone relays and got several hundred started with the warm up. Running out of equipment we had to keep some occupied and group them into many additional exercises. Before we could send them round in groups to the batting, bowling and fielding stations.

The kids are so keen to bat we had to be strongly organised to keep the lines and numbers so everyone got a go. But the energy and fun levels were high. There is so much raw talent and enthusiasm.

The last group we had for batting did overwhelm us as I think so many of the children had snuck back in rather than going back to class. I don’t blame them really 😉 but at that point I said to Oxy ‘is this actually possible to do this drill with those numbers?’ I’m fairly certain it was way over a hundred. We did try but safety is a priority and we decided to make a large group for catching. My slight disappointment that we couldn’t make it work for that last group was also mixed with pride that we made a good decision and put safety first.

I was then tasked with leading the massive group back to the point for a final wrap up. I was faced with doing ‘something’ to keep them together and occupied. Mark suggested I ask them to sing you something. I will always have these memories of a huge group encircling me and singing with the most beautiful powerful voices and dancing. The more I responded with dancing, clapping and smiling with them, the louder they sang. Some of the songs I remembered from my primary school days but their version were way better. Finishing the session with a double act with Mark suggesting that myself as a female could be better at cricket than him. I was quick to point out that if he practiced he could improve and be good at cricket. A strong message of practicing getting you to good places. After many high five’s and a session with plenty of hard work & highlights, we made it back to the bus.

Oxy had organised something a little bit different for the last session. A group that actually made me well up at lunch time with my passion for the subject. An older group of women who are part of a community group of about 120 of them in total. We met with some of them and the session got off to a great start with them singing and dancing with us. The females of our group leading the session and discussions. We had a conversation about who we were and found out about the activities they do, making soap, bags, sewing but also doing physical exercise 3 times a week. These ladies were 40 upwards. Two of their members were teachers we had coached a couple of days ago.
I showed them my cricket team saying we had people who were in their 40’s and 50’s playing in a team and suggesting they could use cricket as a fun way to exercise and maybe get a team together to play other ladies groups or each other.

We had a game of continuous cricket with them and a game of who could hit it the furthest. To be honest these women had smiles as big as the children we had been coaching. They were dressed in the most beautiful dresses and head scarves but still gave it some with the running and power hitting. It was also pretty powerful that a group of children were watching them play. We often put a lot of emphasis on children but there’s a world of older women who never got a chance to play cricket when they were younger, just because it wasn’t the done thing. I feel fairly strongly about this at home and our women’s team is beautiful because it has a mix of ages from 13 up to 54.

If we are talking about inclusivity and cricket for everyone. Definitely don’t forget about the generation of women who are more powerful than society would make you believe. It was so beautiful to see them giving something new a try and wanting to come back to try and hit it further and further. They said it made them feel young again. So many mental and physical benefits of community team sports.

Ending the evening with a few more tears if we are honest at a beautiful location at the source of the Nile. This time my tears of emotion got everyone started and then Aaron carried them on with words about how he has loved that we haven’t got in there trying to out power their coaching we’ve worked side by side doing our best for the children. That made me incredibly happy as I feel pretty passionate about everyone having a voice and freedom to coach or lead when they want to. I actually thought that then ending the day with an Ethiopian meal where we all ate together off a platter with our fingers was a great way to symbolise how well the Jinja and CWB team had worked together.