Day 10 – a great start in mbale by ali

Mbale is a new area for CWB, and the local teachers helping organise our stay have high expectations of us, scheduling 16 schools in just 2 days. I think we proved up to the task on day one, although it was not without its challenges.
We started in the immaculate grounds of Fairway Primary, to get the first school under our belt, then split up to cover two more. That’s where the plan began to come apart. We dropped Alex, Tarn, Harry, Tembo and Oxy off, and they had just set up when break started and they were over run by about 600 extra kids. Oxy managed to save the day, but the session needed a quick rethink. Our group (myself, Mark, Hersh and Manny) travelled on a narrow dirt road lined with shacks, then up a hill to arrive at Zesui Primary, clearly in a very poor area, and our extra travel time meant that break was now in full swing. We became the day’s star attraction for the whole school, with everyone desperate to see us, and with setting up out of the question, settled down in chairs to enjoy some lovely little bananas kindly provided by our hosts. Finally underway, we played rapidfire on an area charitably described as rocky dirt, but that didn’t matter to the youngsters, who thoroughly enjoyed themselves. They shared some of their concerns with us, which included poverty and early marriage, whixh are, unfortunately, common themes.
Back together, our final stop.of the morning was Mayor Mbale Primary, where we arrived to find a cricket match already underway, with locally made wooden bats. The older boys got a little impromptu coaching from Manny and Oxy, and an unexpected chance to impress, as Manny is the coach of the National U19 team!
Unlike our breaktime arrivals, lunch was timed to perfection, as we sat down in the cafe just as the most torrential rain started. Disappointing, only halfway through the day, but a quick phone call established that it was dry at our next stop, and we were soon back on the road. Two schools joined forces for us, then we split again to finish off, and with more rain beginning to fall, crossed the line with school number 8.
Team Uganda is now a well oiled machine, and with Ivan still with us from Lira, Tembo from Kumi and the addition of Manny, Oxy and Kenny here we’ve been able to cope with everything Mbale could throw at us on day one. We’re looking forward to doing it all again tomorrow!