Cricket Without Boundaries Lived up to its name today in and around Kasese

The stunning view made the breakfast bearable yet again, Kasese looking beautiful from a hill top. Leaving straight for the market to buy a very Ugandan lunch of Chapati and bananas, much more nutritious than the snacks bought yesterday.

An hour drive to get to the most western point we could get to in the country, Bright Star Nursery and Primary School was our destination. Being way out of the city meant the children knew very little about HIV/Aids and even less about some sport called cricket. This presented all of us challenges, in both coaching and the universal ABC message. After having had our daily evening meeting we all agreed this meant the children and soon to be coaches were the perfect people to reach out to. We sorted out the carousel system again to get coach all skills to the kids.

The local senior school Kasinga Vocation Secondary School joined us in the afternoon with the crowd of youngsters watching intently being coached as well by Graham and Mark. This managed to stretch our age range participating from 4 to 28. Lots of games were going on across the football pitch with rapid fire balls flying all over the place. Richard managed to bring high energy and create huge noise from his group all ending up in a tense super over style finish. SJ and Liam then lead the rap up conversation cricket demo very well, digging in deep to his teacher experience. ABC message definitely learnt.

After coaching the two sets of children we left and just 10 minutes down the road we found ‘Save the Disabled Child Home’. Beth (who was feeling a lot better than yesterday and Graham felt the full force of her loud self) was very enthusiastic about this sector of sport coaching so we stopped to go in. The chairman was hugely welcoming and the children loved our very mini cricket session. One charming deaf girl in particular was a real natural, picking up bowling straight away and hitting balls onto the buildings. The home takes in disabled young people to give them the needed facilities and train them in trades like a Seamstress to enable them to make a meaningful contribution to society. We left 2 bats, many balls and also Emanuel’s (our CWB Ugandan ambassador) contact details to try and get a scheduled visit during the next Uganda CWB trip. It was amazing for all of us to see the brilliant things being done there and the joy across all the faces of the children.

We arrived back early evening to a short but large downpour during our long wait for dinner. Johnson (our Ugandan CWB volunteer helping us and soon to be Kasese’s mayor) said they have been waiting for this rain for months.

On a personal point I have loved every minute coaching, seeing how much fun and happiness we can all provide to the politest children in the world. Bring on the second week.

Tom Barnes