Uganda crew

Friday 12th March - Last day of coaching As our time in Uganda drew to a close, we headed back to the Nyakasura School to host a tournament for the primary school children who had been with us during the previous two days. Four zones - each with four teams were set up to play a round robin format. Fortunately, the teachers had listened to instructions given to them the day before and we had about 140 children only. The winners of each group were to be decided according to the number of catches they took whilst fielding in the continuous cricket games. The standard of catching in my group was outstanding, and in one game the score was 12-11. However, during the drinks break, there must have been some serious team talk on tactics because ... read more

Hello, Veronika here. Yesterday we travelled on our beloved bus with our jolly driver Joseph (some call him Tyrone) from Mweya lodge to Fort Portal. As we made our way along the dusty roads and over hundreds and thousands of speed bumps (they like to put five of them about half a meter apart - not joking here!) to the west of the country, the landscape gradually changed from green but dry dusty towns and villages to very green rolling countryside. The trees are taller, the cassava plantations are more lush, the streets are cleaner and the cows and goats much fatter. The view out of the window is of a fertile green paradise. Except for the car exhausts, of course. They are as smelly as they come and the drivers seem to hoot the horn ... read more

Monday 8th March Not a bad life... day off, drinking a local beer (tastes better than usual as Clare finally got the drinks in!! Joke before she beats me!) Anyway ... on a balcony looking over on to a savannah full of local wild life which we will get to explore tomorrow ... so possibly my first and last beer then with a 5 am wake up tomorrow!! Firstly I must comment a touch more about Rich - after all I feel he was too brief with himself yesterday!! Rich Davies - lead tutor, excellent organiser and has plans a-z for every possible scenario. He is happy talking and sharing all his experiences. He is much better with some explanations after 1 or 2 Waragi (the local gin substitute!!) Anyway on to today. We arose (some ... read more

Saturday 6 March 2010 HAPPY BIRTHDAYS AND INTERNATIONAL CAREERS BLOSSOM Day 8 of our journey saw the sun rise over the town of Mbarara, which was to serve as our headquarters for the next 3 days. We were now in “real” rural Uganda - far out in the West of the country. With Uganda’s national borders shared with Rwanda and Democratic Republic of the Congo only a relatively short distance to the South and the East respectively, we were now a very long way from the urban centre that is Kampala. In the colonial era Mbarara was a quiet backwater, its newly appointed district officer commenting in 1955 that he found himself “choking in the dust” of what “seemed to have the atmosphere of a one-horse town”. The same could not be said today, with the ... read more

With yesterday having been such a great success for all involved, a lot of planning along with some lengthy discussions went into ensuring today’s kwik cricket competition followed in the same positive footsteps. The day began in a more eventful way than previous mornings, starting with a meeting in the dining area consisting of delegates from different aid supplying organisations/charities and members of the Ugandan army in relation to the devastating landslide. News came alongside this of today’s main man, Richard and his antics during the night, consisting of heavy drinking with an old friend of his and Uganda’s funniest man John Mayeku, as a result of which Richard had got no sleep at all after returning from Mbale’s finest watering holes at 5am. With both John and Richard in a pretty hilarious state we ... read more