Day 3 Mochudi/Rasesa

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Cricket & Botswana- the perfect Combi-Nation

Wednesday 21st October

Following a cracking evening at our the local Portugese restaurant an earli(ish) night for most of us and a limit on the girls’ wine intake, things began much the same as usual….Mike G arose tired and a little grumpy having endured another broken nights sleep fighting against Tony’s foghorn snoring, whilst the rest of us picked at another ‘special’ Brackendene breakfast. Luckily for us a further 8 local canines hadn’t lost their cherished manhoods over night as we were served omelets rather than the unusually coloured grisly sausages. Only Mike showed true disappointment at this omission from the menu, apparently enjoying the unexpected crunch he was usually greeted by as he bit down on his 10 inch sausages!

Off to Mochudi and another morning at Lady Mitchison School with the 18 or so trainee cricket coaches. To describe the weather as hot would be an understatement- to describe our combi as comfortable would frankly just be a lie! Great skill must go into designing and manufacturing such an uncomfortable vehicle. Once we had peeled ourselves off the less than sexy seats and taken our formal instructions from the increasingly important Hydration Manager we began another 3 hour session. It is amazing just how much the teachers are improving day on day, picking up not only the skills to play but also the skills to coach as well- always full of enthusiasm with a smile or laugh never far away. Our jobs as coaches are made so much more enjoyable because of the trainees and in 3 short days they are unrecognizable as the nervous cricketers we met on Monday morning. We to are learning fast as well- mainly how a short 5 minute break resembles 25 minutes in ‘Botswanan teacher time’.

For lunch we decided to ditch our usual venue, feeling that the petrol station forecourt was not really ‘living the Botswanan culinary dream’! This said, there is no doubt that the toxic fumes have been essential for all us making it through the past two afternoon sessions without flagging. Godfrey, our maverick combi driver, decided that he would go in search of a suitable tree for us to rest under. A tree that would truly compliment our delicacies we had purchased from the Spar!! 25,000 trees and 20 minutes later, having almost passed out from the heat of our motorized sardine can, he finally found a specimen that was up to the exacting arboricultural standards of the CWB team. As trees go, we all agreed that it was a cracker, as we recovered from heat exhaustion under its boughs. We had stumbled unexpectedly into a cultural heritage site- Matsieng, apparently steeped in Botswanan history and myth. To cut a rather short story even shorter, it can be summarized as a rock, a couple of holes, some green water, and a lot of flies. This is never meant as a slur on local culture, but I think its safe to say that the judging panel for the Seven Wonders of the World can save themselves an airfare, 8th place remains vacant!

We were met at Rasesa Primary School with the warmest of welcomes; hospitality that continues to know no bounds wherever we go. With around 70 children of all ages once more we had an unforgettable 2 hours. Smiling, beautiful, intelligent, always brimming with enthusiasm and appreciation, you can’t help but be bowled over by them all.

(Just as an aside and not in anyway to cheapen the sentiment of my Blog- a bird, obviously unimpressed with my blogging technique, has crapped all over the screen of Marks rather expensive Mac……having just stopped laughing I now can’t find a tissue to clean it up and he is walking this way!)

We finished the day by meeting the Deputy high Commissioner, Ben and his lovely wife to be, Rachel at the Bull & Bush for dinner- a mixed meal (Mikes words to describe it were a little more fruity), but meeting Ben & Rachel was a real treat. More from me sometime next week, I’m off to clean the screen, or if I can’t do that, blame someone else…..I keep getting told that the art of team leader is delegation, so delegating blame seems only right!

See you all soon

Will

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Photos

Combi-style travel
A typical view from the back seat of the combi albeit with our 'Personal Best' load of 16 people plus cricket kit

Mavis practises bowling
Mavis with a passing resemblance to the great Dennis Lillee

One handed pickup
Practising fielding techniques

Catching Practice in Rasesa
For most of these kids catching and throwing seems second nature

Incoming !
The IT department's equipment being abused again...