CWB Kenya Day 1

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Day 1 -

0600: Nairobi. Touchdown for eight red-eyed, weary volunteers: four teachers, a cricket development manager, nutritionist, senior registrar, and an ECB tutor-cum-Chris Tarrant lookalike…. A short time later the Jupiter Guest Resort awaits us with an unexpected, but very welcome, full English breakfast.

First stop after a couple of hours’ kip, the Ruarka Sports Club, but not before we’ve negotiated Nairobi’s lunchtime traffic and an impressive burst main shooting water 20 feet into the air. The road diggers have clearly been over zealous.

RSC is well-maintained, as you’d expect from a cricket ground with one-day international status. Around 150 children from local schools are already engaged in a tournament. Their enthusiasm is infectious, their sporting ability impressive, their supporters highly vocal.

Mick and Andy strut their stuff in the middle - a few gently turning leg breaks - and it’s not long before we’re surrounded by a sea of welcoming faces eager to engage with us. Tired we may be, but it’s not difficult to get involved in some informal coaching. At the end, we present the tournament winners with trophies and AIDS awareness t-shirts before heading back to base.

Supper time: we hook up with Martin Bentley, organiser of the Nakuru itinerary, for our first team supper, then turn in for an early night. Well, some of us anyway: others plump for the local pool bar. We’ll not hear from them again till they wake us up around 2.00 am on their return….

RL

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