Advertisement
Published: November 10th 2008
Edit Blog Post
The relative 5 star luxury of the Rift Valley Sports Club - soft bed, two pillows, running hot & cold water, clean toilets, bath, shower and lack of foul smells all helped for a great night’s sleep. I was up at about 7am to sit outside and make notes before breakfast with Richard L - full cooked English! I went out of RVSC and found a place to buy Celtel top-ups. Davis came at about 9.15am to take us to Shiner’s Girls School. We picked up Andy and Rich D from the golf club on the way through the busy bustling streets. The golf club sits high up above the city but does have a very uneven bumpy track leading to it which, once more, Davis negotiated successfully.
Shiner’s Girls is a large secondary school of about 1,500 pupils on the Nairobi road. It has quite impressive white buildings and a large field running back down towards the road. We had about forty girls in their white PE kits arrive on the reasonably well grassed field. Dynamic warm-up, floor hockey, front-foot drive, bowling and continuous cricket were the aspects covered in the two hour session. The girls were really interested
and attentive and they all made good progress in the time available. We all agreed that they were very good at throwing - both in terms of distance and accuracy. This hampered the bowling and we did have some problems trying to get straight arms! It was a great session though and they were mobbing us for photographs with “the white coach” for about twenty minutes afterwards. Even the school photographer had to go back inside to collect more film!
We ate lunch back at RVSC omelettes, burgers, etc and then out to Shiner’s Boys School. Davis had allowed 15 minutes but it took nearer 30 to go further out than both Shiner’s Girls and Greensteds schools. Even so, the school was definitely not ready for us. We were allowed through the gates by security and, whilst Andy went to sort out the arrangements, we began throwing a ball around outside. We were moved from the front ‘field’ to another at the rear of the buildings. Shortly after this we were moved even further away from the buildings; the children were completing their National Exams and they must have silence! This rear field was much smaller than the one
at Shiner’s Girls and was in a much worse state - large areas of stones, bare patches of mud, broken glass and long uneven grassed areas. Eventually some boys arrived and we began to work with forty lads in long school trousers, tee-shirts, shirts, v-necked sleeveless sweaters, blazers and ties. This, together with the school’s obvious lack of preparation, did not provide us with much confidence.
The session was extremely hard work and I was not impressed at being told by an approaching security guard in his army style fatigues and rifle slung over his shoulder that my group was still far too near the buildings and we must play in total silence! My group of eight personnel changes frequently as other boys (spectators) leaning and hanging around the nearby building came out to see what was going and to have a go for themselves. The session was very hard work and not particularly successful and we were all glad to be leaving the school. It was very hard to believe the difference between the two schools that were both owned (and assumed run) by the same person. The boys were much more ‘up front’ and were constantly on
the lookout for something that they could take or be given for nothing. Still, it is good to see the different sides of Africa!
We learnt later that there had recently been a lot of very serious trouble at the Shiner’s Boys School - riots with the boys complaining about the conditions in which they were kept. The police and soldiers were all required to restore calm!
Richard L and I were dropped at the golf club where we paid 1,000/= for nine holes plus 150/= for a caddy. We did not have long as the light goes very quickly once the sun sets. We got off without hitting any practice balls. Our clubs had been lent to us by Martin Bentley and were good Wilson ones with fairly smooth grips. The grass very long and thick - apparently the tractors had broken and they were awaiting more machinery. Most holes were about 400 - 500 yards long with straight dog-les and trees on either side. The tee shot at the 2nd was elevated with a very narrow gap in between the trees and 50 yards before a huge drop down which gradually player back up to the pin. One more obstacle - a flock of sheep immediately on and off the tee! Our caddy was really helpful with both cub selection and spotting the balls in the long fairway grass. We decided to finish after just six holes as the light had virtually gone altogether. Richard L won 4-2. There were some great views down over Nakuru towards the lake and both Richard and I agreed that we must play again but early in the morning to take advantage of the light. We retreated to the bar for a Tusker and I ordered a taxi. We were introduced to the Club Chairman, Moses, who was very pleased that we were playing and we were welcomed to play at any time that we would like. Our taxi driver (also called Moses) arrived and dropped us back to RVSC for about 300/=.
Following a quick change it was up to the bar to meet with the others. Chip and Matt had already gone out with their friends for a Chinese meal. Andy ‘dipped out’ so Richard D, Richard L, Simon and I went (by taxi because of the deluge of rain) to the Merica Hotel. Rich D and S were up for quite a session and, at about 11pm, they got a taxi with a couple of girls to a club. Richard L and I walked back to RVSC…..
Advertisement
Tot: 0.09s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 8; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0503s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb