CWB Kenya Day 7

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Day 7 (Friday) -

After hauling ourselves out of bed on Friday morning, we all piled into the van to head off to TAPWAK (The Association of people with AIDS in Kenya). The organisation's motto is "All not infected but affected" and it aims to provide services to people infected or affected by HIV, reduce discrimination and stigma.

We arrived in a very poor area of town with a muddy area littered with rubbish as the playing field. Having all been formally introduced and welcomed by the staff and the increasing number of children, we listened to a rousing rendition of a local song by the kids.

The children were all HIV orphans, so they had lost both parents to AIDS. They were living with relatives and came to the center for fun activities and games. Many of them were HIV positive themselves and they were also very scruffy with torn and dirty clothes. They were definitely in need of a fun game of cricket!

The coaches followed the singing children onto the playing field while I gathered with a group of the adult staff who were also infected with HIV. I had a very challenging chat with the staff about HIV, medication, alternative therapy and conspiracy theories; the rest of the team were having another, different challenge on the field.

Most of the children didn't speak any English at all, and even basic tasks were proving difficult. They weren't good at following demos or instructions and there was a lot of chaos out there (!) as the coaches tried different techniques to encourage the kids. A game was then attempted and although it wasn't an average game of cricket, the kids enjoyed it!

We made our way back to the hotel, completely exhausted - definitely our toughest coaching day so far.

But we recovered quickly to head out to dinner at Carnivore - the world-famous meat-fest restaurant!
While I enjoyed my veggie pizza, the others tucked into ostrich, lamb, beef, turkey, chicken....and crocodile! Yummy. Good end to the day.

CN

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