Sport in Action - Monday 18th April 2011

This was our first full day of working in the field, with each group making its own way to their destination school.

The map showing locations of the schools we worked at is below

Satellite view of Kabwe. Pins to the left of the map show details from a walk carried out to lead mines by our photographer Carl O'Keeffe during the visit. Thanks to Carl for the map.

One group had a good walk ahead of them to Kafulamase, which we had been told was about 4 miles away. Only on returning later in the day, were we told that it had taken an hour and a half for the group to reach the school there, so it really had been a trek for them. They arrived too late to see the children that day, as they had been at the school since 7am waiting for the students and peer leaders to arrive.

At Twyfane, the coaches there broke the children up into smaller groups, and concentrated on their specific play themes. Rob James worked with basketball players, Jill Murphy with netball, and Natalie Loveday, Rob Hadfield, and Will Broster with the general play for younger children.

It was here that I filmed this short clip of Anxious showing me how to make a ring out of a Kwacha note, one of the many activities that children find to do with everyday objects -



A part of our preparations for visiting Zambia was some fundraising, partly to bring over some peer leaders to the UK on their exchange visit, but also to bring some kit out with us. Each group took with them a play parachute to their school, and the children loved these. Here is a short video of the parachute in action.



Again, we went to Nkrumah College for a lunch break, with stories exchanged among the group of their morning activities, with them trying to outdo each other in how far they had walked to each school.

The afternoon sessions went ahead once more - Will Broster had the opportunity to carry out some specific rugby coaching with a team from the High Ridge High School, who play rugby sevens. These boys are about 15-18 years old, and very talented athletes. Watching them in action, they appear to be sprinters, who have made the transition to playing rugby.

Will had expected a group of between 15-20 players, but instead worked with eight boys, taking sessions in passing moves, evasion, and contact drills, working on laying off the ball in the tackle.



I've mentioned 'Zambia time' before - well these guys are serious operators of this. A 2pm start time turned into a 3pm session, but with the heat, I think that Will was glad it only lasted an hour. On speaking with the teacher at High Ridge, Cyprian Mooya, he was keen to have the boys playing meaningful rugby, but there is a lack of local opposition. this means travelling distances to play in tournaments against other school sides, and like the UK, the game appears to be played primarily among the middle classes.

This is in contrast to the boys in front of us this afternoon, all of whom are from the Katondo district here in Kabwe, and all just keen to play the game when they can.

At the end of the session, it was time for the short walk back to Mulubila, and a chance for everyone to reflect on the day.

It was clear that some of the students were having difficulties putting their plans into action, with the peer leaders taking the lead in sessions, but as time went on through the week, this would change, and there was a greater sense of achievement among the students by the time we left.

The evening starts early in Zambia, with sunset at 6pm at this time of year, and with an absence of street lights in many areas, total darkness by 6.30. Mealtime at 7:30 gave us a typical plate of either chicken, beef (chargrilled!!), or pork, and vegetables, chips, pasta and coleslaw.

I had expected to be offered fried crickets at some point, but was left disappointed.

Here is the day, as seen by Rob Hadfield -