Mulymunta ("greetings" in Ugandan) parents/carers and followers of the Uganda Team!
Today was, again, absolutely brilliant, and a tad emotional. After 3 days of training, today was our last session. Today was the day we had to whittle our teams down from 40 to 10 for our tournament tomorrow.
The day started, as usual with a 6:50 alarm wake up, followed by a breakfast consisting of fresh fruits, cereal, toast and a treat of scrambled eggs. We then arrived at our schools, mine being Jinja Army Boarding School and Jinja Police Primary for 09:00am to start the final session of our training. (this is Christian writing this post by the way, hi mum and dad)
In the morning I had Jinja Army who had been progressing so much over the week. You really do build relationships with the children you teach, for me, especially with a boy called Arron. On Monday I couldn't get a word out of him, but session after session he slowly became a leader and potential captain for the team for the tournament. Last night, Jazmine, Amy and I made a list of 18 names that could potentially make the team, which needed 5 boys and 5 girls. However, during this session everyone stepped up their game and it made our decision incredibly hard. A couple of long stories short, it came to the end of the session and we had to announce the team. Jaz, Amy and myself had two volunteer workers called Yusuf and Bashir who helped us choose the final 10. After fighting for a place for Arron, the group decision meant he would have to watch from the sidelines. This decision was one of the toughest things I have ever had to do, and I even shed a little tear, however he was still enthusiastic in supporting his school and I'm sure he will be at the games tomorrow in full spirit.
Onto the afternoon session, and this was a lot easier. We had Jinja Police Primary, the team I am managing tomorrow. There were 5 or 6 stand out players, both boys and girls, that had caught my eye from the first session. Each day, we had separated them from the rest and worked harder on them and been a lot harsher with the rules and regulations. It definitely worked as they now play amazingly as a team and I am super excited to see how they perform in the actual competition tomorrow morning.
In the evening, we took a stroll through the Ugandan markets where a few of the boys purchased a Uganda football shirt, and Kayleigh bought a traditional African dress. It was a strange but great experience, as well as visiting the food markets where I tried a fried grasshopper which was surprisingly not as bad as I imagined. Mr Brown has had three pieces of toast, two bananas oh and the surprise was he ate a Rolex!
But anyway, I am going to finish this post (essay) here, as we all need to get to sleep for an early start in the morning to prepare for the Tag Rugby Tournament. It is going to be a fantastic day, and I'm sure tomorrow's blog post we fill you all in with the events that took place.
COME ON JINJA POLICE!!
This is Christian writing this blog. Hello family and Amelia!! ❤️
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