News

Apologies for the delay in updating the blog, we have been enjoying the comforts of the UK on our school holidays, making use of a return ticket purchased in March! Thankfully we have been able to leave the rugby coaching in the more than capable and enthusiastic hands of our first volunteer coaches, Kate Alback and Toby Kyle. As if flying halfway around the world from their current home in Shanghai to spend their school holidays (they are also teachers) coaching rugby in Rwanda wasn’t enough, they did so with the burden of 7 bags weighing 110kgs full of donated balls and rugby kit. Thanks guys!
We were lucky enough to spend a week with these guys before we left for our break. Here is Kate’s experience of the coaching in her own words….

On arrival in Rwanda we organised a tight schedule of training for 2 hours every morning with one orphanage, 3 days a week at the Red Cross Street Kids Centre, and one day a week with the University. Our plan was to have a full timetable of coaching for two weeks and then take some time out to travel. The coaching has been hard work but so rewarding, we have loved every minute of it. The kids in the orphanage are adorable, they train so hard and have developed from nothing into great teams. Not only have we introduced a new sport for them but we have taught some students to referee and coach and have given them some materials with which to make their own kits. The final tournament was like a trip of a life time for the them, especially as they won. Over 100 of these children share one dormitory, and only posess one set of clothes. In introducing them to the sport they have a focus every morning and have a chance to shine. They have the opportunity to win new clothes and now most of them now feel part of a team, learning English words in the process.

Thanks so much for your support
Kate and Toby

We were so happy to have the support of Kate and Toby and are happy that their visit went well as providing a blueprint to host other volunteers in Rwanda over the coming years. Thanks guys!

t has been about 3 weeks since we last wrote and during that time things have been hectic. We have been dealing with the government to try and produce passports for the 12 boys travelling to England. One of the obstacles has been the children not knowing when they are born and having no parents to ask. It is pretty hard to get a passport without a birthday or any identification. We have persisted and it seems that immigration will give us the documents eventually !! The next hurdle is the VISA issue. At a cost of 70 quid per person for a week in the UK we hope that the British Embassy is more timely in their assistance of our cause. I am slightly concerned about the 10 page document that each child must complete in English but we will muddle through.
We have finally moved into our new house. What a PALACE it is, 3 rooms and a bathroom so we now have space for anyone who wants to visit. The visitors are supposed to start today. We have 2 British volunteer coaches based in China coming out for a month. At least we think they are – we have not heard from them for about 10 days – so we are hoping everything is OK.
Our social circle has expanded and with it our beer consumption. There are 10 Australians in Rwanda and we have formed a “Sunday Session”. Yesterday upon our arrival at beer garden without ordering out came our regular 3 bottles of Primus. At a cost of 50p each they continued through the 2 sessions of brochette, chips and stew which have become standard dinner at the beginning of each week.
We have also befriended Amanda, a rugby fanatical VSO volunteer. We took some equipment for a rugby session on Saturday and managed to tempt some students from church to try out the game. They were excellent, we all had fun and there is real potential for a team there in the third term!
Finally this morning feeling a bit worse for wear we were confronted with the resident mouses’ suicide in our water barrel. A tragedy to be sure for both him and us as we now need to get a new water barrel.

Well, apologies for the delay in writing this post! School commitments and house-hunting have put paid to our internet sessions! Since the last blog we have visited another school in the South. ETO Gitarama is a technical college with an enthusiastic Aussie headmaster. We were treated to a game between them and Ecole Secondaire Ruhango (a local derby) and a treat it was! The field had rugby posts and rugby markings in sawdust! The whole village came out to watch and the level of the game was impressive! The skills matched many of the clubs in and around Rwanda and it was a close win for ETO Gitarama at only 8-5.
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Following this up-lifting experience, we visited a street kids centre in Kigali, the lovely boys from Centre Murembo. The first session was memorable if not a little chaotic. The lively boys seemed to enjoy playing with the oval ball whilst practising their Kung-fu at the same time! Since then we introduced them to Tag Rugby which they picked up very quickly and soon demonstrated some cery good skills.
We followed this up with a trip to another Stree Kids Centre, Christ for the Nations. We arrived as they were praying, quite a sight with around 800 kids of various ages singing and dancing! We took about 30 of them, randomly selected and got them passing the ball and evading defense. We hope to start visiting them on a weekly basis to allow more of them to experience and enjoy rugby

Who would have thought that life as a teacher could be so hectc?! The additional responsibilities given to Deena and myself other than teaching, keep us running around all day at school. Lesson planning is a struggle when Deena’s public speaking skills in constant demand, and I have been elected form tutor of the President’s daughter’s class! But we are relishing the challenge!
The weekend’s coaching was not as successful as usual. We arranged to give G.S Shyogwe and St Joseph’s, Kabgayi another training session each in the afternoon and visit a club team, Pumas in the morning. We mistakenly thought that the Puma team was just off the main road on the way to Gitarama. However, it was a full 10km which exhausted both our bodies and our purse. We arrived in Gitarama (the nearest town to both schools) with the equivalent of 50p in our pockets and fifty US dollars. With nowhere to change money we were nearly marooned and were forced to turn back to Kigali to re-organise these sessions.
However, it was great to meet the Puma players, a group of 20 enthusiasts with a 20 year old coach, Vedaste (a former player in my school team). Vedaste started these teams on his own inclination, based on his enjoyment of the game and on the request of the players. They had one ball, extremely worn, not a pair of boots between them or a pair of rugby shorts. However, their enthusiasm was inspirational. Between them, the players have never seen a game of rugby on TV and the coach has seen only the one game I showed in 2001 when initially trying to introduce rugby.
Next week there is a University game between Butare University and a Burundi Univerisity, demonstrating further progress of the game in the region. Deena is the referee and I hope to teach some rules to the young coaches on the sidelines.

Today, Sunday is our first opportunity to access the internet. The past week has been spent settling into our new jobs. We are now both gainfully employed as teachers at Green Hills school until November. It is a school founded by the President’s wife and attended by their children, and those of the diplomatic community.

The Muddy training session
Lion de Fer
Grizzlies (uni team, four of my former students!)
Line out!
Scrum

We’ve been a week in Kigali now, and after several hectic days of meetings (mostly with Celestin of the Rwandan Rugby Federation, but also an unexpected cup of tea with the British Ambassador) we finally saw some rugby!

 
We attended a very muddy training session with a club team in Kigali and were impressed with the numbers at training and commitment to full contact!  Luckily our arrival co-incided with the start of the 2007 League and this weekend we travelled to Butare for Deena to referee the University team, The Grizzlies, v Kigali based team, Lion De Fer. A close encounter for the first 40 mins saw many attacking raids from both sides repelled with courageous defence. Eventually sheer weight of possession from set piece saw the Lions score 3 un-answered tries. The ref also survived despite the heat, altitude and well concealed line markings!

 
We are now dressed in our ‘smart’ clothes (mostly donated from the generous League girls!) as we head to a meeting with the Minister of Sport. We hope he will take an interest in our three month plan and assist us to promote rugby.

Deena, Susie and Spire Road

Emma, Lindsay and Main Street (they’re not that big!)
The captain on the run
Prize giving ceremony
The ChampsHere are some more photos from the end of the tour. We are still reflecting on the experience of coaching about 700 kids in 5 days. The final tournament was an amazing success and the skill levels after such a short time suprised us all!

Brilliant clearing out by the League Gals!
On the run from the Kenyans!
Lovely try Kirst!

We are finally at the end of the TRDT tour to Uganda and it has been great!

The week involved two sessions of coaching a day in various schools.

The coaching experience was tiring but very rewarding. All the kids were training in full school uniform (including leather shoes) and picked up the skills very quickly.

The week culminated in a tournament at Junja Rugby club (AKA our campsite) and was a massive success. There were 8 teams involved, each wearing excellent new kit and were highly competetive. It was amazing what was acheived with a relatively short space of time and large numbers of kids compared to limited resources. This has really given us a shot in the arm and shown us what is possible. We hope to have inspired a passion for rugby which will long continue in these children.

We couldn’t bask in the glory of this experence for too long as we were rushing back to Kampala the next day to participate in a 7s tournament. Oh what an experience-us and 10 Great Britain rugby league girls playing against seasoned African 7s experts! We won the collisions and got hammered on the counter attack with pace! A great day none the less!

Tomorrow, we are on the bus and into Rwanda…(only a short 8 hour hop!)

Emma and Deena

Hello,

Emma