Day 4

Today has been considerably warmer than yesterday with some of the team picking up some good colour. They all set off bright and early to their various placement schools to take part in some intensive coaching! As you will read from the guys today, there was an odd pink pudding following our dinner this evening which I can confirm is an African equivalent of angel delight! (Just to clarify the odd descriptions that will follow!!!) it's been a really successful day and all of our team have come back with smiling faces proud of their hard work. The mural (or memorial as Megan Hedges calls it!) at Sosco is coming along really well with a few new artists in the mix! I can honestly say I have fallen in love with Africa already and I think many of the children feel the same.... Here's today's stories.....

Group 1:

- Ben Carpenter "Today we all continued our coaching for tag rugby with the grade 4 and 5 children at Twitti School. Unlike yesterday, we taught them backwards passing and finished with a mini tournament. Later on we played some games with the students at Chilanga and the girls taught them dance. It was a fantastic day."

- Jasmine Balloch "Today group 1 continued our tag coaching at Twitti. We taught the grade 4 and 5 groups how to backward pass in a game situation. We were given fanta and biscuits afterwards unlike the groups at the other schools which made them quite jealous! Afterwards we got back on the minibus and a few of the group taught more tag rugby at Chilanga. The rest of us went to Sosco to teach tag rugby with smaller groups but myself and Megan H helped Miss Davies with the rugby player mural that we are painting. It was a really enjoyable day!"

Group 2:

- Michelle Oades "Today was amazing. I had so much fun. Me, Daisy and Molly worked together in the morning teaching the children. I think it went really well and the children loved it. They high-fived us and hugged us before we left. We then went to Yanos and taught some more children and that went well too. But I am now soooo tired!"

- Adam Price "Today was an amazing day, unbelievable. First of all I went to Lilayi, one of the poorest school out of all the ones we have visited. Me, Macca and Sarah taught around 40 children. However there were too many children for them to each have tag belts! It was insane the amount of children who were really excited to play, with massive smiles on all of their faces. Doing two sessions, each session being one and a half hours was so tiring, however it was an amazing experience seeing the joy on hundreds of deprived children's faces was amazing. After, we picked some of our group up from Twitti school, a richer private school, and it was unreal seeing the attitude of the children there - the poor-rich gap seems huge. We really do not know how privileged we are. 6 children in the space of 3 minutes asked me for my water, with hundreds around our big water container. Then we went to Sosco school and set up a mini tournament which I led. It was fantastic! They're so good as well - The experience there was just as good. We then joined in a game of football with 10 of the Zambian children our age, which was hilarious. Everyone is so fun and welcoming. 'The poorer the happier.'"

Group 3:

- Paige Griffin "Today we coached in Lilayi. It was hot and busy. Tag rugby started off slower but as the day progressed more and more children showed up. After coaching at Lilayi we went to Yanos and ate lunch with the children looking at us through the blinds of the window, giggling and whispering! After lunch we donated books and posters then got all the children from Yanos back to Lilayi to coach. Once we got there all the children from Lilayi joined in again making an extra 50 children to coach with less equipment. It was tiring but the hard work was great."

- Euan Wickan "Today we visited Lilayi and taught the children their tag rugby for about 3hours. Then we moved on to school just down the road that we had painted yesterday, to eat our lunch and pick up some more children for another hour of coaching. I have to say that it was near to complete chaos as about 50 more children turned up from nowhere, but it was still fun and really tiring!!!"

Group 4:

- Lily Harris "Today was a lovely day, sun shining and everything! We went back to Grand IQ and had the same group of children as yesterday. One of the girls I met was named Nelly and made me a letter and all the other girls in my group. It was so nice I wanted to cry. After we had finished, then we went to Chilanga for lunch and to teach dance. Me and Lara also got to see our friends we made yesterday. We had a dance off and they also braided my hair. I had such an awesome day."

- David Cohen "Today was an inspirational day, especially for me. I consider myself an African, coming from Cape Town. it was truly interesting for me to see how the other half live. A lot of the children came from having nothing, especially compared to our material wealth as westerners. Yet what they lack in possessions they have in soul. Our aim with this trip is to provide an experience for disadvantaged children which includes a tournament. Unfortunately a select few can participate, which makes it harder for us to make decisions to make a difference in people's lives. This experience of the hardship is truly making me reassess my current lifestyle."

Group 5:

- Katy Cunningham "Today we had our second session with Grand IQ. We carried on with our coaching but we started picking the best players to play together. After coaching we had our lunch at Chilanga and once again all the children followed us. Some of the dancers then went to Guardian Angels and we taught them one of our routines. They then amazed us in a freestyle circle. After a long day we all came back and went in the freezing cold pool, well actually most of us got thrown in. For dinner we had a really nice stew and a very strange sloppy pudding. I'm looking forward to tomorrow because I can't wait to progress more with the children."

- George Holland "Today we visited Grand IQ school and taught tag rugby again. We also began to select our team for the upcoming tournament. After leaving there at midday we went to Chilanga school and taught more tag rugby. It was quite challenging to teach them because they didn't speak very good English. When we arrived back at Baobab some of us went for a cold swim. We then had a delicious stew for dinner and a funny looking but tasty pudding. I'm looking forward to bed now!!!"