Day 7

I can't quite believe its been a week here in Zambia already. Today was the first day of the tournaments with the pre-trained teams competing. These were primarily schools that we visited during the week but haven't focused on as part of our daily tag rugby coaching sessions, as they have had training in previous years. These teams included Sosco, Guardian Angels and Chilanga. During the week, some of the groups have given these schools refresher coaching sessions to prepare them for the tournament today. Today's tournament was held at St Patricks, one of the poorer areas we have visited. Tomorrows tournament will see the schools our students have been coaching all week compete against each other at Twitti school. The atmosphere was fantastic, with crowds watching the games and cheering support. It was the first day out that all our team have worked together in the same place. The team will give you there account of the day from all different perspectives:

Rob Mackie - "Today was the first tournament day and I teamed up with Max to coach/manage an orphanage school, Guardian Angels who turned out to do very well. The tournament was in a small school called St. Patrick's which a leader and and I went to teach at yesterday. It was a dusty field with no grass but turned out to be an ideal location - within a community, as lots of supporters arrived to watch. The children in my team were amazing not only on but also off the pitch. It was a great feeling seeing the children smile as they played this new game and the disappointment at the end showed they really cared. It was a great day and I look forward to getting home to add some of the guys on Facebook!"

Daisy Murray - "today was the first tournament day. We went to St Patricks school and it was really fun. We set up three pitches and there was a total of 12 teams, which meant that only 6 teams could play at a time. When we were there some people were managing the teams and there were 2 managers per team. There were also the four pitch managers who were making sure that everyone was where they were supposed to be. Everyone else was on crowd control and or refereeing but I had my hands full with stopping children walking onto the pitch in the middle of play and trying to keep them a safe distance away from the try line so they wouldn't get hurt by the players when a try was scored. For the tournament we had to leave before 8am so we had to be completely ready by breakfast at 7am. Because we were doing the tournament all morning, we didn't want to eat in front of the children so we didn't have lunch until we were on the bus back to Baobab early afternoon. Today was really fun."

Leigh Heynike - "Today was our first tournament at St Patricks. To get to the field we had to walk through 'Real Africa' with mud huts and grass roofs. We were given teams to look after and Catie and I had Sosco 2. All the children were given matching t-shirts that they would later keep. It was so much fun cheering the children on and seeing the smiles on their faces. They could hardly believe it when they got to the final and then when they won 6-1 they were ecstatic! They ran to me and Catie with big smiles and hugs - it was amazing!"

Becky O'Brien - "Today was the first day of the tournaments. I didn't know what to expect it it was a very enjoyable day and the atmosphere was lively and the children were very excited. I felt proud watching the children play as they had made tremendous progress in the sport we had spent the past few days coaching them in and I can't wait for tomorrow."

Phoebe Eggar - "Today was really good. We ran the tournament. I volunteered to be a pitch manager and so had to go down early. The crowds at St Patricks were crazy, they were following the home team. The pitch was in the centre of a community, most of the houses were mud huts with straw roofs. The children from the community came in their hundreds and got in very close to the try lines. It was crazy hot and everyone came back exhausted!!"

Molly Read - "I had a great day today. This morning was slow because we left the college at 8am so we had to wake up early for breakfast at 7am. We left the college to go to St Patricks School to do a tournament with 12 teams from all the different schools. It was really fun, quite tiring. We were there for about 7 hours. I'm having fun with the children but it was sad when we had to say goodbye yesterday. It's a great experience."

Lara McIllwraith - "Today was the day that all the hours of coaching would pay off. Held by St Patricks school, the tournament took place in a small run down village in which the locals lived in huts. 12schools were involved in the tournament in the tournament and to ensure it ran smoothly we each had a different job. As well as refereeing a game, I had the role of managing a team along with Elisha. This job involved making sure all the subs were swapped in and making sure the team was playing on the right pitch at the right time. The day went really well and everyone had a great time."

Megan Houska - "Today we had a tag rugby tournament that we refereed and managed teams for. It was held at St Patricks school which was in a poor village we had to walk through. Each of us had different jobs. We all stood on the side of the pitch cheering the exams on. It was a good experience and it was great to see the children really happy."