Happy first day of Ramadan and a shout out to all my friends returning from Burning Man. I hope your important synapses are still intact and you managed to forge some interesting new ones. Let me know how it went.
Tomorrow morning I board a plane to Mombassa where I will spend a couple of days then bus down to Dar Es Salam in Tanzania and ferry over to the island of Zanzibar where I can enjoy peace and quiet and all the swimming with tropical fishies on pristine white sand beaches I can handle. Yes!
Currently I am hanging out with Ivan, the boyfriend of the girl I stayed with in Bujigalli falls, Shannon's friend, in Kampala. Last night was a hoot. Ivan took me to a confirmation party for his neighbors kids. It was at a sports bar with a stage and celing fans immediately below the icycle blue flourescent lights adding a painful stobing effect. There were many words said by the preacher followed by a hip hop dance performance for our viewing pleasure. Much to my confusion I was next. I was led by the hand up on stage to perform to some Ugandan pop music, which I happen to like very much; it has a mellowness to it. I feigned fear then busted out some fancy dance moves learnt over the years on Fresno's West side. I was then asked to give a speach which I managed because I had been secretly fantacising one. "God is what unites us," I said and it seemed to go over well.
The 2010 world cup is going to be in South Africa. This is the first world cup in Africa. An African team has never won the world cup. Could this be the one? Wherever their is power and enough commerce to pay for sattelite television (always preceeds internet) there will be a sports theatre showing live games of the best teams in the European leagues. The big ones are Arsenal, Manchester Unite, Chelsea, and Liverpool, all from the English Premier League. The theatres charge about 30 cents and are often packed. I have made it a habit to see as many game as I can; its a good bonding experience. Arsenal is my adopted team because their first game of the season happened to be playing at the bar where the source of the nile is and I was able to grab a beer and get my $7 entrance fee worth of entertainment. Soccer games are on televisions everywhere here. The last internet cafe I was at had yesterdays games playing. The confimation party had four TVs showing various games from the Italian, Spanish and English leagues. Ugandans love their soccer and they are very good too. In Nkokonjeru I am able to play pickup several times a week just before sundown. The style of play is different than what am used to but I have enjoyed adjusting. Every player seems to have total control of the ball and themselves and has every option of passing, dribbling, waiting at their disposal. Here, soccer is a game of conrol rather than attack and defend. I would love to play a full game with my peers. So the World Cup is comming to Africa in 2010 and I will be here rooting for the a dark horse, any of them. There are many Africans playing in the European leagues and many of them are stars (a cause for so much interest here). Will they bring enough tallent back to their home countries to compete for the World Cup championship? Will half of Germany's team be stricken by Malaria and unbearable intestinal discomfort? We shall see. For once, Africans will hold the world's gase and I hope it turns into a triumph for the world's least weighted continent.
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