The return of Pelé…not quite

My time home in December/January helped me to realize how quickly my time in Uganda is actually going. It gave me an opportunity to think about what I had done and seen and also what I still wanted to do and see before my work over here wraps up in early June.

One disappointment from my first four months in Uganda was my lack of interaction with locals through sports. I love to play sports and I came over here expecting to play all of the time. However, when I came back in December, the closest thing I had done to group sports was running the Kampala half marathon with a few friends.

I decided to change that when I came back for the second half of my time in Uganda. I had received an invitation from Dr. Da Silva, the coordinator of the renewable energy master’s program, to play sports with a group of students that he mentors. This last Sunday I took him up on the invite for the first time, and met a group of students/professionals ranging in age from 23-30 who were going to play football (soccer).

When it comes to sports, soccer is the undisputed king over here. Kids grow up playing the sport. I had played soccer a little while growing up, but since Jefferson didn’t have a high school program the last time I had played soccer competitively was in 8th grade. In other words, I hadn’t played for about a decade. This, obviously, didn’t bode well for me.

Once everyone arrived (as usual, people showed up about 30-60 minutes after the intended start time) there were eight of us, and we played four on four with small nets and no goalkeeper.

There wasn’t too much exciting for most of the game, basically me just running around chasing people who were much better than me. I did manage to have a classic “me moment” though. While defending the ball, the dribbler went one way and I went the other to try and steal and…crunch! His forehead met the upper part of my nose, and his forehead will win that battle every time. I was off on the sidelines for about 15 minutes trying to stop the bleeding and to tell if I had broken my nose or not. Looking at it the day after, I’m still not sure, but I don’t think it’s broken. I really can’t tell that much of a difference actually…but that’s probably because I had a big nose to start with!

I eventually got back on the field and played with everyone until the game ended at 7:00 with sundown. I was the only non-Ugandan, and definitely the least skilled, but I don’t think I made too much of a fool of myself. At least, I received an invite to come back next week…but maybe that’s because watching me on the field makes them feel better about their own skills!

Cheers!
Chris


This is not what I looked like...