Football, Frustration & Family

Ah, so I got the football thing a bit wrong! This won't surprise those of you that know me!! The team that Jack & Sim had a training session with are equivalent to say....Colchester. That said the boys had a fab time. A training session with a Ugandan team, coached by a man that used to play for Uganda. Jack held his own and looked brill out there - I was so proud of him! He was dripping by the end of it, imagine playing in this heat!!!  It was the icing on the cake for him and made him keen to get home for friendlies and pre-season training. The coach would have taken Jack & Sim to his academy for a day today but we just couldn't make it work - next time? This is what Rob is so brilliant at - meeting people on each trip, like Charles our driver who manages the team, then linking up with them and making things happen. He will maintain the link and re-establish the contact next year. As always with these folk, at the end of the session there were speeches of thanks. Rob gave the team a kit for which they were so very grateful - Stow Falcons are now represented in Uganda! Their appreciation for such a simple act of generosity was humbling.

This country has its frustrations. At dinner yesterday I chatted to Alex (I'm not always sure who people are or where they've appeared from?!) he talked of his country's corruption, its president who is in his 6th term of power (each being 5 years), and of the frustration of all that goes with this. These people have no alternative but to accept that this is how life is. Frustrating.  Charles the football manager and our driver, Jack tells me, gets approached weekly to play professionally, but it doesn't pay enough and he wants to pay for his daughter, Lucky, to be educated. Frustration.

Last night we had dinner at BULA, with no electricity!!  Afterwards the children sang and danced for us. Songs of pride about their country, songs of welcome to us, songs about working hard and having goals and......those amazing bottom moving dances!!! They obviously learn it from an early age?!  I chatted to a couple of the boys, one who will work hard to try to be a dentist and one who wanted to know about where I live and my family. I spoke fondly of my brothers in Wales & London and my mum nearby. I wasn't sure if it was ok to ask him about brothers and sisters, I did.  He told me he is a twin and he last saw his twin in 2010, he couldn't remember when he last saw his sister.......... I couldn't imagine. I asked him if this was sad. "Sad? Noooo!" he said as if I'd asked something strange. Again, an acceptance that this is just how life is. I'll see both my brothers and of course, my mum over the next month. I will hug them all for just a little longer than usual. 

As we walked back to the hostel Jack was giving a small boy a piggy back. They were chatting, then Jack realised the boy had stopped talking, Jack felt tears running down his neck. The boy was crying, perhaps life like this isn't always easy to accept.

So my norm seems to be waking at 4.30am! Singing again at 5.30!!  Today we have been to a craft market - oh my!!! We spent all our money and borrowed more besides!! It was wonderful!! We're just having lunch (Red Chilli!) before we leave for Entebbe where we'll stay overnight before catching the plane tomorrow, we're nearly home!  I think my last blog will be from my spare room at home - one last one xx