Sports

Regarding the Nigeria Vs. Uganda football game, here is a photo of the stadium with both teams, Uganda in red and Nigeria in white. As you can see, it's a real stadium and it was PACKED with people. Leaving the stadium looked like a sea of people walking on two roads, it was crazy. MTN is the leading telecom company in Uganda, including my phone carrier.

Here is a photo at one of my primary schools of the local inter school soccer competition. It's almost similar to sectionals in high school as in you start competing locally then going sub zone then zonal the district wide then finally National (almost like statewide competition). The biggest difference is that the team that advances consists of the best players of both teams so the players don't represent a particular school, but an area. I don't like this method because the kids don't even get to practice together and don't have pride for their school. It also encourages personal and not team oriented playing so the boy might have good skills but he doesn't want to play as a team. The second photo is after the end of the game with all the students rushing the field (my zone, Kangulumira, won). The headmasters, on the left, are shaking hands, almost as if they had anything to do with the win.

At the same time as soccer competitions, which is only for boys, the girls play netball. (According to men here if a girl has netball why should she want to play soccer? Ugh....) It is a mix between basketball and handball. I love watching this game, well, actually it's pretty boring. The girls aren't good, so similar to girls lacrosse, there are calls every 10 seconds so plays get reset constantly. It's great to see girls being physical and aggressive because in this society they are so passive and quiet which often leads to suppression and unfortunate sexual relations. Also notice how people literally stand on the side of both the netball and soccer field...when I was a referee that would not been happening, same with the people who hang out behind the goals...oh no, definitely not.