We went, we went..To a football match!
Well, Saturday brought the most extreme adventure I’ve had yet in Uganda–a football match! (That’s a soccer game in American English). 🙂 My roommates Donna and Bethany and I went with some folks from EMI (Engineering Ministries International) to see the Uganda Cranes play the Kenya Harambee Stars at Naboole Stadium on the northeast side of Kampala. Going into the game, if Uganda won, they would advance to the Africa Cup, something that hasn’t happened since 1978.
Now, to better understand this experience, one must give up one’s conceptions of American sporting events, which, although they’re loud and noisy and fans get excited, are governed by a basic sense of order most of the time. Not so in this setting.
EMI had arranged for a taxi, and we left around 11:00 in the morning for a 5:00 game, which seemed crazy to me. I was soon to learn, though, that our Ugandan “guide”–the guy who arranged it all–knew very well what he was doing. We arrived to find the stadium teeming with people, many of whom had invested the 5000 UGX on a blowhorn, and who were blowing vigorously. It was actually a really fun atmosphere–the entire ride to the stadium people were waving flags, blowing their horns, and cheering. The lines were long, but I THINK someone in our group paid someone to get us in–I wasn’t really sure what was going on, but that’s what some others in our group said. So we made it through the lines, through security, through the press of people going up the stairs, and into the stadium. The crowd at the stadium behaved much like traffic here in Kampala–every man (and woman)for him or herself. Politeness gets one nowhere except further behind and separated from the group; the concept of yielding to someone or having a set order of movement is almost unheard of. It was also difficult to get up the stairs because they weren’t allowing bottles into the stadium, so people just threw them down on the steps.
We made it in, though, and got fairly good seats. They were pretty high up, which allowed for a good view, and I was pleased, because I thought if there was rioting/trampling, getting to the top of the stadium would be a good bet! The rioting/trampling concern was not totally an idle one; these things do happen, and after seeing the immense number of people crammed into the stadium, I can understand how. The place was definitely filling up by 11:45 or so when we were finally seated, and so it was good that we arrived when we did. And it WAS fun. It was extremely loud–the blowhorns were in great abundance, as were whistles, and the men thought it was especially fun to blow their horns right in our ears as we passed by, because, hey, muzungu women must like that. We were very much-very much-in the minority at the game. I would estimate that there were 80,000 people in the stadium, and I saw maybe 15 other whites (muzungus) in our section and on a trip out combined. So it was an interesting cultural experience in that sense too. Lots of people took pictures of us simply because of our white skin, and lots of men (many fueled by beer) wanted their picture taken with a white woman. It was kind of good to be on that end of things, though, because that is often how foreigners treat Ugandans–as cultural exhibitions. They often don’t mean any harm by it; Africa IS vastly different from America and Europe. And it’s understandable at the match, too–we were something of a novelty. It was good to at least know what it feels like, though!
So the day passed. Bethany and I went out from about 12:00-1:00, which a nice relief from the noise and heat of the stadium. (The stadium was open, but we were in the sun). We walked around the stadium, found the bathroom, and assessed the food and drink options. The food options weren’t so different from those in the States–chips (french fries), pop, fried chicken, hotdogs, but all with a Ugandan flavor, and with some different options as well, like beef stew over rice. It was fun to walk around and see the array of costumes/painting that people had donned in support of the Cranes, and just to take in the partylike atmosphere. The taking-in was somewhat impeded by the very large number of men commenting on the fact that we were muzungu women, but it didn’t ruin the experience by any means.
We went back out of the much fuller stadium at 3:00 and stayed out until about 3:30, at which point the population in the stadium was reaching a bursting point. We had a few hairy minutes when we got to the mouth of the entrance and needed to make our way up to our seats. It was absolutely packed, with scarcely room to put our feet, and no one would give an inch. I think they were probably hassling us a little because we were white, and they decided not to cooperate (although that isn’t the usual Ugandan way). Anyway, we couldn’t go any farther, and the crowd behind us kept pushing until finally someone got up and let us through. We elbowed and pushed and climbed our way up amid cheers and comments and plenty of touching that didn’t need to be going on.
At that point we sat in the blazing sun for one more hour, sweated, and waited for the game to begin. The crowd was crazy–jumping and cheering and blowing their horns and shouting. I don’t know how they kept it up for so long! And it was interesting that as soon as the game started, everyone sat down and was quiet (in a relative sense) unless something exciting happened. It was a great game, and really fun to watch. It was fast paced and the players were of course very good. Uganda should’ve won. They kicked for a goal probably 15 times, but just kept missing by a little (and Kenya’s goalie was really excellent), while Kenya only got close to their goal about 3 times. In the end, though, it was a tie, and Angola won their match the same day to advance to the Africa Cup.
About 10 minutes before the game ended, the great number of police who had been standing facing the crowd in the stadium moved into a ring around the pitch (the field). The crowd was surprisingly tame at the end–they hurled a few contraband water bottles and whatever else was at hand, but there was no real violence, and we moved out pretty easily, made our way to the taxi, and even traffic flowed pretty smoothly.
So it was a fun day, and, because I’m alive and non-trampled, a fun experience. Will I go again? Not likely. There is a real element of risk–I could see how the crowd could go bad and turn dangerous at the drop of a hat, and while the game was really fun to watch, the six hours in the hot sun on concrete bleachers was, well, less fun.
But a great experience, and now I know! I am deeply grateful that the Lord watches out for us in ALL situations…
This is a long one; thanks for reading!
Check in again, friends! Every day is a new adventure here at latitude zero!
Miss Carpenter- we are reading your blog in Social Studies. The kids really miss you. They say you are the best! We are wondering what your favorite part of Uganda is. We hope you are doing well. We hope it is not too crowded. Do you like the food that they have there? Is it fun in Uganda? We hope you come back and visit.
Dear Mrs. Soto and Third Graders,
Greetings from Uganda! I’m so glad to hear from you, and I’m glad I can share my adventures with you! I hope that all of you will do some traveling when you grow up. It’s really fun, and we can learn a lot from living in new places. As you can see, Kampala is great fun and a real adventure almost all the time. As you know, I am teaching second grade this year, and I have 24 students in my class. We have just finished learning about communities and Uganda, and we are now going to learn about the mountains and the forest. It just finished raining VERY HARD here. It rained almost all day yesterday, and we didn’t have power most of the day. But the kids did a good job and just made the best of the situation. And we know about power outages at Morrill, don’t we?
I’d better say goodbye and finish planning for tomorrow. I hope you are all doing well, working hard, having fun in third grade, and being good for Mrs. Soto! 🙂
Keep in touch!
Your friend,
Miss Carpenter