Hockey Night in Uganda

Friday night is Hockey Night in Uganda. The only thing missing was Don Cherry and Ron MacLean.

The last time I was over for dinner at Dr. Jean’s house, her husband Thom recruited me to their Canadian hockey team for the big match against the Americans on Friday night. Never one to turn down a chance to play, of course I agreed.

I showed up at Jean and Thom’s house expecting a friendly game of makeshift road hockey, because, after all, we’re in the middle of Uganda.
I was very, very wrong.

Thom, (who you have to meet to appreciate his intensity about everything) had built a concrete hockey pad in their backyard, complete with nets, flood lights, and bleachers. As I walk up to the rink where the game is already underway, Liz (Jean’s oldest daughter) shouts at me to “grab a stick and get in here!” To my right there are at least 15 hockey sticks to choose from, varying in height and curve. I have no idea which to choose… I haven’t played hockey since I was a kid. I quickly think back to when I used to play with my childhood friends Brock and Geoff. Something comes to me…something about the stick being the height of your nose? Sounds good. I choose the appropriate nose-height stick and join Team Canada. There’s a pause in the play for introductions.

(Cut to Satellite Hotstove here)

I’m introduced to the Reverend from USA, and of course being terrible with names I can’t remember his first name so we will call him the Rev. The Rev is a middle age guy, maybe late 30’s early 40’s, with curly hair and a receding hairline. Another guy, younger than the Rev and whose name I also can’t remember, is the other grownup on Team USA. He’s tall, skinny, dark hair, probably in his early 30’s and teaches here at the university. The rest of the American team was made up of little kids. I never figured out which kid went with which adult, but between the two American families there were about six kids. The youngest little guy (Robbie) was about three and had a hockey stick with the handle cut down to about 12 inches above the blade. He mostly just walked around, dragging the stick behind him.

Team Canada was made up of Thom, Jean, their 3 kids, and now me. I’ve been signed as the new goalie. The last time I played goalie I was probably 8, in a net in Geoff MacPherson’s driveway where I took a roller-puck to the face. I retired shortly after that.
Until now, that is, where I find myself out of retirement and standing in the net looking legit with a baseball glove on one hand, goalie stick in the other. I’m thinking this won’t be too hard, just a friendly game of ball hockey with a bunch of kids and a few grownups.

Wrong again. Before I know it, I’ve got Americans charging at me, Jean shouting to her kids for the pass, and Thom sacrificing his body to block a shot. This is when I realize that Hockey Night in Uganda is serious business. I stand there with my baseball glove and stick, eyes widening as the play comes towards me. Liz, who’s about 7, shouts at me to show her my moves. The ball whizzes in front of me as the Rev centres it for one of the kids to take a shot. I react to this about a full second later (after the play is halfway down the other end) by wildly swing my stick around. Jean pulls me out of the net and puts Liz in instead. This was probably a good choice.

We play, or maybe the better word would be battle, for almost 2 hours. Thom controls the ball on our team, I mostly just run back and forth across the pad….very similar to little Robbie, except that I have a bigger stick. I did end up with an assist after Jon, who is 5, put it in the net. In the end, Team Canada came out ahead with a score of 7-6.

Travel tip #2: Practice hockey before coming to Uganda. I wouldn’t be surprised if Thom has scheduled a few extra practices for the newest member of Team Canada. Thankfully, I’ve got seven months until playoffs.

So this is Uganda......

This morning I woke up in Uganda, tangled in a mosquito net that was supposed to be hanging over my bed. Apparently I need to learn how to better secure mosquito nets.

It was the squawking of a bird right outside my window that woke me up at I don't know what time. It must have been early because the sun was just coming up. After untangling myself from the net, I looked out the window to see some kind of enormous black bird sitting on my balcony. I don't know what kind it was, but it did not look pretty or friendly. It had huge claws and a nasty looking beak. It stayed there squawking for a very long time. I finally got out of bed at 8am, which works out to be about midnight back home.

I arrived in Uganda yesterday morning, I think around 730. I lost track of time after two time changes and no sleep for almost 2 days. It was a 6 and a half hour flight to Heathrow, a 13 hour layover, and then another 8 and a half hours to Uganda. Travel tip #1: Do not go for a 10k run the day you are about to spend 15 hours on a plane. It is a terrible idea.

Thankfully, all my luggage made it here intact! I found it all and went out to arrivals to see a guy holding a sign with my name on it. This was the best African airport experience I've ever had. First time in many years that I have not had a) a man with an AK47 ask for bribe money b) a man with an AK47 interrogate me as to why I want to enter the country, or c) my bags searched by the same man with the AK47. Everyone should come to Uganda.

Unless, of course, you suffer from road rage (or any type of anxiety when driving), in which case you should never come here... or any African country. The airports may be nicer than Nigeria, but the driving is the same. There are no rules. Your horn means “Look out or I will run you over”. So, basically all you do is put the pedal to the metal and lay on the horn. On the 2 and a half hour drive to the University I saw my life, as well as that of several others, flash before my eyes. One time, while entering a round-about doing close to 70, we cut straight through 3 lanes (if you can call them that...more like 2 layers of bikes and scooters in between each of 3 layers of cars and trucks), only to dodge a pot hole, swerve millimeters away from 2 guys on a scooter and narrowly escape being sandwiched between another van and a truck. We emerged from the roundabout doing a little closer to 75. Interestingly, I passed 3 buildings advertising driving schools on the way in.

My room here is fantastic - by African standards. I have a great big window and balcony that looks onto the campus and my own bathroom that even has a shower with lukewarm water! I'm not being sarcastic here. This is wayyyyyy better than throwing buckets of cold water over my head like in Nigeria. Probably the best part is that there are no signs of gigantic cockroaches. Yet.

I share an office in the Save the Mothers building here at Uganda Christian University. With me is Jacq, who is an International Health Professional, and Dr. Eve, who is an OBGYN. Both are from Uganda. We went out for lunch at a canteen on campus which was.....interesting. Jacq ordered for me what appeared to be the back half of a fish (fully intact with tail, bones and all the scales) sitting in some sort of brown fishy smelling sauce. Served with it was a kind of paste that looked very similar to cassava and something that I assume is related to bananas. It wasn't all that bad actually. And it only cost 2000 shillings, which is about 1 dollar. The best thing I've had today was definitly a smoothie, made from fruit right off the trees. If you ever have the chance to try jackfruit, do it. It's good. Fresh fruit smoothie: 1000 shillings, or 50 cents.

Uganda is wonderful. My office and co-workers are also wonderful. I think the only thing that will prove difficult is the evenings. As I'm writing this right now at about 730pm, I'm a little lonely. All my co-workers, the only people I know in the whole country, leave at 5. The res I'm in is for graduate students, and they don't start until Oct 11^th, so I'm all alone in the building. It's a little lonelier still because I look out my window and I can see all kinds of students walking about campus... but I don't know any of them. This must be what it's like to be the new kid at school. But worse, because I'm not even in anyone's class. I think I'll try and make friends with some other students who are here on campus. I'm not sure how exactly I'll do that since I only really encounter them in passing. Maybe I can pretend to be a student and join some intramural teams or something. Plan B will just be walking up to someone who looks sort of friendly and saying “Hi, my name's Laura. Let's be friends?”

For my first full day, I think everything went ok. In fact, everything is pretty awesome. I still can't belive I'm in Uganda. It feels surprisingly homey, except for maybe the fishtail lunch. I'm looking forward to getting my time zones adjusted. I started work this morning at what felt to me like 1:30 in the morning, but it was really 930 over here.

I have a cell phone, but I don't know the number. I also haven't figured out my mailing address, but when I do I'll post it on here.

Missing some of the comforts of home, but all in all, my move here has been smooth. Praying that it will continue to be this way, and that this week will bring with it some new friends! Miss you guys over there. Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement :)

-L.C.