A Universal Language

Soccer!  
I love soccer.  "Football"in Uganda, another product of their British-English.

Sadly I don't have any pictures of this, but a few nights ago Grace, Hannah and I were invited to visit Grace's friend Ivan's house about an hour and a half outside the city in a much more rural community than Kampala/Mengo.  And what did everyone do there in the afternoons?  Play soccer.  I love this about traveling.  I really love playing soccer- its one of the things I missed most when I started college- no longer having a team to train with and play for.  That being said almost everywhere I've been to in the world so far I have seen soccer be the bond in communities and have happily joined in pickup games as they came my way.
I could go on and on about the philosophy of soccer and my love for the sport, but I'll say that in my experience its a game that anyone can enjoy anywhere with almost any number of people and all you need is a ball.
The game we played was 4 v. 4 and we used our sandals as goal posts.  Barefoot soccer in the sun and grass with locals my age who also love the sport.  Oh and Grace's friend who we were visiting, Ivan, when inviting us to play 'football' with him emerged from his house carrying an F.C. Seattle ball!  The exact same ball I have in my garage from soccer camps as a kid at my local elementary school, it was unbelievable.  It felt good to play again, and kick around an old F.C. Seattle ball, of all things.  I will say that Ivan and his friends definitely underestimated me as an opponent, being white and a girl.  I scored 5 of my team's 8 goals!  And at the end of the day he admitted that I do have some skills after all, only after my team beat his of course.  It was a proud moment for me.
Moral of the story: soccer crosses gender, age, race, and even language barriers, and can bring any group of people together for the sake of playing the game.  Am I reading too into this one small pick-up game in a grassy field in the middle of nowhere, Uganda? Possibly.  Call me a romantic.

Fact of the Day: a fifth of vodka in Uganda costs around $3.