Kampala

A couple weeks into my stay in Nairobi, we all received an email inviting Team Kenya to participate in an Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Kampala, Uganda. The week before the event unfortunately no one had gotten their act together to make a team, but, seeing the opportunity to leave Nairobi for a weekend, renew my visa, travel to Uganda, and play Ultimate Frisbee for two whole days, I decided to go anyways.

Traveling on a budget always makes life a bit more interesting. I took the bus rather than fly (only twelve hours) and seriously enjoyed having the time to myself to sit back and reflect on the past three months. I also saved some bills by staying with the tournament director and his family for the weekend. Although originally from Rwanda, they had been playing Ultimate in Kampala for over ten years. Friday night we stayed up way too late talking American sports and the importance of athletics.

The tournament itself was an interesting experience. There were six teams and about 75 participants from around the globe- Uganda was heavily represented, but there was also a team from Rwanda, and players scattered throughout from Sudan, the UK, Germany, the states, Mexico, and Colombia.

My team went undefeated on Saturday, but celebrated a bit too hard, and were completely destroyed on Sunday (oh well). Loosing aside, I am really glad I went, just to experience the Ultimate. As I mentioned previously- the sport normally has an atmosphere of cooperation rather than competitiveness. But this tournament took Ultimate to a whole new level- never have I participated in a more intense series of games. Many rules were contested and debated, with one disagreement resulting in a fist-fight, something unheard of back in the states. It definitely left me with enough to think about on the twelve-hour drive home.

Team All-stars