Thursday 26 May 2011

A Weekend of Contrasts

So last weekend, in the lenten period for the great celebrations that will accompany the arrival of my sisters (or baganda bange in luganda - I will do a post all about luganda soon - promise), I took a quiet one in town an busied myself with local activities.

Saturday night, I went with some friends from work to see a Caberet sponsered by Alliance Française (where I take my french classes) at a boutique hotel called Emin Pasha, with French hits sung by Joël Prévost, who WON the eurovision song contest in 1978 with the song "Il y aura toujours des violons" ("There Will Always Be Violins"). I mean - how could we NOT go??

It was a great evening, despite the wildly-overpriced food. It was mainly a francophone crowd in attendance and the participation element of the concert became a bit nervewracking as a mircophone began to be enthusiastically passed around the audience. We didn't know any of the songs, but happily clapped along anyway. 
On Sunday we then attended the 3rd National Uganda Motocross Championship at Gayaza. If you thought Africa was all about mud huts and malaria - dream on. Ugandas too have a need for speed! My friend Joseph was racing, as were his too little boys. I won't pretend to know alot about motocross, but the event was REALLY popular and all over the news the next day, as the leading champion had been overthrown.
The track was not lined with proper seating areas, so you had to push to get a good spot... unless you were good at tree climbing! When the crowd in the tree cheered the whole tree shook. But the people watching from beneath didn't seem nervous at all.
The best race of the day was the hotly contested boda-boda race. The winner received 1,000,000/- which is more than a month's salary, so the competition was fierce. However, the drivers took the time to pleased the crowd with a few jumps!

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