PART 2
The organization that had picked interest in me kept pursuing my search for a school. They told me about a new school on the continent. Apparently, the "Harvard of Africa" . . . African Leadership University. I was in a state of desperation and really cared less about what I studied next. I still held onto the pursuit of college basketball, however blurry the path looked. I spent an entire night working on an application to the African Leadership University in Rwanda. Within weeks, I was admitted on a scholarship to the University. Joining the university was a crazy idea that perplexed my parents. My hometown, Kabale, is by the border of the country where the University is located, which the media portrayed to have a bitter relationship with our country. Everyone thought me crazy! Indeed, they were right. For a Pan-African University with over 43 Nationalities, having only 6 Ugandans in the whole school was questionable. I hope this has changed because the two countries seem to have reconciled their differences.
Two of my first friends in Kigali. Me (Uganda), Bello (Niger) and Martin (Kenya).
Once in Rwanda, I visited nearly every court in Kigali, looking for girls who played basketball as I wanted to play for a team. The best I could get was a coach who cared less about the language barrier I was experiencing and more about screaming at me in short English phrases. Honestly, I also cared less about his behavior because I loved the game. I would come to practice every day, even when I didn't have a meal. I had started working at a five-star bistro and bar (a job I got through a Chinese billionaire. It sounds ridiculous, but trust me, it's a story for another day). I could cover my house rent and cater for my other expenses in Rwanda through this job. The team I attempted to join later on had zero (by zero, I mean zero) interest in me. Have you ever been on the court, and your presence is as silent as your absence? I failed to join a team for the next one and a half years, which made me rethink my basketball life. I am a two-sport athlete (soccer and basketball). I questioned if God wanted me to retreat to soccer. Maybe.
Random visits to Basketball courts in kigali, Rwanda.
I returned to Uganda when COVID-19 hit in early March 2020. My country, which nearly falls on the spectrum of anarchy, restored hope in me. The law is strong in the books but weak in life. It wasn't an instant hope. It was a gradual hope through pain and sweat. As soon as I returned, I reached out to my former Captain in high school and asked if I could join the team she was playing for at Makerere University. She was more than happy to have me. Guess what? The lockdown was announced literally the first week I stepped on the court! Maybe basketball wasn't meant for me. Did I have to have all these desperate attempts to be recognized by a team or to play?
Some of the girls that came for evening pick up games at Kyambogo University.
During the pandemic, I stayed with my cousin in a small suburb, Kiira-Najjera II, and would jog every day (I mean every day. Even Sunday) to Kyambogo for pick-up games(16 km/10 miles to and fro in total). As it usually is, our sports industry is so testosterone-filled that finding girls at a pick-up game is like finding an original gold ornament on the streets of Kampala. Out of the entire evening of sun drying by the courtside in Kyambogo, I would get to play only one game, just like the other two or three girls present. This was a gift in the making. On this sideline, I would sit silently and watch the sweaty boys play rough on the rigid tarmac. On this same sideline, a young gentleman sat silently beside me. Slowly, we warmed up to each other. He was a retired athlete looking to make a mark in coaching. He suggested he could train me for free. I was skeptical of his niceness but seized it with two hands. Whether it rained, shined, snowed, froze, or burned, Coach James (not real names) was always at the court for two hours of intensive workouts. After approximately two months, the police raided the court because sports and exercise activities (informal activities, not the league) had also been banned due to the continued COVID-19 prevalence. This was when the president made a video of himself running indoors to show us that we could work out from our homes. If there is anything I took from Coach James, it was doing a pushup. You can imagine how far pushups have taken me!
Part III coming soon. Follow my mini-book series on What Goes on in an Athlete's Mind with a Season-Ending Injury.
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