On your checklist for your next soccer game: a goat skin drum

So this weekend we found out our departure to Kumi was delayed for a couple days because the Ugandan students haven't received their stipends yet. So some of us med students decided to go to the World Cup Qualifying game in Uganda. The game was Uganda versus Angola and Uganda hasn't been doing well so far so if they lost this game they would be out of the competition for the World Cup.

We packed into Uganda's Mendela National Stadium with thousands of Africans and some foreigners to support the Ugandan National Team called "The Cranes." To our surprise, the Ugandan team did very well. They creamed Angola 3-1. Uganda had several very exciting goals and the crowd had great energy. (Just in case you didn't know already, Soccer or "Football" is a very big deal in East Africa).

One of the best things about the game for me was how several fans in the crowd had giant goat skin drums that they would beat (or let other people beat) during the game. If they thought you were cheering really well, they would come up to you and tell you to hit the drum. It was pretty fun. I kept thinking - what would a crowd in the United States do if you asked them to hit a drum at a soccer game? :)

Some of the soccer playing action. Uganda was in Yellow and Angola was in white.

One of the fans behind us. I took this during a less-exciting time early in the game that is why they are actually sitting down. Towards the end pretty much everyone was standing up cheering, shouting, blowing whistles and, of course, beating on drums!

The half-time show consisted of holding a giant sheet with a cellphone company title on it in the middle of the soccer field. Pretty enthralling.

A shot of the crowd.

Here are the us three medical students enjoying the game. (Actually, the girl on the right, Grace, just finished her medical degree in the UK so she is actually a doctor). We had a lot of fun.