Just for kicks

I am officially registered to play soccer for a team in the Swaziland Women's National League. It is definately the most official team I have been on since high school. I had to "get" (write) a letter from Durham Parks and Recreation stating that I had played for them and was released in good standing to play for another organization. The team is composed of mainly swazi young women. Most I would guess are in their late teens although a few may be very early twenties. They practice on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons and then games are on the weekend. I practiced with them for the first time on Tuesday. We practiced with a men's team because a church tent is currently erected in the field where we normally practice. It was a full on practice with drills, sprinting exercises, ab work and scrimmaging. Needless to say, I am still hurting. I plan to practice and play games when I am available, but made it clear to the coach I did not want him counting on me. We have started taking siSwati lessons in the afternoons also, which are a priority for me. It should be fun though. If my body allows me to continue both this and running, I should be in the best shape I have been in since high school.

We are off to Uganda this week for the network meeting. I am really excited. It will be nice to see and get updates from some of the other docs we bonded with in houston. It can't hurt either that the hotel of the conference sits right on the short of Lake Victoria. We are still trying to negotiate seeing the gorillas, but it is beginning to look like it will not work out. It seems that changing our return ticket might be quite pricey on top of the chunk of money we would be shelling out for the gorilla safari itself.