Entebbe Golf Course

I must first thank my wonderful wife for allowing me to indulge my desire to play a round of golf at East Africa’s oldest and longest golf course at 6,684 yards. Built in 1932 by the British, it is adjacent to the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre, commonly known as the Zoo. It was my first experience with a caddy and being spoiled with carried clubs, washed balls, cleaned clubs and needed advice. We were joined by a Ugandan golf pro and national team member, Odong Steven. You don’t need to guess who won. Brenda walked the front nine, taking wildlife pictures, yakking with others on the course and then relaxed in the club house for the back nine.

I really should let others score for me more often. It did wonders for my reported scoring. My caddy would graciously score me a bogey even when I lost two balls in the rough.

Teeing off in Entebbe

Driving at Entebbe Golf Course

Monkeys in the Zoo next to the Entebbe Golf Course

We leave tomorrow (Wednesday) for Bunia. We haven’t heard any reason not to go. The election day was extended over another day to permit everyone to vote, which we consider a good thing as it will likely delay the scheduled results announcement day. We are hoping for a postponement of two days, ideally a week, so we can leave before results are announced.

Each ballot is 9 pages long, so counting and then any verification must be a nightmare! Some reports of concerns over stuffed ballot boxes seem exaggerated because the ballot itself is so big! I haven’t heard of any reports of inadequate ballot boxes inhibiting the voting, although that wouldn’t surprise me.

Kabila will win, and there will be disgruntled losers. I read a report of eastern Congo voters being disenchanted with Kabila so they won’t vote for him as they did in 2006. The story smacked of journalistic laziness, because the voter being interviewed was obviously English speaking and sophisticated, not your typical voter but someone easy to interview and obviously unrepresentative. The tribal reasons for voting for your tribal candidate remain unchanged, and with the high voter turnout in Congo, tribal reasons will explain Kabila will get elected.

There hasn’t been news of any abnormal violence in the east and the UN is also reporting a lack of violence in the east. While there obviously are issues and possibles threats in Congo, I am detecting some journalistic sensationalism too. In 2003, in Canada I talked with a Brit who had their trip to Edmonton cancelled due to SARS in Toronto. A travel ban was never placed on Vancouver or Toronto after Stanley Cup or G20 riots. Kinshassa and even Goma is a world away from Bunia, Beni and Butembo.

Our access to free Wifi Internet has been great so far. But please don’t expect pictures or daily posting going forward as we expect our Internet access while in Congo will be very limited.