Race // marco reus

i.

"Mr. Reus welcome to the Serena Hotel of Kampala City." The hotel manager welcomed me. He already pronounced my name wrong, he pronounced it R-oos.

"thank you." My agent, Kieth Schneider answered for me.

"and may your stay in Uganda be nothing more than pure joy." He smiled before leaving the room.

"can I rest a bit?" I asked. I knew as soon as I touched foot in this country I'd have to do a lot of going around and it was going to be nonstop.

"yes, but I'll be back in an hour." He looked at the gold watch on his wrist. Kieth was always on time and I wasn't so I knew me was going to be up my ass about our time here, which also meant I wouldn't have that much time to relax and be with myself.

I love charity work. I really really do but it was always a lot to do. you'd think your going for a few days to help out here and there but turns out its a whole month and you always end up doing more of the work then you've planned. but at the end of the day I had to realize what was more important and that was helping out the people that were in need.

"okay, give me a head start to know when you'll be here so I could shower." I laid on the big bed.

****

Africa.

It was so different than what I thought it'd be like. my best friend and teammate Pierre Abuameyeng told me how Africa would blow my mind. I didn't take his words seriously until now.

It was warm and sunny. It didn't take long for me to take out my phone and snap a few picture of the sights I was seeing. There were tons of people around and it was hard to concentrate on one thing when so much was going around at once. it was definitely different from Germany.

In Germany it was still winter time and snow covered the grounds whereas here it was the same month yet there was no sign of the cold or snow. And I liked it that way, I just wished there was time for me to relax and get a tan or something.

" Marco this is Patrick." Kieth motioned towards the guys seated on a motorcycle. I snorted to myself. how ironic. His name was Patrick and he looked a hell a lot like that Arsenal legend Patrick Viera.

I extended my arms at him. "Hello Patrick."

"hallo." He said.

"He is your boda driver." Kieth motioned to the motorcycle he was sitting on.

"I'm sorry what?" I asked.

"Boda Boda* it's one of the main transportation here, unless you'd rather walk." Kieth looked at me with no emotion as if this was a normal thing.

" I'm just supposed to get on this motorcycle with him? I've just met him." I said.

"It's all apart of your African experience eh?" He knew he won this. All of the plane ride I kept talking about how I'd try everything I can here for my African Experience. But when I said that I meant try things like touch a giraffe or something like that.

I gave him one dirty look before moving around to the back of the bike and stepping onto it. This was definitely something new and will be remembered as my first African experience.

The Ugandan wind ran through my hair. If you ever for one go to Uganda and you haven't rode on a boda than your experience here is wasted. For one, going on one is the most nerve wracking thing in the whole wide world. You'd think you'll crash any second but you don't and it's crazy.

How I made it out alive, I don't know. Kieth explained that Patrick would also be our tour guid to the village we were visiting. It seemed to have rained the day earlier because of the muddy ground. I had to tip toe through the mud trying to make sure my shoes didn't get wet.

" there's this school down the road, it's Modongo Primary school." Patrick explained. Modongo, but it was actually pronounce Moan-don-go. weird right.

The school was this long line of buildings then a wide open space in the middle and some trees here and there. before I could even finish blinking a rush of children filled the open space in what I was guessing was the courtyard for their breaks. A short man approached us. He was dressed in a suit and carried a small book in his hands.

"Hello, I am the headmaster." He introduced himself extending his arms shaking our hands. " my name is Joel Appiah." once again pronounced ah-pee-yah. I realized quick that the pronunciations here and in Germany were definitely different than what I expected.

I introduced myself to him before. He let us go around and meet the kids. They were all dressed in purple and grey uniforms. Guys with a white dress shirt and grey sweater over it with purple ties and dark grey shorts, while the girls had a purple dress and grey cardigans over them. This definitely reminded me of my time in primary school when I had to dress up in uniforms.

There was this one kid, Peter who kept following me around, which I didn't mind. He told me in English that he loved football. He was only 9 years old. I hadn't realized that I had camera men following me around, I didn't even realize they were here until I heard them take pictures of me conversing with Peter.

I soon found myself running up and down the field playing football with the young school children. It was tiring yes, I wasn't this tired playing in a actual stadium with a bigger field but here I found myself losing breath within a second.

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Boda Boda = one of the main transportations in Uganda. It's basically a taxi version of a motorcycle. The motorcyclist drives you to your destination and you pay them. Then there's also the boda tours where your boda driver shows you around on his motorcycle.