Uganda Little League

In January I was able to attend a baseball/softball camp for girls and boys. Baseball/Softball is not a well known sport and most in Uganda do not play it but an American man discovered the talent here in Uganda and decided to begin training coaches who can then train the children to play baseball. He built a beautiful complex just outside of the capital Kampala. On the complex there are 3 fields and dorms as well as houses where the individuals who run the programs here in Uganda live. Softball is newer here and not many people know the difference and the talent is new so myself and a couple other volunteers taught windmill pitching to girls and coaches for the 2 weeks of the camp. I never really pitched when I played softball but was able to work with the other volunteers to help teach these ladies how to pitch. We worked on basic fundamentals of pitching as well as how to coach and teach others how to pitch. We encouraged the coaches to watch one another pitch and point out what they were doing wrong and help the others correct their mistakes. 2 weeks was a long time for the camp and we were defiantly worn out by the end of each day between the hot sun yelling at the girls and actually doing stuff throughout the day (actually doing something was my biggest change since I had previously been at the orphanage where there was nothing for me to do other than nap and watch movies and tv shows and visit with the very few children who were there}. 

Uganda Little League has been in the news a lot in the past year as one of the teams made it to the World Series but then the visas were denied due to false birth certificates. Birth certificates are not a very common thing here and many parents here do not know the exact date their children were born but rather the month and the year so when someone asks them. Uganda would have been the first African team to make it to the Little League World Series that is held in the States each year. They would have played the Canadian team first in the series and when a Canadian woman heard about this she decided to take into her own hands and fundraised enough money to allow the Canadian team to come over to Uganda to play in the game that was supposed to be played. This created a lot of publicity for Uganda and their team even a couple Major League Baseball players came to show their support and help with the game and activities. Jimmy Rollins (shortstop for phillys} and Derrick Lee (first baseman for cubs but is now a free agent and im not sure if he has been signed yet} both came to show their support.  Jimmy Rollins came early and even participated in a softball game that we had every afternoon for the coaches and girls. I was playing catcher during the game and Jimmy hit me with his bat…Anyways overall it was a fun two weeks that I am glad I was able to be a part of and Uganda ended up beating Canada in the game and were rewarded with the equipment and prizes that they would have won if they would have gone on to win the world series.