Y'Ello Fest!

Me and Some Friends at Y'Ello Fest

Yesterday was an exciting day for Gulu. MTN ("Official Mobile Sponsor of the FIFA World Cup") held a massive party at the Kaunga Grounds. Y'Ello Fest was MTN's way of implementing their World Cup tagline: "Africa United." The grounds was supposed to be set up with a stage and large screens (which they were going to play the Ivory Coast v. Brazil game on at night) as well as fireworks and concerts. We'd heard that they were expecting some 30,000 people to attend -- one of the biggest events in Gulu in the last few years. Now, in general I like large crowds as much as I enjoy having dental work done, but we thought we should go down anyway. I mean, when is the next time I'll get to say that I attended a majorly attended event in N. Uganda?

Not to mention -- the MTN guys had been staying at our hotel and all of them were wearing the extremely cool "Africa United" jerseys that I'd seen only on television. I don't know what the coverage of World Cup is like at home, but here they are constantly playing commercials with these awesome yellow jerseys and when they cover South Africa everyone in South Africa seems to be wearing these jerseys. I tried to get one online, but it turns out they aren't for sale. They're a promotional item only. According to the MTN guys we talked to, they would be available at Y'Ello Fest. That settled it. I was going.

Blake and I made our way over in the morning, as they were still setting up the grounds. There were already a few hundred people just standing around waiting for the excitement to begin.

Kaunga Grounds at 11:00 in the Morning

We searched for people to ask for the yellow jerseys, but we had no luck. The people at the MTN tents said that they didn't have them. Then later, when the MTN vans rolled up they told us that they weren't giving them out. I was really disappointed, but definitely willing to live with the fact that I wasn't going to be the bearer of a fabulous yellow jersey. 

It was getting hot, and kind of crowded, and we'd pretty much taken pictures of everything possible, so we decided to head back to town. Blake headed his own way for lunch and I headed to Cafe Larem to meet Lowna. Now, Lowna had been looking for a vuvuzuela (the fabulously annoying horns from World Cup) which the MTN guys had been toting around. I'd had no luck scoring one of those either. We discussed this as we headed to market, where Lowna needed to buy produce (and I picked up another two yards of fabulous fabric for my sisters back at home). 

Coming back to Acholi Ber, we ran into the MTN manager, Silva, as he was headed out to Kaunga Grounds.  Lowna explained to him, "I'm South African. I NEED a vuvuzuela." ...low and behold, he happened to have just one handy, which he kindly gave to Lowna (completely making her morning). 

Lowna and Her Vuvuzuela (And Mark -- Manager of Acholi Ber)

Silva also told me that if I went back to Kaunga Grounds and told them that Silva said I could have a jersey, that they would get me one. I was stoked. 

Back inside Acholi Ber, we ran into Dean (researcher) who had been talking to CNN about the significance of this event. On the outside, it just looked like a good excuse for MTN to sell mobile phones sand air time. But Dean pointed out to us that this event was making the term "Africa United" a reality. This event opened the World Cup to people who didn't have access to televisions, who didn't have access to news about the games, and who might not even have been able to get it on the radio. Because the event was free, it was going to make accessible this major game (which included some major African sports figures) to everyone. This isn't even to mention that a few short years ago it would've almost been unthinkable for such an event (concert, game, fireworks) to be held in Gulu. This is big news.

Brianna, Blake, Dean, and I decided at around 2:00 to head back to the Kaunga Grounds. Blake and I had already had too much sun for the day, but we decided that one more go at those yellow jerseys might prove worth it. We headed into the MTN tents and told the manager that Silva had given instructions for us to receive jerseys. He said he could give them to us but that it was difficult to get them in the tents, would we mind waiting until he finished some business (give-aways) on stage? "Of course!" we said. 

There was a soccer match being played by some girls on one of those blow up soccer stadiums (which I couldn't see due to height impediment, but it sounded fun at least) and a concert with some star we'd never heard of. When we finally got a hold of the manager he told us to meet him behind the stage, so we trekked across the grounds to follow him quickly back behind the stage. Once there, we found him under an easy-up with several gun-toting guards and some guys who definitely looked like they'd been the musical talent on the stage. We avoided the guards (who were shooing children away from the tent) and tried to follow the manager out of the area, when my hand was grabbed by one of the guys who was sitting down.

"I'm sorry. I have to know. What is your name?" he asked. I told him and he wanted to talk to me, but the manager wanted us to follow him so I was like, "I'll be back!" 

Through the crowd, around the tents, behind the stage, around the inflated soccer stadium, and to the MTN vehicles, where the man handed us three yellow jerseys. SUCCESS! 

Brianna and Blake Rocking the Africa United Jerseys

"If I give these to you, you must put them on right now!" he said. uhh...no problem!

Once we were in our new jerseys, we headed back to the easy up where we re-introduced ourselves to the guy who wanted to know who we were. It turned out that my first instinct was right, he was the guy who had just been on stage, and apparently he's someone kind of big in Gulu. 

"Don't you know who I am?" he asked.

"Uhhhh....no?" we said. 

"Hitmaker Z-Man!" he said, as if that meant anything to us. I gathered by the large group of people being herded off by guards that we had just met someone important. He gave us a copy of his CD, took pictures with us, completely baffled that we still didn't know who he was. 

Me, My Hard-Won Jersey, and Hitmaker Z-Man 

We ended up heading out at that point, having spent way too many hours in the sun. Dinner at Sancofa, then back to the hotel, where the sun caught up to me (stupid allergy) and I nursed myself back to health out on the back balcony. Blake and I decided not to go to the night time festivities, instead watching the fireworks from the balcony of the Acholi Ber (can I just say how COOL that was?). 

I heard this morning though that MTN had neglected to buy enough gas for their generator and so that the group who had gone back to the grounds was left in the dark for a while (surrounded by 30,000 people...kinda glad I didn't go back). My assumption is (since the noise continued late into the night) that they eventually got the power back on. Even if they didn't, the day seemed to have been a massive success just based on the number of people there early on (the second time we went there were at least a few thousand milling around and I'm sure the number only increased after we left). 

The guys from MTN are packing up their gear this morning, having brought a party to Gulu. The people around are still buzzing about it. After I write this I'm headed back out to Lukodi for another overnight (awesome!) so if you guys don't hear from me, don't worry, I'm just out of range for a couple of days.