week 5 - rounding the decade
I should probably stop naming these by week as I don’t exactly update them weekly. I’m pretty close but close. anyway. I’ll start using bad baseball puns instead. They are ample (see I already started).
123009 - Richard Stanley arrived on this day. He walked through the door at the guesthouse at 3:00pm and by 3:01pm he was leading a meeting with the builders, business partners, and coaches leading his efforts on the ground here. That is how he is… all business, and sometimes opera and wine to balance it out.
The discussions focused around getting ready for the MLB Envoy program which is set to begin on January 17th. This may be the first time I’ve mentioned this program on this blog, yeah? So here it what it is:
The MLB Envoy program is an effort from MLB International to help kick start or boost baseball efforts in countries where the game is just beginning to grow or has not yet taken hold. They send a couple of coaches to these countries for 2 weeks to hold coaching clinics, mostly focused on coaching men and women over 20 who can then go out and spread the game by coaching, umpiring, building fields etc. I’ve heard some of the horror stories of places they’ve gone and I am sure that they are going to love the setup Richard has going here in Uganda.
There are many people coming from neighboring countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Sudan, Congo, even as far as Cameroon) who say they will attend. George has arranged for the older talented local teams and some younger teams to come and play during the 2 weeks. This is what I am sure about: MLB will be impressed with the talent here and the potential of the facility. But the bigger issue is this:
One of the two coaches coming has strong ties to Little League. Little League will be weighing his recommendations very heavily to decide whether or not to hold the Regional Tournament here which would be in June and would mark the first time that event was ever held on the continent. The winning team goes on to compete in Williamsport, PA in the high profile LLWS tournament on ESPN and all that jazz. Obviously this is/would be a big deal for Uganda, all of Africa, and our film. If that tournament happens, the strongest competition would be Saudi Arabia (which has never lost) and South Africa which promises to be strong, and Uganda.
The filming of this man’s (his name is Pat) reactions to the talent and facility will be a primary focus for our story.
The other coach coming (Tom) was actually in Italy and saw Benard perform well there. I’m eager for him to see Benard pitch here, one because Benard is improving, but more importantly because he’ll have more trouble getting outs here than he did there. I think Tom will be surprised and impressed by that.
Anyway, Richard toured the complex with his main builders and gave the marching orders for how to whip this place into the best shape possible by the 17th. And away they go.
123109 - Happy new year everyone. This was (surprisingly?) my first new years outside of America, and I think outside of the Eastern Time Zone. I gathered some end of the year interviews from some players about their hopes and dreams for 2010. The best was from Jimmy.
Jimmy is the one with the farm (for anyone who has seen the early teasers). Though I learned that his farm in Jinja is being moved to Kampala. He had some kind of dispute with the landlord there and decided he wanted to get some new land and start fresh. I’ll be documenting that process from the start now.
Jimmy likes to speak in metaphors which often makes for good sound bytes, the best on this night was “When I look up at the sky I think the moon is my big goal and the stars are the obstacles I’ll need to get around to get there. The fireworks tonight? The fireworks are the things I did right this year I guess.” Sweet.
So I follow him over to a good spot to watch the fireworks, which happens to be at the same St. Peter’s field they practice at, symbolism eat your heart out. The field is being used for a midnight prayer service that probably started at noon, it’s absolutely packed with people. Jimmy, and Alex, who come with me aren’t very religious but it just happens to offer a good view of downtown Kampala where the fireworks are set off a top the larger hotels.
Just before midnight everyone in the crowd lights a candle and the priest starts to speak in tongues. It makes for weird filming that looks incredibly pretty and sounds incredibly odd. I was filming this when the decade ended and the fireworks began. They were really pretty and impressive. It’s kind of cool that all the hotels seem to compete against each other’s display. It’s like dueling banjos with explosives.
After that I head back to the ghetto where people are out dancing and hanging out late into the night. Happy New Year everyone.
010110 - New Years day it rains a lot. I talk to Jimmy during most of the rain storm. He didn’t grow up in the ghetto, he is a self described “farm kid from Jinja.” But he wants to live in the ghetto now. I try to get him to explain this choice as best he can. He basically tells me that he learns how to live on his own here and solve his own problems.
He is a wise 17 year old who wants to be 30 already. He left school at 16 and is trying to convince himself that he learns more out of it than in it here… I sadly agree completely with him. But his father isn’t convinced.
He calls his father and I learn that his father doesn’t know where he is and certainly doesn’t know that he spent the night in the ghetto sleeping in a leaky shack. We make a plan to go visit his father in the next couple days. They have been meeting regularly to discuss his plans since he left school to pursue this dream of being a hero through spreading baseball in Africa. It’s refreshing to find a story with a father who is so actively involved and concerned about his son’s life. So we make a plan to leave the next day.
My plan to focus on the younger kids this week is being pushed back. So it goes. © kv
010210 - We are on the way to Jinja with Jimmy to meet with his Dad but he also has the mission to recruit some of the better young players in Jinja to come play during the MLB Envoy program, so we stop on the way to talk to a younger player named Richard.
He is a bit older than I think we should be looking for, 14, almost 15 years old and definitely too big to be playing on 60 foot bases which is what the under 12’s will have to do for the LLWS Regional. But it makes for a good bit of filming, especially when Jimmy asks permission from his mother for him to attend.
And on we go. We head over to talk to the Japanese Coach from St. Noa who would know more of the younger players in town but he isn’t home. So we go to the hotel.
Jimmy’s Dad is not around so we decide to see him the next day. Not much else to do except relax, meet Jimmy’s new girlfriend, and watch some premiere league soccer (very popular here) so that’s what we do. I also had to devote some time to find a new hotel in Jinja, I grew tired of the old one.
010310 - We go to Jimmy’s Dad. They sit and discuss and it is one of the more naturally tense interactions I’ve filmed, especially on a first meeting with someone.
Jimmy’s family grew up with some money. His Dad had a good job at a factory where he climbed to a management position. The company was foreign owned though and during Edi Amin’s reign of Uganda, foreign owned companies became persecuted, illegal, and then eventually taken over by the government. At that point nearly all of them failed due to massive corruption. Jimmy’s Dad’s job was no different. So he lost it when the factory closed plenty of money along with it when Jimmy was young. He now works at a low level job at a bakery in Kampala and commutes home to Jinja on the weekends.
Jimmy’s Dad, Charles, is not very happy with Jimmy’s direction. He worries… as a father should when his son decides to take a less than beaten path I suppose. This is the general story and worry Charles has:
Jimmy was very influenced by Yuchi (the Japanese coach I’ve met and mentioned). From what I gather, Yuchi encouraged Jimmy to leave school and start this farm to begin the path on his dream. Charles needed to be convinced by Yuchi that this was a good thing to do and Jimmy would find some success in it. Charles was reluctant but believed that Yuchi would help Jimmy find a way to make it work, he had after all taken Jimmy and his team to Japan so he wasn’t all talk.
Yuchi helped the boys buy the land for the first farm, Jimmy left school, and away they went. They got pigs, planted mangos, corn, cabbage etc… And then Yuchi went back to Japan. Like many of the international programs he was on a 2 year stint and then was replaced by a new member, one who didn’t inspire or like Jimmy in the same way. Charles was even more nervous now that Jimmy was really on his own with this dream.
So now Jimmy wants to move the farm. The crops didn’t grow well and his dispute with the landlord wasn’t pleasant, so they took what money they could from selling the pigs and the healthy crops (about 300,000 shillings or 180 bucks) and moved on to try to buy some land around Kampala and try again. He’ll need some help from the Japanese to buy the new land, we’ll see if they still believe in him.
Jimmy tells his Dad about this new plan, which honestly isn’t really a request because Jimmy is going to do it either way. His Dad rubs his forehead and sighs a lot but basically says “you have until May.” He wants a report in May, literally a written report 
with documents to back it up (only in Africa) about his progress. If he doesn’t see any progress on the dream he is going to make Jimmy go back to school. Jimmy wouldn’t listen if that happened, but he doesn’t say that. He thanks him so much for the second chance.
His Dad also tells him to stop seeing his new girlfriend right away because he is a minor and could get in trouble. Jimmy says he will. He wont.
The evening ends on the rooftop of our hotel. Jimmy says some more cool inspirational stuff about a boy we see sweeping the roof on a nearby building. The sun goes down over the nile in Jinja. It’s pretty. See?
010410 - This is a travel day back to Kampala. The baseball is finally starting again after the long holiday break. I’m excited to play again, and excited to start filming that again. That’s really it for the day, mostly travel.
010510 - I go visit with Paul. I find him working at a small shop next to his house that his sister owns. They sell the same things in every shop in Africa from my experience, the same brands of soaps, batteries, toothpastes, juices, gum, everything.
Paul comes to work there when he is bored or his sister asks him to help out. Today he was bored.
We talk mostly about his expectations for the Envoy program and how he hopes to play very well and impress these guys. The players don’t know exactly what the two guys are coming to do although I’ve tried to tell them and be honest, but mostly they hear the words “Americans” and “Major League Baseball” and get excited.
Paul is probably a good character in the story to ponder the idea of “a way out” which is an aspect of spreading a game like baseball that is uncomfortable to deal with. For the most part I have found less of this attitude than I was expecting and that has been nice, but it is of course there and stronger in some players than others.
It’s a completely natural urge for young boys in Africa to feel and there have been plenty of books and articles written and documentaries made about Africa’s brain drain and it probably has a place in our film, but hopefully we don’t need to address it too loudly or too directly. But there is no denying that it is there. It is there in every poor country that plays a sport (which is all of them I suppose). It is there in the Domincan, and Venezuala, and forget poor countries, it’s in poor areas like ghettos in Harlem and Oakland. I don’t think it’s something that should be taboo. And perhaps, just perhaps, if “the one” who gets a ticket out to play baseball is the right one, it could even be a positive. Uganda Baseball needs its’ Roberto Clemente. Personality wise, Jimmy is the closest I’ve seen, talent wise it’s Watero or Paul.
There are plenty of parallels in the paragraph I just wrote to the Jackie Robinson dilemma of choosing the “right one” over the “best one”. I wrote a script about Josh Gibson that tries to explore that idea in depth. I think about it often while here. Fortunately, in Uganda, I think the right one and the best one may end up being close 
enough (Jackie was too, by the way). All of these boys i’ve met are honestly good hearted. So, for now… I’m not worried about it too much.
Anyway, practice wraps up the day again. I remember to get as much as I can of the under 12 players. I operate under the assumption that the LLWS Regional will be here and the stakes for these younger players will suddenly drastically multiply.
010610 - On that last note I devote the day to a younger player I like named Asharaf. He says me “People tell me I’m 12.” His mom is pretty sure he is 11 or 12.
Asharaf is a really sweet kid. I have to remember that interviewing 12 year olds is different than interviewing 18 year olds, but we get into a nice groove after a bit. He tells me all about his playing in Poland and losing to the Saudi Arabia team. He really wants them to come to Uganda. He says “We never lose here.”
The best stuff is when he tells me that he was really scared to play in Poland. I ask him why and he says “There were a lot of people there cheering, and no one was black.” He 
mentions the word fear a lot in our interview actually. He is trying to get over it, I’ll have to try to find the root of it.
He also doesn’t know what the symbol on his shirt means, by the way.
He goes into his backyard with a glove and ball and starts to practice with a wall of a furniture shop. He does this often. I get plenty of great shots of him practicing pitching into a little strike zone he draws on the wall and telling me how he “imagines 
the wall is Saudi Arabia hitting the ball and that this year he is going to get them out.” It was a very what-you’d-hope-to-find-happening-here kind of day.
The day ends at a practice at Sharing under a stunning sky. An older player shows up who comes from Kenya. He wants to learn baseball. He’s seen some on TV and his favorite player is Carlos Zambrano. Weird right? Cool though.
Next two days off for catchup at the complex. There is a league game on the 9th with the older teams. I might pitch an inning or two.
