First time on a plane, in Europe and at a World Cup; a Ugandan woman’s story

Ssanyu poses with football fans on the streets of Moscow. COURTESY PHOTO

What you need to know:

  • World cup 2018. The World Cup finals take place in Moscow in the newly-renovated and ultra-modern Luzhniki Stadium with a capacity of more than 78,000 people Also taking place in Moscow is the closing Ceremony scheduled for July 15, 2018. With more than 11 million inhabitants, Moscow is Europe’s largest city.

ECSTATIC FAN. For 32-year-old hairdresser, Esther Ssanyu Nabukenya, travelling to Russia to watch the FIFA World Cup 2018 was a dream come true. She made the most of her stay and ended up making so many friends from across the world, writes PATRICK KANYOMOZI.

The Fifa World Cup is one of the biggest spectacles in the world, be it in sporting terms or otherwise. It attracts billions of viewers worldwide while a few others are lucky enough get to watch the games live in the stadiums of host countries. The cumulative audience of all matches at the 2006 tournament in Germany was 26.6 billion people, while close to two million people were expected to watch matches in Russia this year.

Opportunity of a lifetime
The cost of travelling to a World Cup host nation is extremely high given the fact that accommodation prices usually shoot through the roof, the air ticket notwithstanding. That aside, getting a match ticket is not as easy and cheap as walking to a fuel station to buy a ticket to a Uganda Cranes game at Namboole. For example the monetary value of the Denmark vs France game was Shs 800,000 and you must have been fortunate enough to get one online. Hence watching a World Cup game live is either for the wealthy or the lucky ones.

Thirty-two-year-old hairdresser Esther Ssanyu Nabukenya falls in the latter category. For someone based in Bunono village in Wakiso District, it was a dream come true not only to watch a world cup game live but also to get onto a plane for the first time and fly to Europe.
She was one of ten winners of an all-expenses-paid trip to Russia in Nile Special’s Tulumbe Russia campaign. The winners were treated to a VIP experience that included watching the game between France and Denmark, preceded with world class hospitality in the VIP village at the Luzhniki stadium. Everything was new to Esther and she savoured every moment.

She is a free spirit and was never afraid to share her first time experiences including the minutest details such as never seeing a tooth pick at a five-star hotel where she spent four nights. In the end, she made many friends from across the world. One such friend is Mary who even invited her to her wedding later this year in Tanzania, while other invitations came from as far as Guatemala.

A whole new world
The first time experience started on the plane from Entebbe where she immediately told her colleague Paul to take pictures of her. “When I come back home I will be the celeb of the village, so people have to see everything I have experienced,” she said. Like many first time travellers, the plane takeoff and landing was a nightmare just like the turbulences that are often experienced while crossing the Mediterranean.
On arrival in Moscow, the new ‘weird’ things of Europe popped up a few metres from the airport where trams provided the first shocker. “These people have buses that use electricity? Will we ever get here? Huh, but our electricity that is always on and off, I do not think we can handle,” Ssanyu told colleagues on the top of her voice.

The five-day stay in Moscow would come with a daily surprise for Ssanyu including a massage at the hotel, a boat cruise on Moscow River, Russian cuisine and beer, watching the sunset at 10pm and sunrise at 3am,to mention but a few.
However the most life changing was watching the game between France and Denmark live at the magnificent Luzhniki stadium which seats 81,000 people and is the venue for the final of this year’s World Cup tomorrow. Ssanyu, not your ardent football fan but a keen follower of the World Cup, was amazed by what she saw.

“I do not have words to express what I have experienced, I will tell this story to my children and grandchildren for years, that I came to Russia and watched the World Cup,” she said as she retreated from the stadium to the VIP Village.
That experience has also increased her love for football and she came back with plans of opening up a bar that shows games on top of her hair business. Talk about life changing moments.

World cup 2018
The World Cup finals take place in Moscow in the newly-renovated and ultra-modern Luzhniki Stadium with a capacity of more than 78,000 people Also taking place in Moscow is the closing Ceremony scheduled for July 15, 2018. With more than 11 million inhabitants, Moscow is Europe’s largest city.