Caught up in the crowd a million faces reaching for the stars that lost their places- Mending Point

The glamorous side of Uganda is a fascinating one (not that I know much of that life in the US). One of my friends here found out about the Miss Uganda pageant and proposed that a bunch of us go to it. Some of us joined in when we found out that they had lowered the price to an affordable rate. The day of the event 3 of us hopped into the matatu taxi vans and went downtown to Owino to find some random dressy things to wear. Success! I wore a black top with sequins ($2) and black heels ($6) along with my designer jeans that I had bought the previous time around. We went early and hung out on the balcony of the hotel until the doors opened. I was happy we got there early because we were able to get seats that were fairly close to the cat walk. The whole event was really rather entertaining and another fascinating cultural experience. They had traditional dances, talked about the pride of their country, and even had a traditional dress walk. Just in front of us were the VIP tables. One of the guys we went with is casual and when no one was sitting at the table he went up and sat there. Soon there were 3 girls sitting at his table- Brenda (who designed the swimsuits for the competition), Angela, and the previous Miss Uganda. Before we knew it we had scored free tickets to the after pageant VIP dinner with all of the contestants! WOW! While it may have happened at 1am, it was so neat to meet these women and learn some more of their stories. My roommate and I even got our picture taken with the newly crowned Miss Uganda! We've stayed in contact with Brenda and Angela, even going to Brenda's wedding dress show the following night! Since then we have gotten together with the two of them several times. It's really neat to get to know someone with so many connections. They are both from Uganda and have fascinating stories of growing up through war, but rising above it and they both lived and learned in London for some time. One night when we got together I got to sing with Brenda's cousin's band in a hotel lobby! And I'm getting some more connections so I might get to sing some more! How exciting is that? Brenda called me the other day and said she was being my agent here :)

People all over the world live such different lives, even across the city from each other, and I consider it a privilege to get to learn more and more every day!