The Goat Races

The web site wasn’t lying. The Goat Races was a total scene.

Saturday morning proved unpromising weather. A low haze had been hovering over the city since the night before and it was muggy and felt like rain. It also smelled bad. But by the time we arrived at the Speke Resort—sans sunblock because we’re really stupid—the sun was shining over the lake and we were sweating before we reached the racetrack.




It’s a rare occasion to dress up in Uganda. Even at the nicest restaurants you can wear pretty much whatever you want. But there was a best dressed contest at the Goat Races and people went all out. If I were a judge, I would have voted for the Casino Simba dancers to win.



But seriously, the categories included Best Dressed Male, Female, Couple, Child, and Best Hat.






The races ran shockingly on schedule. The track was a furlong and about 10 goats ran in each race. A barrier pushed the goats around the track when they proved reluctant to run on their own, which was most of the time. The goats had names like The Viking, Glavanized Sheet, and Cell Phone.



It was a fantastic place to people watch, eat some Turkish food, and drinks lots and lots of beer while getting entirely sunburned.