Chasing the football

Rangers may have had difficulty in getting the ball during their failed attempt to win the UEFA Cup, but not as much trouble as we had in trying to see the match on TV here.
We arrived at the Peace Guest House 10 minutes before kick-off, only to find the diocesan AIDS conference still under way. As speeches were being given, we assumed that it could continue for an indefinite period.
Off to Hotel du Lac (10 minutes’ drive), where they could not get the appropriate satellite channel, only a game from the premier league in Ghana.
Hotel des Chutes is nearby, but there the antenna was giving problems and they had no channels at all.
In the centre of town, “Planete Foot”, a “cinema” was showing the game, with an entrance fee of 10p, but our Rwandan friend was not at all keen on the clientele (having later seen pictures of the crowds of shirtless Russians at the match in Manchester, I could only think it was as well that he was not in the stadium).
The neighbouring “10-to-10” had the match on TV, with no-one watching and much encouraged, we settled down to watch. The English commentator was complaining about the lack of excitement in the first 30 minutes, so we did not feel we had missed much. 10 minutes later the screen went blank. The hotel staff were able to get a different channel with French commentary, but when that failed just at half time we were left with Bukavu TV and some exotic and badly-acted adverts.
As a last resort, we returned to where we had started and sure enough the AIDS Conference had gone, allowing us to enjoy an excellent picture and sound. The only subsequent disappointment was the result, of course!
In a country obsessed by football, it was intriguing to see how little interest this final attracted. Our Rwandan friend put it down to the lack of a team from the English Premier League taking part.