In a week's time Rugby World Cup Sevens 2009 kicks off and like all of the women's teams heading to Dubai, Helen Buteme and her Ugandan teammates are counting down the days until they board the plane to Dubai on Sunday.
Helen continues her weekly blog for www.rwcsevens.com with an insight into the emotions she and her teammates are going through, what they will be doing before leaving Ugandan soil and their thoughts about playing on the World Cup stage.
The African regional qualifying tournament in September seems like it was an aeon ago and we are all relieved that the World Cup is finally just around the corner. We will be departing from Uganda on 1st March at 4.30pm and arrive in Dubai on 2nd March just after midnight.
That’s not such a long flight so we are not too worried about swollen feet or fatigue. Dubai is only an hour ahead of us so I do not think jet lag will be a huge factor either. Our main concern will be our ears popping so we are going to carry lots of chewing gum!
Training this week has been fantastic. The feedback we are getting is just great and that has really boosted our confidence. Everyone is in high spirits and there is so much energy floating around.
The support that we are getting from rugby players and non rugby players alike is awesome and we feel totally prepared – physically we are ready, mentally we are ready. Nothing is missing.
We will go into camp on Friday and while away time relaxing on the beach. Although Uganda is landlocked we do have Lake Victoria – the world’s second largest fresh water lake – and it has nice sandy shores. At the top of our activities will be swimming in the lake – a great way for our bodies to recover from the rigours of the last couple of months and have fun at the same time.
A number of us have transited through Dubai, but none of the players has actually been to Dubai so that is pretty exciting in itself. We know a new venue has been built specifically for this World Cup and it can hold 50,000 people.
The thought of playing in front of all those people is a bit nerve racking but somehow the anticipation of it all gets past our nerves. What better platform to announce our presence to the world as we continue making history by playing in the first ever Women’s Rugby World Cup Sevens?
We all realise we have just a couple of days left but we are relatively calm. I think the underlying emotions will kick in during the send off planned for us by our Government or maybe even at the World Cup itself.
At the moment all we can talk about is the World Cup and the dominant emotion is excitement. We have come so far but our journey is not yet over … if we thought our dream had ended it has actually just begun. Dubai, here we come!
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