All at once, a hundred kids all pile into the back of a pick-up truck and it crawls towards the corniche. Hairspray torches singe eyebrows, engines fail, the air is filled with dawsha, the horns are deafening, a haze of diesel fumes rises above the streets. Families of 4,5, even 6 pile onto single motorbikes. For the third time in a row Egypt has won the African Cup of Nations. It’s a record. Somehow, I see no one get hurt. The cops stand by, grinning. The horse carriages plow through the mess. And everyone goes home happy.

I was supposed to go last year, seems like they’ve been asking for years – when are you coming? Well this year it finally happened. Christmas in Uganda was probably the most interesting I’ve ever had. Stepping out of the airport, we were met with a pillow of warm humid air that is Ugandan “winter” – a lush tropical climate all year round. We piled into a Jeep with Jay-Z bumping on the stereo and started down the road into Kampala. Driving through the red-light district we saw the locals and the seedy characters, as our car bumped along the worst roads I’ve ever driven on, roads that would have been paved decades ago if it weren’t for corruption. My romance with Africa has officially begun. It started with Dan Eldon as a teenager dreaming of African safaris and pouring over his journals, and it continues today as an adult, who has only had one week in Africa proper and so many more to come. This is a sneak preview.