Books2Movies Club discussion

The Queen of Katwe is our first foray into sports biographies. I believe this story will be an awe-inspiring one. Phiona Mutesi is a Ugandan female chess player, who overcame many environmental obstacles and achieved her dreams. I am no expert in chess (nor any other sport), but I admire talent and will to go beyond ordinary.
I haven't read the book yet. However, by its table of contents, it appears this book has three parts (conspicuously like chess) - Opening, Middlegame, and Endgame. The third part seems a short one, so I'd like to divide the reading of the book into two parts.

Here you may post your thoughts, notes, and impressions concerning the first part of the book. If still looking for a book, talk about what do you think about the subject. What attracts you more to this book, chess or a story of a chess player? Are you a chess player? Were you aware of Phiona Mutesi's life and story at all?

If you need an inspiration for the reading, check this short documentary about Phiona Mutesi by a non-profit organization Silent Images:

Silent Images - "Queen of Katwe" A short documentary about Phiona Mutesi

For the second part and conclusion of the reading follow this link: Queen of Katwe - Part Two and Conclusion
If you would like to talk about the movie, check this thread: Queen of Katwe - The movie and comparisons

So I didn't even realize we had picked this for the month, and I literally just finished reading it because it was recommended by a friend as a good depiction of what life is like in Uganda!

Alana wrote: "So I didn't even realize we had picked this for the month, and I literally just finished reading it because it was recommended by a friend as a good depiction of what life is like in Uganda!"

I just started reading it and found so devastating that life in Katwe is so terrible. I wonder, is it still so awful today? It makes me so angry, that even today when technology made the whole world so connected, there are still children and men who do not have even fundamental rights in their own country covered. How can they think of education and self-improvement when they have no basic access to food, clean water, and shelter? I cannot even imagine how terrified and hopeless orphan children are. From the story, I notice that at least there is a sense of larger family and community in Uganda, because relatives do try to alleviate their problems with their own meager resources. That at least gives hope it can be better. I feel so hypocritical and miserable though, typing these words down behind the computer. I am still doing nothing.

I had picked this up to read because it was recommended to me by a missionary friend when I asked to read something that gave an idea of the culture and life in Uganda. He said it's a pretty accurate representation. So I imagine it's still pretty much the same. They were fairly devastated when a dictator destroyed most of their books and cut down their education system. They've never recovered.

I still hope something will change for the better... At the moment, I am on Phiona's first encounter with chess, peering at the Robert Katende's group's meeting. Katende's story was so sad, yet uplifting for his talents managed to overcome so many administrative obstacles and meager family support. It is a pleasure to read how he chose to share his knowledge and to be a role model to kids who are having the same problems or even bigger ones than he had as a child. Even the game of chess sounds so much more fun than I thought!

I love how he was constantly using what the kids knew, and altering teaching methods so they could understand, and building on that, taking each new student at their own starting level. So hard to do that well as a teacher! And I'm sure he gets very little credit for what he's accomplished.