Far From Obamacare here...

For the first time since my arrival, I grew nervous on Saturday night 11/6. I returned home to the lovely Quality Hotel to find a strange scene in front of the hotel. I was a bit perplexed when we pulled up, there were two people standing and watching a guy on the ground – who at first I thought was sleeping under his truck. We drove closer and I realized the motorcycle had hit the truck. I jumped out and asked if anyone had called an ambulance. They weren’t sure if there was an ambulance in town. Neither had approached him or contacted anyone. I called the police and found that the call went directly to Khartoum. Next was a call to the RSO (Regional Security Officer) to ask him to contact the ambulance. He didn’t know how, but called the TOC (Tactical Operations Center), who then had to search for the number, found it, asked for the ambulance, but the the Clinic with the Ambulance had to request permission to send the Ambulance. In the meantime I saw that Issac-who had been in the wreck had his right jaw sliced to the bone and his upper lip was split in half and pulled back from his face. His shirt was covered with blood and he was in a mild state of shock. It was pretty gruesome. I was trying to get him to calm down and hold still to slow the bleeding. Finally, someone drove off to get the police, who brought a truck and took the guy to the hospital. Too long of a delay…and it became more frustrating the longer we waited and the more Issac started to cry.

Basketball, the UN and the NBA

I’ll never be a superstar(maybe in the senior league?) but I do enjoy playing! Here I’m much closer to that than others. The UN compound has daily pick-up games and I’ve enjoyed the trips to go play. It has been interesting though. The Bangladeshi battalion who are located right beside the courts seem to enjoy playing. The combination between them, the Philipinos, and a few Liberians don’t lead to a lot of folks who are used to playing center or power forward. I’m usually the tallest on the court by 6”. I enjoyed watching one of the girls who is American play. They just know the game so much better than guys and know where to move and how to play as a team. She is great at passing, and moving to the open space. The guys seem to just try to be faster and try to force everything. The first week I ended up on a team with 3 Philippinos and there is more to the story under the entry on Halloween. Since then, I’ve made it to a few more games and had a good time every week. There is a neat project in development with support from Nike, Adidas, and the NBA to source funds and link basketball with physical fitness in the schools. The hope is to have a court established in every county. Luol Deng (former Duke and current Bulls player) is one of those involved among others. There is a lot of potential here. As in many war-torn places there are some organized sports, but not many.