I love thee...I love thee not
This week I think it'll be best to let the pictures tell the story. You can see the pics I took of our basketball camps in Kenya from last week here. General impressions are that the camp was great, the coaches were eager to learn our new drills, and Juwan Howard as our NBA representative could not have been more helpful. I wanted to pick him apart and look down on him as a prima donna, but in reality we could not have asked for a better person to help us out. He was very giving of his time.
Instead I figured I'd do a little assessment of my first to months in Africa by pointing out some things I've enjoyed and others I'd like to change.
Good - Finding Dr. Pepper at a local grocery store and finally figuring out how to get American radios stations streamed online onto my computer all in the same week.
Bad - No satelite tv in our house means I end up watching a lot of soap operas in Afrikaans, Xhosa, or Zulu.
Good - Getting to travel all around South Africa and Kenya.
Bad - Showing up at the airport on Sunday at 7am for my 9am flight and not actually taking off until midnite because of an airport worker's strike. Some highlights...er, lowlights from my day in pergatory include: killing four hours watching over-stacked carts collide on the narrow sidewalks of the Nairobi airport; finally being allowed into the terminal at 5:00, only to wait in another 3-hour line just to get to the ticket counter, only to wait another 2 hours to finally board the plane, only to wait another hour and a half while they make sure everyone's luggage is on the plane.
Good - Biltong (South African jerkey), coffee shops, and chicken/rice pretty much everywhere I go.
Bad - The prevalence of common British delicacies like dry pastries, fried pies, and instant coffee.
Good - The incredibly advanced level of information technologies here.
Bad - Slowly being taken over by my Blackberry.
Good - Good, friendly people in South Africa.
Bad - Always being the outsider with the funny accent. I met an American at a coffee shop in Cape Town and was so happy to finally not have to adjust my vocabulary.
Good - Things to do in Joburg.
Bad - Every place you want to do something is hidden behind 10 foot high walls with barbed wire and electric fencing. Thus I'm not able to sit anywhere and people-watch - one of my favorite past times.
Instead I figured I'd do a little assessment of my first to months in Africa by pointing out some things I've enjoyed and others I'd like to change.
Good - Finding Dr. Pepper at a local grocery store and finally figuring out how to get American radios stations streamed online onto my computer all in the same week.
Bad - No satelite tv in our house means I end up watching a lot of soap operas in Afrikaans, Xhosa, or Zulu.
Good - Getting to travel all around South Africa and Kenya.
Bad - Showing up at the airport on Sunday at 7am for my 9am flight and not actually taking off until midnite because of an airport worker's strike. Some highlights...er, lowlights from my day in pergatory include: killing four hours watching over-stacked carts collide on the narrow sidewalks of the Nairobi airport; finally being allowed into the terminal at 5:00, only to wait in another 3-hour line just to get to the ticket counter, only to wait another 2 hours to finally board the plane, only to wait another hour and a half while they make sure everyone's luggage is on the plane.
Good - Biltong (South African jerkey), coffee shops, and chicken/rice pretty much everywhere I go.
Bad - The prevalence of common British delicacies like dry pastries, fried pies, and instant coffee.
Good - The incredibly advanced level of information technologies here.
Bad - Slowly being taken over by my Blackberry.
Good - Good, friendly people in South Africa.
Bad - Always being the outsider with the funny accent. I met an American at a coffee shop in Cape Town and was so happy to finally not have to adjust my vocabulary.
Good - Things to do in Joburg.
Bad - Every place you want to do something is hidden behind 10 foot high walls with barbed wire and electric fencing. Thus I'm not able to sit anywhere and people-watch - one of my favorite past times.
posted by Michael, aka Tex, aka Jett | 11:15 AM
1 Comments:
After looking at your pictures of the basketball camp in Kenya, one thing is certain: nothing has changed in Africa since we left in '92. I couldn't help but laugh at that crappy court with the broken backboards, and then the court being painted bright green and yellow with hand-held brushes - only in Africa. But as you said, there are so many good things there - it makes it worthwhile. Keep up the good work, and send one of those 6'2" girls to Melissa
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