I'm back!!!!

Was my last post really June 13, 2010??? Man I have some catching up to do.

Well here it goes:

Since it has been so long since I last wrote, I will give a little recap of the end of last year. I was probably too busy with all my new found activities that I couldn't maintain my blog as I would have liked! Both a good and a bad thing. Reggie finished the season very well. Our team, Libolo won the Angola Cup which is as much of a success as being the league champs. We upset the top African team, Primero D'Agusto, and Reggie was the MVP of the game. We finished in second place overall at the end of the season. I finished the "season" with so many friends and memories of Angola. If it wasn't for summer school, I imagine that our return to the States would have been delayed due to local activities and travel. Last year I had joined a women's bible study that met weekly, a group that taught English classes at a local orphanage twice a week, a group that did crafts with the children at the orphanage, a cooking club that met once a month, American Women's Association of Angola that was drawing to an end for the season due to summer vacation, and practicing yoga three times a week. All in addition to supporting Reggie at his games two to three times a week. Needless to say, I went from not doing too much, to doing a lot. Oh, and I was also driving! If you read my post about traffic, you would probably be concerned for me. Most people are. But we do not have drivers provided for us, so if I wanted to do most of these extra curricular activities, I had to drive myself. Most of the time my schedule conflicted with Reggie's so he was not able to drive me. Surprisingly, I did really well. I was hesitant and relaxed at first; but those are ingredients for a very unsuccessful drive. It's funny how "relaxed" leads to failure, right? That's is a little illogical; like most things here. So in the end, it all works out.

Now I'm back and driving again :) When I first got back, beginning of February, I had to be re-introduced to life here. Just the quick pace, craziness of it all. I actually made the comment to Reggie one day when we were walking around, "I can't believe I used to drive here". That was short lived; three weeks later I'm driving again. Like I said before though, if I want to do things, I have to drive myself. I was here about 8 days before Reggie had to leave for a tournament in Portugal. Ideally, we both would have preferred me going to Portugal too, but that wasn't possible. Like most things in Angola, plans change. Initially, the team was leaving Wednesday night. Then Wednesday afternoon we get a call saying the team is leaving Thursday morning instead. While Reggie was gone I stayed with some of our friends, which was a blast. In retrospect, I still wish I would have been able to go to Portugal because Reggie played AMAZINGLY. They lost their first game to Primero D'Agosto (the other Angolan team) by 1 point. Their second game they beat the top Portuguese team, Porto. In their third game, they beat the second top Portuguese team, Benfica, and Reggie had 41 points. Our team, Libolo, finished the tournament in second place with 2 wins and 1 loss, behind Primero D'Agosto. We will get them this year though, don't worry! As MVP, Reggie was awarded multiple pairs of shoes. Unfortunately, none were a size 16, so he gifted them to teammates. On a side note, there was a tournament in Luanda earlier in the season in which Reggie won MVP of the final game and the tournament. I was home at this time but I remember Reggie recapping the game and telling me how he had been getting his stuff together in the locker room and heard his name called. He returned to the court to be awarded an OVEN for MVP of the game. He shook hands of everyone while asking himself, "What in the world am I going to do with an oven?" He was living in the hotel at the time (more on that later), so we obviously didn't need an oven. Although the oven in the old apartment didn't work, so realistically we could have used it, in a way. When he was back in the locker room he heard his name again, returned to the court one more time, to be awarded a REFRIGERATOR. Now he really didn't know what he was going to do with these appliances. Of course, everyone was asking for them, even offering to pay for them. One team mate said, "Hey man, I'm getting married in a few weeks. Those can be my gifts!". I don't know what happened to the fridge, but I believe Reggie gave the oven to our friends that lived down the street from us in the old apartment. This family was very deserving :-)

The tournament in Portugal was televised, but I only caught the Sunday game. I had stayed with some friends and we had quite the agenda that weekend! I had been struggling getting on a normal sleep schedule, darn jet lag. That weekend surely set me straight. I got to their house Thursday afternoon, Friday we had a TICA (The International Community of Angola) Valentine's party. Saturday there was a British Women's of Angola Valentine's Ball, I was lucky to snag a ticket last minute. Sunday we spent relaxing, lounging by the pool, and watching the game. This was one of Reggie's best games that I had ever seen. I know Reggie was anxious to play "real" basketball, and boy did he. Basketball in Angola is a little lacking in technique, dignity, and skill. It was a double sided sword for Reggie to play in Portugal again. The benefits of European basketball is the level of play, the draw backs are the income. While a player may sign a contract, they do not always receive that full contract amount. It is usually a good day if you get paid on time. The drawbacks of Angolan basketball, as I have already mentioned are, among many things, technique, dignity, and skill. Technique because you will have some of the most ridiculous fouls called, and some of the most blatant fouls not called. Dignity because Angola is a very corrupt country. It's third world. It's poor. I know from personal experience how corrupt the police are here. If you get pulled over, normally you can pay off the police in order to be on your way. Unfortunately, this may be at a price close to $100. Yesterday I was just told how the police on the motorcycles are the worst because they will ride by and steal womens purses right out of open windows!!! Now your really wondering why I drive here, huh? Let me assure you that my purse is down by my feet, my doors are locked, windows rolled up, and pepper spray in my lap. I'm independent but cautiously aware. This corruption carries over to basketball because it is not uncommon for people, or teams, to play the refs here. Case in point, our game Tuesday. This is a widely known fact, yet people are still proud of their team if they win, knowing the refs were paid. Can you imagine the frustration? Yet somehow, I'm proud to say, that Reggie is one of the leading players in the league despite this. Skill because players and the crowd like And-1 style of basketball; all the tricks and all the glitter. So it is common to see crazy dribbling, crazy drives to the basket, and crazy dunk attempts. All while the crowd goes crazy. For these reasons, Portugal was a nice little break for Reggie. And he soaked it up. But now, back to Angolan basketball.

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After a few days I'm returning to finish this post!! The first night I was writing it was Wednesday. Reggie came back from practice with a sore throat which had been progressing for a few days. We (the manager, Reggie and I) went to the clinic that evening. So I'll take a little side tangent and describe going to the clinic. Over the years we have been to many different clinics for many different reasons. Luckily this time it was just a sore throat instead of an injury from a game (an over night stay on our first Valentine's Day), or the beginnings of Malaria (we've been to the clinic three times for this over the years). Most, not all, clinics are 24 hours. We left the hotel around 8:45pm. Arrived at the clinic, got checked in and were seated by 9:00pm. Like most clinics and doctors office, just the idea makes you want to cough, or make your skin crawl. It's the same here, at least for me. Except there is not a separation of offices, everything is at the same place. So we were sitting a few chairs down from a family with a child who was coughing. One time we were waiting at a clinic (I was the patient that time) and a car accident had just occurred so people were being brought in for treatment. Thankfully it was not a bad accident, so the people were not gruesomely injured. Thankfully. But this just shows how kids, elderly, sick, emergency are all treated in the same place. As we were leaving the clinic I was reading the index of doctors and their specialties ranged from pediatrics to plastic surgery, general practice to dermatology. All within a very small office. Now please understand, that we are very fortunate to be able to even go to a clinic. Most locals are not able to afford to go to clinic, which is a large factor in the high death rates, and low life expectancy here. This particular clinic visit alone cost $85, not including medication. Most of the population survive off of mere dollars a day. While lack of medical facilities is surely an issue, in my opinion, the cost of such services is what maintains the poverty because majority of people can not afford the services. Now with that being said, we are very fortunate. The buildings themselves are not even that bad either. They are well maintained and clean. For me, regardless of where I am, the idea of a doctors office makes me feel as if I am getting sick even if I am healthy. So please, I wish not to come across as ungrateful or critical. I am incredibly grateful. If anything these experiences have made me more grateful. Living in Angola has made me more grateful. I usually try to be very specific and detailed because I want to vividly describe how life is here.

This particular visit was relatively short. There were only three other "patients" or groups waiting at this particular clinic, at this particular hour. We have been to a clinic before where all the seats are taken and people are standing all around. Now if you have any experience traveling abroad you know quite well that in Europe, actually most places other than the United States, there is not "personal bubble" space. This isn't particularly enjoyable when your at a clinic. As if the thought alone of being at a clinic doesn't make you feel as if you are getting sick, you certainly don't want to be sitting in close proximity to someone who is sick. This is always a struggle for me because I am a bit of a germaphobic person. I have gotten so much better with time, but still. Unfortunately, there are times where you have to go to the clinic. This time was one of our better experiences. Reggie's visit was relatively short. We sat down, within half an hour he was called back to see the doctor-- perfect amount of time for a short nap for him and a few chapters of reading for me ;-). Then fifteen minutes later he was done and we had the list of medication that he needed. A prescription essentially. Most clinics have small pharmacies on site, so you take the prescription to the pharmacy window and they give you what you need, assuming they have it, then you pay and your on your way. The pharmacy at the clinic had two of the three three things that we needed. We stopped by another pharmacy on our way home, unfortunately they did not have the particular medicine either. Luckily, the third pharmacy did. By this time it was a few minutes after 10:00pm. It is best to go to the pharmacy as late as possible because they are the least busy then, and traffic does not cause extra complications. I know I have already written a post solely dedicated to traffic... it's that crazy here. The problem is compounded by power-crazed people who try to control the entire road. Also, people can't merge so that causes 90% of the problems! Before I exhaust that issue, again, I'll move on...

Reggie had games Friday and Saturday this last week. We played a younger team Friday, and Petro Saturday. Both games were surprisingly easy, especially the Saturday game. Typically, Petro is one of the other stronger teams. I think the day was especially hot and that affected all the players because there wasn't much energy from either team. We had some friends come to the Saturday game which was a lot of fun. A lot of friends here are here with oil companies, or engineering companies. I am glad to offer an outlet for them; something fun and different that most people do not know exists here. After the game we all went out to pizza. It was almost like being at home. Except the pizza was thin crusted and the location was probably an old driveway between two houses that was converted into a pizza place. The ovens were in the back and all the guests sat outside in the front. It is warm, if not hot, here well into the night. So even at 11:00pm we were thankful for the fans blowing in our directions! It is so nice to be able to sit and talk with friends, share stories, and laugh-- all in the same language! Being able to speak the same language obviously isn't required, but it sure does make it easier. I am very thankful to have friends that I can share our life with here. I hope to have many more friends attend the games through out the season because the games are very fun and exciting!

Well, now it is Monday and we are into another week! Today was a relatively lazy day, but we need those every once in a while right?? I think so :-)

Until next time friends, which will be sooner I promise, abracos e beijinhos (hugs and kisses)