Giving...

I injured my hand 2 weeks ago while playing in a tournament... Sorry about these details mom, maybe you should skip this paragraph... the game was intense; we were playing one of our arch-rivals, a team who were known to play very physical basketball. I had been playing in a way I hadn't in years, coming off screens so close I could see sweat beads forming on my player's face... My center was being beaten by any means necessary, deriving us of our primary scoring option... after being humiliatingly blocked taking a 3, I started to heat up, knocking down textbook-pretty jumpers from all over the court, fighting off my defender who had decided that today was the day to act like my skin and stay stuck to me... slowly we pulled away, needing only 2 more baskets to win... I came off another screen, my defender still holding me as he had the entire game... yet this time, instead of holding my shirt, he was holding my hand... I felt a sharp sting, but kept going... my team-mate del...

Rodrigue and I have barely slept in the last 2 weeks... we try to get some downtime wherever we can, which means we usually nap in vans when we're stuck in traffic, or at friend's houses... one of us stays awake to keep the conversation going while the other snoozes off, then we swap... Seems like there's just not enough time in the day to get everything done for the Big Bangs... Here we are at 8am on a Friday morning, off to another tournament... As a result of all the running around my hand still hasn't had time to heal, and my immune system is so low that I've caught Rod's flu... Still wouldn't trade it for the world...

It’s been some time since I last saw little Soheil, basket in hand, carrying sand from the pile to the building site. At only 6, Soheil seemed to take the task of building his new home very seriously, offering only the rarest of smiles when one of my antics finally amused him. In the 4 months since, Soheil and his family’s home has been completed. It’s a simple home, 2 rooms squeezed in between 2 other homes in, Degaon, a small village, some 30kms from the Bangladesh capital Dhaka. Even in such a small village, there is little space to move; in a country of 140 million, your home may be the only privacy you can have; in a country of such extreme poverty, your home may be your only real possession. Soheil is excited to show me his new home. He still has the same serious face, but is obviously proud of his surroundings. He jumps up and down on the family bed, he points out the fan and the walls, the new windows and the cement floors. To a western eye, the house is hardly the ideal ne...

It’s frustrating to see the end in sight. There is so much left to do, both with my organization as well as my team… we just had a planning meeting at work, and it feels as though nothing was accomplished in the last 11 months… That’s difficult to deal with. I know I’ve contributed; how effective that contribution has been will remain to be seen, yet the feeling that I could have, should have perhaps done more is starting to get to me… hindsight can be a blessing and a curse… I’ve been drama-free for 11 months… the sudden onset of drama this month is only adding to my frustration… It’s hard to keep the reigns in on my desire to drop the maturity and just start swinging… I better play some ball tonight to calm down… sometimes you just feel surrounded by idiots, you know? Why do so few people take other's feelings into consideration? Why is honesty supposedly so valued yet so often ignored until it's too late? Why the heck does this hand still hurt so much? (Speaking of Reggie Mi...

I bought my "driver" a new rickshaw... First time I've seen him cry... One of the most recurring thoughts I have in this country is "this is a stupid problem to have...". From the workplace to my rickshaw rides to just being about town, there seems to be a neverending supply of ridicuous, inane issues to deal with... In Dhaka, if your rickshaw looks old, the police will not allow you to cross any major roads... if your rickshaw looks new, they don't care... so for 11 months I couldn't cross the main road with my driver, even though it was only 6 metres across... This is a stupid problem to have... I need to head out into the field to collect a story today... but I'm stuck in the office, it's 11am already, because no one in the finance department has the key to the petty cash bix so we can buy fuel... This is a stupid problem to have... The one court in the country that has enough space for the number of people who keep wanting to join our tourna...

Big Bangs Present Dhaka All-Star Game 2008 Online voting process, professional light and sound crew, halftime entertainment, event sponsorship, a packed house... what an awesome event...