Burkina Faso
After a week in Lomé, we packed and headed to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso for a Jr. NBA Camp. The camp was held at the Palais des Sports in Ouagadougou, hosting 30 young ball players from all over West Africa. These young men traveled from Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Togo, Nigeria and Mali. Many traveled up to three days to make the journey. Our journey to Ouagadougou began at 3 am. We woke up to catch a 5 am bus and traveled the entire length of the country. The bus ride took a total of 21 hours. Togo's countryside is beautiful. It's a tropical, sub-Saharan country, so the terrain is covered with lush greenery reminding me of the landscape of Hawaii.
We arrived in Ouagadougou around 10:45 pm and instead of checking into a hotel for the night we slept outdoors at the bus station. Our group included myself, my father, two coaches and four players from Lome. It was incredible to see how adaptable these young players and coaches were to sleeping at the bus station with no blankets or pillows, The picture below depicts the chairs and floors the young men slept on . In the United States, players and coaches would have been outraged, but with no fuss these young boys relaxed and adjusted into their accommadations for the night. They were all excited for the next day, their first NBA camp. As for myself, it was a bit uncomfortbale but I made it through the night by staying awake and watching television.
The next morning we checked into the Hotel LAICO 2000, a 5-star hotel located just a few minutes from the camp location. We spent the next four nights in this lap of luxury.
The NBA camp was held at the Burkina Faso arena, the largest in the country. The facilities were great, the boys got fresh new uniforms, and they were all shooting with brand new NBA balls. We were joined by Gorgui Dieng, who is orginaly from Senegal and is currently playing in the NBA for the Minnesota Timberwolves. He was a great inspirational for the young boys at camp. His words reminded these young men that just a few years ago he was in the same position. He told them, "The possibilites the game of basketball can offer are endless, including playing professionally in the United States or overseas in Europe." Most importantly, as a University of Louisville graduate himself, he stressed to the young men the importance of education.
The three day camp was designed to bring together elite players from West African countries to give them them a platform to better their game. These young men showed up each day eager to learn and get better. Some more skilled then others, but an unwavering desire to get better was shared among of the young men. For some of the players this was their first time traveling outside of their home country, and the experiences and friendships they were able to make will last a lifetime.
It wasn't all basketball though, the last day of camp we went to go Bazoule to visit the crocodiles. YES, I said crocodiles. We all hopped in a bus and headed to a crocodile pond where we found hundreds of crocodiles. I was deathly afraid of these massive reptiles, yet I mustered enough courage to get closer than I ever thought I would get to a crocodile in this lifetime. I was suprised to see how docile these creatures were allowing us to stand over them to take pictures. It wasn't until the tour guides threw live chicken towards the crocodiles that we saw some action. (*I did not watch them feed the chickens to the crocodiles. I am a vegetarian and it made me extremely uncomfortable to know the chickens were going to be massacred in this way.)
The camp was an absolute success. It deepened my understanding of the state of basketball in West Africa. The work the NBA is doing in Africa is incredible. It takes a lot of work the put together a camp of this magnitude. I am honored to have been apart of the camp and I hope that my work in Togo will help to improve the overall state of basketball in West Africa.