AVIATION

Yesterday, I had so many plans. During the day, I would relax and do some writing. The next day was to be a meeting for work and the end of what felt like a lengthy holiday, especially after the marathon that I was running at Radio Justice.

In the afternoon, I was to meet up with Bella, go to a basketball tournament, and accompany Michelle and Myma to a BBQ. Initially, I was going to go to the tournament alone and maybe meet Bella there, but my intuition was telling me to see if Micky and Roland wanted to go. Roland was busy, but Micky was eager to get out of the house.

So, after checking my email at the café, Micky and I jumped in a taxi and headed to the Aviation Centre for the New Year Basketball Tournament, featuring the numerous high school teams from around the region. I was excited to see some basketball and to see the skills of the teams.

While it was nice to be there, the teams were pretty bad. They were athletic, and seemed to love the game – I’ll give them that, but I could put together a couple squads of twelve and thirteen year olds from Driftwood that could smoke these guys. For one, the games were 20 minutes each and the highest scoring match was 13-11. There was actually a game, after 20 minutes, that was 4-2. The court was not that big either. I saw a team playing over five consecutives possessions that had three air balls and two really sloppy turnovers, before scoring a lay-up. There was also three different games where time was finished and they had free throws, and those shooting missed all of there shots. One guy had three free throws and he even put up an air ball from the line. There were a lot of wild shots off the top of the backboard and there were way too many traveling calls.

It was a fun atmosphere, and the odd team or player that played well made it a bit more exciting. The whole time I was just thinking how much these players could benefit from some fundamental skill workshops: shooting form, taking charges, dribbling, lay-ups, and shot selection.

I have to say that some of the girls teams were pretty nice. They seemed to understand some of the fundamentals more.

Adding to the entertainment, after the basketball tournament, there was an emcee battle. I was really curious to see what that was going to be like. What they did was bring 16 contestants unto the court and give them one minute each. They battled in pairs, and after their one minute each the crowd would vote on who should go on. That was even worse than the games. I mean, it was fun to be there with about a thousand or more youth from around Accra. People were lined up all around the edge of the court to watch. As for the rappers though, most of them were not clear and not making much sense when they were clear. We just wanted to see one rapper with some skills…just one…but he – or she - didn’t show up.

It was at that point when I realized that we had a problem. Standing there with Micky and Bella I realized that my phone was no longer in my pocket. I had just sent a text message when I was sitting down on a chair watching the final of the basketball tournament. I was waiting for a text with directions to the BBQ. After the game, we waded through the crowd to get to the front to see the emcee battle.

The realization then hit – they got me! Again!!! Some one had must have seen me use the phone and return it to my right pocket. When moving through the crowd, someone must have got it from my pocket. We tried calling it, but it was turned off.

We now had another problem, which was finding Micheal among more than a thousand high school youth without his phone number to call him. We circled the place a few times, but could not see him. With the emcee battle that was just not good, and an after-party that was about to start, we decided to leave.

Once we got home, we called Micheal and ensured that he knew that we had left and that he and his friend that he went with should come home. We also tried calling the phone and actually got through to the guy who had it. He spoke for a bit with us, but when he realized that the call wasn’t for him, he hung it up.

This morning we also got through a few times and even asked him to just give the chip back. He insisted “call back later”. Later for what?

So, now I have to go to Areeba and cancel my line. I can get the same number again, so I won’t have to change that, but I will have to wait for many of my contacts to call me so that I can save there numbers again. Oh yeah, and I gotta get a new phone.

With it all said and done, I am not too worried and I am counting my blessings. I realize that when things like this happen they are to open my eyes to something I need to focus on and drawing my attention to a lesson that I need to learn. So, I am just looking to see what that lesson is while I thank God for protecting me from so much, and blessing me so greatly.

Update: got my number still and a new chip...just gotta get a new phone now. And there's more to the story. Stay tuned!