Hello Comets Fans!

Photo: FIXCA.INFO

This is Hamchétou Maïga-Ba writing you from Brno, in the Czech Republic. Well, I thought that I will write you a bit to let you all know how I was doing even though we are in the off-season.

Anyway, in the past I have played 2 ½ years with the same team in Spain (2003-2005). My first three months were a little challenging as I had no clue of Spanish. I actually bought a CD of English-Spanish at Wal-Mart before I departed. I could not even count from one to five. During my layovers, I started to learn the numbers, colors and the alphabet. After coming back for two more years, now I can fluently speak Spanish. I had enjoyed that team, the city and its people but after almost three years there I was ready for a change. I had family in France and one of my dear sisters who I was really missing was married there. That influenced me a lot in going to France and adding to that I would not have to learn any language since we studied in French back home in Mali. So, I played in France for two years on different teams. I enjoyed it because I not only met some great people but I actually got the opportunity to see my nephew Iba grow up. Hearing him calling me “Tata, c’est Tata” is a blast.

This year, I took on a challenge. I had actually forgotten what it was like to be somewhere and not understand the language. My first three months in U.S. were challenging as I couldn’t speak or understand well English. Spain was the same way. Today, I think I can proudly say that I am fluent in both English and Spanish. Add to those, I actually speak three African dialects and French. I had told myself that those were enough and that I did not want to learn any new language. Today, the sport that I have always cherished took me another place where I had no idea how even say “Hello” or any other word for that matter. In France, I helped my foreign teammates make appointments, ask and answer questions about their phones, apartments and so on… So, I am reliving all over again my past experiences in U.S. and Spain. My teammates have taught me how to count and some words here and there. I am not sure if I’ll ever be fluent in Czech as it is by far the hardest language that I have had to learn. I’ll let you all know how that goes.

Now speaking of basketball, the reason that actually got me to the Czech Republic, my team Gambrinus Brno has been one of the elite teams in Europe. There are four foreign players in the team or should I say three because one (Zu Zirkova – She’s a Slovak) has been playing there for six years now. Tamika Whitmore of Indiana is also there on the team. The rest of the players are members of the Czech national team and so is the coach. It feels like a family down here, they have known each other forever now. Our integration to the team was not very hard as the girls were very nice and practically all of them speak English. The Czech league is not as competitive as say the French or Spanish league. Our biggest opponent in the league is USK Praha (Janell Burse and Lindsay Whalen’s team) and our biggest competition is the Euroleague. Things are certainly different than everything that I was used too while playing in Europe, but I am sure adapting and looking forward to better outcomes.

Well, for those who do not know, I had the privilege as always to represent my country Mali in the African Championship this past September in Senegal. We actually became champions for the first time ever in the seniors’ level and will represent Africa to the OLYMPICS!!!!!!(Yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh).That was a dream of mine and I am proud and happy about the outcome not only for myself and my teammates but for MALI.

Hope you enjoyed it, so til next time….

Hamchétou