Two days ago Nasir and I visited the University of Ghana campus just outside Accra. Nasir studied political science there years ago, and much of the family has some kind of undergraduate or graduate degree from the university, which is one of the best in West Africa.
I bought a couple of books at the bookstore and sat in on a geography lecture, but the highlight was definitely non-academic: We were driving past a 2-on-2 pickup basketball game and I joked "maybe I should challenge them" or something like that. Nasir took me more seriously than I was taking myself, and it also turned out that one of the players was a relative (nephew?). So we stopped and, clearly completely bemused, one of the guys gave me his spot. In my skirt and Chaco sandals, and Sarah's nice blouse which I had borrowed to visit the courts, I proceeded to go 2-for-3 from the field (draining and 15- and 10-footer), talked a little trash, and then decided that was as good as it was going to get and I was also in real danger of injuring myself and ruining my trip, and gracefully exited.
(Nasir managed to take that photo of me playing defense. Also, in the interest of fair and balanced journalism, I should probably mention that I did get dunked on, and also that they clearly had mixed feelings about even attempting to put any kind of pressure on me when I was shooting. But still, for someone who hasn't shot a basketball in a couple of months and is playing in sandals, I felt pretty good about the whole thing.)
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