Demolition Team Update

By Popular demand (i.e. a couple people asking about the team) - here is an update:

The basketball team I play on is currently 2-1. Unfortunately last Wednesday we lost to the reigning league champs (an ALL-Filipino team) by 5 points. It was a tough game, and my teams’ first “real” game we’ve played. It’s always fun to see when people’s competitive juices get flowing out on the court - and I was happy with how our team responded. The all Filipino team was actually really good – pretty athletic guards and a couple of big men (I know, I know, its tough to picture tall Filipinos, especially if you grew up around my family, but apparently they exist) a couple guys on their team currently play for the local college (Zayed University). They jumped out on us pretty good, got up by 10-15 points, but we cam back and tied it going into the half. The second half, we just ran out of gas and lacked the mental composure to beat this team. That being said…. the Officials were Both Filipino, and called a completely one sided game.

Having played in the Durham city league, I should have gotten used to this type of officiating, but I’m still shocked when the officials really favor one team over the other in a Rec league game. The other team was speaking Tagalog, and communicating with the ref freely – while our team could barley break the communication barrier (unless glaring counts). I turned to the ref one trip down the court and shouted, “Come on Kabayan!” – but all he did was laugh.

This conveniently leads in to my next point - I’m trying to learn Tagolog. Most people who move to the Middle East (J and I included) want to learn Arabic, and there is nothing wrong with that. However…Arabic is insanely hard/frustrating to learn…especially if you are working, and don’t have the time/energy at the end of the day to put forth a worthwhile effort.

At the office I work at two of the Administrative Assistants (secretary’s in Abu Dhabi) are from the Philippines and speak Tagalog. They said the first day I started work they thought I had some Filipino blood. Anyways, through our daily interactions I have been trying to learn 1 to 2 phrases/words a day (this has been going on for about a week or so) and it has been quite enjoyable. There are quite a few Filipino’s working in the UAE and a good majority of the people who play b-ball out here are Filipino, so it will be fun picking up bits and pieces of the language while I live out here. J and I are definitely hoping to make it to the Philippines while we live in Abu Dhabi and ideally my limited Tagalog will help on that trip :)

“Kabayan” was actually one of the first Tagalog words I learned out here. I guy who works on the proposal team walked by me in the hall and said “Kabayan” – I had no idea what it meant – but when I went and asked the secretaries they laughed pretty hard. Kabayan means fellow Filipino/countryman. Needless to say, I’ve been throwing that word around the office to the Filipinos and that always gets a smile out of people – just like the basketball Ref.