"
What sports do you like?", I asked one of the guards last night while we were watching Frank play volleyball with the students from he nearby hostel. We had been observing the volleyball game for a few minutes, but somehow I couldn't figure out whether he actually liked it or not. The guard started smiling after I had asked him my curious question. "
When I was young", he said, "
I used to do a special sport with my friends". This answer had somehow made me more curious, especially by the way his eyes had started shining. He asked me to guess, and I tried with 'football', 'netball', 'tennis' and 'basketball'. But by the way he kept shaking his head, I knew that I wasn't even close. Eventually he revealed his special sport:
"I used to do.....Kung-Fu!". While articulating the words, he gave me a short preview of some apparent Kung-Fu moves. To be quite honest, this was the last thing I was expecting from him and this Sudanese context.
"Me and my friends saw a movie once about Kung-Fu fighting and then we decided to practice it ourselves under the tree in our village", he explained. I pictured him and his friends trying out some of the breathtaking moves and sounds in the shade of a big village tree, while the rest of the village gathered to watch this special demonstration. Must have been quite an interesting and risky show! By the way his face was glowing, I could tell that our conversation had clearly brought back some good memories to this 45-year old guard. I eventually asked him why he doesn't do these kinds of sports activities any more, since he likes it so much.Then he sighed, sat down and lit a new cigarette:
"Now I am very, very, very old."
