Senegal post from Bamba

[Pony_Fan]

If you haven't seen it already...

http://smumustangs.cstv.com/sports/m-ba ... May28.html

[d_pony]

very powerful message - it makes me proud of our school and our team

[PonyLove]

Love the picture of Bamba and his mother. Happy Birthday, Bamba!

[mrydel]

I hope these kids will some day realize the magnitude of this trip as a life event. I understand that a few on this board have been to Africa, but this is not an every day occurance, especially with the tours and stops they are making along with the basketball angle. These young men are experiencing something that not many people get to experience in their life times. I am very impressed with this trip.

[jkflamebo]

glad for bamba to see his entire family. not sure i could hold out for three years like the big fella did

[ALEX LIFESON]

Wow, very powerful images and words!

[PonyDoh]

Very impressive trip and the pictures are great. I'm happy for Bamba, Mohammed and Papa, and proud of the program.

[PonyPride]

That they took this trip is a major accomplishment for the coaching staff, the athletic department and a rare treat for the team. That they could visit Bamba's family on his birthday had to make it even more memorable for the big man. Enjoy it, guys.

[indianmustang]

more updates from the team
http://smumustangs.cstv.com/sports/m-ba ... May31.html

[expony18]

VERY COOL! i had the opportunity to travel to africa in 2006, and currently scheduled to head back next summer.... it was truly a life changing experience for me. this will be an experience the players never forget....

[Alaric]

Another update, home safely. Great post from Malcolm Farmer below Doherty's post.

http://smumustangs.cstv.com/sports/m-ba ... June5.html

[ALEX LIFESON]

June 6
"Home Sweet Home"
After 20 hours flying from South Africa to DFW we are finally back in The Big D. It is good to be home!

What day is it? When do you go to sleep? When I landed I turned on my PDA for the first time in about 10 days and the emails starting to roll! I emailed Tomasz....he got back to Poland safely. I emailed the Senegalese 3 - Bamba, Papa and Mouhammad to check on them as they where dropped off in Dakar to spend time with their families. Reality is setting in. We are indeed home.....and that is a good thing.

What a trip! We accomplished all we set out to do and more:

educate
bond
improve
exposure
create memories

Our players learned so much about Africa through the class they took with Professor Joci Edwards and Dr. Vicki Hill, both whom travelled with us to the beautiful continent across the Atlantic. In addition to the class work, when you actually see first hand what you are studying it means more...it sticks!

We bonded through our travels as we couldn't use our cell phones so we had to talk with each other more, we had every meal together, we were on buses together, we visited the families of the Senegalese 3......we had fun together.

We got better! We won our last game on Wednesday 107 -87 against the same team we lost to in our second game, the South African National Team. Bamba was great inside. His confidence is high as he is really scoring the ball well with jump hooks and turn around jumpers. We moved the ball unselfishly. We shot it well, close to 60%. We handled the ball well. Our defense got better. Everyone played great! It was a terrific way to finish the trip.

Being the first men's college team to travel to Africa should help us in the future as we got a chance to market our program in a continent full of talented prospects. Hopefully we will have some more Bamba's and Papa's in the future sporting the Mustang logo! It also made me proud of the way our travel party handled themselves in Africa. The players acted with the class every SMU alum and administrator would be proud of. It made me feel good when I would hear someone say something nice about how our guys carried themselves.

We certainly created memories....memories that will last us for the rest of our lives!

I would like to thank Malcolm Farmer and Steve Orsini again for making this trip a reality. Malcolm put this trip together, working on it for almost a year. Everything went better than expected! Malcolm is awesome. Steve Orsini allowed us to take this trip. There is not a better AD in the country. Thank you guys!

Pony Up!

I agree with Doh's comment about Steve Orsini, I just hope we can keep him.

[Pony_Fan]

The trip sounded like a great success. What a great opportunity! Hopefully they all bonded well and that will help with the upcoming season.

>>>>Being the first men's college team to travel to Africa should help us in the future as we got a chance to market our program in a continent full of talented prospects.

I especially like the fact that he said the guys conducted themselves in a way we would expect (unlike a lot of trips recently we've heard about from current SMU students)

[expony18]

I especially like the fact that he said the guys conducted themselves in a way we would expect (unlike a lot of trips recently we've heard about from current SMU students)

1. you need to conduct yourself in a certain way in africa to avoid dying..
2. how many frat boys and sorority girls go to africa? it's a little bit different then hanging out at cabo wabo or the gigglin' marlin... a little bit more humbling and harder to get coke-a-cola

[Pony_Fan]

I especially like the fact that he said the guys conducted themselves in a way we would expect (unlike a lot of trips recently we've heard about from current SMU students)

1. you need to conduct yourself in a certain way in africa to avoid dying..
2. how many frat boys and sorority girls go to africa? it's a little bit different then hanging out at cabo wabo or the gigglin' marlin... a little bit more humbling and harder to get coke-a-cola

you are right but kids can act stupid anywhere.