University of Kentucky basketball players Jared Carter and Ramon Harris, along with other collegiate players, traveled with Athletes in Action (AIA), to Mali, Africa to compete in a four nation tournament hosted by the Malian basketball federation. AIA is a global pioneer, innovator and servant leader in sport ministry.

Former Wildcat Azubuike Travels to Africa

In addition, former UK Wildcat and current Golden State Warrior, Kelenna Azubuike recently accepted a personal invitation from Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete to take part in Leon H. Sullivan Summit VIII, “The Summit of a Lifetime.” The five-day convention, which was held Monday, June 2, through Friday, June 6, in Arusha, Tanzania, brought together the world?s political and business leaders, delegates representing national and international civil and multinational organizations, and members of academic institutions in order to focus attention and resources on Africa?s economic and social development.

Azubuike provided first-hand accounts of his experiences abroad. Details can be found at the Warriors website, .

Quotes from Jared Carter and Ramon Harris

June 12, 2008

Jared Carter

On the experience as a whole?

?Well, it was hot. It was about 115 degrees every day. I think it rained once. Other than that, everything was different. The food was different. The people were different. They all spoke French. We had a translator, so that helped us get around town, but it was just a big cultural change.?

On the countries visited?

?We went to Senegal the first time, for about five days, and then the rest of the time we went to Mali.?

On ?an Audience of One??

?That was our main focus for the team, playing for an Audience of One. And that was our biggest reason to go over there, because we want to share with others about God. So we had to make sure we were playing for Him and not focused on the Africans and the audience. Every time we went down they would cheer, but we couldn?t get caught up in that. We had a lot of bad calls over there, but we couldn?t get mad at the referees or anything like that. For one thing they couldn?t speak English, so we couldn?t complain to them. But that?s what I learned.?

On expectations about the trip?

?Before leaving, I was real cautious about even going, up until the last day. I didn?t know what to expect. I really didn?t talk to that many people that had done this before. Everybody I?d talked to had never been to Africa, they just always wanted to go, so I didn?t have any resources to fall back on. I was really skeptical from what I?d seen on TV, just what everyone thinks Africa is. I kind of thought we?d be living in tents and stuff like that. But it was different and I thought it was a great experience, going over there and putting away those false visions of what Africa is. Some places are like that, but where we were it wasn?t like that at all.?

On the travel accommodations?

?We flew out of Ohio into Washington, then Washington to New York. From there it was almost seven hours to get across the water to Paris and then about a six hour flight going down to Bamako.

?I struggled every time to get an exit row seat. I didn?t have a big seat on the way over there, but luckily the stewardesses were nice. They bumped me up to first class, so that was pretty awesome.?

On their competition?

?They?re not very big over there, like they don?t work out. They don?t eat a lot over there, so it?s really hard for them to get big. But they?re very athletic. Their game is getting rebounds and that?s how they scored a lot, getting a lot of rebounds. They?re just athletic. You always had to watch your back so you wouldn?t get dunked on or anything like that.?

Did you get dunked on?

?No, I never got dunked on.?

On the 7-foot, 5-inch African player?

?I think he was 22 years old. I don?t think he was very coordinated. He played only about four years of basketball, so I think that affected him, but according to his teammates he was getting a lot better.?

On community activities outside of basketball?

?We went to three or four schools. That was probably one of the best experiences we had, one of the most moving experiences in Africa. In their classrooms, there?s no air conditioning, no doors or anything like that, so there?s all kinds of insects and flies and stuff in there.

?The kids just had so much respect. Any time we would walk into the classroom they would all stand up and wait for the teacher to tell them to sit back down. They had a lot of respect, and just for the situation they were in, I really respected them for that.?

On his experiences at the orphanage?

?I didn?t have anything really like that [similar to Ramon?s]. I just played with the children some.

?The guy who was running the orphanage was talking about how it?s illegal in Mali to put up children for adoption, so parents would just put these children in garbage pails and on top of garbage cans so people could find them. That was kind of moving too, because I don?t see how parents can do that. I guess we have some similar instances over here in the United States, but it was just a sad experience.?

On the food?

?(We had) very little portions. There were a lot of mystery meats over there, mystery birds. I don?t think we ever ate chicken, but we ate all kinds of little birds. I don?t know what it was, but it was good.?

On weight loss?

?I lost like 5 pounds, but I gained it back over the last couple of days because I ate a lot.?

On the trip as the experience of a lifetime?

?People always talk about trips like going to Africa on TV. People say it?s a life changing experience, and it?s definitely been a life changing experience for me. How people handle themselves over there, and what they have, and what they have to deal with makes me thankful for everything that I have ? that we have ? over here. It?s amazing.?

On the impact the trip had had on self-confidence and the approach to the game?

?Like Ramon said, playing for an Audience of One will definitely change the way I play.

?Confidence-wise, it was a good chance for me to go out and get some playing time, to go out there and just play basketball against some pretty good competition. I played a lot of good minutes out there, too, and put up some pretty good numbers, so I think it?s definitely helped my confidence.?

Ramon Harris

On how the trip to Africa was a new experience?

?It was definitely a different experience because in Africa a lot of people don?t have anything. What they have is what they can carry. We met a lot of people and learned about how they were raised and how they grew up, but the entire time they always had a smile on their face. We talked to men and women that only had a hut or just a corner, but they had a smile from ear to ear. By seeing that, it definitely humbled everyone on the trip because they were happy even though they didn?t have much to go home to. It made me think about how I act and how I complain a lot about things that are basically given to me.?

On improving as a player from the experience?

?On the trip, we learned about playing for the audience of one. This basically means playing for the glory of God. If you do it for the glory of Him, then everything else will fall into place. Sometimes you get caught up in playing in front of your hometown fans, or trying to impress the coaches at practice. You really forget that you?re really playing for the audience of one. While we were down there we learned how to play for fun because if you play for fun, it makes the game so much easier.?

On what he learned on the trip?

?I thought it was going to be a basketball trip but I learned about my faith more. I came to realize that basketball was just the entertainment part of the trip. The real trip was getting to know God and finding how I can use Him in my life. We learned how we can affect other people?s lives, not just by spreading the word, but by putting a smile on their face. That was the true meaning of our trip.?

On the role basketball played on the trip?

?Basketball was the even ground between two different cultures. By playing the game, we created a lot of friendships. We were at a place called SEEDS (Sports for Education and Economic Development) Academy which was basically a prep school in Africa. They had a lot of athletes. Everyone out there was so nice. We learned from them and they learned from us. It made it hard to leave, because you never know if you?ll see them again. The trip showed how it should be and how we should interact with others. We were strangers and we came into their town and their culture and still they accepted us since day one.?

On visiting the orphanage?

?The first day we went to an orphanage and there was a little girl. She couldn?t have been older than one and a half. She crawled to me, so I picked her up. She pointed to the cartoons on the TV and started talking. I took her over to the TV and she started talking and playing a lot. I was with her for two hours. When it came time for us to leave, I tried to put her down and she started crying. She stopped when I picked her up again. Then I put her down and she started crying again. At that point, I started crying because she?d grown attached to me. It was the hardest thing, because we had to leave for a game, and even if I just moved her from my chest she would start crying again. It was so hard to put her back in the crib and just let her cry; because it wasn?t the first time she?d been left. I started crying because I felt like I built a relationship, even though she was a little girl. The fact that she was talking to me made it feel like there was a connection. When we came back the second day, she saw me and walked over to me. She grabbed my finger and I started to cry because she remembered me. That day I was with her for three hours. I walked with her, I played ball with her and I fed her and burped her. It was really hard to leave that day because she remembered me. When a little child remembers you, it?s amazing. To leave that day was the hardest thing I had to do that trip.?

On playing basketball in Africa?

?It?s different. We played people who were representing their hometown. Their hometown was supporting them, playing their national songs and blowing whistles. It was a great experience because we built relationships with not only the players but their families and their kids. We had a banquet with all of the teams. We played music and they were dancing together. They were showing us how they dance and what the dances mean. Learning things like that is only something you can do once in a lifetime.?

On how the trip affected him as a basketball player?

?It?s helped my confidence a lot because they play hard every single play. I see why they do, because they are really playing for their families. For some of them, being in the gym is the best place they?ve been all day, best looking place, best air-conditioned place. Confidence wise, it really helped because they play a different style of game. Seeing Jared (Carter) out there playing better than I?ve ever seen him play before really helped because it made me want to play better. It made me want to up my game and play harder than the competition. Jared definitely did that the entire trip.?