Over the past few days we have spent in Samarkand, Jack, Collin, and I have found a great amount of joy in playing sports with a number of the locals and students.
One of our first nights in Samarkand, we played some basketball with some local kids. They were quite impressed with our hooping abilities and enjoyed meeting us. In addition to the normal awe of our citizenship, one of the kids asked Jack to get him to America (this would not be the last time someone asked for some sort of guidance to help get them to America), they also tried teaching us bad words, unbeknownst to us. Much to our chagrin, we later found confirmed the words they were trying to teach us were quite devious and very rude; that being said, its a pretty memorable experience!
During some free time, a few days after our initial basketball experience, we met some guys our age playing basketball in Navoiy park. We played a series of lively basketball games showing the Uzbeks how we play in Indiana. Again, this was a very enriching and fun occasion.
Much later, on our last day in Samarkand, we played some volleyball with the Institute students. There was some clear volleyball talent there, something amiss in the basketball games, and it was quite fun to play with students we had not yet met.
Sports, in my experience and reinforced on this trip, is a manner for people to break language and cultural barriers. While it is entirely likely I will never meet any of the people I met while playing basketball or volleyball with them, the mutual enjoyment of playing a sport and learning a little about one another is an experience that lasts a lifetime.