Extreme Baller

You all know that I'm an extreme baller, right?  Riiiiight.  In any case one of my favorite things to do is play volleyball with the Sudanese guys.  This picture is from one of our last games before Lino and Angelo left for Canada... I'm hidden behind Hussein, who's wearing the grey shirt.  Anyways, this past Saturday evening I went over to play.  We haven't played in such a long time because with the guys in Canada, Shelah hurting her foot, and the others back at boarding school there haven't been enough of us to play.  Shelah is finally good enough to play and Saudi and Hussein were around, so we got some games going.  The court we play on is in their front yard, on a down slope.  It's steep enough to roll down... like a child.  :)

We played Americans vs Africans and were pretty evenly matched.  Jade, Shelah, and I vs Hussein, Saudi, and Meron.  After about 4 games played to 25 points, Shelah sat down to rest her foot.  Lidya took her place on our team.  I normally play in the back because of my height deficiency, but I moved up to play front with Jade while Lidya played in the back.

That's when it happened.  We had a pretty good volley going, but Lidya hit it out on our side.  In an attempt to save it I turned and leapt down towards the ball to hit it back inbounds over my head to Jade.  As I leapt I must not have calculated the slope correctly.  I was looking up at the ball coming over my head... and when I landed on my right leg, my knee hyperextended and I heard a "popping" sound.  The pain was immediate and I was down.  In case you're wondering... I did hit the ball, but the play ended when I hit the ground.

I sat there holding my knee, trying not to give into the temptation to shout.  How embarrassing!  But I was assured that my attempt at least looked good.  I sat with ice on it for about 10 minutes and then I tried to stand.  I was able to put weight on it and walk up the hill with the help and Lidya and Shelah.  I was supposed to be meeting some friends for dinner, so I hopped in the car and headed off.  I drive a manual vehicle so the constant shifting and letting on and off the gas didn't help the pain, but I made it to the restaurant.

The verdict is that I've torn a ligament in my right knee.  I'm not sure the extent of the damage, but I do know that it's pretty weak right now.  I've been icing it and trying to stay off of it.  I also have an ace bandage which helps support the area where the pain is.  It's a major bummer because even riding a boda hurts a bit and I normally walk and ride bodas during the week.  I am thankful, however, that I didn't hurt it bad enough to where I couldn't walk.  I can move and get stuff done, just at a much slower pace.  Right now the worst part is knowing how long it will take to heal.  I just want to get back out there and play volleyball... I guess I should work on walking first though.

So if it's not stronger in about a month, I'll go have it looked at.  The most important thing for you to remember is that I hit the ball back in and it's because of my extreme ballin that I got injured.  :)