kolpich and rambo

a cousin, second cousin, or uncle. im not really sure which. somehow a relative to my wife, and a relative that is closer in relation than others. figuring out my wife’s family structure is a very difficult thing. relatives are mainly referred to as brother/sister, uncle/aunt or father/mother. The father/mother is normally left for the actual parents or at least their actual brothers and sisters if the actual parents have passed away. But the others can be used for just about anybody. The man that is the son of your father’s brother’s wife’s sister can be called a brother. When in fact he is a very distant cousin with no blood relation. But then again there probably is some blood relation because, albeit a very, very distant one.

the point of all of this is that Kolpich, a relative of Mary that she refers to as uncle when but i think is actually a cousin , has been staying with us for the past two weeks as he recovers from an operation he had on his hip.

about three months ago, according to him, he was trying to assist a woman who was being attacked in the middle of road and managed to step into a deep hole and broke his hip. He will only grudgingly admit to the fact that he was on his way home after attending a big celebration that involved a large amount of inebriating beverages and that this may have been one of the factors as to why he stumbled into the hole as he went to assist the lady in distress. This all happened in Sudan where medical facilities are still lacking tremendously. He has suffered quite a bit and only found out three weeks ago when he came to Nairobi for treatment that he had fractured his hip and dislocated his leg. He went for a major surgery to fix it all and has now been recuperating at our place.

his favorite pastime is to watch “Rambo – Part III”. Can’t remember the exact title, not sure if that is really necessary. In this episode of Rambo, he is in Afghanistan fighting russians and saving his commander with the help of Afghan rebels. I believe these days they are refered to as “Taliban”.

I guess with the current situation in the world and America’s involvement in locations like Afghanistan and others (Iraq), this movie strikes me as a little funny. A hollywood testament to the fact that about 20 years back, america was supporting these rebels because they were fighting Russia. Wonder who we may be supporting or fighting in the next 20 years.

This got me to reflecting about the situation in Sudan that has been dragging on for the last 20 to 25 years as well. I was talking with a man once that has been fighting and involved with the southern forces fighting the north. When the war started in 83, the Islamic North was receiving support from the U.S. because the rebels in the South were receiving support from countries with alignment to the big enemy of america at that time. Somewhere along the line, things got swapped around and the US began giving support to south and declared the north as the bad guys. (Please if my history is way off here, someone can feel free to correct me).

kolbic loves Rambo. he is really impressed with his strenght and his warrior ways. he also enjoys identifying all the various weapons that are shown throughout the film. I think it takes him back to the “good ol days”. myself, i’m getting a little tired of the movie. The only thing I find halfway interesting is the beginning fight scene where rambo has a fight with a man who looks very much like the comedic actor Jack Black.

SudanMurleRambotalibanNairobiKenya