Seven foot two

Maybe you’ve heard of him. I had not before coming to Congo, but once I got here, I kept hearing about the Dikembe Mutombo this, that and the other thing. He takes in over 20 million a year and gives a lot of it back to Congo, creating and maintaining clinics and hospitals. Someone said he really wanted to be a doctor as a young kid, but ended up making it big in the NBA, most recently with the Houston Rockets. At age 41, he’s the second oldest player in the NBA. When Jon and Grace (daughter) were here, he and I toured the Mutombo Hospital out near the airport. It was very well equipped, but not well populated, primarily because it is expensive to keep it going without having private paying patients or patients with insurance coverage. It is impressive, however. They maintain their own water filtration system, operating rooms, laboratory, and generators. The patients receive food from the hospital. (See photo).

Yes, the 7’2” man himself is here in Kinshasa for the next few days, making his annual visit to drum up more support for his philanthropic work. Getting clothes to fit is not as difficult as finding shoes—size 22! Along with him are about 25 other people, including his wife, Rose, and his older brother who seems short on the side of Dikembe, just guessing, 6’9.” They took several high school students from the French International School in Houston. One gentleman is the videographer for the Houston Rockets. Another is here with a Christian group making a film showing what the Mutombo Foundation does and what its needs are. Another gentleman, Mark, who happened to have a daughter from the International School in Houston, was an entrepreneur and talked about “setting up a sister city” program between Kinshasa and Houston.

More to come about Dikembe next time.