Here’s an update for those of you who have been following the story of photojournalist Rex Miller and his Ugandan friend, Davis Cup player Patrick Olobo (pictured with his mother, above).
You may remember that Patrick and Rex made it to the U.S. safely and without problem, just in time to spend Super Saturday at the U.S. Open.
The very next day, Patrick was headed for Ed Fondiller’s Total Tennis camp Saugerties, N.Y. – that’s upstate, in the rural eastern Catskills, the rugged land that inspired the important Hudson River School of American painters in the 19th Century. It's hard imagine a place as different from Uganda as the northeastern hardwood-and-hemlock forest, and I imagine at time Patrick might think he landed on Mars.
Rex, meanwhile, returned to his home in North Carolina, but is heading back north next week to continue making his documentary film on Patrick's flight from his war-torn homeland.
Here’s an email update from Rex:
Rex also sent along a very touching picture of Patrick and his mother, taken back in Uganda. Anybody who's interested in helping Patrick realize his dream of becoming a tennis pro, you know where to reach me - or Rex.