GOOGLE brought this young basketball player to our country.

Emmanuel ?Jean? Mbe typed in the keywords ?coach? and ?basketball? in the popular search engine in 2008. He was graduating from high school and wanted to continue playing the game he loves so much. His search brought him to coach Eric Altamirano?s website.

?I originally applied in USC (University of Southern California) but I couldn?t speak English so I didn?t get in,? he says. When he found Altamirano?s site, he asked an uncle to translate a letter he wrote the coach asking if the latter could help him play the game in the Philippines.

Altamirano replied the next day, asking for a video of Mbe?s games (which he didn?t have) and other details about his basketball prowess. The coach must have liked his answers because he was asked to buy a one-way ticket to the Philippines; Altamirano said he would take care of the rest.

Prior to this exchange, Mbe hasn?t even heard of the Philippines. The only English phrases he knew were ?hello? and ?where are my socks?? Like most citizens of Cameroon in West Africa, he spoke French apart from his native language.

The language barrier proved to be the toughest challenge he had to overcome. But Mbe was determined to learn English. He read Larry King?s ?How to Talk to Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere,? and translated the words through the English-French dictionary that Altamirano?s wife, Marissa, had bought for him. It took him seven months to finish King?s book. He also read the sports pages every morning, assiduously following Manny Pacquiao?s career like most Filipinos. Finally, he found an unlikely language tutor in the person of the coach?s seven-year-old daughter.

He recalls: ?She had books on animals with pictures on it. She would show them to me and we would read it together. Talking to kids helped me a lot because they use simple words that I could understand.?

Mbe?s first team in 2008 was the Emilio Aguinaldo College Generals. But he only stayed with them for one semester, he says, because he felt miserable; nobody would talk to him. ?I think my teammates there are nice guys. They just didn?t know how to communicate with me because I didn?t speak English then,? he says.

He decided to transfer to STI College because he wanted to take up Music Production. He does a mean French rap back home, he adds. But again, he only stayed for another semester.

By this time, Mbe was starting to build his self-confidence as he found himself playing with and against several teams, including the Smart Gilas, the De La Salle Green Archers and the UST Tigers. He finally found a home playing center with the National University Bulldogs. His career game, so far, was during the team?s second game against the Green Archers, where he registered double-double digits with his 21 points and 19 rebounds.

It was the first time the Bulldogs won a back-to-back game against the Archers (they eliminated the team last year), and only the fourth time since DLSU joined the league. After that, the next order of business for other teams was finding ways to check him.

The 18-year-old player reveals that one of the best things that he found here was a family. Altamirano stayed true to his word and treated him like a son. Mbe still spends his weekends with them to have dinner, attend Bible study and go to church with the rest of the family.

He recalls: ?I used to hate Christmas. I used to spend it with friends back home. Here, I am overwhelmed at how they include me in the celebration. They also make a fuss about my birthday. I am grateful,? he says.

Mbe says he never knew his American-Canadian father whom his mother met while she was studying in Canada. He was 9 when she died, and he was raised by an uncle who cared for him and his 12-year-old sister, but was often away because of his job as a Red Cross doctor.

Adjusting to life in the Philippines wasn?t that easy, says this Cameroon native. The Filipinos? sweet tooth perplexes him.

While he likes his breakfast sweet (Nutella spread on toast with milk), he doesn?t understand why our main dishes like meat have to taste sweet as well.

?French cooking is salty. When I?m in Tita Marissa?s home, the househelp would cook a salty version of adobo for me. I love adobo and Bicol Express,? he says.

The commute is something he hasn?t gotten used to, either, opting to take cabs from his dorm back to the coach?s home. The only time he rode a jeepney, he recounts, was when some of his friends came over and they rented the whole vehicle to go around the Metro.

He also had to change the way he dresses to fit the country?s weather that is hotter than back home. Cameroon weather is similar to Baguio, he adds. His taste in music reflected the way he used to dress: baggy shirt, shorts and a cap. It was a look he couldn?t maintain here, he confesses, because it was uncomfortable.

But producing music is something he?d really like to get into in the future, says Mbe who is taking up Liberal Arts now and plans to shift to sports management next year. In fact, he is currently writing a rap song about the Bulldogs that he makes his teammates listen to.

?In Africa, you do your own thing with your music. But here, I have friends who have really good voices and all they would do with it is sing karaoke,? he says. ?I keep telling them to do their own thing.?

When it comes to basketball, however, he says you can?t compare the Filipinos? passion for the sport. Filipinos may be short, but they play really great ball, he adds. ?Cameroon is football country. During a basketball championship in high school, only 200 people attended the game,? he says. It?s almost the same number of people in a team?s pep squad at the UAAP.

Mbe is a pointguard back home and has never played center before coming over. He plans to apply for a college team in the US and play there for at least a year. His ultimate goal, he says, is to become a basketball player in France or Belgium.

But right now, Mbe declares, he?s staying where he is and doing his own thing off and on the court. ?