The confines were reassuring-a warm Cameron Indoor Stadium and a throng of fans who have gathered to cheer on the women's basketball team. Junior guard Naz Medhanie felt at home, secure in the knowledge that she was almost 20 years and over 10,000 miles away from a time and place when she had no home.
The time: 1980; the place: Eritrea, Africa. Like many central African countries of that time, Eritrea was in the midst of a 30-year struggle for independence from Ethiopia. Eritrea's sovereignty, finally gained in 1992, came at the cost of 200,000 Eritrean lives, with countless others ruined.
"[I remember] the chaos of the country," Medhanie said, "the need to just get on and start our lives, [my mother's fears] of losing us, and the fear of not actually being accepted in [another] country."
Though the war never fully unleashed its wrath near the Medhanies' home of Asmera, Medhanie's parents, Medhanie Yoseph and Aster Asefan, never felt Eritrea was the best place to raise their children.
The decision to flee, however, was not made by the Medhanies, but rather, for them.
Naz's aunt Zefaw failed to come home after curfew one night. She never would. Her bullet-riddled body was found later in an Eritrean hospital, shot by Ethiopian soldiers.
Overnight, Naz, her mother and her siblings packed everything they could carry and embarked on an odyssey that would take them to six countries across three continents. First step: a harrowing two-week journey northwest to Sudan.
"We were on our feet, and we were on camels," Medhanie said. "Along the way, we had to bribe the soldiers. We had to give them gold, give them all the money you have. That was the only way to get out of the country."
A tale unbelievable yet frighteningly real-the Medhanies took cover in daylight, traveled at night and lived in constant fear of capture, or worse. Naz, five at the time, recalls little of the journey, and only its few high notes. Perhaps it's better that way.
"The memories were not sad, they were happy, happy memories," Medhanie said. "The memories were of us swimming and having fun on the roads we were on. I didn't even know where we were."
They took a plane to Italy from Sudan and stayed there for about five months. Meanwhile, Medhanie's father, left behind in Eritrea because of a debilitating cyst on his thigh, passed away in surgery.
Aster then bore the responsibility of the entire family, a burden she carried with pride and dignity. Medhanie admits that Aster served as both a mother and a father figure, but her importance in Medhanie's life really struck home while they were in Italy.
"My mom had put us in a boarding school while she was looking around to see if this was a place for us to stay," Medhanie said. "I remember it so vividly. I remember sitting and playing on the stairs, and this little girl was also there, and she didn't have a mother, and every time my mom would come see us, she would start crying and say, 'That's my mom, don't go to her.'"
After Aster realized Italy would not be the place for her children, she flew to Sweden with Naz's older sister Samrawit to 'scout' the country while Naz and her younger siblings stayed with an uncle in Germany before making their way to Stockholm.
Medhanie began playing basketball in fourth grade and had developed enough talent to earn a spot on Sweden's Junior National team in 1990 and 1991. While on a sabbatical from academics following high school, Medhanie began seriously pursuing a basketball scholarship in the United States. Enter Joanne Boyle, a five-year assistant with Duke.
Boyle, the primary overseas contact for the Blue Devils, showed a strong interest in Medhanie because of her defensive talents, three-point shot and solid academic background. Thus, 15 years after fleeing Eritrea, Medhanie found herself in Durham: worlds apart, but just as uncomfortable.
"I wasn't exposed to racism [in Sweden], not me personally. I don't know if [the racism here] opened my eyes and my mind or narrowed it," Medhanie said. "[Basketball] was the only place where it wasn't like that, you have a team. You have a team with different individuals, different backgrounds, but we are all there for one thing. When you start working together for that common goal, differences don't really matter.
"I had problems with people when I first got here. My teammates were the only people that were very understanding-not completely, but enough to realize 'we're different, it doesn't matter.' I don't think people isolated me, I think I isolated myself, because I really didn't understand a lot of people."
Despite her troubles, Medhanie never thought about returning to Sweden. She never took the easy way out.
"I came here for two things. I came here to play basketball, and I came here to get an education," Medhanie said. "Even though I was homesick sometimes, and I felt like nobody understood me, I just told myself this was a part of my experience, and I just have to do what I have to do."
For the now-surging Blue Devils to continue their success, Medhanie needs to do two things: play defense, and hit three-pointers. Regardless of how far Medhanie and the Blue Devils go this season, one thing is for certain: no one has come farther to get here than her.
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