WAIST

So, where to begin.  At first I had thought that WAIST (West African Invitational Softball Tournament) was just some big hyped up party, after all I am quite used to going to overly hyped parties by having been in a frat. This was not over hyped in the least bit.  It was extremely enjoyable.  Even if I was a bit depressed for parts, it was mostly the beers fault.  I even had a good time playing softball. 

I would like to take this time, to apologize.  I know that I am going to miss a lot of details to this blog post.

Went up from Kolda on a pretty fun car, we got in pretty early and went to hit up the American club.  My homestay for the tournament was my bosses house, the country director for PC Senegal, I didn’t want to really be at his house too much.  Would you want to hang at your bosses house? 

So there I was in Dakar, again.  The next day started out really great.  I went to a super market!  If you know me well enough then you know that one of my favorite things to do in America is walking around grocery stores.  Even if I am not going to buy anything, I still enjoy the free samples and the way the wall coolers give me goosebumps as I walk by staring deeply into the cheeses.   I could probably write a whole blog about the supermarket and its cheeses and different kinds of meats and breads, and how it had lox and cream cheese but no bagels. (I went into three different Casino^tm Super Markets they all had cream cheese and lox but no bagels, which is truly a travesty!)I could also talk about the aisles of snack foods and beer, and the one aisle that had board games and fake guns for children, but this blog is not about going to a wonderfully clean and fresh smelling supermarket, with more than 8 kinds of apples from all over the world (but no peaches); This post is about WAIST.  So…I am in the supermarket, the shelves glistening with frost and dew, and then I see it.  Yes you guessed it a box of Magnum ice cream bars, but not just one box, but tens of boxes all different flavors and sizes! It was a dream come true.  By 9:00 am I had eaten 2.  I bought the hazelnut chocolate coating with the vanilla ice cream.  It was amazing.  So after a healthy breakfast it was time for the all-volunteer conference where we wandered the halls of the Peace Corps building looking at the projects from other regions and NGOs that work in Senegal.  It was… well it was what you would expect it to be.   I headed out a little early after snagging a free t-shirt, and hung at the Dakar regional house for a bit for a nice nap and to pick up my ridiculous costume. 

The next day began waist.

Waist is a beautiful thing.  Dollar beers, cheap burgers and hotdogs, real Cheetos It’s a lot of meat and beer and softball.  I hate softball.  Its not really my sport.  WAIST is special not just because of the cheap beers and real food, each team that plays (or at least the cool teams) dresses up in themed costumes.  My region did space corps.  We had aliens and lots of Starwars themed stuff.  I was a storm trooper, but my costume didn’t really fit me all too well.  One of the arms was skinner and the “helmet” was absolutely ridiculous.  My pants also ripped during stretching.  But I think we all looked pretty good.   So I find out in my first game after a few beers, I am actually pretty good for a team that is on its 3^rd-4^th beer of the day.   I played first base; I made a lot of outs no errors that first game.  I also was the only one that scored for either team.  I hit the ball every time I was up…that game.  Lots of singles. Like maybe 2 or 3.  And that was great.  We played against PC Gambia they were dressed as Gambian zombies or something.  They looked pretty good too.  After the game I learned that we had just won our first game since becoming a region.  It was a very beautiful moment.

 I would like to mention that even through my drunken stupor, I kept hearing my dads voice (yes like Luke and obi-wan in Starwars) from when I was a child as he would be very frustrated with me.  I really hated softball, but he kept pushing me.  When I was hitting I remembered him telling me to keep my eye on the ball, and to watch it hit the bat, when I was fielding I used two hands to catch the ball, even for grounders I kept two hands down and ran up towards the ball.  I remember watching my dad come home from his  (very) old man league all battered up cause a grounder popped up and caught him in the chest or face.   He looked ridiculous, and I didn’t want to look more ridiculous than I already did.

We then played against a real team.  I hit the ball once and struck out.  It was not a fun game.  The team actually practices.  They were meanies.

So, that night was great!  It was the annual PC talent show!  As always, I needed a little more attention and so I had planned far ahead with a silly Senegal themed parody, to the tune of Wagon Wheel.  I also accompanied my friend Geoff as he sang Neil Youngs Heart of Gold.  It was quite an excellent show.  It was a big night for me.  I really screwed up a solo guitar act a few years ago and hadn’t really performed in front of a lot of people like that since then.  I was really nervous, but in the end I nailed it. 

SO the next day, started out terribly early at like 1030 playing that same mean team.  I got a few hits, an RBI and a walk (we were playing a little better against them this time, probably because there wasn’t much beer on the field yet)  we lost by a lot.  Then there was my greatest softball moment ever  in the next game we played.   It was Kolda Space Corps vs Linguere cowboys (It had something to do with cows). We were down by one in the bottom of the 9^th, our DH got a single and then I was up to bat.  I step up let a few pitches go by, and then I caught a piece of it, line drive down the first base line through the hands of the first baseman, and then through the legs of the outfielder.  I just start screaming at the girl running in front of me to run.  She ran! And she ran fast! And I ran fast stepping on every base, and then home plate.  My first homerun.   It was magical.  For the win and the second win for my region.  From what I can remember I had only one strike out, one walk and besides the homerun all singles.  My batting average is awesome!

So then there was the date auction.  Yes imagine me in a date auction…big surprise.   The money was being raised for gender rights stuff through PC Senegal, and the group gives out nice gift certificates to swanky restaurants in Dakar. (I get a free dinner no matter what just by standing up and letting people pay money for me) So some girl bought me for like 90 dollars (yes that’s USD), and then told me that she wanted to give me away to her friend.  It wasn’t very nice of her, but I don’t care that much cause I haven’t seen her since that night, and I have 20,000 CFA to a swanky Dakar restaurant.  In my book, I win double.

So that was about it.  I got sunburned a bit.  Went back to the super market OH! So I went back to the super market, and I found one of the greatest inventions ever created!  So you know how I love bacon? And you know how I love Cheetos? Yeah that’s right!  In the super market I found some French brand of snack foods, that combines the crunchyness and cheesyness of cheetos, with the crispy oily taste of bacon. I bought two bags, I couldn’t help myself.  Two of my favorite things!  I found out about another one of my favorite things, Mountain Dew.  There’s a new rumour on the street that there is Mountain Dew in Banjul Gambia.  I will be taking a trip up there asap.  I also have a new friend that lives just outside the city, who happens to be pretty cool.

A trip to Dakar, can’t be complete without me running into my most evil nemesis CBAO(Central Banque de Afrique Ou’est aka the bank).  So on the next to last day the rumour mill begins that our allowances have come in.  so me being the responsible one that I am, I take out a little extra money than I needed thinking that I now had my allowance in the bank (I was trying to have a good time with a girl I met it was legit)  the next day I find out that I have 3 dollars.  Yeah that’s right I didn’t get my allowance on time.  I was screwed, and stuck in Dakar the most expensive city this side of the Nile (don’t quote me on that) eventually I got my friends to cover me for food and the ride back to Kolda.  The next day in Kolda I was able to access my allowance.

When I got back to Kolda, I got to watch Kung Fu Panda, make a fake thxgiving dinner with David’s old food (he left the country cause he fell off the roof), and throughouly enjoyed myself for a day with a big nap.

Here in Velingara, My family got a puppy! It’s adorable and has a stupid name “B.M.” yeah its weird.  Its pronounced like CJ, or DJ in America except they use the French pronunciation. Of B and M.  I don’t have the heart to tell them that it stands for bowel movement in the US.

-Mike 

Superbowl!

So, recently it was one of Americas greatest holidays, The Superbowl.  This years Superbowl was especially great because the Pittsburgh Steelers would be playing in it.  Yes, I do believe that the Superbowl is greater than just a sporting event, it is the sporting event, and has become such an important day to Americans that I consider it a holiday.  When I become emperor of the world, I plan on making sure that there is no school or work on the monday after the Superbowl, so that everyone can have the appropriate amount of rest one needs after celebrating the Superbowl.  I decided that the best way for me to celebrate such an extravagant holiday would be to celebrate with the other americans in my region.  So, I arrive to Kolda and when I enter the PC compound the guard looks at me and says "Demba welani"  (David is not well)  I was not sure I heard him correctly and so I responded "Demba welani?" the guard says yes, and I merely think it strange and enter the house.  upon entering I quickly find out that my good friend David had fallen off the roof and was in the hospital, in africa, in the middle of nowhere.  This made me very worried, for two reasons.  the first was any permanent damage to my friend and the second was of course the holiday being ruined, after all we are talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Superbowl.  Amazingly an hour later he was back in the house, walking, and swearing just like normal.  it was absolutely unbelievable that he was not seriously injured.  he screwed up his knee, but will be fine.  The next day was a saturday, and I just kinda hung out with people.

Isn't it a beautiful pig?

 Then there was the Superbowl.  oh what an excellent day it was!  For breakfast I made a delicious salami and egg sandwich (thank you for the salami mom) and when I thought it couldnt get any better, someone had been able to get a copy of the greatest movie ever created, yes thats right, Kung Fu Panda. We watched that all morning.  after the movie it was time to get serious about the holiday, the day before, a few people went out and bought a pig, and we took that pig and Geoff and I slow roasted it in a pit.  After many hours, the pig was finally complete.  I then went on to fry 6 lbs of potatoes.  Dinner was a delicious feast.  Pulled bbq pork (Geoff and I had Sweet Baby Rays bbq sauce we donated to the meal, again thankyou mom) there were beers, frenchfries, sweetpotato fries, mac n cheese, beans, and all sorts of good ole fashioned American stuff.  Then the main event.  for me it started late at 11:30, but it was worth it.  The game did not turn out how I had expected it too, but I had a good time anyways.  One of the best parts was during the halftime show, we switched channels and got to watch the puppy bowl!  I was going to be so upset that I missed the puppy bowl, but miraculously we were able to watch it.  the puppies were adorable. (for those of you that do not know what the puppy bowl is, I highly encourage you to watch it).  This was my best Superbowl ever.

When I got back home, I finally finished reading Atlas Shrugged.  yes I actually read the whole thing.  there were some points in time that I thought about quitting, but i made it all the way through.  it was the longest book I have ever read.  It was pretty entertaining.  sometimes Ayn Rand had these ridiculous rants about capitalism, and they got kind of boring, but I trudged on through.  It was a much dirtier book than I had thought it was going to be.  There is a surprising amount of sex for a book written in the 50's.  at least, I was surprised.  I am very pleased with myself to have finished it.  It was a big book, and now I get to read other books that are not quite so hard to get through.  So far I have read 8 books.  I think that I can get to 80 by the end of my service.  I am going to start recording all the books I read.

My site mate has been sick the last few days. and I have been checking up on her.  I hope she gets better soon.  She cooked a delicious omelet the other day for breakfast for us.  It was really good.  She is a lot of fun to hang with, but she needs to stop coming into my room whenever she feels like it.  One of these days she is going to catch me naked, and it is going to be very uncomfortable.  She almost did today, as I was getting ready to shower.

-Mike