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 Casinotm 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 3rd-4th 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 9th, 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
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