Me and two Kaolack friends, with our team TROPHY!!! Note the awesome plaid shawl I'm wearing. It fits the winning theme.
I'm on my way home from Dakar after a fantastic WAIST weekend! For those who didn't read my blog last year, WAIST is the annual softball tournament (the West African Invitational Softball Tournament, in fact) which takes place during President's Day weekend. It is a huge event for ex-pats and Peace Corps Volunteers all over West Africa. The fabulous Dakar community opened their beautiful homes to us, sharing their tasty American meals, hot showers, and luxurious beds with us deprived village Volunteers. It is always a shock to walk into such a house, sit down at a table with such wonderful food, and experience the familiar shock of warm water from the shower head; all things familiar, yet after so long a hiatus, remarkable. This year the tournament itself was huge! Almost all the Peace Corps Senegal Volunteers were there, to play or support their regional teams. There were also teams from Mali, The Gambia, Guinea, and Mauritania. The Mauritanians are known to be serious softball players. The themes and costumes were hilarious as always. Kaolack chose "Braveheart" as our theme, so everyone was running around wearing tartan-print kilts, screaming "FREEDOM!" or "MacKAOLACK!" as the mood took us, or the ever-popular "Cesspool!", a nickname for our lovably dirty regional city. I, of course, was on the cheer squad, because I'm not particularly "sportive", but our pitcher played in a plaid miniskirt, people were running bases barefoot or in flip-flops, and there was plenty of good cheering (or heckling, depending on the opposition!) as the situation required. We all had a fantastic time. And, here's the really exciting news: for the first time in many years, Kaolack won a trophy! Third place, beaten by the Senegalese national team, and Mauritania, but it was a BIG trophy nevertheless! All tartan-clad people were wildly celebrating that final evening. Being third place means we beat all the other Peace Corps Senegal teams. Kaolack is officially the best softball playing region in Senegal! Needless to say, we do other things pretty well too.
The day after WAIST's celebratory dinner and dance, we had a conference at USAID to discuss work opportunities, and sector goals and summits. I co-lead two discussions about latrine construction, since that is an area of big interest for many Volunteers, and so important to peoples' health. I also got to attend a good refresher course on seed-saving techniques, and an inspiring seminar about creating good nutrition from local sources. Yesterday I called Omar Gueye and he says the cement, iron, and wire arrived safely to the village, and has been locked in the storage room. Already he's molding bricks to line his latrine, and other folks are doing the same. Fantastic news! Now all that's left to buy are wooden slabs to serve as covers, and wait a few weeks for construction to be finished, and then thirty-seven families in Keur Ali Gueye will have their own latrines right there in the compound.
1 comment:
Of course you won. You are the very B.E.S.T. Love the tartans. Love the beauty and joy of the 3 PCVs.And so proud of Keur Ali Gueye and their can-do let's-get-with-it spirit. Good good stuff. Was Jared the skirted pitcher? I remember he said he played the game well.How we miss you.
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