After a few days crammed in the Thies Training Center with all of the surrounding volunteers (from Senegal, Gambia, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Togo), we loaded up the PC bus to head towards Dakar for WAIST (the West African Invitational Softball Tournament). The event includes teams outside of Peace Corps, like ex-pats and embassy employees that take the games quite seriously. PC teams forfeited nearly all of the games with the reasoning of having fun without irritating the other team completely. The acronym for WAIST is quite suitable for the event.
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For volunteers, on the other hand, the more important detail seems to be the region themed costumes. My region, Kolda was “South of the Border/Wild West.” Naturally, I took on the role of Jessi from Toy Story with my friend Mary dressed as my partner in crime, Woody. The theme of Dakar was "French," Kaolack was "Boy Scouts and Girlscouts," St. Louis was "the Scuba Corps," Linguere was "Suits," and Tamba/Kedegou was simply "Baseball." Thank you, Thierno, our local tailor who is a wonder worker of fabric and wild ideas.
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Going to Dakar is like stepping through Narnia’s closet. During the last week, we were able to truly experience Dakar, which I like to view as a bubble completely detached from the Africa that I now live in. As the week progressed, I couldn’t help but wonder if the American families living in Dakar had any idea about the true living conditions and culture outside of this heavily western influenced city.
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It is here that I have experienced homemade chili & cornbread, Korean soup, French cuisine, and a grocery store with cheese and ice cream! I cannot begin to put into words how volunteers are drawn into this overwhelming American grocery store… if only our pay could support their prices.
Talent Show: I almost didn’t go because of our tiring journey into Dakar that evening, but Im glad that I did because the charming photo that I entered into a contest won! Thank you my dear Frank for fulfilling the Humor requirements.
----Frank
Prom: Although I first rolled my eyes at the thought of having a masquerade PC Prom, it was a success
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Hello Jessica. My name's Dior. I'm a member of Brakasses Softball team. We played last WAIST 2013 and others before. Made a facebook page about WAIST to gather players, fans and every interesting people. To share pictures, videos, memories... about this tournament. Right now we reach 75 fans in just few months. It's a little hard to gather everyone because don't have the contact of everybody. But I have find your blog via google and would like to share the link of the page to you. https://www.facebook.com/pages/WAIST/284299768293769
ReplyDeleteBe a fan and share it with your team mates and others.
Also there is a twitter page https://twitter.com/WAIST_official
Thank you again and hope to meet your team again next year.
The best.
Dior.