For those of you that come to this blog looking for shrewd cultural anecdotes and authentic insight regarding immersion in an African village, this post might not be for you. (not the first section, at least.) For Senegalese PCVs, President's Day weekend meant a three-day marathon of running around, partying, and painting Dakar red under the title of the West African Invitational Softball Tournament, AKA W.A.I.S.T.
Not much else to say - the weekend spun by me in a chaotic haze, so I'll just let some pictures tell the story...
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| Night 1: 8 P.M. We were set up with cushy ex-pat homestays in Dakar. Kourtney and Justin made fine roommates. |
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| Night 1: 11 P.M. Let the 72-hour dance off begin. Here, at The Viking in Dakar. |
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| Day 2: 10 A.M. I'll be honest, this is just about how we started every day. As I said, Kourtney and Justin made fine roommates. |
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| Day 2: 11 A.M. As part of ballerina-themed Team Kaolack, Kourtney dons her tutu and gets ready to head to the field. |
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| Day 2: Noon. Space travelers of Team Kolda gets ready to face off against formidable Team Linguere, previously part of the Dakar region team, in its first year as an autonomous team. |
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| Day 2: 1 P.M. Cows and Cowboys of Team Linguere cheer on their teammates in a match against the Kolda SpaceCorps (see above.) |
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| Day 2: 3 P.M. Cows & Cowboys-themed Team Linguere/Louga poses for a post-match team photo. Were we victorious? Not sure... |
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| Day 2: 3 P.M. The cowgirls of Team Linguere. |
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| Day 2: 5 P.M. Brian, Team Linguere's perfect Pulaar, takes a restful squat - he's in adherence of the theme, of course, as Pulaars are Senegal's cowboys... |
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| Day 3: 11 A.M. Cowgirls back for more. |
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| Day 3: Noon. Rematch with Kolda. SpaceCorps vs. Cows & Cowboys. An epic fight to the finish. |
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| "Palling around with terrorists..." |
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| Day 3: 1 P.M. This is when we thought we'd won and took to celebratory dancing. Our victory chant? "WE ARE A REGION. WE ARE A REGION." Then we were told we had to play more innings. Oh Team Linguere. |
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| Day 3: 1:30 P.M. Team Kolda, post-game. |
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| Day 3: 2 P.M. Emilie McClintic's cow udder is filled with delicious wine. |
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| Day 3: Eric of Team Kedougou/Tamba (Cops and Robbers) and Jessica of Team Kaolack (Ballerinas). |
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| Day 4: Happy Hour. Kourtney and I, recovering from the weekend with some delicious mojitos. (Give me a break! You only live once, and they don't have these in Linguere.) |
And there you have it. Whew! I was not all that sad to wrap that weekend up.
Part II: Progeny
Now some photos from village, as proof that it's not all hedonism and debauchery around here. To compliment the incriminating story told by the first half of this blog post, I present you with another installment of - your favorite and mine - THE BABY PARADE!
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| While I was away at WAIST, my buddy Awa Thiam gave birth to beautiful twin baby girls! When I heard the news, I went running to her hut. They were born Wednesday; photo taken Friday - two-day-old buckets of preciousness. I was like, "Awa, you've got two babies - can't you give me ONE?" She readily agreed. |
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| Birane gave birth, too, to a boy! This one's old - five days old. |
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| Jara at the garden. She used to run away from me but now she runs TO me, sticks out her little hand, and even makes a valiant attempt at screaming my name, which generally comes out "DEE-day!" |
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| None of Ngaraff's infants are thanking me for instituting monthly baby weighings. Clearly, Soxna's not happy. |
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| Neither is Nayfatu. |
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| Birane's baby boy, not quite a week old, gets weighed for the first time. 3.5 kilos. |
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| Waiting their turn while we talk to their Mamas about various baby-health-related issues. |
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| Twin Baby Girl #1, not yet baptized and therefore not yet named, gets weighed for the first time. |
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| Twin Baby Girl #2 goes in the gurney. |
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| Tots 'n' a Tree Nursery. |
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| The twin that Awa agreed to ceed to me. Dad named her Ada, but mom and others still insist on calling her Bigue. :) |
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| Ada-Bigue, in my arms where she belongs. |
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| Big Bigue and little Ada-Bigue, at the twins' babtism. |
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| Mama Awa with Ada's twin sister... named Awa. They really like to keep new names to a minimum around here. |
