WAIST '08: WAISTed Potential

Sorry but this is a long one!

It is February 22, 2008. We will backtrack to the beginning of this adventure.

Feb. 10-13
My homologue and I decided to hold a meeting with Peace Corps in regards to one of our three projects. I arrived early and set up camp at the Medical unit. I have had an annoying pain in my right knee due to all the squatting. Saturday morning held the meeting-the PC staff pretty much said everything that I had already said to my homologue but they validated me and gave my homologue a better outlook on the Junior Achievement program at my site. On Sunday I ran the Hash Run with a few fellow PC Mali volunteers and two new guys from Benin (Danielle and Tom). We ended up meeting a surplus of new ex-pats in the area. However that nasty knee of mine gave way as we descended down the hill we had just ran up… I rolled my ankle and heard a loud pop. Yet I am my brother’s sister and walked it off!

On Monday, I had to get several x-rays (all on the US Gov’t budget-YEAH). The diagnosis was to strengthen my right hamstring and wear a brace on my right ankle until the swelling goes down. However, I was supposed to be leaving for Senegal on Wednesday morning for a Softball tournament. Doctor’s orders-no softball or running! Great! Who cares, all my buddies were coming in to Bamako over the next few days as we waited for our “Party Bus” to Dakar, Senegal! Imagine with me if you can… 48 hours on a non-ventilated bus with 42 PC volunteers and large amounts of alcohol on a bumpy road!

Feb. 13/Wednesday Morning
All 40-something PC Mali volunteers are hanging out at the PC Bureau in Bamako, Mali while the bus was gassing up for our adventure. We had each paid 40.000 CFA for a bus ride to Dakar, Senegal and 4 nights in a hotel ($80 for a one-way ticket to Dakar, Senegal and four nights in a metropolitan city in West Africa). We were beyond excited! People were gearing up their nalgene’s with Bony Old Man, Johnnie Walker, and whatever else tickled their fancy. We were supposed to leave at 8am sharp so that means that we left around 9:30am! The first leg of the trip was nice and slow. It was an 8-hour trip to Kayes, Mali. There were a few parties in the back of the bus but overall people were calm… Sorry but I did not for take in the partying… I had a nice seat in the front of the bus with my Dramamine and the second book of the Left behind Series. And that was my story for the whole trip. We arrived in Kayes around 7pm. Sam, Brandon, John, Amanda, Davin, Nicole, Andrew, and I all walked about 3 KM away to have dinner. It was nice but I could have stayed near the house and paid less for some street food (beans, salad, rice and sauce, etc) at half the price. So obviously there were not enough beds for 40 something people so I grabbed a good place on the floor and curled up with my Malian fabric that has become my universal everything (skirt, towel, blanket, etc). Enjoyed Ground Hogs Day and Boondocks Saints.

Woke up bright and early and left Kayes around 8am. We made it to the border around 10:30am. We didn’t have to get off the bus since we were all Americans and had Peace Corps paperwork waving us through all the normal hang-ups. Here is where the road was no longer a road. It was a paved road disaster. No matter where you maneuvered the large bus you hit a pothole. You couldn’t take the bus off the road or you risked getting stuck in the sand. This made a great atmosphere for the “party bus.” I only observed this from my place in the front of the bus. I heard dancing, music, and clothes coming off when Nelly’s “it is hot in here” became the back of the bus anthem. Surprisingly nobody got sick but we made many “piss” stops. I even captured a little of this madness on my camera along with Jaclyn and Sophie’s new karate moves. However those pictures are long gone… Don’t worry that story is still to come. The night started to roll upon us and brought sleep to the eyes of many of our dancing maniacs.

We rolled into Dakar, Senegal at 3am on Feb. 14 (late Thursday night). The total trip equaled around 40 hours… However we faced another dilemma. We had no clue where our hotel was and were not expected until early Friday morning… What could we do?????

We slept in the bus on the side of a random road in Dakar, Senegal!

Feb. 15/Friday
We tag a taxi so that we can follow it to our hotel, Ali Baba. We had a little confusion on who would stay at that hotel, who would stay at the annex (an extension of the hotel that was about five blocks away), and who would stay at homestays (Ex-pats who lived in Dakar and had opened their homes for volunteers and other softball players). I followed the group to the annex only to discover that the homestay people should just grab a taxi and go to the American Club and wait for the homestay people to show up. Laura, Amy, Lindsay, and I flag a taxi for 2,000 CFA (Senegal uses the same currency as Mali). We have no clue if that is a good price but we have no room to argue since we are four white women with a ton of baggage. We are the first to arrive at the Club. It has two tennis courts, basketball court, volleyball court, swimming pool, small concession stand, and a bar. We check out the bathroom facilities… YES Thank you GOD we can take a shower!!! Now that we were clean, we each had a café au lait with an apple tart. We were the first volunteers at the club and decided to go exploring. We hiked a good 8 KM to a lighthouse… Again I took beautiful pictures of the beach, hills, mosque, staircases, and the lighthouse but those pictures will have to be remembered in my memory only…. I actually got sunburn from that three hour hike that lasted all weekend! When we arrived back at the American club other PC Mali folk had shown up then some Guinea volunteers, then Benin, then Senegal… Along with the workers of the event. We were all waiting for 6pm so that homestay names would be assigned. So a few girls and I went to have pizza-amazing! The festivities were started by the time we returned to the club. Other volunteers had shown up but the drink specials had not started. You could easily pin point your group. We were like little cliques sticking to our little PC groups. You had Mali by the right-corner of the pool, Mauritania by the left-corner, Benin was hidden near the concession stand, The Gambia was at the Bar and so on… Yet the small talk and small drinking went on till 11pm. I believe around 10pm I finally met up with my homestay family. Tom and Lisa Cook!!! Amazing people that took us under their wing like we were their own children. Tom even asked me, “Holly you are the only girl out of 6 people. Is that ok? Would you like to change homestay’s or have a room to yourself?” I told him I was a southern girl and knew how to make them boys respect me!!! So it was Dan Marsh (Mali), I and four Peace Corps Gambia guys-Dan N, Josiah, Eddie, and Doug. We all headed home and ate a few cinnamon rolls before we throw in the towel for the night…..

Feb. 16/Saturday
Let the games begin! First let me explain that we had a few hang-ups when we trying to sign-up for the tournament (like PC dropped the ball and didn’t forward the information to us in time so we signed up two months late). Since we signed up sooo late we only had one team play in the tournament and significantly reduced the amount of homestays that we needed. SO I joined team Benin! Great way to meet people and stay busy. Of course I couldn’t play due to my knee and ankle but I didn’t expect to play nor did I push to be on the field. Actually we had enough people so I took over the batting order and helped the team stay organized…. Go figure! By the time we finished that 9am game it was time to head to our Mali game at 11:20am. You couldn’t miss our uniforms. We all wore traditional Malian cloth-bogolon plus our name is unforgetable-WAISTed Potential (we lived up to that name). We looked fantastic and our team spirit was uplifting. “Who is that in the batter box? It is eric, eric! Isn’t he a FOX?” You can not get any lamer than that!!!!!!!!!!!! Don’t worry this happens every year so you can come next time!

We won our game!!! We were playing a middle school team but won by like 4 points. HAHA really now! Give us a break though. These kids play softball or baseball on a regular basis when we sit and drink tea 7 days a week.

The sun started to wear on us but we were still going strong. The next obstacle was deciding on the evening activities. We could either go to a party at the Marine’s House or go downtown to check out the social scene. We rounded up our homestay crew, went home, ate some food, showered, and got a free ride to the Marine House. Not gonna lie. It was a little lame at first. After an hour or so people started to show up that would put it around 10:30pm.

Once the Senegal crew got there we started our PC Senegal Man Auction. The volunteers were auctioning off men for some project in Senegal. The lucky girl got the guy and a dinner date with him in Dakar. The first two guys were really, really cute but the Senegal girls did not waste anytime throwing down around $80 for each of them. The rest of us just stared in disbelief! The guys were cute and the cause was great but our little PC salaries could never afford a man of that value! Soon our group became restless. Plus I had to go downtown to find my friend Dan… He could speak no French and I promised I would come downtown to get him so that he could make it back to our homestay. I found Josiah from my homestay and asked if he wanted to go downtown so we could share a taxi… Lucky for me, Josiah ended up having a buddy with a car that took about 9 of us downtown. It was a boxy, 4-wheel drive truck! Once we got into downtown we got pulled over-for no reason! We were a bunch of white people (that was our offense) and the cop made us bribe him to get the paperwork back! Geez! Africa is still very corrupt but there is nothing we can do to change it-at least not yet.

We arrive downtown and sit down at a quiet bar. Meanwhile, my Malian vols are running around trying to find each other. None of our phones work in Senegal so we are playing a cat and mouse game with one another. The bar we are closes and we are forced to move. We take our party to the dance club where Mauritania had setup post! Haha We made our invasion and soon enough Dan showed up! It is like 3:30am at this point so we take our homestay group home!

Feb. 17/Sunday

Sleep in after a long night. Josiah, Eddie, Dan, and I get a ride back to the American club around 11am. Mali had a game at 9am-won it. Mali had another game at 1:30pm-won it. Had another game at 5pm (qtr-finals)-lost it L

An amazing day in the sun-softball, sitting by the pool, went for walk on the beach with a few kids (literally two little girls that were there with an ex-pat from Mali, who happened to be our pitcher), went for a swim and played a little keep-away with the Frisbee.

There was an all-you-can-eat buffet but I didn’t want to pay the money when I could eat for less closer to my homestay house. Amanda, Davin, Dan and I ate some pizza and friend chicken at Caesar’s and walked home. We were so tired from the sun that we decided to take a cat nap before the PC Senegal party on the beach.

OMGosh!!! I wake up at 1am!!!!!!!!!!! I have missed the party! I grab Dan’s phone (his does work in Senegal at this point) and call to see if it is worth running out the door at 1am! Mike is like “heck yeah! Get your butt here!” I throw on my new Malian made dress and hail a taxi with the help of the security guard at our homestay. I arrive around 1:45am because we got a little lost at the last minute. Yet here I am and I made it. I have a few beers and have an amazing time. I try to find all my people-they are all wasted! Yet the party is still going strong! I am dancing and mingling. I meet more people from The Gambia. I have a nice talk with Josiah-we are laughing over the fact I overslept and that Dan and Doug were still at the homestay (hindsight-Doug would have come with me if I had woken him up but I didn’t know how to make that call at such a late hour).

A lot of dancing mixed with a little drinking and forgetfulness allowed me to get lost in the moment. I sat down my purse so that I could dance around without limitations. I soon realized that somebody picked up my purse. A guard gave it back at the end of the night.

I double-checked to realize that all my money was gone along with my phone and my camera-so that is why I have no pictures from my vacation! I was pretty upset but my fellow volunteers were more than comforting. We got home and I prayed that the Lord would provide and forgive me for my stupidity.

Feb. 18/Monday
I took the day to recover. Doug, Dan, Dan, and I watched movies all day. We finally headed to American Club around 6pm for dinner and the last party of the weekend. I had water all day and all night. I played a really low key along with everyone else. It had been a long weekend and most of us wanted to chill out.

Everybody was more than considerate when it came to my things being stolen. PC Mali and other PC volunteers along with my homestay and a few ex-pats were amazing. They helped me collect enough money to get home! I was so worried how I was going to be able to get home… I now owe a few people but I made it back to Mali!

Feb. 19-22
Tuesday-Lindsay, Kathy, and I stayed at Lindsay’s homestay.
Wednesday-We left Dakar, Senegal around 5pm. We rode that bus through the night and through the next day.
Thursday-We arrive in Kayes, Mali around 8pm.
Friday-We take a bus from Kayes to Bamako, Mali 6am till 1pm.
Saturday and Sunday-Recovering and trying to figure out what to do about my stolen items.

Geez!!!!!!!!!!! What a crazy week!