WAIST

Returned recently from an amazing trip to Dakar, Senegal for WAIST (West African International Softball Tournament) where Mauritania Peace Corps dominated the softball field and clinched the Championship Title in the Social Division! After a brief visit to Rosso, Mauritania for a mandatory safety and security meeting, all Mauritanian PCVs attending the tournament loaded two coach buses before sunrise Friday morning and drove 10 hours south to Dakar. The bus stopped a few times for bathroom breaks that included squatting behind prickly desert bushes or finding a large fissure in the arid desert terrain and once for lunch plus a visit to the local Senegalese bar but otherwise made good time which was celebrated with singing and shots.
Arrived at le Club Atlantique for tournament check-in a few minutes after 5 and joined hundreds of other West African PCVs to verify sleeping accommodations – either hotel or homestay – and for a quick dip in the beautiful but chilly club pool. Each year dozens of ex-patriots and local English speaking families open up their homes to Peace Corps Volunteers for the long weekend, cutting down on PC costs and allowing volunteers a taste of home cooked American-style meals, warm showers and comfortable beds. Although I had expected to be placed in a hotel since I was not signed up to play on one of the three Mauritania Peace Corps teams, I was pleasantly surprised to be placed in a homestay with 4 other Mauritania Volunteers, one of which attended Dickinson College with our host parent’s son.
The house was located in Ngor, an area in Northwest Dakar adjacent to the airport (biggest in West Africa) that is characterized by large houses and beautiful beach views, and was a welcome change to mud houses especially in it’s beautiful incorporation of African influence (My host parent’s were both English speaking Cameroon natives) with American luxury. The moment we entered the house, we were greeted by a delicious dinner of rice and couscous with a chicken and vegetable sauce that was enjoyed while sitting at a table with individual eating plates and cutlery in addition to a bottle of red wine. Dinner was followed by relaxing warm showers and eventually comfortable mattresses that lulled each of us to sleep within minutes of laying our heads on the [non trash filled] pillows.
The tournament was kicked off at 9am Saturday with a game by the Mauritanian Scallywags and followed at 1010am by the first game of the Mauritanian Pirates. Although Mauritania entered three teams into the tournament they were picked based on tryouts and ranked based on their likelihood to win the trophy. Each team featured t-shirts that identified the team as Pirates (Team A), Buccaneers (Team B), Scallywags (Team C) or Poopdeck Seamen (Cheerleaders) in addition to personal nicknames. Each team played 2 games on Saturday and 2 games on Sunday followed by an extra semi-final game on Sunday and a Championship game on Monday for the Pirates.
Other teams represented the other Peace Corps countries in West Africa – Gambia, Guinea, Mali, and Senegal – plus a variety of others which included local ex-patriots, Children of the American Embassy in Senegal, International School of Dakar High School varsity team, Employees from the American Embassy in Mauritania, Senegalese natives, etc. Several other teams sported themes including Peace Corporate, Braveheart, Peace Corpse, ‘80s Dance Party but Mauritania outshone the competition with enthusiasm, participation and most visits to the bar – maintaining our yearly reputation as crazy and heard-core.
In between games the players and fans alike enjoyed lounging poolside, eating delicious flavorful wraps and soft-serve ice cream in addition to enjoying numerous spontaneous dance parties. Each night I returned to my homestay family for freshly prepared Cameroonian and American inspired dinners plus a nice shower before heading to a WAIST sponsored event in downtown Dakar. After winning the championship game on a field overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, I attended an Awards Banquet where I won one of the door prizes– a gift basket full of bio bath products…To ensure I have the best smelling latrine in Mauritania, of course!
Before leaving paradise to return to Mauritania, I spent a few hours walking the artisanal market followed by pizza in the downtown area, visited a local beach to watch a little surfing and enjoy a few hours of beachside sunning, discovered an amazing place called N’Ice Cream that offered more than 50 flavors of ICE CREAM, treated myself to chips and salsa at Casino Supermarche (a large western style supermarket which offered a large selection of fresh fruits, cheese, chips and meats) and met lots of new people including Eddie, Teresa’s boyfriend from America, and Larissa, Mark’s girlfriend from America, who both flew into Dakar for several days of vacation throughout Senegal!
Additionally while in Senegal I briefly visited Richard Toll – a historic colonial town - to eat lunch at le hotel gite d’etape and enjoy a brief dip in the beautiful pool before traveling hours by taxi brusse, horse cart, bed of a truck and multiple pirogues to return to Mauritania. Because of Mauritania’s poor internal infrastructure several South Brakna volunteers returned home via Senegal because it is quicker than entering Mauritania through Rosso and then traveling 7+ hours north to Nouakchott and back down to Boghé, located on the Senegalese border.
Overall, the entire trip was characterized by overzealous third party mediators or bystanders who aided with language translation, price negotiation or even provided free services at various points throughout our expedition. Most notably, the kind Frenchman who offered to pay the four thousand cfa (Senegalese currency) difference in our hotel bill because we were placed in an air conditioned room instead of the cheaper non-air conditioned room as requested, the sixth passenger in our taxi brusse to Richard Toll who spoke English because he had spent the last 5 years living in Columbus, Ohio and arranged for a second taxi to pick us up from Senegal and drive us to the final river crossing into Mauritania for a fraction of the normal ‘American’ price, the guard at my homestay who helped Teresa arrange for an early morning taxi ride to the airport to pick up Eddie in Wolof (a black African language common in Senegal), and multiple bystanders who offered various forms of language assistance when a taxi driver got confused over Pulaar numbers and tried to argue that we agreed to pay 5 times the normal price.