Thies to Dakar - Day 181

Date: February 15th, 2010
Distance: Travel by Taxi
Country: Senegal
Song of the Day: Drilling - Minus the Bear

I did get a message from Byron the night before, but didn't see it until I woke up today. He was in Dakar, so I decided to meet up with him there. I didn't want to take my bike though. I had heard the city is a chaotic mess and the traffic is bad. So I left my stuff with Elie and took a taxi.

The ride itself was hot and uncomfortable. They really pack people into those things here. It also took about 2 hours for the trip. The last hour was just being stuck in traffic around the city. After getting dropped off, I took another taxi over to the club Byron was at.

He had come to Dakar for WAIST. That is, the West African Intermural Softball Tournament. I guess it is a a between Peace Corps teams from all over West Africa. Senegal. The Gambia. Ghana. There was even a team called "The Refugees" that was made up of volunteers who had been evacuated from Mauritania and Guinea. There are also a couple of local Senegalese teams who apparently take it quite seriously.

I got there after the tournament had finished, though. Too bad, I was hoping to see a game. Everyone was just unwinding at the club. There were a lot of people there too. I don't think I have been around as many Americans since I left. Most of the people were hanging out by the pool. Now that is something I could get behind.

I met up with Byron, and he introduced me to some of the other PCVs. We sat around talking for a while. I was interested to hear how their experiences differed from the PCVs in Morocco. They actually sounded fairly similar. The living conditions for people still varied heavily based on the site they were placed in. Cities vs. rural villages.

I did get an invite for the Banquet they were having later. I didn't want to crash their party, but everyone assured me that it was cool. I did want to find a place to stay though. One of the guys Richard, said he would get me into the Peace Corps house in Liberty Six. Again, I didn't want to invite myself along, but he said it would be cool and there were lots of spare beds. He has the kind of personality that just screams "come on, go for it", so I did.

At the house, I met a few refugees from Guinea. Since I would be heading there, I wanted to ask them what everything was like. They had some good advice about it. Like avoiding Conakry. Also, the fact that you really can't find an ATM in the country. It should be an interesting trip.

After that it was time to head back over to the club for the banquet. I should begin by saying, I was full at the end of the meal. That was great. They were serving Indian food for some reason. You get no complaints from me on that point though. There was also lots of beer and soda. After the food they showed a documentary that was filmed during WAIST the year before. It followed the Mauritanian team, who had been evacuated later that year.

There was also a post-banquet party by the pool. Again, lots of fun. I was among the small group of people who realized that you could still get (free) beer from the banquet and not have to buy it from the bar by the pool. I stuffed my pockets and carried an armload back. Since I don't actually drink beer, I had a good time handing it out. Let me tell you, free beer is a great way to introduce yourself to people you don't know.

Most of the night I was hanging out with the crew from Benin. They were staying back at the Liberty Six house. Some of them were Guinea refugees as well. It seems like they may live is some of the more remote places. They did have good insights on the mindset and culture of the people living in Africa.

After a few hours there we headed back to the house, with a quick 2:00 AM stop at the donut shop. From there the night was pretty chill. Just hanging out. But it did go pretty late. I didn't crawl into bed (a mattress outside under a mosquito net) until just before 6:00AM.

-Dravis