Quick post after being in Dakar

Last night we returned to The Gambia after a wonderful weekend in Dakar, Senegal. PCVs and ex-pats from Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, and The Gambia were there for the West African Softball Invitational (WAIST). Our team got to the quarter finals, but then lost to a Senegalese team. Notes from the weekend:

1. Things are ¨easier¨ in The Gambia in terms of soil. The instant you cross the border into Senegal and the farther north you go the forests quickly disappear. Our terrain is much nicer than most Gambians think.

2. We had the opportunity to meet other PCVs from The Gambia and get to know them much much better. Usually we are limited to our training group or our assignment sector (Education for me). I had the chance to stay with two other hilarious education volunteers Taylor and Ernie, who are unfortunately closing service in June, and therefore, I won´t have much of a chance to see them again. Overall we bonded as a whole group, and it was nice to have a feeling of ¨PC The Gambia¨ as a whole rather than a disjointed patchwork of people. Our attendance was only about 1/3 of our volunteers so hopefully next year we can get more to come and enjoy the event.

3. Our homestay, Gerry and Rose were the best we could have ever asked for (Thanks!), and they provided us with a friendly atmosphere, wonderful lodging, hot showers, soft beds, great food, television, and even some video games. Their son destroyed us in no less than 5 different XBOX games. Strange how your video gaming skills go down when you live in an African village.

4. Got a chance to catch up and compare notes with Laura (Doing her service in Mauritania) and it is clear that our experiences have some similarities but overall are completely different. It seems as though they are much more spread out across the country and the PCVs truly take advantage when they have an opportunity to go out and have fun together. It was that sense of community that I was lacking in The Gambia until this trip. She goes home for a visit in a few weeks and I can´t help but be a bit jealous.

5. We had balanced diets and variety! We ran the gamut of food: French pastries, Ethiopian, ice cream, chocolate, hot dogs, Indian, Korean, American, and tons of great homemade food (Thanks to our homestay). I think my stomach felt normal for the first time in a long time.

6. Dakar has the feel of a large city without the infrastructure. Numerous districts, areas, tourist sites, and so on sprawl out with the city but there was never a plan for transportation. Traffic jams plague the city. On the other hand it has the feel of a big city so much more than our urban area, complete with public parks, expensive taxis, pick pockets, cool markets, an international flavor, and 747 jets flying overhead. I definitely want to go back again next year.

7. The transport there is a physically short distance compared to what many of the other volunteers from other countries had to do. However, it is still complicated and difficult as you transfer from taxi, to gele-gele, to a river Ferry, to a station wagon ,to more taxis and will traverse language barriers going from Mandinka and English to Wolof and French.

8. Coming back home I think we all had the classic experience of feeling glad to be somewhere familiar again. It gave us all a good perspective on what we like and don´t like about our own situation as volunteers and representatives of our country.

All in all it was a great experience and to all future W. Africa volunteers I highly recommend the trip.

Best wishes to all and Ernie and Talyor don´t forget I will give you 100 Dalalsis if you...