WAIST, Dakar and life back in Selibaby

OK, here's an overdue update. As most people know, February is a favorite month here in Peace Corps Mauritania because for about a week we go to Dakar for WAIST (West African Invitational Softball Tournament). This means a week of delicious food, legal alcohol that doesn't come from a plastic bottle, meeting other PCVs and hanging out with the wonderful PC RIM volunteers who those of us living down in the Guidi don't see very often (funny thing about how off-roading discourages visitors). It was needless to say a wonderful week.

John came back with me through Senegal to Selibaby, which from Dakar is a 14 hour car ride to the river. We got to the garage at 6:45 AM and were told that there was a car with one space left. In Senegal, one space actually means one space, so we had to wait for the next one which ended up leaving around 10:30. We piled in the Sete Place (7 place, it's kind of like a mini-station wagon) and headed into the mass of traffic that is Dakar. We pulled over in the middle of the city so that another passenger could load his two giant rams onto the roof. This is how one travels with animals here--you pop it in a rice sack, tie it up and tie it to the roof of a car. For 14 hours. Try to picture this happening in New York. The sheep were needless to say not too thrilled about the trip. It's funny to look out the window of the car and see the shadow on the road--car hood, car roof, giant sheep horns, back of car. At one point, one of the rams was so intent on escaping the plastic bag that he almost fell off the car. He was thumping around a lot, and suddenly the people in the way back seat started yelling to the driver to stop. I looked out my window and the ram was hanging off the side of the car. So we pulled over, plopped him back on and kept going.

We got to Bakel, the town where we cross the Senegal river, close to midnight. We got the driver to take us to the bar that the Portuguese road workers usually go to when they visit Bakel, and since they know us there they let us spend the night. We set up our tent on the floor in the back hall of the bar. We sure know how to travel in style! We left Bakel around 7 and waited for a few hours on the other side of the river for a car to Selibaby, and after a rough but mostly uneventful ride of the back of a pick-up we got home. John stayed for a few days and then took Maggie home to M'Bout (we drugged her a little to make the ride easier, and decided to keep her on his lap rather than taking the rice sack approach. They made it without any big problems).

So now I'm back in Selibaby and back to work. It's hard to believe that the 2nd trimester is almost over! In a couple weeks my students will take their end-of-trimester exam, and then we get a week off. It's starting to get hot again, so I think I'll take the opportunity to get out of Selibaby for the week before heading into the home stretch of the school year (which also happens to be the hot season...good times).

I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of spring (or if you live in New England, more winter). And congrats to John's family on baby Eliana! She's beautiful :)