W.A.I.S.T.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

I remember doing my research on PC/Senegal and life in Senegal prior to coming here and always reading about W.A.I.S.T., or the West African Invitational Softball Tournament. I didn’t really know what it was at the time, but over the course of this past year, it has been something to look forward to.
Every President’s Day weekend, expats (mostly Peace Corps Volunteers) from all over West Africa come to Dakar to play softball and party. I believe their were 21 social league teams this year, along with 5 competitive league teams. Each team played a minimum of five games over the course of Saturday and Sunday. A playoff round was Sunday evening and more playoffs and the championship games were held on Monday.

The Borom Sa Yaay/Flaming Aces (Team Dakar) went 4 – 1 and then lost in the first round of the playoffs, bringing our record to 4 – 2. Six games in two days was exhausting.
On top of the games and American hot dogs, there were events every evening. The first night, everyone met at the American Club where a lot of people met their Dakar home stays and then everyone met up at a bar downtown. Saturday night, nothing was organized, so two buddies and I decided to work our magic and put something together at Oceanium. About 250 people, mostly volunteers showed up. As a result, it turned out to be a late but worthwhile and fun evening. Saturday, the Marines had a party at their house, but due to six games of softball and little sleep, I decided to rest my aching and tired body. Monday night was also the closing of W.A.I.S.T., which was wrapped up with an awards ceremony and a party at the American Club.

In the end, W.A.I.S.T. was definitely all the hype and something to look forward to in your Peace Corps service here. I must say though, as Tuesday morning rolled around, it was nice to get back to reality and work.