Wednesday, February 20, 2008
This past President’s Day weekend was the 35th annual West African Invitational Softball Tournament (W.A.I.S.T.) in Dakar, Senegal. Twenty Eight teams and nearly 600 individuals from all over West Africa competed. Out of these numbers, 13 were Peace Corps teams from Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania, Guinea, Benin, and Mali.
Every year, this tournament is something Volunteers and ex-pats alike look forward too. The weekend is full of exciting softball, great hot dogs, and time to socialize. The days are filled with softball games and events are organized during the evenings.
This year, my team, Peace Corps/Dakar, better known as Corps de la Plage had a good run, unfortunately due to some technicalities in the tie-breaker rule, we did not make the playoffs.
We managed to go 3 – 1 in the round robin but due to the strength of our bracket, we did not clinch the playoffs.
Because our theme was beach related, our uniforms were blue life-guard style tank tops with board shorts for some and shorter style shorts for others. Also, we managed to get a few props to go along with our theme which included an inner tube, whistles, tanning oil, and kite.
The night time events included a welcome party at the American Club on Friday, a W.A.I.S.T. party at the Marine House on Saturday, and an awards banquet and after party at the International School and American Club on Monday. On Sunday night, my buddy Kris and I hosted the Jimmy and James Sunday Night Grandslam at the Oceanium. We had been putting it together for the past several months and managed to draw more people than last year, totaling roughly 350 people, mostly Volunteers. It was wildly successful and everyone seemed to enjoy it.
Unfortunately, my experience with W.A.I.S.T. is coming to a close for the time being, but knowing the tradition that is behind it, several more generations of Volunteers and ex-pats will be able to experience this great weekend for hopefully another 35 years.
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