Always a medal at the end of the race....

Anytime I ran a half marathon before joining Peace Corps, it seemed that every participant got a medal, regardless if you did well or not. By the end of Saturday, I felt as if I were crossing a finish line that took a lot longer to reach than anticipated, but there was a reward at the end.

So after several months of trying to get me to his village, Mboup, one of the gardeners I work with at Hospital Fann, I finally made it to Thienaba Seck, located about 20 km from Thies. I say it is a village because that is how he classifies it, but I'd say it is more like a small town. On Friday afternoon, I met Mboup at the hospital and after serving patients their late lunch, we were off on our trek.

Taking a city bus to Pikine (Dakar suburb)we got onto a Greyhound style bus headed towards Touba (one of two religious Meccas in Senegal). The price overall was about $2.25. I typically travel in the more upscale, expensive sept-place mode of public transportation, so it was fun to change it up. The last time I took one of these Greyhound style buses, the trip took me about 20 hours but to a land far far away.

We arrived in Thienaba Seck just before the sunset and was greeted at the road by three of his young children and other kids in his compound. The next 24 hours were spent hanging out with his family and eating amazing food....definitely had one of the better thiebouyapps I've had.


While Mboup has two wives (one in Dakar), Thienaba is were he grew up. He has no children in Dakar but four in Thienaba. Typically every two weekends, he goes and visits, leaving Dakar Friday afternoon and returning early Monday. Knowing and working with him for the past two years almost, it was great to finally meet his family and see Thienaba.

The return trip on Saturday is where the race got interesting. I managed to jump into a passing bus headed to Thies fairly quickly and made it to Thies unscathed. The Thies garage wasn't bad and I managed to be the 7th person to fill the sept-place, so we were on our wayyyyyyyyy. The trip started off fine until we hit traffic outside of Rufisque. This traffic is nothing new, except as hour by hour went by, it seemed it wasn't going to end. Finally, we passed (turtled our way to) Poste Thioroye (getting closer to home) and smoke started flowing heavily from under the hood.....not good.

There was no hope in any of us taking this sept-place all the way to Dakar. Traffic is at a dead stop, the car you are breaks down, and it is dark out....what do you do????

Walk

So for the next hour or so I walked, getting closer to Dakar step by step. It was funny because I knew where I was but had no comprehension as to the distance I was away from Dakar. Walking streets at night is by far much different that riding in a car during the day.

After an hour of walking and three hours of sitting in a car, the road opened up. While there would have been traffic regardless, the 'cause' of the backup was due to a bulldozer doing construction work.

The weather was nice and I started to have a better grasp as to where I was, so I kept walking. I decided to start hailing down cabs, but due to the prices they wanted, I guess I still wasn't close enough to home. I kept walking.

I started thinking about how nice it would be to finally be at 22 Rue Thioung, 5 hours after leaving the start line. What would my medal be? I figured it out....some good ol Crystal Light Lemonade, partially frozen. That is what began to give me strength.

Finally, I reached Camberene, somewhat near where I used to live and managed to get a cab for the price I wanted. Sitting down, I felt the first bit of comfort that I had since leaving Thies.

The cab wasn't the quickest, but neither was the trip.

I was home, atlast, with a nice cold glass of lemonade.