Chursday

Me: We'll meet again on Thursday.
Students: Tuesday?
Me: No, Thursday.
Students: Next Tuesday?
Me: No, Chursday.
Students: Ohhhhh, Chuuuurssday!

I'm back. The softball tournament in Dakar was a lot of fun, and it was a nice break from the normal routine. Surprisingly, Gambian volunteers are probably the most normal of the Peace Corps volunteers in West Africa. The Peace Corps volunteers of Mauritania are nuts.. a bit out there in left field. We mutually decided it was the country that did it to them. Both of our teams made our mark in the tournament. Our competitive team almost made the semi-finals, but we ended up choking to one of Dakar's teams. Our non-competitive team gave up the most runs ever in the history of the tournament according to one of the tournament organizers. I've now passed my peak in softball ability; I had a grandslam with 2 outs, so that was kind of exciting.

The tournament organizers placed each of us in a homestay with someone somehow involved with the U.S. Embassy. A few friends and I had a great homestay with a U.S. Army Attache. Staying with his family was like being in the States again. They even had different types of American cereal and Budweiser; though I wouldn't recommend mixing them. Dakar has a lot of great food that Gambia doesn't have, so that was refreshing also. Senegal is a French (Wolof being the majority tribe) speaking country, so it was kind of amusing for us Wolof speakers to confuse the locals with our lack of French but knowledge of Wolof. They don't get too many white people coming through Dakar whose Wolof is better than their French.

Yesterday I went to my first Fula marriage ceremony. It's more of a week long series of events. Two days ago they took the groom out to the bush to beat him severely with sticks and machettes. It's done in secret with a few elders, and then everyone waits on the edge of the village for the groom to return (Pictured). It's actually kind of a funny tradition; not because of the being beaten severely with sticks and machettes part, but because these musicians follow them out there and back playing their traditional instruments. They follow the groom around off and on for a few days, so it's like he has his own live theme music where ever he goes ("C-mon guys, seriously, I'm trying to take a piss here"). Last night, the bride arrived from her village along with 150 other people. Most of the guests had to sleep outside on mats because there wasn't enough room for them. There was music and dancing from 10 P.M. until 8 A.M.