Insert Random Acronym Here

Time for another DA culture lesson.

WAIST (West African Invitational Softball Tournament) is an annual, 3-day-long event so thoroughly American that they actually have a giant red white and blue tent. I bet you'd be hard pressed to find a massive flag-tent in most states.

I've had very varying experiences in the past few years. When I first got here, I wasn't on a team, and the weekend was a big breath of fresh, American, country music, swearing air. For the record, I hate country music, but come on, it's softball. Peace corps teams make up the majority of the social bracket. These are people who live out in the boonies don't have to worry about power cuts because they don't have any to begin with. They're the ones who are for real in mud huts. So, understandably, the one weekend in six months that they get not only free, but to spend with other Americans serving all over this side of the continent, gets a little crazy.

Long story short, it's hard to lose to them after about 11:00 am, because by that time most of them are pretty hammered. They're what made and make WAIST for me, though-- not only are they hilarious, but speaking to American strangers in English is a splendid experience if you're used to stumbling through basic greetings in French. The fact that the concession stands had copious amounts of American candy didn't hurt either.

The last year, softball ruined it for me. The way it used to go is that if two DA teams did well enough to play on Monday, no one had school this year our awesome director just said no school automatically-- he's the man). Since I was on a team, and most other DA teams were clearly not going to be able to hold up the "do well" end of the bargain, our team had a lot of pressure to win. Which is really not the point of the weekend at all. Also Dad told me I was in trouble on Saturday morning and didn't tell me what it was about until Monday night. And then it wasn't actually a huge deal. It just hung over my head for a few days.

2011 lacked the wow factor of the first time but was overall more fun. Even though we didn't play any peace corps teams until Monday (I heard they asked to not play us 'cause we weren't fun to play--see above paragraph) I played on a thrown together nonsense team that played for the heck of it. This is WAIST at its finest. And we actually won the social league, so we got to take home an awkwardly proportioned African trophy as well.

And with that taste of America, we're in the home stretch for the real deal.

-Will


"A place where the beer flows like wine, and beautiful women flock like the salmon of Capistrano."