Happy (belated) 4th of July! I went down to Kedougou- a city a couple hours south of Tamba, if that means anything to you- for their annual 4th of July party, and it was a really fun time. Alan, one of the Kedougou region volunteers, organized a 5K for the morning of the 4th. There was a pretty solid turnout by volunteers and Senegalese people alike. Just to clarify, when I say Senegalese people, I mean Senegalese men. I think that the day a Senegalese woman participates in a race alongside Senegalese men and a bunch of toubabs (whitey's) is a ways away.
Anyway, as we all predicted, the Senegalese people dominated. The guy that won finished in like 8 and a half minutes. That. Is. So. Fast. I was a long ways away from the finish line at that time, but I'm told that it was several minutes before the second person finished. 14 Senegalese people finished before an American finally crossed the line. That is just domination. Oh, and, that guy, Alan, just happened to be the guy who organized the run because he is a crazy runner and has done several triathlons and I think even marathons, too. Whereas my goal was to finish without dying first from my hangover or heatstroke, Alan was in it to win. But (of course) it's not like the finishing times for the majority of the rest of us volunteers really mattered, since we didn't really view our shot of winning and/or beating Senegalese people with any degree of seriousness, we were not clutch. I guess I just am not giving the Senegalese people enough credit, but I was pretty surprised that they did so well.
So, after the rest of us finally finished, Thomas, another Kedougou volunteer who helped organize everything, got on the microphone and talked about when Independence Day was, how many states there are in America- not 52, which a surprising number of Senegalese people will argue- and other bits of random American history. Then we had an awards ceremony. The prize for first place was 3 (live) chickens, and I think the Senegalese guy was pretty stoked about that. The other winners all got Obama paraphneillia; flip flops, t-shirts, hologram belts. Yes, I said Obama hologram belts. Isn't that awesome? There is so much Obama stuff here it's borderline ridiculous.
Anyway, after the awards ceremony Thomas spoke a little about what the Peace Corps is and the different kinds of work we do in that area. Then, we gave away little American flags, which I promptly saw someone begin to use as a tooth stick, the things that they use to brush their teeth here. We also gave out neem cream, which is a homeade mosquito repellent. All in all, I think the run was a great idea. The Senegalese people had a good time, got some free stuff, and learned a little about America and the Peace Corps. Not bad.
The rest of the day/night was devoted to partying back at the Kedougou regional house and celebrating America. The link to the pictures is here:
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