The President Doctor Professor

Well, I didn't work today. I went to the stadium with everyone else to see the presentation of the World Cup. The preparations started at 11AM and we got there at 2:30. The stadium was swarming with all the vendors, school kids, and the entire army walking around. We got some good seats and proceeded to sit there for three hours while a "deejay," some music acts, and kids with soccer balls performed to keep up entertained. They played one popular song on repeat for half an hour. Ice cream bags and ground nuts were purchased. It was probably around 110 degrees and as I sat there melting into myself I kept having really vivid daydreams of clubbing in Adams Morgan during winter. I think it made me less hot for about 3 minutes. At 5:30 the President's posse finally rolled up. A huge group of dancers/cheerers entered first, followed by army trucks, his stretch Hummer, and some more army trucks. The whole group circled the track three times while the President stuck his head out of the Hummer sun roof and threw biscuits to people in the stands. The "cheerers" had to keep running the whole time and eventually some of them started to faint. Quite a few had to be carried off the track by the medics. When the President actually approaching the stage, huge clouds rolled in and it became really dark. Rainy season is not over. Then the wind came and blew away the red carpet, balloons, people. So after three hours of waiting we dipped out before even seeing the cup. We got caught in a dust storm - trash hitting you in the face, glasses flying, sand in mouth. Then we got caught in the rain so I was just mud colored by the time I got to Happy Camp. Lamine did pass us as we were walking in the rain though and we fit 10 people in his 5 person jeep.

It was neat to experience how excited the country was today. Sitting in the stands listening to drums and weird performers with thousands of Gambians was kind of surreal. And running in the dust storm was actually entertaining/thrilling because one minute I was sitting there preparing myself for a boring presidential speech and then I'm running barefoot, blinded by sand, and covered in trashbags.