Putting yourself out there.

One of the things we appreciate most about this group is their willingness to jump into the [metaphorical] pool even when they aren’t so sure they can swim.  Malcolm rapping in Dakar and playing basketball.  Jacob, Kyle and Ardy singing and playing instruments in church choirs and others participating in churches in other ways.  Ardy and Lydia have joined up with soccer teams for some games. (Ardy, the loan woman on the pitch this weekend, scored one of the goals).  And everyone interacting with their host families and people on the street.  Because language skills are still limited, sometimes accidents happen.  Here is Austin’s story in his words:

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Okay this is by far the slipperiest slope that I have encountered so far. So I went to Stadium de Lat Dior to watch my brothers’ Taekwondo matches. Right next door, in the outdoor stadium, they were hosting Senegalese wrestling matches, which I was really keen to see. I paid my entrance fee and I watched a few matches. However, what I didn’t realize was that the entrance fee was for participation in the tournament. About five minutes later a man comes up to me and takes me to the weight room and weighs me to put me into a weight class. I didn’t have enough language skills to tell him that I was only there to watch and no one knew French. They just assumed that I was one of the international wrestlers. So after about 10 minutes of registration, they sent me out to the practice rooms. I borrowed someone’s rule book so I could understand the rules. I wrestled 7 matches in 3 hours and won 5. So overall I placed fourth in a tournament I had no intentions of entering. (Unfortunately, they don’t give anything for fourth place and no pictures were taken.) It was an interesting day. 

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And a few pics to share from Marie and Jose’s collections.