Gym Class

I went for a run yesterday evening with a co-worker and his brother and it was the first time I’ve gone running without being heckled. The beach is usually crowded with people, but I don’t see many women exercising, only a few runners and small groups of foreigners sometimes playing Frisbee on weekends; by and large, the beach is ruled by soccer players and their nightly matches before sunset.

Usually I can’t go for a run without at least one person hissing at me (the equivalent of whistling at someone in the US, trying to catch someone’s attention in a not-very-welcome way), following me for a few paces repeating, “Bonjour Madame! Ou, mademoiselle? Je t’aime!” or kicking a soccer ball into my path (or at me). But running yesterday, beside two tall Senegalese men, there was none of that. It was a dream.

We stopped at one part of the beach with a small hill and did a series of training exercises and stretches, led by my co-worker. I was standing like a triangle, stretching my right arm to my left ankle, when I heard a bunch of giggling not far behind me. I released the stretch and stood up, turning my head to see 6 little kids mimicking the stretch and laughing uncontrollably. They stopped for a second when they caught me looking at them, but I waved them over and said, “Come here!” in Wolof. They scurried over, started following our stretches and kept giggling wildly.

There were 5 girls, all dressed in multi-color and multi-pattern pagnes, probably between 4 and 8 years old, and one little boy, who looked about 2 but it’s hard to tell. He was wearing a red t-shirt with “50 Cent” written on it and a picture of a gun. The little boy stood there while his sisters jumped around, howled with laughter, and joined us doing sit-ups and push-ups. When the girls ran off to dip their toes in the ocean, and I was sitting on the beach with my arms wrapped around my knees and felt a little tug on my shirtsleeve. The little boy held my shoulder absentmindedly while watching his sisters splashing in the water. He didn’t say a word the whole time.

We decided to leave once the girls came out of the water and we said goodbye. They were still giggling and one of them took the little boy by the hand and they skipped off in the opposite direction. When my co-worker and his brother and I parted ways, I thanked them for such a fun run and we agreed to do it again soon.