Dizzy Bats

The antics of ASP have given me many fun games to play in a tight spot, when I’m bored or need to entertain many.

This time I chose to enlist the help of Dizzy Bat, a hilarious game involving materials readily available in the Gambia. I grabbed a locally made broom (lots of grass tied together with a piece of fabric), and told kids to look up in the air, put the broom on the tip of their nose, look at the end of it, and spin around ten times FAST. Then, when they’ve finished, they should put the broom on the ground, stand next to it, and jump from side to side over the broom ten times.

That’s the game.

I played it with kids of all ages. Lots of kids fell down, tons of kids got real dirty, and my 9th grade friend and I exchanged words for “dizzy” in our respective languages. In Mandinka, it’s “tiroo”.

The next day, my ninth grade friend Maimuna approached me and gave me the following letter.

“Abby How are you today.
Yesterday the game that we played seen I go home I started sleeping at 7:49 I sleeping up to 10:53. my mother called me, did not anser, she ask me what happened. I say noting, she say no something is go on. I say noting go on. she say you never sleeping like this.
I willy I am not going to do these game again

From Maimuna”

So, obviously I made an impression on her. I also now have numerous kids who I don’t recognize start spinning around when they see me, yelling “Abby! Tee-zee! Tee-zee!” until they fall down.

I constantly wonder what my legacy will be when I finally leave this tiny country. I think this game is in the running for what people will remember about me. "Oh, yeah, Abby? She's the one that drew that map on the wall right? Or, she's the one that carried 20 liters of water in her backpack AND twenty liters on her bike for training? Ohhhhhhh, the dizzy bat chick... Now I remember."