Posh Corps

Sometimes a person joins the Peace Corps, an organization that demands flexibility under extreme conditions, but gets lucky enough to not have to be flexible at all. Sometimes people in the Peace Corps, even though living in a developing country, gets a sweeter set up than they had back in America. If you have an apartment, you’re in the Posh Corps. If you have electricity and/or running water, you’re in the Posh Corps. If you can get ice and/or ice cream in your village/town/neighborhood, you’re in the Posh Corps.

In no way could my Peace Corps experience be considered “posh”. I pretty much got the ”maximum flexibility” option. However, this past week, I have lived how the other side lives. This is the story of my one week of Posh Corps.

The American Embassy in the Gambia sent out a text a few weeks ago, asking for volunteers who would be willing to assist with a basketball camp in Kombo. Being the basketball aficionado I am, I promptly jumped on this opportunity. As I learned more about the camp, I got more excited. An ex-NBA player would be flown in, to teach the people of this tiny African country how to ball efficiently. It would involve about six hours of basketball a day, in ocean-breezy Bakau. It was too good to pass up.

When the other two volunteers and I arrived in town to assist, we didn’t know what to expect. We had no idea that the upcoming week would be the most luxurious and worthwhile one we’d had in this country… perhaps ever.

Day One of the camp was pretty standard. My fellow Peace Corps buddies and I didn’t really know what to do to be most helpful, so we just ran drills with the camp participants. We felt like rock stars when Tommy Davis, ex-NBA player, invited us to help him demonstrate drills or skills, and then, after fundamentally flawlessly completing the play, all the Gambians would cheer when we scored, yelling “Basket!” and offering enthusiastic high fives.

There’s about a four hour break in the middle of the day, so on day one, we just went back to our Peace Corps house and hung out. Then we returned to the camp to coach the little ones in the afternoon. Pretty standard day of basketball camp.

On Day Two we started to get to know Ole Tommy Davis even better, and he turned out to be the nicest man in the world.

A quick biography of my main man TD: He played at the University of Minnesota , and his favorite college memories were dropping thirty plus points on Indiana and a furious, chair-hurling Bobby Knight. As a child, he went to the annual camp for the best youngsters in the country, and he played with the likes of Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, etc. According to him, (and you don’t doubt a man with as much integrity as Tommy Davis has), he was better than Michael Jordan when he was twelve. After graduating college, he was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks. He played I think only one season in the NBA, and then traveled to play in the Philippines. He was a huge star in the Philippines, and made tons of money while living in paradise. When he left there, he traveled around Europe, scouting for the team he coaches in Bordeaux, France. He has lived there for the past twenty years, and speaks French fluently. Now he travels everywhere, running camps, scouting and recruiting internationally. He still keeps in touch with Popovich, coach of the Spurs, and has been extended an offer to coach in the NBA when he wants to return to the US.

When a man with this many credentials comes to chill in the Gambia, you know he’s a good dude.

So, after the first session on Day Two, Tommy asks us if we’d like to go get something to eat – something Gambian. After dining on cheap Gambian food, he’s like, “We have a couple hours before we have to go back to the courts. Why don’t you tag along with me to the hotel I’m staying at, which happens to be none other than Cocoa Ocean, the most luxurious hotel in the country? My personal driver will drive you there, you can hang with the celebrity likes of me, and then we’ll return to play basketball.”

So we did that. And you don’t know luxury until you leave a Gambian village and then are suddenly surrounded with the blatant, extravagant luxury that we were thrust into. There were like eleven horizon pools, just waiting to be dipped in. The hotel overlooked the ocean, and was filled with tasteful yet funky furniture, enough pool chairs to seat my entire village comfortably, color and beauty.

Old TD hung out with us by the pool, telling us all about the basketball royalty he had faced, asking us questions about the Peace Corps, reminiscing about NCAA tournaments past, and continuing to offer us things we had been deprived of – food, hot showers, air conditioned rides across town.

So, daily, we continued to do this. We were Tommy’s helpers in the morning, perfectly following his instructions and demonstrating skills which we had mastered as children, being worshipped by Gambians for making simple shots or dribbling between our legs.

One day, I invited Tommy to play a friendly game of HORSE… in which I couldn’t miss. I beat him and one of my male volunteer counterparts, and THE Tommy Davis, NBA star, friend of Gregg Popovich, pal of Tony Parker, who played with the legends of my youth said, and I quote, “That girl can shoot.”

Then we’d go eat Gambian food, return to luxury, and sleep by the pool for a few hours, before we’d go back and play basketball again.

One day, the employees of the embassy decided to show their appreciation for all the” work” we were doing. They took us to the best and most expensive restaurant in town. The amount of money I spent on my meal was more than the monthly rent I pay my family to stay in my house and eat with them every day… FOR A MONTH. We got fancy juices, ate meat without bones, Mexican food, salads, and dessert. It was perhaps the best meal I have ever eaten.

On Saturday, the final day of the camp, Tommy invited us to escort him through a few of the markets in Kombo. Where normally we would have to cram into a smelly broken car, his personal driver took us right to the market in an air conditioned vehicle. We helped him bargain for the items he wanted, and he was impressed with our comfort in the market, as well as our language skillz.

As he dropped us off for the final time, he took our email addresses, told us anytime we came to France we had a place to stay, double kissed my face, and then told us he loved us.

And we loved him too.