Rocky Top in Senegal

T-Shirts in Senegal always leave me smiling.

Millions of T-Shirts--mostly from America--are shipped to Africa every year from developed nations. My theory is that most of them come from donation chains like the Salvation Army. I've seen some of the most ridiculous T-Shirts ever right in Dakar. Juxtaposed with the dirt and poverty, it's a riot. I particularly loved the shirt of a woman selling fish in the market: Maam Diarra--a Wolof tribe's woman who didn't speak a word of French.

Gatlinburg, Tennessee is a place very dear to me. It is the red neck vacation capital of Tennessee, if not the Southeast. Think: Airbrushed T-Shirts, taffy, haunted houses (in April), and lots of hunting/fishing....and you have Gatlinburg. My fraternity--BYX--has held multiple formal dances in the town and we always had a ball.

I'm glad to see that Rocky Top has reached Senegal. Even if Maam Diarra has never heard of Tennessee.