Home?

It seems fitting to have a last entry for this thing now that I'm back in the States. A synthese if you will.

After 30 hours of travel I'm back in Minnesota and I've never been so weirded out in my life. People speak English, it's freakin' cold, there's Starbucks and McDonald's, and I just put on a pair of jeans for the first time in 3.5 months. What the hell is going on?

The trip went smoothly, the group of us trying to ease each other in and give support as we left Senegal and entered Toubabland. Katie and I (sort of) made Cafe Touba in the JFK airport to make ourselves feel better. It worked.

So for a while I'm sure I'm going to be wrinkling my nose and calling most things weird. I'll also be panicking that I'm going to forget things about Senegal. That's not allowed to happen. Nor is it allowed to happen that I lose contact with my beloved friends made on the trip. Seriously. I want to fly out to New York or something ASAP.

Anyway, and so begins another journey to figure out how I am to operate here in light of my experience in Senegal. On y va!

Alxamdoulilah.

Well, I did it. My opus is complete. I'm pretty happy with how my 36-pager turned out, and can't wait to have people read and give feedback. It's kind of a big deal for me. I'm now in Mbour which is on the Petit Cote (look on a map). We're staying in a hotel right on the beautiful beach. We've been doing ISP presentations, re-entry preparation, and chilling out before we head home. I did my presentation this morning. It was mediocre, but it's done and I feel a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. It's crazy to think about the fact that I'll be back in the States in five days. It's going to be weird as hell. Sorry people, but I might just be a basket case. Expect random Wolof and funny phrases that will make no sense and tongue clicking and snapping. But also expect me to hug the washing machine and eating lots of chocolate chip cookies and lots of adventures with people I've missed a lot. It'll be a trip.
Leegi leegi.