One Month Left

The first blog entry I ever had the pleasure of composing (at your scrolling disposal, conveniently below) was posted exactly one month before my departure. This is its twin, posted one month before my return to the States. I regard December fifteenth hesitantly, out of the corner of my eye. In one sense, I long for its arrival every day. I think about the plane that will bring me home every time one flies overhead. With the coming of every vibrant experience here, I rehearse how I might recount it as a vibrant memory at home. It is not at all that Senegal has been a negative experience, but it has been hard. Still, I feel like a kid who has been homesick all summer only to realize, in the finality of mom and dad rolling up in the minivan, what fun summer camp has actually been. I have missed home for two and a half months now, but I have always known exactly when I would return to it. When I get on that plane in a month from today, I will begin to miss Senegal indefinitely.

I still have much to do between now and then, though. In the middle of last week, the SIT program began the period of the ISP: Independent Study Project. The remainder of November is dedicated to individual research on a topic of interest to each student, to be summarized in an oral and written report as our final academic hurrah for the semester. I have chosen to investigate the role and success of child sponsorship as a method of sustainable development in rural villages in Senegal. Sounds impressive, doesn't it? Sounds like I know what I'm doing. Sounds like I am totally experienced and comfortable interviewing and making contacts in a foreign country where I don't actually speak Wolof. Some cellphones sound like Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. But do they really?

I am getting better at eating with my hands, at least. We had spaghetti once again just last night for dinner, and I must confess, I may have had a smug look on my face as I rolled, folded, spun and plopped the contents of my hand expertly into my mouth. My family may have wondered what I was looking so smug about, especially when the inevitable few morsels landed on my lap. I think I have progressed rather well, nonetheless.

Which reminds me: tune in next time for a full-length special feature on food!