Until next time, my Senegal, God willing.

My last week in Senegal involved nine hours worth of Independent Study Project presentations, a final djembe lesson, goodbyes and ba beneen yoons to my host family, lots of sabar drumming and dancing, two rhinoceroses, a village made out of shells, a crab race, a last run of the markets, many hours at the beach, and what seemed like many more hours of packing. Waaw waaw. If you want more details (perhaps about the rhinos) I apologize. You will have to wait until I return to America and regain my composure. All of that has left my head spinning, and it will continue spinning right onto that plane that will lift me up out of Dakar and back to my comfy American life.

After writing a 25 page paper, filling out evaluations of the semester and spending hours reading through my several journals from the past few months, one might think I'd be able to articulately express what this semester has been like, and how I feel about coming home. But as it is, I feel an overwhelming sense of mental block. All I know is that I am getting on that plane very early tomorrow morning--early enough that it still counts as tonight--and coming home. At the thought my gut jumps a little, then sinks a little, then ponders the ceebujen for lunch a little. And I can find no words to say.

So please, faithful audience, accept my gratitude for your support and interest throughout these past months, it has been fun sharing with you. I imagine the twenty-four hours of planes and airports will afford me a little time to reflect. Then, my very own computer access will afford me some photo-posting abilities. At any rate, I'll be putting some more thoughts into this little blog here. But the words you read from here on out will be typed on a boring old American keyboard (which I will have to reacquaint myself with), and not in any tropical cyber cafe in urban West Africa.

Ba beneen yoon, sama Senegal, inchalla.