Le Retour

Well, I made it back to the US safe and sound. My emotions about leaving Senegal are very mixed. On the whole it was an amazing and unforgettable experience. I arrived at FAS at a really important time and was immediately taken in and given responsibilities and projects to work on. But of course the amount of work I did meant that a lot of other things got left behind. It actually wasn't until a new intern started at FAS about 3 weeks ago that I began to realize how little I'd experience of Senegal outside of the office and my host family. She is a good deal younger than me and this is her first time living in another country, so she's been going out to clubs and going to the beach most days and not really doing much work at all. She also found herself a Senegalese man already and spends most of her time with him. But although seeing her has made me realize how much I didn't do, it hasn't made me reget the way things have gone for me at all. To the contrary, the best of part of my time in Senegal has been centered around the relationships I built with people in my host family and people at work. And she actually left her host family because she didn't get along with them and people at work havn't been too thrilled with her either because she's never there. So, I think that given the reasons I was in Dakar, I did things right for me. And I made some great friends who I think I will stay in touch with and hopefully be able to visit in the future.

In terms of adjustment to being back, things haven't been too difficult. I don't really feel like I'm experiencing reverse-culture shock. Maybe that's because I was ready to be back or because I wasn't really gone that long. I'm not sure. But there are certainly things that I notice and appreciate about being back in DC. Last night walking down Connecticut avenue I remarked at how orderly and quiet and calm it was, observations that I don't think I would make about a major DC street under normal circumstances. I also really appreciated my nice ong hot shower that I tiok when I got back, as well as the fact that I can put ice in my drinks and drink the tap water again. And there are a million other little things that are different, some in a good way and others that I will miss a lot.

I'm in the process of uploqding pictures and will post the link as soon as I finish. I have over 400, so I'm trying to pare them down to a bare minimum to avoid overwhelming you all.