I had a chance to look through some old letters and photographs last week, and they served as a reminder about how important it is to keep track of life's events. I seem to go through phases with that- keeping up for a little while, then letting it fall by the wayside, and at the moment, I'm re-motivated to document things (and my dear computer has come back from the dead, which helps- thanks, Mom!)
As the time to start wrapping things up here came around in January, I was thinking about what the heck I'm going to do with my life this year, about leaving Senegal, and all the millions of things which make big life decisions so hard. After lots of pondering and chatting, I decided that this place is too wonderful, I'm too excited about the work to be done, and there's too good an opportunity to pass up- so I'm staying for another year. After my last weeks in village, I'll come back to the States for a month of leave time, then move to Dakar to become the Senegal Coordinator for the Malaria Initiative. There's a lot of exciting work going on here in Senegal, and in the rest of the countries participating in the Stomp Out Malaria Initiative (http://www.stompoutmalaria.org). I've got some big shoes to fill- I'll be taking over for Mike Toso, and before him- Jessie Seiler, both motivated, excited, and just generally awesome people.
This year is going to mean a lot of changes- no more hut living sans electricity in the village, days spent chatting and drinking tea under the shade of neem trees, sleeping under the stars with my family, or for that matter, the hot hot heat of Linguere (hello, air conditioning!) If all goes as planned, I'll be living in an apartment by the beach, walking distance from work in the midst of all the craziness that is Dakar. The next couple of months also mean saying goodbye to the other volunteers who have been here through this whole adventure; there are undoubtedly lots of emotions imminent. In the mean time, I'm soaking in the last bit of all of this.
