March Madness

I read that living in Africa can be both exhilarating and unsettling. Earlier this month, I had an adventure riding local public transport with my French/Wolof teacher. We took a bus to the HLM marketplace, which sells everything one can imagine and more. We wove in and out of stalls with rolls and rolls of material, past dyed shoes, sparkly costume jewelry, and sequined dresses. We then rode in a car rapide to the Point E neighborhood and joined a group for dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant. I met some Fulbright scholars and we chatted quite a bit; unfortunately they left the following day for their field research in village located hours outside of Dakar.

Maybe it’s just part of living overseas, the unsettled feeling of being far away from family and friends for an uncertain period of time and meeting other people who are also in transition. Fortunately, I haven’t really had time to overanalyze it. This month was consumed with starting the larger study of zinc fortification of infant cereal and preparing for a workshop held in Dakar. I was simultaneously doing research for one of the background papers presented at the workshop and arranging the meeting logistics while getting the study rolling along with a new team of data collectors. The learning curve is steep and the work is exhausting but it’s, well, exhilarating. This is the kind of work I'd hoped to find, and I'm still pinching myself daily.

Just as the workshop wrapped up and the study was started to run more smoothly, I had my first visitor from Seattle! We visited Ile de Goree and feasted on lunch at a waterside restaurant before taking a tour of the historic island. My visitor was such a good sport, too, coming to work with me at the clinic on Sunday morning to observe the study site on her day off. We went to the lighthouse later in the afternoon and could see all the way to Goree Island and the coast of Senegal; I did a double-take because I’d never seen it so clearly.





We then ran from the lighthouse through the Almadies neighborhood (so nice to have a running buddy!), and met some friends for dinner at a restaurant perched on the water, serving cold Gazelle beer and fresh fish. Sitting at the table and watching the sunset, (though swatting at mosquitoes) I felt not entirely unsettled, but relaxed and grateful for good company. And grateful for bug spray.

Now, who’s next coming to visit?!