This week has been a really hard week... and as it's 4h45am and I'm still not asleep, it's obviously affecting more than my motivation at work. I've been feeling really disconnected from lots of things in life lately, mainly from just a general sense of fulfillment.

I haven't talked with many people from Senegal lately. In fact, it's been quite awhile. I had told myself that I was going to call soon, but sometimes I think that hearing their voices and remembering everything just makes it harder to be away. Around 4am tonight, I got a text from a friend just saying, "I miss you!" so I opened up my computer and called. I got to talk to him and he passed the phone around a bit, so I got to talk to a few more people. And it just makes me so happy... to just be alive.

When I hear their voices, I can imagine myself right back there, sitting (yes, King of the Hill style), chatting, yelling, eating delicious food that isn't seaweed flavored, and bantering. I think it's the banter that I've missed the most. No one here banters.

They told me they were impressed that I hadn't forgotten Wolof, and when I said, in Wolof, that I had completely forgotten everything and I can't say a thing, they said that I really should just forget English; it's a completely dead language anyway. :D That I should just move to Senegal forever and learn Wolof. "You can't walk for more than 10 minutes anywhere in the world without meeting a Senegalese person, without being able to speak Wolof", the world's most widely spoken language. It gets me all teary-eyed just thinking about it. :D I'm still "Obama's daughter", and I still could be the coordinator at Claire-Enfance if ever I wanted to come back.

And Yakham is going to send me pictures of his daughter, Stephanie Ndiaye. I still don't if I 100% believe that he actually named his daughter after me, but even the fact that he's willing to joke about it means something! Names are so important in their culture!

Bouba passed the phone to Papa, his beautiful little nephew, the little boy that I would adopt in a second if I could. And he's now TALKING. Unbelievable. I can't wait to see how much he's grown since the last time I saw him! I'm sure he's going to be a heartbreaker when he grows up.

And when I say that I might be able to be back in September, that might sound like a long time, but it's already April! So that means it's not actually that far away.

I'd go back in a second. Faster than that, really. "Won't you pass the summer vacation with us?"

Hearing the smiles in their voices when I talk to them, knowing that when they say, "we miss you and think about you all the time", it's not just lip service but it's the truth. That means more to me than just about anything.