My Rucksack

My rucksack isn’t worth much. I think I spent maybe $25 on it before joining up with Peace Corps Senegal. I wanted an adventure bag. Something romantic that I could envision on an African safari. I was, after all, moving to West Africa. I didn’t want anything too big, just a small day pack. But it needed to be big enough to fit a few days worth of clothes, a macbook, a journal, a good book, and some toiletries in. I wanted something specific, of good quality, and cheap.

PC-Senegal Remembered

While I may have ended my PC Senegal experience before it really began, the months I spent in West Africa have sent my life in amazing directions. I have spent the last two years doing things that I never dreamed of doing! And I can’t say that I don’t sometimes regret leaving the Peace Corps. I do. But only for a moment here and there and only until I remember my reasons for leaving. I know I made the right choice. And my regret isn’t really regret. It is nostalgia for things almost had and lost, for friends made and potential friends never realized, and for a family that I will love forever.

The Idan Raichel Project, Denver, & the Rosensteins

My journey to Denver started as most journeys start: with a book. I picked up “Three Cups of Tea” at the Salt Lake airport during my layover and I read the first few chapters on the plane with a feeling that something incredible was in the works. The anticipation of a series of life-changing moments built up in my blood stream. Not the kind of moments that change the course of your life, but how you initiate that first meeting. The hello, salut, and as-salaam alaaikum that we great our forks with as we take our first steps down their detours.

The Past Tense

As I write this I am on a plane somewhere between New York City and Salt Lake City. I have had a rough week as many of you know. A week that I don’t need to recount. One of the things I have been struggling with the most is the past tense. My brain is framing sentences about Isaa in the past tense and I am constantly doing battle with it because I don’t want it to be the past tense. It is a battle that I was loosing. But writing in my journal on the plane while listening to The Idan Raichel Project’s “Siyaishaya Ingoma” 

Isaa Sekk

Isaa Sekk is the man I fell in love with. He worked in my village and was Ibrayma’s (my dad) best friend. The three of us spent all of our time together. It was an incredible time in my life.