Back in the USA. June 18, 2008

Finally back in the USA! The journey from Dakar to the United States was a smooth one this time, despite the fact that getting out of Dakar’s airport continues to get worse and worse. Our connections and layovers were perfect and we arrived in San Francisco only 20 minutes behind schedule.

Madeline is very happy to be back in her ‘home’ country, and reunited with her ‘roots’. Almost immediately, she recognized all of her family members on mom’s side by name (even if she is a little shy to approach and hug/kiss them). She simply loves all of the attention poured on her and her California house is a very good, kid-friendly environment. She seems much more adaptable to the time differences than her parents – starting the first night, she’s been sleeping deeply almost through the night (certainly no worse than she did in Senegal). And she’s been going to sleep at her regular bedtime according to West Coast time. Indeed her internal clock is “mature beyond it’s years.”

Our last week in Senegal was often a nightmare. We thought everything would be smooth and easy once our air freight shipment was taken away, almost a week before we departed the country. But that only

took off a small amount of the pressure and stress of moving. There were so many commitments to which we could not say ‘no’, doing such-and-such with people for the last time. It was very difficult to pull everything together at the end after four years, not to mention the emotional difficulties of saying goodbye to many friends.

On Saturday, the day we left, the moment we had all been dreading finally came upon us: we had to say goodbye to our nanny Leye. This was one of the most difficult things we’ve had to do in a long time. She ‘hung on’ for as long as she could, staying around for longer than usual days during that last week, babysitting for us on Friday night, and ‘working’ almost all day Saturday. She didn’t need to really ‘work’ on Saturday at all. She just wanted to be around and spend as much time with Madeline as possible. Leye’s leaving for the last time was one of the saddest scenes ever. Many many tears all around (except for Madeline, who was perplexed and confused as to why we were all acting so strangely). It was horrible to say goodbye to this person who has truly become a family member, and a person who we may very well never see again.

Another difficult goodbye was the one to Almamy, one of our best Senegalese friends, and one of Maddie’s favorite people on the whole planet.

But thankfully, Madeline is not quite at the age where she’s cognizant of people (or things) leaving permanently. She said goodbye to Leye as she does every day when she leaves, and has not mentioned her since then. For Maddie, it has just been a long weekend without her beloved nanny.

And what of Hobbes the cat? Sadly, in the end we could not find anyone willing to take him in. But we came up with a good solution that brings the cat back to his own nomadic, animal roots. Hobbes has become the apartment compound ‘community pet’, fed and watered by Ba, the day guard, and sort of ‘watched out for’ by all the residents who had expressed interest in taking him, but couldn’t/wouldn’t commit to him. A perfect solution, really. He probably won’t run away or get run over – we’ve been letting him outside for long periods of time for

months and he’s been fine. And if he runs away after all, then c’est la vie.

Winding down in West Africa. June 5, 2008

Amazingly, everyone’s to-do lists are getting smaller and smaller as the Senegal departure date approaches – Madeline included! Yesterday, for example, she had her last ‘play date’ with one of her very best friends, Julie, who lives down the street from us. Julie and her family are moving to DR Congo and Maddie will miss her very much. And of course the time is almost upon us when Maddie will have to say goodbye to her beloved nanny, Leye. But we are not talking about that right now…

As is always the case, the last few weeks of the school year are filled with an almost constant stream of events and obligations, most of them fun (in theory); but as the saturation point is reached, they become ‘not so fun’. Last weekend we had our ‘au revoir Senegal’ party here, arranging to have Madeline spend the night at Julie’s house. This was her first sleep-over ever! It was a bit strange waking up and not having her with us, but I guess it was good for all. I’m not quite ready for that sort of thing yet.

Miss Madeline is doing great. I think she is starting to have an idea that her life is about to radically change. Up until this week, I would’ve commented about the innocent oblivion of babies, about how they can just live their happy lives during periods of change, and how this is to be envied. Well, she knows something is up. I can’t put my finger on how I know this – I just know. Her life will soon become even richer than it is now, because she’ll have mom and dad without work AND both of her extended families around her for the next few months. What a lucky kid! Then she moves to another beautiful tropical island where she’ll have a personal nanny as sweet and attentive as Leye… and will be starting ’school’ in August for the very first time. Life could hardly be better for this little one.

A few weekends ago, the family made its last outing outside of Dakar. We drove to our new favorite spot in Saly called the Africa Lodge, run by Laurent and Sophie, on Friday after school. Saly is an ideal destination as it is easy to reach before dark on a Friday afternoon – we didn’t return until late Sunday night so it really was a long (ish) holiday weekend. We spent the weekend with the Thomsons, our British friends with 2 daughters, Katie and Jessica. All had a great time (though drank and ate way too much). Madeline and Katie had a grand time playing and running around with one another. At times they had ‘conversations’ in which they discussed such topics as going to the beach. It’s amazing and rewarding to see Madeline interacting with another toddler this way (Katie is about 8 months older than Maddie).

It was a bit bizarre to think that this would be the last time in Senegal outside of Dakar. A little bit sad, but only a little bit! We are ready to move on.