I'm a year and a half into my term and I'm homesick? What's the deal there? I don't know either. It's not the unbearable homesickness that I felt at the beginning of my term when I stepped off the plane into Senegal for the first time. This is my home now...and my family. But nobody can take the place of my family and my Iowa. I miss the hugs that my dad would squeeze my with so I could scarcely breathe. I miss just sitting with mom and talking about life. I miss turning my niece upsidedown and coloring with her and fishing with her and taking our walks and just talking about life. She's grown up so much in the year and half that I have been gone. I miss stopping by my brother and sis-in-law's house and seeing what chaos is up there. I miss driving around the backroads of Iowa county and getting somewhat lost and testing my navigating skills (of which most everyone will tell you I have none, no "built in" compass in this Iowa girl). I miss going down to the ped mall and seeing the vast array of people that walk around. I miss walking into church just wondering who I would see this Sunday. I miss walking around Lake MacBride and hiking around in the forests around there. I miss getting my friends together for BBQ's out at the Res. Well, memory lane is now done for today...it's good to miss things...then you realize how much they mean to you. :)