Saturday
It's Saturday...no getting up before the sun...no managing of many children...or even being in the school. It is a quiet day of homwork and Panera (thanks to the internet being down at school). By God's grace alone, I made it through the week...every moment asking not that it be easy but that He would simply meet me there. And He did.
As I went through the week, I found myself often homesick for Senegal. The place where I knew how things worked, I knew everyone there, I felt loved, and I knew what to expect (to some extent). So last night, when I finally allowed myself some downtime, I was reading through some things I had written in the past few years...just thought I'd share a few of these with you... obviously, these are from when I was leaving....
"As I have been back in this place (Senegal), I have been living in these moments of saying goodbye…I have breathed in Africa like a sweet fragrance that I will not forget….etched forever in my mind…its rhythms beating in my heart. All in slow motion, yet my time is now gone. Memories are my gift…ever with me…ever playing themselves in my mind."
"You have echoed with my laughter,
You have nearly drown in my tears,
You have been a fire for this shapeless piece of metal.
I am leaving you soon,
You who I have come to love,
You who found a place in my heart."
posted by Sara Lyn at
12:58 PM
1 Comments:
I just read your last entry, it’s beautiful…and eerily familiar.
I find myself, at the oddest times, homesick for Senegal. Not just Africa, because I don’t miss Abidjan. But Senegal. Dakar. Home.
I miss the smells, the people, the beach, the food (poulet yassa!). The evenings out at the restaurants…hours at table, talking and eating. I miss the rhythm of that place. The way the people lived their lives…focusing on each other. Never in much of a hurry though always driving like maniacs. I miss the Meridian. The long evenings spent watching DVD’s on a computer and talking. I miss waking up to the African morning…full of wild sounds and smells.
And I know if I were living there now I would miss this place. But really, I would just miss my family and modern conveniences. I decided that if I could take my family with me and come back here twice a year that would be perfect. Absolute perfection. I love shopping here and how clean everything is but my heart….my heart’s home is Africa. Even standing on this Oklahoma soil Africa’s rhythm’s still beat in my heart, course through my blood.
Kate and her husband are moving back in January. They will be living for two years in N’Gor working with the Lebou. I envy her. I pray Chad and I will be able to visit. I envied you when you went to visit. Isn’t it amazing how Africa gets in your blood. And we didn’t just visit…we lived there. We poured out our lives into that city. We watered her sandy ground with our tears. So much happened there. And deep down, in a secret place tucked far away a part of me feels like it is missing because I am here and not in Senegal. I left a piece of my heart there. And I’m not whole without it.
By
Marcy, at 3:13 PM
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