Landed in dc!

Soon to be picked up by the very generous Aaron Strauss. Looking forward to seeing you all!

Home in less than a week!

Have been busy the last few days, not as much blog posting time, but much to blog about... This trip is very rapidly coming to a close – I fly back to Accra on Saturday, then arrive in DC on Tuesday morning, then fly to Greencastle on Wednesday evening, if all the flights go as scheduled.

I really don’t want to think about what the temperature shock is going to feel like… I don’t even have a jacket in which to make my way from Dulles to Mt Pleasant!

On the other hand, Kalila is by all reports doing quite well at the Indianapolis hospital post-surgery, and I’m really looking forward to checking up on her in person very soon.

Speaking of kids, here’s a bonus picture of me carrying Bobo (Ibraheem Jr) around on my back, African-style. The Gambians Sirah and I walked past on the street found this hilarious. It’s also the first practical use for large breasts I’ve ever recognized – they’re essential for fighting the baby’s gravity!

The itinerary

In case you were wondering, especially given the delays around Kalila, my current plan is laid out below. If I have to stay here more than another, say, 5 days for Kalila, then I may need to revise the below fairly substantially.

Ghana

• Stick around Accra for a few days until everything is sorted for Kalila's surgery
• Head north to Wa in the Upper West region of Ghana with Uncle Negro and probably Nasir. That's where their family roots are. Visit the Hippo Sanctuary and take a mini-safari in the famous Mole game reserve, and then get dropped off at the border with Burkina Faso. (Estimated date now Sunday 11/28)

Burkina Faso/Mali

• Bus it through Burkina, probably with a day or two in the capital Ouagadougou, on the way to central Mali
• Do a few days of guided hiking through Mali's famous Dogon Country, a string of very close-together, very traditional villages set on a beautiful escarpment way the heck in the middle of nowhere.
• Try to make it to Djenne's world-renowned Monday market on the way to Bamako (estimated date now Monday 12/6)
• Spend a couple of days in Bamako with former DePauw student and current Fulbright scholar Alys Moore (http://alysinmali.blogspot.com/)

Senegal/the Gambia

• Take some combination of train and bus through Senegal to the Gambia to stay with my friend Ibraheem Ceesay, who I worked with at Copenhagen last year (estimated arrival now Sunday 12/12)

The Holiday Whirlwind

• Fly back to Accra on 12/18
• Fly home to DC on 12/20, get dress tailored for Portia's wedding
• Fly to Greencastle on 12/22 in time for our annual Christmas party the next day
• Fly back to DC on 12/27 for Portia's New Year's wedding!

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow!

That's when I finally leave the US for the trip I've been talking your ear off about for months now (you know who "you" are). I started taking my malaria meds today, which made it all a little more real...

I started writing this sitting out on the porch of the stunningly beautiful Mohonk Mountain Retreat -- picture of the view included -- during a "free time" period of the 1Sky climate strategy retreat. I'm flying out tomorrow from LaGuardia to Accra, via Dulles (ironically), for a 6 week backpacking trip through West Africa.

I'll begin the trip in Ghana, staying for 10-14 days in Accra with family friends whose patriarch went to graduate school with my mother in Australia some thirty-odd years ago. Then I plan to head overland through Burkina Faso to Mali, where I want to go trekking as well as explore the capital city for a few days. That should bring me up to the beginning of December, when I'll head west to Senegal and the Gambia -- where I'll stay with the family of a fellow climate activist I met through the Copenhagen negotiations last year.

It's my first time to Africa -- and the longest continuous amount of time I'll have spent in the developing world since I was 8 when we lived in Argentina for 6 months. I'm a little anxious, a lot excited, and hopefully as open as I can possibly be to growing and learning and experiencing more of this complicated, beautiful, scary world!

Despite careful list-making and packing and ticking off all the boxes of things to take, I realized today that did forget something: My rain jacket/windbreaker. Forgetting something is inevitable in my experience, and I always feel better knowing what it is -- especially since in this case it seems like a fairly replaceable item that I wasn't even sure was necessary.

Oh, and thanks to everyone for a very enjoyable last few days in DC -- everyone who came to my birthday party on Saturday night, and of course my amazing housemates Ben, Paul, Michelle, and Seth, not to mention my might-as-well-be-housemates Libby and Babbott, for wonderful company on Sunday. See you all next year!

Thanks for reading my first blog post (f1rst!), and keep in touch (more soon on how to do that...) :-)