A corner of the world

The toads hold their nightly conference on the doorstep under the flicking light. In quiet chirps they discuss the happenings of the day. Attendance is up tonight from yesterday to 28; there must be some juicy gossip to share.



In their pen the sheep have settled down in to soft piles of wool and even the rambunctious kid goats have stopped their endless game of king of the hill to sleep. All is quiet on the farm as the moon rises swiftly through the trees.

So ends another day in Keur Samba Guèye. I sit in my family's courtyard writing and casting the occasional glance at the TV. So much around me has changed in the past few days that the bustle and insanity of Dakar seems like a lifetime ago. My days are now occupied by hours at the clinic shadowing the people who provide medical care to the 40 or so villages around us. Mothers come in for prenatal consultations, children come through to have scrapes bandaged, other's wait patiently for an antimalarial or antibiotic. I sit and watch, scratching down notes and peering over shoulders. Occasionally a baby is handed to me as the mother is examined. I pour over vaccination records and patient notes, reading, watching, learning.

When all the patients have been seen, I amble up the dirt path to sama ker, my home with the principal and his family. My mother and sisters greet me. I am, as always, so genuinely happy to see them, so comforted by their warm welcome into the inner fold of their tightknit family. The afternoon is spent happily between naps, peanut picking, and chicken chasing, games, books, and conversation. I often peek into the corner of the porch where Madame Chat lies with her tiny kittens before chatting with the gem-toned parakeet.

As the sun sets the cows are brought in from the rolling hills behind the house, a scene that at first glance could be the Pennsylvanian countryside I know so well. By the time dinner is over the stars strike bright pinpoints through the black velvet sky, the Milky Way a glowing gash in the fabric. It is a vast, vast universe I find  myself in and I am so content to spend some time in this happy little corner..