Reflections on Being Here

How easily the sensations and impressions of Senegal, along with the associated attitudes and behaviors, recede into memory, replaced by the flood of impressions of this place, this new context.

In the past several days, the impressions of this place were fresh and new, though familiar. Displaced observations such as this airport, this person, this house were possible, accompanied by flashes of memory -- emotions and movies.

This was particularly true when arriving at the International School of Monterey yesterday morning, there to attend the graduation of former students. I felt was a slight separation, my reactions not so immediate, automatic and scripted, slowed further by the observation of the event/s. Hello, nice to see you, I know you, I recognize you, but my hand is not entirely in the glove, I am not entirely the Mister Spedding that you may remember, because a day ago Randi and I were with Almamy in Dakar sitting on the street talking to a vendor about tooth cleaning sticks, dodging car rapides and taxis, squeezing our way through the crowds in Marche Tilan, and now I'm with you, and I know you, but I can still feel the press of life in Senegal.

I recognize that this sense of displacement is passing, as it must. And while the impressions of this context cascade and ripple, one context replacing another, the act of observing remains the one constant.