Home for the Holidays…

Not very long after I wrote that last blog, I asked for permission and was cleared by Peace Corps to come home for the holidays.  After a grueling journey filled with mishaps and missed connections and 41 hours in the air and on the ground (mostly the latter), I arrived at JFK, late evening just before Christmas Day.  Luke drove up with a huge smile on his face and a travel coffee mug in his hand…filled with ice.  In his other hand appeared a flask, filled to the brim with the elixir I’d done without for months: Jack Daniels.  Now why wouldn’t you come home when family treats you like that? 

Halley and Karim flew in from Oakland the next day (another big reason I had to come home) and we Darigans spent a rollicking time together.  We got a tree…trimmed it…

 

…ate too much food!

…and certainly drank too much!

Ah, but what fun!

There was another reason I came home.  I had been having trouble with my ankles and feet especially while we were in Stand Fast in Kenema.  They took a beating as we walked all those miles on the undulating and rutted roads there.  However, I also noticed in the weeks before I departed West Africa, that my right foot was flopping down when I walked.  In fact, I couldn’t control it either flexing or stretching. It was very frustrating.  I figured it was either a bad muscular reaction to my orthotics or something more serious.  So, upon arrival home, I called my faithful family doctor, Shabih Khan, and got worked in that very day.  After a quick check he said, “You more than likely have foot drop.  It’s often caused by a pinched nerve in the spine.”  He ordered blood tests, and his wonderful staff set me up with visits to three specialists.  After X-rays, EMGs, MRIs, and myriad follow-up visits, I got the diagnosis.  I have moderate to severe neuropathy, weak nerves, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, peroneal neuropathy (foot drop), and bone spurs on my left ankle. 

None of this was or is serious.  In fact, I was told medication was unnecessary and not recommended and that I should merely get new orthotics, start wearing high-top hiking boots, and hustle back to Africa.  A week later, Peace Corps lifted my Medical Hold so on Thursday, January 17^th, I’ll be heading back up to New York’s JFK airport with Luke (sans the whiskey since we’ll be leaving with the morning rush hour) and heading back to Sierra Leone. 

What a wonderful holiday I had…spending it with family, friends, and getting a clean bill of health wrapped in one big, beautiful package.  I also got the treat of a White Christmas…and I volunteered to do the shoveling!

Home Is...

December 3, 2012

Home is…

Every day I’m feeling more comfortable here in Sierra Leone.  I noticed that, in my ongoing journal the other day, and for the first time, I wrote, “On my way home…”  And it is feeling more like “home”.  For instance, I can navigate my little bungalow in total darkness now as if I’d lived here for years (though I do mostly have a flashlight in hand or headlamp on…I might step on a scorpion!).  But today, as I rode my bike to the village market, I was regaled with cordial greetings from students, neighbors, villagers, and fellow lecturers…like I belonged.

As most of you know, I’ve always enjoyed the pleasures of cooking and here it is just as important as ever.  I can attest that, though I’ve lost weight purposefully, I’m watching what I eat make sure to get complete, nutritional meals every day.  Oddly, however, I’m beginning to live the common Salone saying, “If I haven’t had my rice, I haven’t eaten today.”  I literally crave rice and enjoy the toppings, stews as they call them here, and I am ever attempting to replicate traditional dishes in a more healthy form; especially without the MSG they sprinkle on everything!

Here is my bounty from the market today: onions, Sierra Leone-grown rice, and local peanut butter, referred to as “ground-nuts”, that is hand-squeezed into tight, little baggies.   I was thrilled to find freshly dug ginger root here for the first time, too.

The final concoction, “Ground-Nut Stew” with added Lebanese lima beans to complete the protein, turned out mighty tasty!  If I were at home I’d have added a few spices like turmeric, cumin, and fenugreek and included whole tomatoes and chicken thighs.  But this was a great start.

So, I’m enjoying both home-like things here and beginning to fit in, feeling more comfortable all the time.  Then today, while I was taking down the laundry, a sheet caught a gust of wind and got hung up on a small tree at the far end of my clothes line.  On closer inspection, I noticed…

Limes.  That’s when I thought about home…my real home and my family and Christmas (which is not in the least bit evident here).  The temperatures still hover in the mid- to low 90s and it continues to be rainy season; humid and with not a Santa in sight.  Seeing this, I thought of the lime and lemon trees behind my folks’ apartment in Davis and that’s when I just about broke down.  I’m sure they have a few limes that look just about like these and, oh, at that moment, I wished more than ever to be there with them. 

Well, they are close though so far away.  On my living room wall, I have remembrances of home that I look at every day.  It includes them, as well as my own wonderful family and great friends.  It’s easy to see that “Home really is, indeed, where the heart is.”