Day 20: Better already

It was going to happen eventually. I knew it. You probably knew. It was just a matter of time. I’m not sure of the precise moment, but it arrived yesterday, between 2 and 8 pm.

Initially, I had a twinge of distress. When Nathalie, Janette and I went to the European-style “supermarche,” I felt “out of sorts”. I loved looking at the cheese display and the beautiful butcher department…strolling through the snacks and sodas, the detergents and toilet paper, but as the afternoon wore on, my state declined. By 8 pm, I was hit full force!

HOMESICK!!!

Just to be sure, I checked Wikipedia:

Homesickness is the distress or impairment caused by an actual or anticipated separation from the specific home environment...The term is in origin a loan translation of nostalgia, a learned term coined in Baroque period medicine. The Oxford English Dictionary describes homesickness as a feeling one has when missing home. Feelings of longing are often accompanied by anxiety and depression. These symptoms may range from mild to severe. Homesickness frequently occurs when one travels and may be exacerbated by unfamiliar environments or foreign cultural contexts. Homesickness is especially common in youth. Young people may experience a sense of dread, helplessness, or separation anxiety on their first day of school, summer camp, or on a protracted summer vacation away from the family. Many first-year students at boarding schools or universities also experience homesickness.

It was time. I left New York on March 31 and have now been in Dakar for three weeks. I have experienced nothing but kindness and generosity of spirit. But I’m at summer camp, and I do have some longings: for my friends, for strong coffee, for long strolls down busy avenues, for conversations at 8 am in the Alice Tully Hall Café, for movies with my best-est friend, for my apple guys at the Lincoln Triangle market on Saturday, for chicken ceasars, for the 68^th Street Pier on the Hudson…and for pie.

OK. I’ve admitted it.

I feel better already.