Words Nourish

Until my opportunities for a great conversation were limited by the French/English language barrier here in Dakar, I’m not certain I really knew how delicious it is to roll and idea around in my head and find the words to express it and share it with another person. It’s not unlike my new appreciation for brewed coffee, which I had frankly taken for granted, foolishly believing that Starbucks is on every corner of the universe just because Starbucks is on every corner in New York.

We learn our lessons as we need to learn them. I now know—and you do too—that in some cultures, Nescafe is considered as good a morning brew as there is. In fact, when given the choice of freshly ground, brewed French Roast with half and half or Nescafe with powdered milk and three sugar cubes, there are multitudes who will pick Nescafe every time without a second thought.

That’s the way I thought about conversation. It happens. And for 58 years, it happened at my pleasure. I’ve just come from lunch and lots of conversation. Lunch was good, but the conversation was delicious! Free flowing, political, personal, about New York, about growing up in the Midwest (Rachel is from Atchison, Kansas, and Emily is from Blue Springs, Missouri), and of course, we talked about living abroad…the learning curve, the acceptance factor, the time it takes to adjust…it was wonderful…just close enough and warm enough and easy enough that I believed the loneliness I periodically experience here in Dakar is temporary.

We were introduced by our by our mutual friend Jim, who is working for the UN in Khartoum. They met at a US State Department social event. He graciously passed them along to me. I will leave Dakar soon, having shared Emily and Rachel with some other people I know here. This was the way of social networking before the internet introduced us to the idea of social media, which allows us to meet people without ever shaking their hands.

The internet version is fine but there’s no replacement for sharing lunch, sharing conversation, sharing a hug at the end of a leisurely meeting at a café on The Point, the western-most point of land in Africa.

The experience was deeply satisfying; in fact, it was better than a cup of fresh rich, cream-laced French Roast.