Dervish

The last two days have either been a whirling dervish or a whirlwind. A dervish is a Sufi dancer who spins to achieve a meditative state of ecstasy. A whirlwind is an atmospheric disturbance. In Kansas, it could be a tornado; off the coast of Senegal, it could be a waterspout…As we are not achieving anything close to a meditative state of ecstasy right now, I’d have to opt for describing the last few days as whirlwind-ish.

On Sunday we had a bon voyage lunch at Mami and Papi’s. They didn’t know it was bon voyage until I produced a “gateau.” Since coming to Dakar, wonderful French cakes from the Graine D’Or patisserie have become a part of Sunday at Mami and Papi’s. For many Swiss and French people, actually for many people regardless of national origins, chocolate has a unique way of transforming any occasion from the mundane to the special. For Mami, a gateau from Graine D’Or is the nearest thing to ecstasy I’ve ever witnessed. So we ate cake and “au revoir-ed”. And that was Sunday.

On Monday, our mission was to figure out how to get my second bag to New York without having to schlep it from Dakar to Brussels to Basel to Amsterdam to London to New York JFK. And to do it for less than $600. Off we went to the cargo area of Yoff Dakar to explore the options. We not only discovered South African Airways Cargo…a bargain at $300…but we witnessed what happens in cargo areas. In short, they do not—as you always suspected--treat your cargo with kid gloves. And that’s why boxes shippe cargo often look like they were dropped from a 10-story building.

En route back to the house, we lost the brakes on the car…gone…cruising along at 40 kph on a heavily trafficked road, and suddenly, no brakes! Fast thinking and great driving got us home safely. The whole time I was thinking “who needs or wants this kind of drama?” And that was Monday.

Today we had the first of four hospital meetings today and tomorrow. [Why not cram as much as possible in before I leave?] Philippe Barry, who runs an organization that focuses on corporate social responsibility, has met with us previously. At this morning’s meeting, he concurred with our decision to go mobile and introduced us to yet another executive at the Ministry of Health who is looking for projects to support. Nathalie will be meeting with her in two weeks to further explore the possibilities of a public-private partnership whereby the clinic will provide preventive health education, based on the theory that keeping Senegal healthy is good for the economy. Philippe has joined our board of advisors and is helping us find other Senegalese influencers who are interested in improving health care delivery. Later this afternoon, we have a Hospital of Hope board meeting. Although I’m just an observer, it’s nice to be included because I’ve been emailing Olga, Brigitte and Guenther for the past six months. Next week in Basel, I’ll get to meet them. They’re a dedicated group of Novartis executives who really want the Hospital to succeed and are working to make it happen.

And that will be Tuesday. After which, there will only be three days until I depart. I’m focusing on staying engaged and involved…riding to school this morning with Seal, because he wanted my company…it was absolutely the high point of a very rich day.