Zee end of Ziguinchor

My last week at work flew by. Bittersweet are these goodbyes since it is the end of a lot of fulfilling relationships. By “the end”, I mean you never know in life, but chances are, I’ll likely never see the people I met in the past five months again. I will likely stay in contact with a handful of them, but its definitely the end of an important chapter.

(Image right: Daouda and I. He looks so good with a pink scarf! And me with a sexy tie...lol)

On Monday, I stopped by Daouda’s home to pick up clothes I had asked his sister to make me. I ended up eating lunch at his home and had a very interesting conversation with the ladies of the house. After this, Daouda convinced me to go to his judo training session with him. I figured that exercise is indeed called for, so I went. I’m not a big martial arts fan, but I really appreciated their training (the “warm up” part that I could do with them). For the rest, I just watched. One of the girls he trains with went to the Olympics this summer. They are all at a high level and its very interesting to watch. Inspired by their training, I've entered an agreement with Daouda that I'd train until my departure to be able to do a chin up. So

(Image left: technical aids re-invented!)

My time at work was spent tying up loose ends and golly there were a lot of them! I hardly saw any patients since I was so busy running left and right, looking for people, charting, organizing, writing summary reports, etc.

As of Tuesday, pretty much every meal until my departure was planned for ie: invited somewhere. Tuesday night was a BBQ with friends.

(Image right: Horthence distributing gifts to the orphans)

Wednesday lunch I was invited by Daouda to go to the judo Olympian’s home as she was having a huge lunch party- her name is Horthence Diedhiou. There were about 100 people! All the judo dudes and dudettes, her family and most impressive of all, an entire orphanage! She seems to be a very giving person; transported, fed generously, gave toys and clothes to all these young (well behaved) orphaned children. She even gave everybody a t-shirt; she’s obviously sponsored, but still!

(Image left: Daouda, myself and Horthence )

In the evening, inspired by the athletes we ate lunch with, Marie-Claude and I went to the judo training session (just to participate in the 40 minute warm-up). It is so intense that I can only do about half of it!! After our intense workout, we went to a colleague’s home who had invited us for dinner. Dominic Priera is an orthotics specialist who built up the department and the worked for Handicap International. He is a modest, very skilled and most interesting man. Unfortunately, during his absence from the hospital (he was travelling all over the world with HI), his position was usurped. He lost his place in the hierarchy but is too qualified and this generated insecurity among his colleagues which takes the form of jealousy (he’s only been back for about 6 months). The poor guy told us out right that he didn’t warm up to us until the end because he didn’t want his colleagues getting any impressions. I could go on about his life since it is so interesting…he should write a book!

Thursday at noon, us three girls treated Kumba (Claudine’s mom) to lunch at the Alliance restaurant. In the afternoon, I had my last African ultimate practice. I did everything I could to introduce the sport here. Now the discs are in the hands of four different people; three of them of which I’m pretty sure they’ll continue trying to get the sport going.

(Image right: MC, Kumba and Claudine at the Alliance)

Thursday night, I went to Sabine’s for supper. It was a delicious German dish with potatoes and BACON and MUSHROOMS! Wow! So delicious! How can I be blamed for getting fat?!?

(Image left: the pau)

Friday was my last day of work and it was quite busy. Our coworkers kindly organized a “pau” to celebrate our departure. There was pop and cake for about thirty of us. It was extremely heart warming. They really made it clear to us that we’ll be missed at the hospital. I was humbled by how many people showed up and seemed to care about us that were not our direct coworkers (some of the nurses I had given my presentation to, the secretary of the hospital who I’d see now and then to print from her PC – and it kind of became a running gag), the porters Claudine and I gave formations to, etc). My supervisor gave an inspiring speech and each on of us girls was asked to speak as well. Very emotional!

(Image right: me in my new sarouel and Noah - the chef porter.)

Claudine and I had a last individual meeting with Abba, our supervisor. My goals were reviewed and everything was finalized. Abba expressed that he really appreciated my work and felt that I had attained all my goals and more. The feedback was very positive (both ways).

Friday evening was supper by Marie-Claude. It was a delicious buffet style meal. Again…getting fat! I’ve been hanging around with my friend Daouda a lot these days and will truly miss his company and humor.

(Image left: Astou - my Senegalease mother- dancing with El Hadj and Mammy in the background)

This morning, I went for a sad jog – my first since getting over malaria. It was quite pathetic. I’m really out of shape. I started packing my bags. Let me tell you that this is quite difficult to do when El Hadj decides he wants to help! Gosh I’m going to miss the little man! My family hosted lunch and my last meal at home. MC and Claudine came as well. Tonight, we’re going to eat at Claudine’s and go to the Bombalong night club.

(Image right: Astou, Landing, El Hadj, myself - 6 other people not visible - for our last meal)

I`m taking the boat for Dakar tomorrow. Monday, I`ll leave for St-Louis (northern part of Senegal). Please give me news... I`ll still be checking me emails!