Home safe

Hello everyone!

I'm back safe and sound, in one piece, and happy as can be. I don't think I can quite recall a time that I've been so glad to be home. I've been back for a while now, since the 20th (23rd in Olympia). The flight from Banjul to Dakar was about one and a half hours late leaving (about 11:45pm once we finally left- surprise!). Once I got into Dakar, I was quite involved, with no rest between flights- going through customs; arrival and departure, checking in my bags, getting offered assistance to help carry my koras for $20 by airport employees, and getting onto the next flight. Once I stepped onto the South African flight that would take me to New York, I could finally take a deep breath. A sigh of relief swept over me.
Once I arrived at JFK airport in New York, I was greeted by Kathy and Jack, the wonderful parents of my girlfriend, Megan. We dinked around Manhattan, going up to the top of the empire state building, walking through Grand Central, and finally down to Penn Station which is where my train would depart, taking me back to Seattle. The trip lasted almost three full days, and a very wonderful trip it was. It was nice to see some parts of the country that I have never seen before. A short layover in Chicago allowed me the time to find a nice little cafe and write a journal entry before heading onto Seattle. The scenery of Glacier National Park in Montana was beautiful. It was still snowed in for the most part. I am very much a fan of traveling by train now. Much more legroom, and much more relaxed. If you have time, it is the way to go. And in some cases, it's less expensive.
Since my arrival, I've been writing various research papers and doing follow up work relating to my studies in the Gambia. I will try to make a lot of my writings available on the web somehow for everyone to read. I've been having some health problems- I have a parasite that will supposedly clear up on it's own, and some other strange symptoms that I am going to be seen for tomorrow. I don't think it's too serious, thankfully. I've been feeling better today than I have been for the previous few.
I made my kora performing debut on Whidbey Island of all places- on the 26th of April, prior to a performance with Nyamuziwa Marimba Ensemble, a group that I played with fairly regularly before departing to the Gambia. This group features traditional Zimbabwean mbira music played on marimba. I'd like to join them on a regular basis now that I'm back. Check out www.myspace.com/nyamuziwamarimba if you're at all interested. The kora performance was pretty informal, lasted maybe 10 minutes, and consisted of two songs. Recently, I've been working on fine tuning some of the things that Moriba taught me, and am looking forward to listening to different recordings, and trying to incorporate different variations and solo lines into my playing.

Thanks for all of the wonderful comments and emails. I hope to be in touch with many of you soon.

Love,
Sean