Best Journey Ever! Part 2

I'm home safe from the most kickass journey ever! Hopefully my checked baggage makes it today! 18 days w/o using a phone, email, running water, understanding the language & customs of most of the people around me, or having any sense of self-reliance. Spending every day watching brilliant musicians & dancers make anything I've ever done look like child's play. Playing a hole in the palm of my hand on djembe. Language exchange w/ teens who are learning English & can teach me French & Sousou. Being cuddled & praised & joked & played w/, & treated like royal guests by people I didn't know a day before & have barely begun to exchange any coherent conversation w/. A new branch of lifelong friends & family on a continent I've only been to for the first time. Eating better than my busy student lifestyle normally permits. Saw Salif Keita live! Walking the paths my teacher walked as a child. 28-33 hrs. of airplanes & airports. 

Let me back in gently, Austin. Rest & recover (my luggage, ha ha), get my stuff together, & then I'll start, like, contacting people & responding to stuff. I photoed & videoed everything I possibly could, & for every good image there were hundreds of even better missed opportunities. Will post soon. 

Special thanks to Travis Riley for never asking for your camera back, dude! It's gone some amazing places! I'm sure you have too, & I miss you, buddy! Also Right On, Dr. Cristina Cabello C de Martínez, for insisting that I had to take this opp, & Chris Hausler & Susan Snyder for being all about it. And of course eternal gratitude to Aboubacar Sylla, my hero, teacher, respected friend & gracious host; Lisa; all Abou's (& my) friends & fam that made all this possible. I will never see a hot shower, or my home, my car, my culture, my society, my world, the same way. Wuntanara, my friends. Hakuna Matata. Love, Jesse