Run

I went for my first run in Africa today.

Last night I had an intense Mefloquine dream that was set in the states. It was so vivid that I woke up in a funk and by mid-day I was still really missing home and feeling out of sorts. I just wanted so badly to make a smoothie with Sarah and sit down at a table with a chair, something that was impossibly far out of reach as I sat sweating on a concrete floor in my hut in Africa. 

I decided to snap myself out of it with a run. It was the best decision I've made in a long time. My family thought I was crazy when I put on my sports clothes in the middle of the heat of the day, but I at least somewhat convinced them in broken Pulaar that I wouldn't die and set off. 

I honestly don't know my neighborhood that well. I can get to my friend's houses and to the health post, church and fruit market, but directions have never been my strong suit. So I just turned out of my house and ran straight as far as I could. It was hot and dusty and my throat burned but it felt so good to do something that was me for once. My country is foreign, my food is foreign, the roads are foreign, the language is foreign, everything in my life right now is foreign. But when I run, its like nothing has changed. My body slips so naturally into the rhythmic coordination of running it is like this is my most true state, the time when I am most myself. I felt my mood instantly lift. Some little kids trailed behind me, intrigued by the strangeness of a white girl running through the streets for recreation. Soon I was outside the town and the children were replaced by herds of cattle and the busy houses turned into empty half-built ones. Suddenly I was in a grove of huge baobab trees and all was silent for the first time in weeks. I stopped and looked around, taking in the incredible beauty of being me in the middle of an African country.