I’m finally getting around to sharing some of our Ghana experiences with you. I really thought I would have done this one month ago, but readjusting to life in the States has been a strange thing, and I needed to put some time between West Africa and my resumption of life in Arizona.

Not that things in Phoenix are bad. On the contrary, after being in a daze for a few days after our January 17 return, we gradually got into the swing of our final trimester here. Abraham’s taking his final classes and looking for a job, I’m substitute teaching, and before you know it, we’ll be out of Arizona in May. So coming back here was necessary in order to move on with our lives.
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The same week we went to Guinea Bissau, we also went to the Casamance region of Senegal. Casamance is in the far southern part of the country, between the Gambia and Guinea Bissau. It is, without a doubt, my favorite part of Senegal. It is by far the greenest region, and the people are more relaxed, less uptight, and more genuine than the people in Dakar (sorry if I have offended any Dakarois — this is just a generalization). You have the feeling in the Casamance that people are without ulterior motives, that they genuinely want to be friendly to you.
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The first thing that hits you when you arrive in Casamance is how green it is. Dakar, and most of Senegal, are located in a transition area between tropical vegetation and the Sahara desert called the Sahel. The Casamance is at the northern edge of the tropical zone.

We calculated the cost of travel, and realized that it would not cost us much more to fly into the Casamance. We did so, and the 50 minute flight was much shorter — and infinitely more comfortable — than the 12-15 hour ride in the back of a dusty, hot sept-place would have been!
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