Oh, good Lord. Where do I start? Lizzy found out around 10am that she was going to have to stay on medhold, so I decided to hitch a ride with Peter back up river. We didn’t end up leaving Kombo until noon, and by this point, I was regretting going, as we were taking the south bank [I live on the north bank], we were stopping in Bansang [not really close to Kuraw], and I had nowhere to sleep. Then we reached Bumari, my training village.
I am leaning out of the back of the land cruiser, scanning both compounds my family lived in: empty. I hop to the other side of the vehicle to peer into the road that leads into Bumari, and I see my mama musoo walking. I yanked open the window and leaned over Amber and yelled to her. She came rushing up, grabbing my hand through the window, not even greeting me but almost scolding me, saying, “Where have you been? We MISS you!” And I start crying again, my heart completely swelled up with missing my old family, and suddenly I hear, “Saatu?” I whip my head around, and there is Ousman’s mom! I literally scream and crawl over James, grabbing ahold of her hand and at this point, tears are literally running down my face, I cannot speak in any Mandinka except to say, “I miss you so much, I love you very much, I really miss you” and she is saying it back, tears start forming in her eyes, and then Peter says, “KASEY WE MUST GO!” So I tell her I will see her soon, say goodbye to my mama musoo, and we drive off. I could not stop crying… I looked out the back of the vehicle and they were standing in the middle of the road waving at us.
“I’m so sorry, guys,” I choked out to James, Tavi, and Amber. “That was just… oh God… I’m so emotional.” And then I’m back to crying profusely.
“You know what? That was really neat to see,” Tavi said. And with that, I really lose it. I threw on my iPod headphones and cranked some tunes, trying to settle down.
I finally get my bearings together by the time we get to Soma. We decide to stop and get silafando for our families [a traveler’s gift]. I am standing by the land cruiser with my back to the road when I hear, “Saatu!” Mind you, I am never called Saatu in Kuraw, it is always Isatou or Isa. I whip around, and my host father from Bumari is on the other side of the road.
And the waterworks began again. ‘This is ridiculous,’ I kept thinking to myself, ‘Get yourself together!’ It was just so amazing to see them all. I felt so blessed.
So, we left Soma. The rest of the trip up country was pretty uneventful until we hit Bansang, which is very close to Marnie’s village [who was still in Kombo]. I find a gele that’s going to Basse and decide that since it’s already 6pm, it will be very dark by the time we get to Basse and I should just stay with Ashley in Helakunda. I spent 45 minutes sitting in the gele, eating pieces of pound cake and playing with the baby sitting next to me. I also admonished the 13 year old aparante for smoking cigarettes. He was not pleased with me, needless to say.
We begin our journey to Basse at a little after 7. It is starting to get dark. I am starting to panic, alone on a gele with dozens of men… but I arrive safely after breaking down twice. Thank goodness Ashley lives on the way to my home… just on the south bank :o]
[a baby fast asleep on a gele]
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