I spent a warm evening outdoors in Dallas looking at the waxing moon, smelling the intoxicating scent of my plumeria (or was it the intoxicating scent of my gin & tonic?). I looked at stars. Golly, Burkina Faso Trainees, we’ll spend our first few days in-country under the full moon of the African sky. I like looking at the night sky. I cannot wait to see what constellations are brightest in my new host country. Then comes those first, long-anticipated mornings in-country. Will there be the smell of coffee? Outside Ouagadougou, will there be the scent of plants and of the earth? Will there be the scent of . . . . OK, let’s not go too far here imagining the scents.

In Botswana they say, every single morning, “Africa is waking up.” And I never tired of those words and the lyrical Setswana accent. The phrase somehow encompassed the unique early morning experience of Southern Africa: the smells (mmmmm), the magical light . . . the whole shebang. What will we say in Burkina Faso? Afrique se reveille? So many questions.

I think about the wonderful friendships I’ve formed while volunteering with my HIV/AIDs clients and ESL students. How we’ve exchanged greetings and goodbyes in so many fashions and languages. How we’ve laughed together and how much I’ll miss them all. Will my new friends dearly enjoy laughter as much as I do? However, before I wax too philosophical, another question looms before me: how large and plentiful are the bugs in the loo under that anticipated full moon? We can only speculate.