By Chase Carneal

I sat one day on the beach of Toubab Dialao at around seven o’clock. The cool breeze off the ocean and the soft sand made it easy to settle in. As I sat there, I noticed the sun setting through the haze and dust that characterizes the region during the spring. I stared directly at the sun.

I thought about watching the sunrise over our river in the Northern Neck. I thought about all the times my family has sat together to watch it since my parents bought the house. Our place isn’t on the Atlantic, but it faces east and has a wonderful view of the sunrise over the water. In that moment in Toubab Dialao, I felt a little unsettled as I thought.

I wasn’t anywhere near home – in fact, I was on the other side of the ocean from the coast of the United States that I have almost never been more than 240 miles away from. I felt connected where the sun touched the horizon. It is my home.

The closeness to the ocean kept me from feeling homesick throughout the entirety of the trip. Being so far away, and yet so close to one of the things that defines my place. The water, the sun.

Now, I believe that I will feel a similar feeling of closeness to where the sun comes from in the morning. Looking east, toward Senegal, a place where the sun sets over the Atlantic.