Normally I write the entries on the flight home, but this time it was different. Apart from the fact that I was fried with fatigue, my heart was cramped with grief and I felt like I had swallowed a sock. Goodbyes and changes kill me, even if I need them.

It's just that the other day, not only was I feeling homesick for returning from a country where I had spent the last year, but I was leaving my previous life behind.

And that's how I've been since then, without wanting to write, between sobs and sobs, (maybe I'm exaggerating a bit here) trying to digest that sock while the memories were pounding me, until I realised that there was no point in being like this, that I was finally back in Africa, and that was what I wanted so much...

and I had to look "forward" and bring out the alpha male in me again (by the way, what a great resemblance in this photo with the guy who advertised that nespresso... what was his name? George Clooney I think...).

And so it was that I returned to Africa, ready to discover new things every day and to let myself be surprised at every moment, always with my eyes wide open. That's how the evil of Africa enters, which never leaves, one day you feel able to see something more than the acacia tree in the photo below and you catch a glimpse of a couple of elephants playing hide and seek, lurking behind it, and that's when you start to get trapped...

Well, as I was saying, I was in my depths, on the shores of Lake Victoria, napping in the shade of a coconut tree, (while trying to figure out why sleeping under a coconut tree was the leading cause of death in some countries), when I realised that I had left the United States and had barely written anything about Virginia....

I am aware that in the last few months I have done a few miles in search of special places, but I have also found them just a few Mac Donald's away from home, and I have never told you about them.

Now that I'm no longer there, I remember such incredible places as First Landing Park, the beaches of the Outerbanks, the wild ponies of Chincoteague Park, the mangroves of the Great Swamp Dismal...

or its historic villages, Williamsburg, Yorktown, Monticello...

This year I have led a very sacrificed life, but I have thoroughly enjoyed many moments and it will be hard for me to forget the early morning runs along the Lafayette waterfront, the brunch on the Porstmouth ferry, the afternoons reading on the Ocean View pier, the crabs for dinner on the Dock Side, the drinks at the Hot Tuna... (I have a feeling that, when told this way, it might seem that my suffering has not been excessive, but the procession has been inside).

And I will also miss having breakfast on the terrace and recharging my batteries with such a restorative view (I'm talking about the river).

But what I will never forget are the friends I have left there, their welcome, those chats with JFT when work "overwhelmed me" or nostalgia invaded me, the Spanish table for lunch, the parties at friends' houses and the moral support of all, so to everyone, everyone, thank you very much, and to some of them, even more especially.

The best thing about my profession will always be my companions. I think of them and I am reminded of those verses that describe Shackleton's exploit: "if I look ahead on the white road, there is always another walking beside me" (T.S. Elliot). (T.S. Elliot) (I imagine that I have left your hair standing on end).

And as I said at the beginning, not only am I leaving Virginia, but I am leaving behind many years in the army... When Mandela was leaving Robben Island prison and was asked what the difference was between the man who went into prison and the man who came out 30 years later, he said he had "grown up". I, after a similar (not so much) period in the army, am afraid I will not be able to say the same thing, lest it not be strictly true.

So I'm already out. I hope to adapt well to my new situation, as it is easier to militarise a civilian than to civilise a military man ;-). It has been hard for me to take this step, but although the army has given me almost everything in my life, now I need other things, many more .... and I missed my family a lot. That's why I left.

Besides, for me, living the American dream gave me that dream.....

So next time I'll write about Africa, it's about time.

I leave you with some African photos that I don't think I have published yet, some are new and others are not. The important thing is not the actuality of the photo, but to show the art that you have inside.