A Fine Farewell

7/5/09
We officially left Africa yesterday evening :-( Right now we are on the flight back from Amsterdam to Newark…we are going on 24 hours of traveling with about 10 still left to go! I can’t believe the whole month is already over and all three of us agree that it went way to fast. The last couple days in Moshi were fun and sad at the same time….we were so sorry to say goodbye, but we were excited we all felt better to enjoy the end of the trip. Friday was our last day of placement and our school as well as Matt’s had some special events planned to surprise us. Matt’s school got him some Tanzanian fabric which they wrapped him in during a little goodbye ceremony with the teacher and all the kids. At our school they surprised us with cookies and juice (which by the way we weren’t supposed to drink since we didn’t know if it came from a jug or if it was just straight water with mix…but really how can you say no?)….so amid our eyes looking at each other saying, “well if we get an intestinal parasite we know how” we enjoyed our cookies and juice…and I am happy to report that all of us are feeling just fine. Then they surprised us even more with a small wood carving of an animal…Stephen got an elephant (which prompted me getting an awesome video of all the kids singing that crazy elefant elefant song) and I got antelope. The teacher I worked with also bought me a beautiful conga that says “Your pleasure if my pleasure” or something to that effect in Swahili. It was such a nice ceremony, all us girls got teary-eyed. Then they let us play all day and just enjoy the kids….we brought a fun art project so we helped them all make little shaker instruments out of toilet paper rolls we had been saving, beans, and markers…it went over so well except some of the older kids decided to take the beans out of theirs….thus destroying the instrument…luckily many of the kids guarded their instruments so tightly so they could take them home, to the point of making me hold them when they went to the bathroom and tucking them inside their shirts when playing duck, duck, goose :-) Then it was time to say goodbye….man I’m going to miss those kids! In addition to it being hard to say goodbye to the kids and teachers, it made me so sad to think we wouldn’t be back there working with Catherine and Lauren next week…I honestly have no idea how everything with the placement mess at the beginning worked out so perfectly to put us together! Just amazing luck I guess!

Friday night most people in the house had left for weekend trips so the nine of us that were around decided to get a hotel in town for the night so we didn’t have to worry about the 11pm curfew….it was a fun last night in Tanzania which included the bartender playing “Born in the U.S.A.” for us when it turned midnight of the 4th of July :-) Saturday, we succeeded in spending every last cent of our tsh on souvenirs and gifts…I even ran out at the end when I was buying some earrings so I traded my watch for two sets of earrings haha! I know, I know but I was going to leave it in Tanzania anyway so I figured it was a good deal :-)

Overall, the trip was a perfect balance of giving back to our “brothers and sisters” that weren’t born with the same blessings as the three of us while at the same time having a blast with amazing new friends that I hope will stay a part of our lives in the future! We can’t thank our parents enough for giving us the opportunity to go on this amazing adventure of a lifetime and providing the chance to learn just how well the three of us really do get along :-) This is definitely a month none of us will ever forget!

Amani,
Valerie