Goodbye Morogoro

In less than twenty-four hours I will be getting on a bus headed away from Morogoro for good. With that, it’s time to say my goodbyes. My eight weeks here have been interesting to say the least. The best way to describe it is the answer I gave to a question on one of the many forms I’ve recently had to fill out. The question was: Describe in a few words, your experiences here. My answer: Challenging, frustrating and full of learning opportunities. At first glance my answer seems a bit negative, but only if you don’t think about it.

When I came here, I knew it would be hard. In fact, I wanted it to be hard. What would have been the point if this experience had been easy on me? I did get what I wanted, though at the time, I was not always happy about it. Now that the end is very near, I realize that this has made me a lot tougher. Difficult things at home will seem a lot easier and when bad things happen, they probably won’t seem as bad.

I’ve also made a few good friends here and have become used to a way of life. That all changes tomorrow. I am a bit sad to leave, but I feel that I am ready to go. I’ve done what I came to do and now it’s time to move on. It’s definitely something that will remain in my thoughts in the years to come. Here are some of the things I will think about:

Things I’ll Miss

• The friendliness of everyone
• The mountains that can be seen from town
• The friends I’ve made
• Seeing the effects (however small) of my work
• Trying to learn Swahili and actually being a little successful (though not as much as I would have liked)
• Bucket Baths (surprisingly, I kind of like these)
• Being sweaty and that being a normal thing

Things I won’t miss

• Ugali
• Oppressive heat in the middle of the day, every day
• The dust
• Getting punched by little kids who want to give me five but also hurt me

So what happens now? If you’ve been reading for a long time, you would have read all about my travel plans. On Monday, the bus will take us to Dar where we will have a short debrief session during the day. At night most of the other volunteers take off for Canada. The next day the last volunteer leaves (Evan and I get to spend a night in Dar together) and I will find my way to Zanzibar where I will begin my vacation. From there it is on to Arusha and a Safari, then to Kigali, Kampala, Jinja, Nairobi, Paris and after 30 days of traveling, back to Ontario.

Though this is the end of something, it’s also the beginning of something else. I’m excited, scared, nervous, anxious, worried but also ready for the coming weeks. Look back to this space to see how my travels are going and to hopefully see some pictures of the animals I get to see!

But for now, I say my goodbyes to Morogoro. So long and (no) thanks for all the ugali!