Kwa heri Tanzania

Has it really only been a week since Easter? I can’t believe how much has happened in the last few days, how many good bye’s I’ve said, and how much my world has changed. My last few days in Tanzania went out with a bang, and then I found myself back in the first world!

So, a recap of the end of Tanzania. On Saturday night, Christine and I spent the night with some friends in town because the missionary community does an Easter Sunrise service, and trying to get to town for something that early is very difficult. We had a nice night though, got up early, and headed off. The missionary who lead it did the whole service as if he were one of the twelve disciples going through the passion story. We sang hymns throughout the service, and it was nice. Afterwards we had breakfast and fellowship together, and the kids had an Easter egg hunt which was adorable! Eventually we had to head back to town for our church service. Surprisingly, Good Friday is bigger than Easter Sunday. On Good Friday, they had a three hour service where Pastor preached three times; Easter Sunday was a relatively normal Sunday. The service got lengthened because of other things. For example, the new members got inducted, and it happened to be my last Sunday so the church said good bye to me and presented me with a kitange. By the end of it all, the service went three hours, but it passed quickly.

This week the kids were still on break, so we just had a few open days. Monday, we made plans to visit the orphanage where many of our kids live. First, since two of them take piano lessons with Christine, they came over and did that, and then the four of us went to town. We even met up with another missionary who wanted to see the orphanage too. When we got there though, only one of the other kids was there. Apparently, someone in their church, who is very important to the orphanage, had gotten sick and the other kids went to visit him. He lived kind of far away, so the entire time we were there the others never came back which was a bummer. We hung out with the three that were there, showed them our pictures from our safari, watched some movies, and greeted their grandmother. The next day was especially lazy; we stayed home all day. I just did schoolwork, packed, sewed up the holes in my net one last time so that it was ready to go for the next missionary, etc.

Wednesday was my last full day in Tanzania, and my last day to really do anything in Morogro, so we made it count. We went to town to go kitange shopping one last time. I printed a large photo of me and class V and got a frame for it because they had asked me to; I won’t get to give it to them, but I know they’ll be excited. We ate lunch with a few friends. We bought handmade paintings from some vendors in town, something that had been on my list of to do things and it had never happened. It felt like we ran all over town, but I think it was a very successful day. It’s been several days since, and I haven’t thought of things I meant to do and forgot, which is really nice. Finally, that evening was my last prayer service. Most of those last few days passed normally which made me really glad. I actually didn’t understand for the most part that I was even leaving. I got to spend my last few days enjoying my life there as I knew it. I said good byes obviously and other than not being in school, things were quite normal. I liked that a lot. Thursday was quite busy. It started at 6 am with saying good bye to Christine, Pastor, and his wife as a member of the congregation was going with me to DAR. We got to the airport, and I had to wait for a few hours outside. I had some problems getting my bags checked, but eventually I got everything through, flew to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, spent a few hours there, and then flew to London.

I’ve had a number of interesting experiences with reverse culture shock already, and I expect them to continue for some time. I know life won’t just go back the way it was, and after having done this, I don’t want it to. I know I’ve changed, and I want this experience to be a part of me. Time will tell on how that will play out exactly. I plan to write a blog after I actually return to America about how the culture shock is going because I suspect actually being back in America will affect it even more so. I have one more day in England left to just hang out and enjoy. I’ve had a wonderful time with friends so far, but I’m getting ready to come home. It’s time. Please pray for me as I travel back to the US. I’ll be flying out at 9 am central time on Tuesday. I should be back to Deuel county late that night. : )

God bless (and see you soon!),

Kjirstin