Last Day in Arusha

Today is officially my last day in Arusha. As I explained in a previous post, tomorrow morning I will wake up and head out on a bus – the Dar Express - to the biggest city in Tanzania, Dar Es Salaam. From there I will catch a ferry to the island of Zanzibar, where I will spend four and a half days on the beaches before heading back to Dar to meet up with my friend David from Global Family Rescue and head down to southern Tanzania.

Leaving Arusha will definitely be bittersweet. On the one-hand, I'm definitely looking forward to a change of scenery, relaxing on the beach, seeing more of Tanzania, and the work I will be doing in Njombe with GFR. On the other hand, it will be hard to leave behind Arusha, Ujamaa hostel, and all the friends I have made here over the course of the last six months. I have already had the experience of saying one hard good-bye, which was to Caroline (head of the Umoja Centre), who left this past Sunday to head back home to Australia for six weeks. Unfortunately, she arrives back in Arusha four days after I depart from Africa for good, and therefore I will not see her again during te rest of my time here. As for everyone else, I have the benefit of seeing them again during my last four days in Africa when I return to Arusha for one last lap before flying out of Kilimanjaro airport, which is just outside of town.

The last week here has been great. I've spent most of my time finishing up work from The Umoja Centre, but I've also managed to squeeze in some leisure time as well. Last sunday a group from the hostel went to go see Invictus, which has subsequently led to the Aussies of the hostel starting some rugby matches ('ruggers', as they call it) in our backyard in the evenings before dinner. Good times, although I still vastly prefer football. I've also managed to make a tour of my favorite restuarants in town, and tonight we are headed back for round two of the movies and dinner for my final goodbye.

I'm not sure how much blogging I'll be able to get done in the upcoming weeks, especially as I'm not certain of the power situation in Zanzibar (there hasn't been any since December. It was supposed to be fixed last week, but I would find it to be close to a miracle if they actually completed it on schedule), but I promise I will continue to blog and update whenever I find the means. At the very least, I will do another round of retroactive posts when I arrive back in Arusha in 3.5 weeks. Hopefully though, I can continue to give updates in real time.