whoa...all the sudden it's done

it's been awhile (like whoaaa awhile) since my last blog, but quite a lot has happened.

we returned to our villages from our nile adventure (which, still was flippin' awesome!) to finish up the last week and a half of the program. we were incredibly busy, with community teachings, testing days and then our full-production community days. my group taught at a vocational school near my house, to both a younger group of students and an older group. they were so responsive and incredibly intelligent... i always get the most pleasure out of teaching people who are actively interested in what we have to say (duh). but within the course of that last week, we finished teaching all of our sub villages (including one named Krismasi...that always made me smile) and held a testing day where we tested 41 people in our village...pretty good considering we were only able to test 6 in my last village. overall, we taught hundreds of people in our last few weeks in the village...crazy!

The last week was hard...saying goodbye and giving gifts to my family knowing that i'll never return was really strange. My family was very sweet, I took a bunch of pictures of Fabi (my little brother) and hung out, but in the end, goodbye came, so we waved and hugged, and then I hopped on the SIC truck, and left just like I came. It's so strange. Although I lived with this family for over a month and got to know them pretty well, I still feel quite detached and distant from them and their lives. I think it was harder to say goodbye this time because my head was already wrapped around the next part of my adventure...travelling to zanzibar and then on to europe. But all in all it was a wonderful experience, and I think that we did what we came to do...and did it well. Hopefully we've given the information and resources to the people we met in our villages that will help stop the transmission of HIV. I'm glad that we came and taught and hopefully we left as good an impression on our villages as our villages had on us.

A week ago friday we held our closing dinner at Masai camp...great food, good friends and a solid goodbye to everyone. It was nice to see everyone "dressed up" (i borrowed a t-shirt from a friend...crazy, i know) and we each got a paper-plate award. I won the "most likely to make a bad pun" award...go figure...thanks mom!! After dinner and awards we went to colobus, a night club named after the red-colobus monkey that frequents these areas, and danced the night away. it was so good to hear "living on a prayer" and "it's raining men" mixed in with other east african pop hits. i forgot how much i love dancing, listening to music and singing at the top of my lungs. a few of us had to retire early because we had to catch a bus to dar es salaam the next day.

And then we were off to Dar to catch a ferry to Zanzibar island the next day. The bus ride was long, and Dar held up to its reputation for being hot...i was sweating bullets the moment I got off the bus. we stayed at the ywca which was uneventful...oh, except for the part where meghan swears she heard someone trying to break into our room...i was fast asleep the whole time and didn't think anything of it, and nothing actually happened, so, hamna cheetah.

I think that we managed to catch the slowest ferry possible to zanzibar...it felt like it would never end. but then again, i was realizing here that transportation is so time consuming that i could get all the way from los angeles to tanzania before i could get to anywhere in tanzania. the popular quote "there is no hurry in africa" is completely true. sheesh. all i can say is that i'm so grateful that meghan and i get along so well...i think travelling here would have been miserable without her...she's def been a highlight of this trip...and not just from her wicked sunburn...hahah!! (zing! got you good sucker!)

but getting to zanzibar was well worth the effort. before getting to zanzibar, i had this picture of blue/green beaches with white sand and palm trees everywhere with pineapple being cut and sold on every corner. for once, i wasn't disappointed AT ALL. granted, i've never been to hawaii or anything so i don't really have that to compare it to, but zanzibar was incredibly beautiful, and wonderfully rewarding after our past 12 weeks of work with SIC. We stayed on this beach called nungwi for the first few days...i pretty much literally stayed on the beach for 3 days...it was all i wanted to do. we spent one day going snorkeling off the coast of this little island called mnemba, which was awesome!!! except for the stupid small jelly fish that stung all the time. whateva...it was worth it. for lunch that day, we had fish, just caught out of the ocean (it was the best fish i've ever had) and fresh fruit (read: pineapple, mango, bananas...sooooo goood). our boat was a traditional dhow (i'll post pictures later), and because zanzibar's used to seeing mostly tourists, the natives were greatly amused by our swahili. fun times. oh man it was awesome.

the last day we spent wandering around stonetown, the main "town" on the island. like it's namesake, most of the buildings are old and crafted out of well, stone. it's fun and quaint and there was great coffee for super cheap around every corner, so you know i was happy. at night we found a food market at a park on the waterfront...local seafood and something called a "zanzibar pizza" filled our bellies for no more than 2 bucks american. sweeet!! zanzibar will always hold a happy little place in my heart. :)

the trip back to arusha was not so cool...for some reason, meghan and i decided that it would be a good idea to take the overnight ferry back to the mainland (keep in mind that it only takes about 2 hours by ferry to get there) to save a few bucks. well...it was kind of miserable. even in first class, she ended up curling up on a love seat while i found some floor space beneath a table. i decided to take a sleeping pill that night so i got some rest, but otherwise...let's just say i wouldn't recommend it to anyone. but then when we arrived in dar, we went straight to the bus station to try and catch our bus back to arusha, but the carrier that we wanted take was already booked for the day, so we had to go to the crazy bus station, where a random dude sold us somebody else's tickets for more than their actual price...and even then that took some bargaining. accommodations were, um, less than accommodating and we had to sit with our backpacks on our laps for the majority of the trip and it seriously seemed like the bus ride would never end. ick. we managed finally to get back to arusha, but i still felt like i was on water and couldn't stop swaying until i hit my bed last night. geeeeez. but now we're all set, running a few more errands in arusha today, then we bus back up to nairobi tomorrow, and fly out of africa tomorrow night!!

it's going to be very strange to not be here anymore. i've finally gotten comfortable with the language, and used to most of the things i encounter here (although somethings i will never get used to...like the incessant cutting in ANY line, or the pushing and shoving) so it's strange to be leaving it all already. it's not like leaving a trip in the states or something where you meet people and say "oh, yeah, let's meet up sometime" because even if it never happens, you still CAN meet up with people...whereas the people i've met here i will probably never see again, unless i decide to come back to arusha. i'm torn between being ready to go home and knowing how much i'm going to miss much of this adventure.

but now i get to continue on and make my way through europe, so i really can't complain. if nothing else, this trip has taught me to be extremely grateful for all that i have and it's made me appreciate how easy i have everything back in the states. i've now eaten my last meals of ugali, marange, chapati, ndizi na nyama, i'm savoring the little bit of swahili i still get to speak, i'm sure i'll hit another choo or two before i leave, but i'm trying to take note of everything before i peace out for good. i'll never forget the time i've spent here, it will remain with me forever, but the time has come to finally say goodbye.

so...that's all for now...there's so much more to say and write...i'll try to be a little more frequent with my blogging and post some more pictures. so, goodbye africa!! it's been great!!! :)