onward

3-13-09
9:43 am

oh man. i can't even believe today is my last day. part of me is excited for civilization and part of me is dreading the 12 degree tundra (i just checked weather.com. it immediately got me excited for fiji).

let's see...

wednesday was spent getting ready for the open house. it was an unbelievably chaotic day. jenaya and i started the morning running around town trying to get a few last minute things. ever shopped for tablecloths or printer ink cartridges in arusha? nearly impossible. we had to stop at like 4 locations for each thing. after we finally decided to have tablecloths made (of course ordering them took an hour), we were informed that they had decided to use circular tables instead of rectangular ones. also, we got back to school and realized that the cartridges we had finally found didn't actually work. good times.

wednesday afternoon was spent arranging flowers and hanging with art club. i was in charge of the centerpieces for the "high tables." i once took one of those tests that tells you what future careers you might excel at. the results: floral window box arranger, movie screen projectionist, funeral home director. after attempting to arrange 10 dozen roses in an artful fashion, i can now say that that test was crap.

after arranging the flowers, i headed up to check on art club's display. i did a cursory check for any illegal substances adorning the walls (clear!) and then made some more bracelets with the kids. now that the students are aware of my ipod/speaker, they pretty much request music anytime they see me. we listened to 'live your life' by t.i. (feat. rihanna) and the boys went CRAZY! they started dancing on desks and lipsynching with fake mics. when was the last time you saw a classroom full of high school boys dance? it was hilarious.

i also showed some of the kids pictures from home. i brought 2 little photo albums over with pictures of family, friends, and, of course, picabo. there were two responses that i heard from almost everybody: 1. WHY DID YOU CUT YOUR HAIR? some of the girls literally started yelling at me. 2. can you come back and bring your dog? yup, picabo is now an international superstar. some of the kids liked the pictures so much that they asked to keep them. (mom, you and i are now hanging on the wall of mary's dorm. apparently we were "so beautiful" that she needed a picture of us).

wednesday night andrew and some of his roomies came over. one of his roomies graduated from james cook, so i got to hear all about it. the bad news is that the more i hear about the various schools, the harder time i have deciding. the good news is that everyone seems to love their school. it doesn't really seem like i can go wrong. we had spaghetti (i cooked all by myself! only burned myself 3 times) and just relaxed. very good way to end a hectic day.

yesterday was the big open house! it was a little disappointing, as there weren't nearly as many people as we had anticipated, but it was still fun. everybody was so excited, and we got the see the acrobatics club, choir and dance/drumming clubs perform. the whole student body was buzzing all morning and all of the teachers had dressed their best. i spent the morning with art club as they showed off their abundance of collages and beaded treasures. the most random part of the day occured during lunch. andrew had told me about a prof from the u of m who is in arusha at the moment. the guy is cycling with a group across... or up... or around... i don't entirely remember... africa. he was interested in visiting peace house, so he came for the open house. i ate lunch with him and then chatted with another woman he had met during his travels. she lives in arusha now, but grew up in edina! (she also spent a summer taking classes at cc). what are the chances??

after a very late but delectable lunch, the sports teams played. we had invited teams from other schools to come challenge us in volleyball, football (soccer), and netball. the best part was that they played each sport one at a time so the whole school could watch all of them. the kids here have so much school spirit it's incredible, especially considering the fact the school's only 2 years old. they were dancing and cheering and running around celebrating whenever a point was scored. i believe volleyball won, as did football. netball got... slaughtered. the team we played was super intense. i'm betting that they don't do hip thrusts as a warm-up. i have full confidence that my team will continue to improve once i leave, especially because two of andrew's roomies (from britain and australia) actually played netball and are interested in running clinics on the weekends!

yesterday was pretty much a day-long party and celebration and i could not have asked for a better last day.

last night i said goodbye to the kids after dinner. i ate one last meal of rice and beans and started letting people know that i wouldn't see them in the morning. the kids all left for break this morning, so i wanted to get the goodbyes over last night. after the last netball game, i was starting to feel a little discouraged. it seems like i wasn't really here long enough to make any tangible difference. i mean, the netball court is now the right size, but beyond that, what did i accomplish? a couple maths tutoring and class sessions and some random projects, but it didn't feel like enough. however, as i started talking to some of the students, i realized that it's less about the work and more about the relationships. these kids were so appreciative that i was just THERE, being with them and talking to them. many of them thanked me over and over for playing music with them and asking about their families and goofing around with them.

it's easy to forget that these students are just that... students. they're still kids, but it's hard to remember that sometimes. in class, and even outside of class really, they act like adults well beyond their years. out of the 7 or 8 kids i talked to yesterday about their families, only one had a parent they were going home to over break. the rest were going to siblings or aunts or uncles or friends. i talked to one girl yesterday whose parents divorced when she was 7. neither wanted to take care of her, so she became a street child for 4 years. when i asked her how she found food, she told me that some people will let you sporadically work for them and will pay you in food... for a whole DAY. she said this as if getting food for a whole day was unheard of. can you imagine living like that? of course you wouldn't act like a normal teenager. maybe i didn't turn the netball team into a championship winning team or raise the maths scores high enough for everyone to pass, but i got to spend some time making sure the kids were having FUN. when i first showed up in art club, the kids all sat there silently drawing pictures from magazines. nobody spoke and everybody took it very seriously. what kind of club is that? it was in stark contrast to yesterday, as we danced, laughed and jumped around the classroom all morning. even if i gave these kids a couple hours where they got to actually act like kids and make up for the time they've lost to poverty and disease, it was worth it.

as dinner wrapped up, i got up and announced that last night was my last night, so i wanted to say goodbye to everyone. then i went around to all 180 (185?) students and high-fived, fist-bumped (my knuckles may never recover) and hugged them. it started out as high fives, but there were a couple kids who weren't getting away without hugs. the first couple hugs i gave out were laughed at. the entire dining hall literally started cracking up. however, once they started realizing that i was indeed giving out hugs free of charge, almost everybody wanted one. as i hugged one girl, she burst into tears. i had never even spoken to her. these kids are severely underhugged. two girls and a guy ended up crying when i said goodbye to them, which obviously made it difficult to leave. there are a couple kids who have become my favorites and honestly, it was difficult not to smuggle them into my guesthouse and tell them to hop into my suitcase. eric alone got maybe 7 hugs before i could finally walk away.

i am praying that these kids will be the ones to turn around this third world country. i believe that some of them truly can. i wish i could come back before they graduate, but i guess the chances of me being back within four years are pretty slim. man, i wish i could fast-forward time for a little bit, just to see where they are.

so, now it's just about time to leave. i'm spending the day packing in my pajamas, as i have run out of clean clothes, and enjoying homemade salsa and chips and the world's best mangos. i can't believe how quickly this month has gone by. i feel like i have become a cliche. mess up and waste your life, come to africa to work with orphans, realize how lucky you are and have a "life changing" experience, go home. now i have to wonder where this journey is going to take me. do i continue the cliche? go home, forget everything you thought you had learned within months, return to old ways of living? i certainly hope not. here is both my resolution and challenge to you: learn to live in the moment. it is far from easy, but every breath you take is fleeting. every minute you live is one you will never get back. all of those wasted minutes you spent on regrets will add up in the end. despite challenges, heartaches, and setbacks, take comfort in knowing that each situation is opening up an opportunity that has the potential to change your life. up until this month, it was pretty easy to feel bitter about the way the whole college situation has turned out. however, now i can look back and realize that each of those schools led me to this experience. it's hard to stay bitter.

onward. life has taken me some crazy places so far, and for the first time, i am legitimately excited and ready for any new adventure. this month was hands-down the best month of my life. i got to meet hundreds of new people, from tanzanians, to people from around the US, england, sweden, australia and new zealand. now it's time to get home and get ready for fiji and then it's off to australia. not bad, eh? 2009 will certainly make up for 2008, 2007 and 2006 combined. i can feel it.




i'm releasing my heart and it's feeling amazing. --chris brown

you're the god of this city. you're the king of these people. you're the lord of this nation, you are. you're the light in this darkness. you're the hope to the hopeless. you're the peace to the restless, you are. there is no one like our god. for greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city. --chris tomlin