HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! What an amazing end to 2010! So, so much has happened.
I have a confession. For five months I was plotting & scheming, fabricating a cover-story & maintaining a carefully crafted deception. The plan... to pull off THE BEST Christmas surprise ever!
And so it was that my poor unsuspecting fiancé was sitting at his work desk in Australia a few mornings before Christmas, missing his girl terribly, when an apparition wearing a Masai shuka (Masai blanket, typically red tartan) & a red Christmas ribbon bow in her hair, came rushing towards him yelling “MZUNGU!”
Never have I seen anyone so completely gobsmacked! He was almost catatonic with surprise; held speechless and motionless by a brain incapable of reconciling what he saw before him with what he knew to be “fact”. That “fact” that I was trekking in the Ngorongoro Highlands of Tanzania for a few days whilst he stoically reconciled himself to our lack of telecommunications contact... AGAIN. And in the lead-up to Christmas, for goodness sake – almost too much to bear. This “fact” was actually a cover-story to “explain” my lack of contact while I flew home for our first Christmas together.
Suffice to say, it was the most amazing surprise I’ve ever pulled on anyone, and THE BEST Christmas present he’s ever received.
The lead-up to my pre-Christmas departure was completely chaotic as I struggled to wrap up my work at Kili Kids. I was on a mission to get as many of them to the dentist as possible. Do you remember going to the dentist as a child??? How intimidating it was, even though you’d been plenty of times before? Perhaps you even recall your first time? Or perhaps, like me, you can’t specifically recall your first time because you were too young. Imagine being anywhere from 6-14 years old and going to the dentist for the FIRST TIME. Scary stuff.
Given the best of circumstances, getting so many children to the dentist is a major undertaking. Each appointment can take up to an hour, so I only take two children at a time. When Tanesco, the town’s electricity supply company, is replacing a major generator & turning the electricity off ALL DAY as often as every second day, & the dentist doesn’t have his own generator, it becomes a major ordeal. One child was particularly unlucky – it was our third attempt before we managed an “electricity on” visit.
At the same time I was trying to rush around to various hospitals/medical centres to book appointments for January. And squeeze in a little family present shopping too of course. Oh yeah, and then there was our Independence Day BBQ, clambering up & sleeping in the crater of an active volcano! And the cow shopping – yes, cows! Tales for another day.
Saying goodbye to the beautiful Kili Kids wasn’t too painful for either side, as we all knew I’d be returning shortly. It was a sobering thought though to realise this farewell was my “practice run” and that my final farewell would not be long in arriving.
And whilst away Christmasing (that’s a verb you know) in Australia, I missed one of the most momentous happenings in the history of Committee Assist and in the “Kili Kids” chapter of our children’s lives: they moved to their new home – Rainbow Ridge. Rainbow Ridge is an eco-friendly group of small homes that has been under construction for a couple of years on a block of land at Mailisita (maili = mile, sita = six), six miles out of town. The children are now in a home in beautiful lush bush surroundings, owned by Committee Assist, rather than a rented house with a dusty yard.
We have cows, pigs, chooks, goats, fish &, as the youngest children delightedly showed me today, frogs (not domesticated though; they just like the bugs around the fish pond). The maize crop was harvested several months ago, & numerous vegetables are thriving. Avocado & banana trees bow under the weight of their fruit, & the creek tinkles at the back of the block. And when she deigns to show her face, Kilimanjaro hovers benignly above it all. Delightful!
As I write this, I’ve been back in Moshi for about 32 hours. It was delightful to be greeted “home” by the children today. Most of the “littlies” threw themselves on me; the older boys were generally more reserved. One of our littlest boys emerged around the far end of one of the houses and stood gazing, registering who I was with a little smile playing across his face. As we exchanged waves I called out “Hello”, which he mimicked back. He made no move closer though. I called out “Come and say hello”, which was playfully mimicked again; then I received a cheeky little karate kick in my direction, which I mirrored. “Njoo hapa” (“come here” in Kiswahili) elicited the same mimicking response. A few minutes later he came to give me a welcoming hug. He’s a chap who likes to do things in his own time, in his own way. I respect that.
It’s a mere matter of weeks until my time in Tanzania comes to its final conclusion and I must face the farewells I dread so much. I’m hopeless at goodbyes. In the meantime it’s a frantic rush to finish everything I possibly can, putting in place whatever I can to be of ongoing assistance once I’m gone, and reconciling myself to all the things I just won’t have time to achieve. I’m ready though; my visit home showed me that. I’m eagerly looking forward to the many adventures that 2011 holds for me – and they are many! Meanwhile, amongst the chaos of my final volunteering days I will endeavour to savour every moment, every precious interaction with my friends, work colleagues, & the beloved children who have been the reason for, and focus of, my time here.
No comments:
Post a Comment