Two Weeks Left… « Monduli Ho!

Posted by: abbyjorg | May 23, 2009

Two Weeks Left…

Rainbow over Tarangire

We have just two weeks now until our departure from KIA airport, 8 hours north across Africa to Amsterdam and another 8 hours west towards a week with family in Boston and then home to Chimacum on the 26th of May, eleven months to the day since we set out on this adventure. So many mixed emotions. Great excitement to lay our eyes on friends and family at home again is the overarching feeling, to be sure, but now that the goodbyes have begun in earnest we can’t deny the sadness that accompanies our glee.

april_merriley april_threegirls After the last of our American visitors in March – Sylvia and Roland and then Eric Utne – we had our little Maasai sister with us for a full month, and now she has returned to school in Namanga. Merriley (named after my mother) is the daughter of a favorite student from the first class at MGLSS, Naibelie Lekitony and the great granddaughter of the legendary Koko Ruth. Merriley is eight now and came to spend the month of April with us, including ten days at the coast during Easter break where she delighted in the warm Indian Ocean waves. She ate more than Eric at nearly every meal! Of that Nakaji said, “Well of course. The food is available. She will eat it until you make her stop.” I think she gained 10 lbs.

The family at Pangani on the coast

Since then we have been finishing up projects and winding down. I received the final congratulatory message regarding my thesis this week. We are attempting to sell the Land Rover in this financially strained, low safari season. A trick, maybe. The girls and I are just back from a wonderful weekend in Tarangire with Kees, Trish and Laura and Annette for Stella’s 6^th birthday while Eric is off with Annette’s husband Jon on a long adventure. They drove south to Lake Malawi and are now en route home via a circuitous zig-zag across to the coast and then back to Arusha in nine days total. He is having a ball. I’m covering his Algebra classes – working to wake up my math brain after a 20 some year hiatus… It’s been nice to teach again just before we go. The four of us will get one last night at Tarangire next week after Eric and Jon get back.

Jon, Annette and Brendon Simonson

Former student Nashiye, now a teacher, and her daughter Nashipai

Lots of visits these days from former students, which is so much fun. Some of those we’ve seen lately include Martha, Elizabeth, Sehela and Nashiye (above) – the four who originally came from Koko Ruti’s village of Kimokowa, Nashipai, Naidella and Katito. I dread saying goodbye to Nakaji soon.

Claire and Stella are counting the minutes and savoring thoughts of neighbors, salmon on the grill, cousins, grammies, bath tubs, school, ice cream, etc. etc. And all the while they are enjoying each day in Africa, somewhat aware that it will be many long days before we see her again. They just brought me a bowl of one of their favorite Monduli delicacies – grated coconut with milk and sugar. Yum.

Rebecca, Merriley and the twins

They will miss friends like Rebecca and her twin nieces, Winnie and Queenie, with whom they spend every Friday as well as all the neighborhood kids and the students. By next fall when the school schedule starts again I think they will miss this broad sense of freedom that they have known here in Tanzania, running wild after short school days with teacher Daddy. They will be in first and second grades!! Hard to imagine. We are so grateful to have spent this luxurious year with them before school schedules take over. I’m sure we’ll all remember it with much fondness.

Today the Gloriosa Superba, my absolute favorite Tanzanian wild flower, is bursting up all over Monduli after a good long rain last night. I was afraid Claire and Stella were going to miss it, but it’s come just in time. Hooray!