Baadaye Nairobi na Karibu Tanzania (Later Nairobi and Welcome to Tanzania)

Hello again everyone!

My last couple of weeks in Nairobi were action-packed. I became much more comfortable matatu-hopping and exploring the city (highlights include hiking the Ngong Hills, playing with monkeys in City Park, seeing Kibera, touring the UN compound, and going inside the National Archives). I had a lot of practice facilitating theatre workshops with APT, which I think was the best thing I got out of the internship. And I got to enjoy the company of my new friends, who I will hopefully meet again soon.

On Friday I took a bus from Nairobi to Arusha, which was as easy as I could have hoped. I got back to the Support for International Change Office where I met my boss Steena (she was in my position last year and has continued to advance) and some more of the SIC staff.

Then my old teaching partner Joseph came to meet me and took me back to spend a night at his family's home - where I could not have felt more welcomed. There was a sign on the wall Joseph had made that said, "Wellcome Home Becca, We Love You", next to some pictures he had of our teaching group from last year. Meeting Mama Joseph and Bibi Joseph especially helped explain where Joseph gets his energetic personality - it was lovely.

We then traveled back all the way to our old village, Qash. We had impeccable timing, because as we arrived we ran into our old friend Wilson, the secondary school student who led the peer educator group, driving a motorbike down the road. He then led us to the secondary school, where there was a religious graduation ceremony for the Form 4 students. So many people remembered me, I felt like a celebrity! Wilson told me they were greeting me like I was Obama.

We stayed for two nights in Qash and I got to see so many old friends. We stayed with Mama Bakali, who had been Joseph and Gerald's homestay, and came to visit my old homestay. I danced at a political rally with the ladies of Kamajingijingi, the dance group that adopted me last year. Joseph has invested in some land in Qash where he is growing beans with the help of our old friend Rama, who has become a much better friend to Joseph, and I got to help inspect their crop. On Sunday I ate 7 times because everyone wanted to invite me for some food.

But not everything is peachy in Qash. A teenage girl named Rahela, who was the sister of Chulo who ran the duca with a pool table that we frequented last year, died three months ago when she tried to abort a pregnancy using local herbs. This news was especially sad to me because I remember Rahela challenging Joseph to play pool and bringing us cokes and seeming so young and full of energy. I'd heard about the same trend in rural Uganda, and this is part of why Mukisa from Budondo wants to set up a Women's Reproductive Health Center as one of his first priorities, but it really sunk in for me that this is common in villages throughout East Africa.

On Monday I returned to Babati, via Or'ngadida, where SIC was holding a testing and Community Health Worker training. I was meeting my old friend and manager Dan at the primary school there, and ended up being swarmed by about 300 kids while waiting for him. So, naturally, I reviewed the "Fluids and Doors" and sang the ABK song with them (all part of what SIC volunteers taught them last year). Their memories were surprisingly good!

Babati town is growing - the football field now has a track and bleachers, which I couldn't believe. There I met up with my co-coordinator Adam, who happened to live in the same homestay I did last year, so we went together to spend a night there. Baba Felix continues to have the same joyful laugh, and Mama Felix still cooks up some wali na maharagwe tamu sana (very sweet rice and beans). I also got to meet up with Tumaini, a teaching partner of Adam's who I met briefly last year because she works closely with the street kids in Babati. She's doing a lot for them through an organization she founded, Tumaini La Mbele (Hope for the Future). Read more about it here and watch a video here.

Now I'm back in Arusha, have met up with some of my friends working on VP3, the volunteer program that's coming to a close today, and am set to get to work here.

Much love!