My Final Day

"Do everything with so much love in your heart that you would never want to do it any other way."

Words can't even begin to describe this summer. I met people I will never forget and fell in love with 28 adorable children. I took a giant leap of faith deciding to spend three months in Africa and I could not be more grateful for everything this opportunity has taught me and everything I have learned. Thank you to everyone that made this summer so incredible!

After 30-odd hours of travel, I am finally home safe and sound! I can't wait to spend the next 10 days with friends and family before heading back to Boston.

Cheers to future adventures with friends new and old! I've officially caught the travel bug and can't wait to see more of the world.

XOXO,
Amanda  

Day 86

My last night in Tanzania!

I can not believe I leave tomorrow.

In 24 hours I will be at the airport. 

I'm ready, but I'm not ready.

I'm so happy, but I'm so sad.

I can't decide yet if I want to smile or cry.

(But I'm leaning towards cry.)

Today the new Volunteer Coordinator arrived so we spent the morning and part of the afternoon meeting with her. The rest of the afternoon was spent at the orphanage.

Warning: 

The following story is kind of gross. 

Shujaa and Ebeni both woke up from their naps having pooped their pants. I thought it'd be no big deal because lets be honest, accidents at the orphanage are nothing new. There's a handful of children still potty training.
These accidents though, they were different. 
I realized this as soon as I noticed pieces of poop falling out of Ebeni's pants as we walked (and Shujaa waddled) down the hall to the laundry room, leaving something like a bread crumb trail behind us.

Safe to say they both required a bath. It was absolutely disgusting and hilarious at the same time. After stripping their clothes, they both stood naked, their legs and bum covered in poo, singing and laughing with each other. What goof balls!

Look at these two handsome boys, all nice and clean!

Ashley cooked us dinner, dessert, and bought us wine to celebrate our last night. I've said a million times that the people here are wonderful and she's no exception. Can't wait to visit you in Toronto and adventure together in Boston! Miss you already Ash! You're a frickin' genius!

XOXO,

Amanda

Day 85

The goodbyes have begun.

Carrie and Claire left tonight, and as sad as it was to see them go, I know I will see them both again. Abby leaves early tomorrow morning, and in two short days Ali and I will be leaving too. I left Boston to come to Tanzania back on May 17th and somehow three months have gone by.

How crazy is that?

Today my favorite Tanzanian, Frank (our driver), invited us all for lunch at his house. His wife cooked for everyone and the food was delicious. The sweet, sweet people here continue to amaze me. I was humbled once again by their overflowing amount of hospitality.

The new Volunteer Coordinator arrives tomorrow and my last two days are full of meetings. The last 48 hours of my summer in Africa has already started ticking away, oh my goodness.

XOXO,

Amanda

Day 84

Safari, safari, safari!

Today. Was. Incredible.

We spent the day at Tarangire National Park, which is most well known for their elephant population and it didn't disappoint. In addition to elephants, we saw lots of zebra, gazelle, water buck, wildebeest, ostrich, warthogs, eagles, and vulture. We also saw two cheetah and a pride of lion! They were both quite a distance away though so the pictures didn't turn out as well. Not to worry though, I took nearly 550 pictures today!

(548 to be exact. Deciding which pictures to include in this blog post was not easy!)

A group of monkeys decided to join us for lunch, stole one of our apples, and even managed to sneak into our car! Maybe we should have shut the safari top while we ate?

Lesson learned!

I couldn't have dreamed of a better way to end my time in Africa. I love everything about this beautiful place.

XOXO,

Amanda

Day 83

Wine not?

But actually.

One glass became two when we found out it was still happy hour.
Buy one get one free?

Do I even need to think twice?

Two quickly turned into three but I can assure you, they were so well deserved!

Today we had a staff workshop that began at 9:00am and didn't end until 4:00pm. Carrie spent the last week working on an intensive capacity building evaluation and today she presented her findings. The meeting was so productive and it feels so great to be leaving on such a high point.

And because it's always best to live a little (aside from having three glasses of wine with dinner), I've booked a last minute safari trip!

(Last minute as in we leave tomorrow at 6am.)

How silly would it have been to come all the way to Africa, spend three months here, and not go on safari? It would have been absolutely absurd.

TOMORROW I AM GOING ON SAFARI!!!!!!

XOXO,
Amanda

Day 82

The first in a long list of lasts.

The final meeting with the traditional birth attendants was this morning, and you guessed it, we didn't start on time.

We were suppose to start at 10am, but yet again we didn't start until 11:00. All initial chaos aside, we had another productive and successful meeting with 39 traditional birth attendants. We were hoping at least one of the women had attended a birth since our last meeting five weeks ago but no one had. We're in the process of handing the program over to Mama Gertrude who works with the palliative care team at the hospital. It's crazy to think my journey in Tanzania started 12 weeks ago and this was my final meeting with the traditional birth attendants. Where has the summer gone?

XOXO,

Amanda

p.s. GO HAWKS!!!!!!

Day 81

The best $20 I spent in three months just so happened to be spent on...

Coffee!

Today I bought freshly roasted coffee beans to bring home with me! There’s a local social enterprise, Wild Tracks, who buys coffee beans directly from 20-30 local farmers and then processes the coffee just down the hill from us.

Our plan was to buy coffee and leave but when we were offered a hot cup of coffee and a brief tour, we couldn’t resist! They roast and package all of their own coffee, which includes sewing the cute decorative bags the coffee comes in. I don’t know why exactly we left feeling so happy, but Ashley and I couldn’t stop smiling. Maybe it was the delicious coffee!

Tomorrow is our last meeting with the traditional birth attendants. We're hopeful their experience using Misoprostol this past month has gone smoothly and they haven't had any major problems. I've realized recently just how many things we could have done differently to make No More Orphans even better. What's most important though is to remember that this is just the beginning and good will come from this program, no matter how small the difference.

XOXO,

Amanda

Day 80

Last trip to Arusha!

We had errands to run in town today and I needed to visit the Maasai Market to pick up some gifts to take home with me. I'm on a strict budget (because I'm really not wanting to exchange any more money), but my trip was successful! I got what I needed, and as an added bonus I think there's enough money left over I'll still be able to eat the rest of the week!

Here's a few pictures of Arusha (sorry some are a little crooked, most were taken by sticking my arm out the window of the car):

And then I saw an elephant!!!

Fooled ya!
Not a real elephant.

I'm also not feeling very well, which of course would happen just before I leave. I've managed to stay healthy almost the entirety of my trip though, and considering my health before leaving for Tanzania, has been a small miracle.

XOXO,

Amanda

Day 79

I need a suitcase large enough to hold 28 children. 

Anyone know where I can get one of those?

I cry thinking about leaving all of them in eight short days. They're just so cute, and so fun, and how is it possible I love them as much as I do?

There's another one week old baby arriving at the orphanage tomorrow. In case you haven't been keeping track, that makes two new babies under the age of 1 month, five babies under 4 months, and a total of nine babies under 1 year. 

Too many babies?

We're about to find out folks.

XOXO,

Amanda

Day 78

Banana Stew.

Don't knock it till you try it.

Believe it or not, those bananas were a part of my dinner. You really wouldn't think they'd taste good in a stew (at least I was skeptical at first), but boy is it delicious! I've had this banana stew many times before but tonight Baba Glory (our day guard, who also happens to be an amazing cook) made a huge pot of it for us.

As for the rest of the day, I was extremely productive. I sat in the office and worked most of the afternoon. While there are still things that need to get done in the next 9 days (Ahh, I'm in the single digits!!!), I'm feeling much better about accomplishing everything. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend! 

XOXO,

Amanda

Day 77

Is it time to come home yet?

I'll be regretting this question in exactly 10 days when I'm crying my eyes out uncontrollably, but right now I'm ready to come home.

Today was uneventful because, once again, the weather wasn't cooperating. Of course that meant we ended up at Tanz Hands, our second home. I realized on the trip back to Nkoaranga I haven't shared many pictures of where I live, outside of the compound. From the bottom of Kilala up to Nkoaranga is about a seven minute drive. Here are a few pictures from the journey up the hill to Nkoaranga:

XOXO,

Amanda