final blog

Final Blog

                Saying goodbye to the kids was the last thing on earth that I wanted to do. I was on the edge of crying a couple times. The kids were so sweet; I kept giving them hugs, and they would give me a letter. When I opened them that night, they were all love letters saying things like “We love you,” “God bless you,” and “Don’t forget us.” Saying goodbye was really hard, but I knew as we drove away from the school that there was a part of me still there and a part of that school in me. It’s something I never will forget.

                We threw a party for Class VI, VII and the staff. The kids were so excited – I heard someone say that the kids were showing each other what they were going to wear to the dance. When everyone got there it was funny because the girls were in the middle dancing but all the boys were on the side just talking. I tried my best to get the guys to dance, but once I got them out there and I turned around they were on the side again talking. I was surprised at how good a couple of kids were at dancing, but when I told them that they were really good, they would get all shy and stop. The teachers were really happy, and a couple of the younger ones danced.  The Tanzanian dance that they did was really cool because everyone knew it and when I tried, I was spinning the wrong way and it didn’t end well. I wish in America there was a dance that everyone knew that wasn’t the chicken dance. At 6:30, the power went out at the club, so we went outside and it was the end of the party. We got bracelets from the kids, flowers, and many, many hugs. Some of the teachers and I exchanged emails, and they were super happy that we came to LOAMO, but sad to see us leave.

                Yesterday, we went to a Maasai village that was a two hour drive from Arusha. It was so cool there because, since we spent most of our time in the city, we didn’t see a lot of the wild, but out there it was like it was taken right out of a book. Our guide, Freddy, was so cool – he was a senior warrior (which is when you are above 30 and had gone through the entire junior warrior training). There were a couple of junior warriors there, and they followed us around for a while. We went into the bush, which is what the Maasai people call the wild land. When we walked around, the guide explained how the warriors can survive out there, which is amazing because all it takes to survive was to cut open the right tree and drink what was inside, but if you cut open the wrong tree, you can die. We stopped at one spot to try and throw the spear that a warrior carries around. The spear wasn’t that heavy, but to throw it and keep it balanced so it sticks in the ground was hard. Ms. Gutmann was the only person to get it to stay in the ground. The saying “practice makes perfect” definitely came in hand here. On our way home, we saw zebras running around, a couple of giraffes chilling, and some monkeys playing around. It was so cool seeing some animals like that.

                Africa was amazing and I’m going to be sad as I look out the plane window and see it disappearing in the distance. The school was amazing and I’m so grateful to have gone there and made a difference that they will never forget.