Leaving Arusha

So my last week in Arusha was a bit crazy. I had a lot to finish up, and a lot of people to say good-bye to before I left, so I was definitely running around a bit.

On Thursday at Frisbee, I said my first round of good-byes, though since most of the players are Tanzanian, it was just a good-bye-for-two-months. Then on Friday, I played poker at my friend Shannon's house, which was a good way to wind-down after everything I was trying to wrap-up at the office. Saturday we cooked chapati burritos (I don't think we'd had them since January), which was delicious and a good final meal in Arusha.

After that, we went to a show at Via-Via to raise money for the Umoja Centre. My friends Rose and Claire work at the Umoja Center teaching youths who have dropped out of high school skills like English, performing arts, self-defense (actually, that's our friend Tara who isn't officially affiliated there), and a wide range of other programs. The past two years, some students from Juilliard have come to support the performing arts program, so the show was a nice fusion of Tanzanian and American performances. I was a bit mortified by the lighting situation*, but other than that, it was a wonderful performance. Then they opened up the dance floor and we all went crazy for about an hour before I had to run around and say good-bye to everyone before heading out. It was nice that so many people were all together in the same place so that I could say it all at once.

I will say that I'm really excited to be out of Arusha. Although I have lots of friends there, I felt more and more stressed in recent weeks and knew that a break was the healthiest option. I feel a little bad leaving some of my friends who are going through hard times right now, but I had reached the point where I couldn't offer much support.

Anyway, I'll be back in Arusha some time in August, but in the meantime, I expect to have lots of travel adventures to put up here.

* There was virtually no front lighting or side lighting, and in the back, there were 4 lights that change colors according to the levels of the music. Makes sense when you're playing techno. Not so much for opera...