Going home

March  14

Arriving back at camp was bittersweet. It was really nice to be back- so nice that we all realized how much it had begun to feel like home. We also all came to the realization that we had less than two weeks left here before our move to Tanzania. I am really excited to go to Tanzania, but I can’t imagine leaving all this behind and never coming back. We all love the staff so much, and it will be really hard to say goodbye to them and the askaris, who don’t really share a common language with us and with whom it will be very difficult to communicate through letters, without our usual sign language/hand flailing/noise making communication techniques. I am trying to take this experience for all the good that it has been, and not to think about the future too much. I know from past experience (so much of it this year) that it is in my nature to be extremely sad about goodbyes and endings. This time I am trying to just see the good parts and be glad that I have made these friends and had these experiences at all. Every experience and every good time comes with a loss when it is over, and I guess that is the beauty and the difficulty of the whole thing.

March 15, 2011

I am feeling really bad for my sister today. She has been sent home from Japan because of the radiation danger in Japan. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to leave a place you have been in for so long on such short notice. Transitions can be hard, and to have to pick up and leave so fast must make it even more challenging.

I worry for the people who are stuck in areas that might be dangerous. I am so glad that Bee will be safe.

March 16, 2011

Exams are coming up in three days. I wonder how they will be. I am kind of nervous since I haven’t studied much yet, but also think we have learned so much and so intensely that I probably know what I need to know already. I am baffled by the fact that we are already so far along in the semester and that the only thing left are our exams. Time flies.

It is hard to study when the sun is always shining and you are in Africa.