Back to Africa

Last year before I left Give A Heart to Africa in December I told the students that I would come back the next year for their graduation and that I would bring Dave with me.  So true to my word, here we are.

We arrived Wednesday night after a long but uneventful flight from Boston to Amsterdam, then Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro.  Although we didn’t get a lot of sleep on the flight (Dave can sleep anywhere so he managed to get some), they certainly fed us a lot.  KLM knows how to keep their passengers happy.

We made it through immigration with no problems and Monika was there waiting for us as soon as we walked out of the terminal.  It was so nice coming here the second time knowing exactly what to expect.  No nervousness just anticipation of seeing all the wonderful people from GHTA.

Thursday morning we went into the classrooms and saw the students.  It was wonderful to see all the smiling faces.  Surprisingly I remembered their names and it felt like I was only away for a few days instead of almost a year. Everyone was very excited to meet Dave.  They asked him questions like “Where are you from?” and “How old are you?”  The students were asked to find New Hampshire on the map and after telling them that it was near Boston, it was located by Mlay, one of my favorite students.

Thursday afternoon Dave and I did the 20 minute walk into Moshi town to have lunch and do some grocery shopping. We ate at the Union Café where I ordered the Mediterranean plate (a warm pita with hummus and babagonoush) and Dave ordered spinach quiche.  We had fresh passion fruit/pineapple juice to drink. It was all very delicious. It almost felt like we were on a tropical vacation.

I gave Dave the tour of downtown Moshi and we headed to Nakumatt the big, modern grocery store.  We took a look around but decided we wanted to do our shopping at the smaller market called Aleem’s and the bakery that are closer to the volunteer house.  We stopped in at the newly relocated Coffee Lounge for a cup of coffee before we walked to Aleem’s.  Surprisingly I remembered my way around town and thankfully didn’t get us lost.

So far the only disappointment for us has been that Kili (as Mount Kilimanjaro is known here) has been hiding in the clouds.  We’re hoping that Dave gets to see the top of it at least once while we are here.