Just got in from an amazing get together of the friends I have met the last 2 months of being here in Arusha. Why is it when it comes time to say goodbye you realize just what you have? How fortunate to meet the people I have and to call them friends. We met at Via-Via for dinner and a drink and some good chatter.
I have to leave for Kilimanjaro Airport at 0300 and it is already 2300 here. Sleep is not something I will have a lot of tonight. And when I arrive, it is straight to the office for introductions. Friday night in a hotel bed is going to feel mighty good.
I am over the shock of the $968 round trip airfare to Lusaka from Kili via Nairobi. Ouch. Volunteering while looking for work costs money. Having said that I have gone round and round with myself about whether or not I am doing the right thing and tonight I now know it is just the thing for me. My friends agreed and one has been in development work for 15 years and has lived and worked in Lusaka.
Zambia has an HIV infection rate of over 25%. That is 1 in 4. I will be working on an HIV education program of children and youth through our local partners in the rural areas of the country. On Sunday I leave for a one week tour of the northern part of the country where I will be mentoring local partners and encouraging family discourse on HIV. All of the work will be framed in the course material I received through the Monterey Institute class in DC back in June. Time to put classwork into practice.
I am thankful for the lessons--some bloody difficult--I have learned while in Arusha. I know there was a reason I started here--to get my feet wet in Africa and to know the saying "that's Africa, baby". The lessons won't stop here.
On to Lusaka.
More later.....
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