Goodbyes and New Beginnings

Today was the final day of Swahili and engineering class at the TCDC training center.  Tomorrow, Mikkel and I will finally move into our hospital.  The last day was quite sad since I have made a lot of good friends here the past four weeks and especially with the Swahili teachers and our engineering instructor Larry.  We played basketball today against a local university in Maku Mira and one of the Swahili teachers named Mlowezi played on our team.  Despite his unreal skills at basketball, the Maku Mira team outlasted us winning 57-56.  We played on 12’ rims since apparently the 10’ rims were being broken by so much dunking.  The last day of classes here also means the last night with our homestay.  Lughano and Neema have been so welcoming and eager to show Mikkel and I the culture and language here.  They are a major reason I have enjoyed my time and learned so much in the few weeks that I have been here so it is tough to move out. Fortunately, our hospital is only a few miles from TCDC so we will still be able to meet up with them as well as our teacher Mlowezi and some other Tanzanian contacts we have made in the past month.  We also exchanged gifts with our host parents and Lulu today – pictures are below.  I’ll have to keep this short since there is much to do before starting work at the hospital!

Final Swahili class with Mlowezi. Mlowezi can freestyle rap in Swahili and it's awesome.

Basketball against Maku Mira - we lost 57-56 and "I am the Treat" was their star player.

Mlowezi led our team with Jasper and I playing in the post

Lulu with the giraffe Mikkel and I gave to her

Family picture with Masai robes Neema and Lughano gave Mikkel and I

Lughano with the Duke Soccer scarf I gave him