My time alone begins...

Journal entry October 3, 2009..."Well, the team has gone and while I didn't expect it, I cried and cried. I felt like bawling actually, but I think that's simply because our goodbye was so rushed.  I rode with Matari and family to the airport and we got there later so I didn't get to say goodbye to my teammates as they were already through the tiny security area.  I went to try and wave but was scolded by an employee that made me cry! - my emotions felt so raw."


This was the day that that my teammates headed home and I stayed behind in Tanzania in preparation to travel and see my sponsored child, Helena, in Singinda. I had the deep privilege of staying with Matari and Edah, in their home and also eating dinner in the home of their son Dany and his wife Beloved.  Dany is studying to become a Doctor in Uganda but was home for one of his few yearly visits this weekend.  It was truly a wonderful experience to be invited into this family for an evening together.

Yes, I did feel homesick and yes, I felt alone as I watched these women leave that I had bonded with over the past weeks of our time working and living so closely together.  It was most helpful to be cared for and hosted by Matari and Edah, as they had become like family too.

Early on the Sunday morning, we rose to get me to the bus station.  It was a hurried time and Matari carried my back pack as I follow him to the right bus.  He loaded me on, said something in Swahili to the man sitting next to me and then he was gone...moments after that the bus took off and I was truly alone.  What a feeling.

Above is a map of Tanzania from the Lonely Planet website.  If you look near Lake Victoria at the top, you will see Mwanza.  My bus on this day, took me south towards Tabora and then east to Singida.  The road was fully tarmac (paved) which was incredible really!  I was soon to discover in a few days what hours on a bus on a DIRT road was like!  I had been told that my bus ride to Singida was expected to take about 4-5 hours...in fact it took 7 1/2.

About mid-way through our time in Tanzania, Marilyn (our team leader), Matari and I had sat down to talk about my travel alone to Singida.  Marilyn suggested one of the young people from the Clinic travel with me so that I wouldn't be alone...she was more unsettled about me traveling through Tanzania alone.  Matari spoke and said, "No, she will be fine.  I will book her ticket and I will put her on the bus and speak to someone to watch over her while she travels".  I remember at that time saying, "If Matari is not worried, I'm not worried!"   Two weeks after we returned home, Matari visited Canada for the first time to connect with the sponsors of the Urafiki Health Centre.  Some of our team members got to see him and it was such a joy to see his face again!  We laughed as I told my "bus" stories of traveling in Tanzania and then he said, "I was worried".  I looked at him with huge eyes and said, "You were worried?!?!?!  I didn't know that!  The only reason why I wasn't was because you said you weren't!"  He smiled and laughed as the truth had come out!  I wondered why he had called my cell phone so many times while I was traveling on the roads of Tanzania.  He was always looking out for me.