Leigh in Tanzania
 Don't Dream its Over After the weekends excursions I’m feeling rundown on Monday morning. I think I’m coming down with a cold. With Tuesday being a Bank Holiday I want to hit the shops today in case they are shut tomorrow. I go into college to take some stuff into them and ensure the computer exam papers are ready. My English class are waiting teacherless. I invite them to accompanny me for a walk around the market so I can take photos and on to Shoprite. I’m hoping to get their assistance in present buying but ultimately they are more hindrance than help. At Shoprite I say my farewells. I hope to see them at my farewell tomorrow. Saitoti want me to visit his family still. I agree to meet him at eleven figuring I could spare an hour an a half. I attempt to shop for things but don’t get very far I need something for the Minjas and I don’t know what to buy. And Arusha is not the greatest place for gift buying unless you want tourist stuff. I meet Satoiti and get the Dalla Dalla to Njiro. I’m feeling a bit rough and I’m also contemplating gifts so I’m not very with it. We travel the Dalla dalla to its extreme limits. The surfaced road had petered out into dirt track, It is further than I anticipated. When we disembark Saitoti tells me it’s another twenty minute walk (what is it with these Maasai). It is hot and I’m waterless so it’s hard going. We finally reach his ‘boma’ and I am met by his grandmother, brother and assorted family members. This massai family have adopted the trappings of a more modern life style. Their boma is a proper rectangle house with tin roof. They even have solar panel for electricity. There are proper furniture inside. It is still basic but comfortable. I am warmly greeted and despite my insistence that I have little time and need to get back to town, Saitoti insists I stay for rice and beans. Hospitality is wonderful again. They would have liked me to stay. I am blessed several times and eventually we make the way back to the Dalla Dalla and I get back to town. I’m now running late to get thing done. I start rushing around shops trying to buy stuff with only partial success before rushing to Eureka to collect a bag. I was due for an Exit Interview with Kate at 3pm but its 4pm before I get there. The meeting is constructive and lengthy and its six before I leave. Kate apologies that she can’t make my Eureka send off tomorrow. I make my way home. There is still a hole in my shopping but I’m informed that there will probably be shops open tomorrow. My penultimate night is a bad one, it is very hot and I can’t sleep. But I’m up again on Tuesday and after breakfast head to town again. Feeling a bit more relaxed about things today. This being a public holiday the town isn’t quite so hectic. Slowly and surely I do the rounds and get my shopping done, including a stint of bargaining down the tourist market. I even get a chance to pop into the Arusha Declaration Museum for a Tanzania history lesson. Buy the end I’m in full shopping mode and getting all my to do list done. To keep a promise to my self I give 50Tsh to the leaper who sits in the same place near the office, rain or shine, under a tatty Manchester United umbrella. Eventually I meet up with Boniface and we discuss Eureka issues. I am actually surprised to hear that I have been one of his most dedicated volunteers. I had always worried about not doing enough but I seem to have made an impression. From here we head to my send off. There is twenty people gathered in a café, staff and students. This I think is a great turn out but apparently 40 were invited but it is a holiday so mustn’t grumble. I’m a little disappointed that Nelson, Clement and Saitoiti didn’t make it but I understand why. The event has been carefully agendaed. MC is a rather attractive girl who I’ve never seen before. Everybody introduces themselves and I learn she is one of my Eureka Students. She is also a model and finalist in the ‘Miss Tanzania Tourism’ competition. She has been on a three months contractual tour with the pageant and is just returning to college. She should have been in my class! We move through thank yous from staff and pupils and a motivational speech by Boniface (including quotes from poem I had given him). I lean how important my commitment has been to everybody, how I’ve touched individual lives and made a difference to staff and students. I’m referred to as a farther figure whose motivational lessons and advice to students has been much appreciated. I’ve apparently gone beyond just teaching. I’m given presents; a framed picture, a certificate, T shirts and assorted cards. It all quite moving. I’m then expected to say something. I haven’t prepared any thing so just make something up from the heart. I nearly blubb, but hold it together. Beatrice how ever does shed a tear. I give her a rose as a special thank you. She also wants to see me off at the airport bless her (in fact I am blessed by God a lot during the ceremony) After saying some final fairways I head back home for my final dinner with the Minjas. Mama has been cooking a mini feast for me and the family. We eat outside in the garden one of the last chances for this to happen before hopefully the rains arrive. It actually gets quite cold tonight. We joke that its part of English reacclimatising training. I don’t know what I was expecting as a farewell fro the Minjas and its all quite low key. No big speeches from any one. I had thought it might be a little more formal so that I could say a few words and give some gifts out. But the right time didn’t seem to come (after the ritual order of eating the women go off to wash up while the men drink beer). When it got cold we retired indoors for what I thought would be a continuing of the gathering. Disappointingly the TV came on for the soap operas. Some of the family also left so I quickly grabbed some family photos. I sat with Mama and Baba to the end of the soap and grabbed the opportunity to present them privately with their gifts a kitege (shawl like thing) for mama, a Manchester Utd towel for Baba, and framed copies of my poems. This all prompted a nice little thank you and farewell chat. It rescued the evening from becoming an anticlimax. I nearly blubb, but hold it together. I couldn’t sleep during my last night. I just listened to the huge thunderstorm that passed overhead. I slept a little and woke tired. I finished some packing. Soud says goodby and he gives me a few trinkets. Baba who has kept promising to show me his farm finally takes me down to see it. I view his seven cows and his banana and mango trees. The maize desperately needs the rains. There is also a half finished house which is going to be Jamils new home eventually. Baba also explains that Hashime and Soud will be offered land eventually. I’m dropped in town. I organise my transport to the airport. I say goodbye to Kate and Leonard. I visit the internet cafe. Everything that can be done is done. Time to go……
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