Kwa nini?

Tuesday - 22.04.2014

On Tuesday morning, I had a text from Astrid. Her parents had left the day before to go home and she was supposed to be on her way back to Getamock. Her text said that she had been in an accident. As soon as possible, I made the trip from Moshi to Arusha, while my parents stayed behind. It was difficult to leave them, especially in a situation like this. When I got to Astrid, I got the story in full detail and realised it was more than just an accident. She was really upset and she told me she had barely slept the night before.

In the late afternoon, we went to do some grocery shoppings in Arusha. It would be difficult to do them in Karatu with both of our suitcases. Since it gets dark here early, on our way back we had to drive in the dark and I noticed Astrid was really stressed about this. I tried to help her and calm her down.

In the evening before going to sleep, I tried to comfort Astrid. Nevertheless, as expected she had a lot of problems sleeping. I stayed up almost the entire night trying to take care of her and to let her know that she was not alone.

Wednesday - 23.04.2014

The next day we made the trip from Arusha all the way to Getamock, with a pitstop in Karatu. We went to our usual spot for lunch and from there we took a car back with Johnny and Costa, who were also in Karatu. Johnny and Costa didn't know about the accident so they were surprised to see me there. We decided not to tell them yet. That night went about the same as before. A lot of tossing and turning on Astrids side and a lot of worrying on mine.

Thursday – 24.04.2014 until Sunday 27.04.2014

The rest of the week melted together in a blur. Every night seemed to be the same, but every single time with a little bit more sleep. It was a little bit of progress. Every day also felt the same. It was very double, time seemed to pass incredibly slow, but it flew by as well. Neither of us really realised what was going on. We spent a lot of time correcting the form 3 examinations of mathematics and civics. This didn't help our mood though. We both knew the marks would be lower than in Belgium, but they were lower than we expected them to be. For mathematics only three students passed. Just as many scored a zero. We were both disappointed and distraught. The other teachers told us that marks like that are normal, especially for mathematics. Somehow that didn't make me feel better at all.

Fortunately, my parents still came by that week. We went up to hill Mahaha again and for me it was the most relaxing moment of the week. For a second, all the bad stuff was pushed to the background. I hope it helped Astrid as well.

For me saying goodbye to my parents was a lot harder this time around. Partially because of what happened to Astrid, but also because I know that when I see them again I will have left Tanzania. I know exactly when I will see my parents again, but I don't know when I will come back here and if the people that are here now will still be here in the future. The goodbye to them will feel a lot more finite than the one to my parents and I'm scared for that feeling to come, but I also miss my parents already. While I'm here, I miss my family and friends back home. When I'm home again though, I will miss everything and everyone I left behind here. Most of all I will miss my students. They are scared to speak up in class, but the moment you're outside they come and sit close to you and bombard you with questions. Yeah, I'm definitely going to miss my students.

Until next week, Belgium!

Laura