Goodbye Pommern

Before we had to leave the village on Thursday afternoon, we spent some time saying goodbye to the community members we met and/or worked with.  I can't say enough how welcoming and kind the people of Pommern were to us here's some of our favorite moments from around town:

We'll miss you!

Enjoying fresh mangoes with Engera (Edward's wife and a teacher)

Scott with Patrick, the Physics teacher he worked with.

One particularly memorable experience for us was being invited into Stephen's house to meet his family.  Stephen is the carpenter at the secondary school and as Scott and I were walking through the village, he spontaneously invited us into his home.  We got to sit, chat, hold little baby Jared and share a Coca-Cola.  Stephen's daughter, Kalo, was in the preschool class that I taught and was beaming ear-to-ear when the "mzungu mwalimu" (white teacher) came into her house.

Stephen, Catherine and their children. 

 And then, it was time to go. We loaded and packed the van on Thursday afternoon and headed to Iringa.  We spent Thursday night in Iringa and on Friday we made the long journey to Dar es Salaam. A regular trip to Dar usually takes 8-10 hours...on this day it took 13.  There were police stops, traffic jams, construction related detours, and general African road craziness. 

Still smiling in the van. Sweating and smiling.

Despite all the obstacles, we made it safely to Dar es Salaam, where we spent the night and got ready to depart to the airport.  Scott and I, along with Deborah, Aidan, and Meghan were in the first group to go to the airport on Saturday.  We said goodbye and everyone waved to us as we drove away. 

 

Barb, Sharon (hidden), Mimi, Eric, Kathryn, Tom, Edward

Driving away and saying goodbye was hard.  We really came to enjoy all the members of our volunteer team.  Everyone worked well together and we shared lots of stories and laughter.  And if any of you end up reading this, thanks for making our experience so special!  

We also said goodbye to Edward, our team leader.  He is an AMAZING group leader and person.  He taught us a lot about Tanzanian culture and really allowed us to experience "the real Africa".  Thank you for your leadership, wonderful example, and friendship. 

Scott and I with Edward.

To avoid rambling, I will wrap up using the phrase we heard over and over by our new friends in Pommern:  Karibu Tena.   This means "You are welcome here again".   I hope so. :)