The last week.....

I arrived back to the hostel last night after an amazing weekend on Zanzibar. After I wrote the last post, Kristen (my traveling buddy) and I went back to the spice market to wander about some more, wandered around the labyrinth-like streets and eventually made it back to the hotel for sunset. Now, Naples, Florida has amazing sunsets, but absolutely nothing like the sunsets on Zanzibar. The colors were so vibrant, only made brighter next to the stark white sails of the dhow boats coming back in for the evening. After sunset, we made our way to the Omani Fort where we were meeting up with Oulti, a volunteer from Finland, to have dinner at the Old Fort Restaurant. We sat in the middle of the amphitheatre, surrounded by walls build in 1032 and listened to the local music that was being played at the far side of the fort. I had barracuda (I didn't know that you could actually eat this fish!) and it was fantastic! We chatted for a few hours before heading back to our respective hotels for a good nights rest. Kristen and I woke up at 7:30(too early for vacation but its hard to break a habit) and headed down for breakfast on the beach. We were served all different types of tropical fruits, breakfast breads and cakes, eggs, sausage, coffee, passion fruit juice, the list keeps going on and on. Like good (and cheap) travelers, never knowing when our next meal will be or what it's going to be, we wrapped up some of the breads in our napkins to save for later. :)

Our next meal turned out not to be that much later. After walking around for a few more hours, we wandered up to Mercury's restaurant, named after the late lead singer of Queen, Freddie Mercury who was born on Zanzibar. We had some drinks while overlooking the beach and waited for the next ferry to arrive. Two other volunteers, Amy and Courtney, were going to be joining Kristen on Zanzibar and they were going to stay a few more nights. We were halfway through lunch when the ferry came in so Kristen ran the 5 minutes to the port to meet them and bring them back to the restaurant. We stayed for a while longer and then it was time for me to head to the port for the 4 pm ferry. After 2 (very bumpy) hours, I arrived back at Dar es Salaam and the hostel.

Today started my last week of work and I cannot believe that it is already here! It seems like not too long ago I was writing in this blog about how excited I was to be going and that I couldn't wait for the trip to start. It seems like just a day or two ago that I texted my Mom and Dad to say that I was homesick and thinking of coming home early and it seems like a few hours ago that I finally got the hang of living here and began having the time of my life. And now it is all coming to a close. I'm going to stay the night at the orphanage for the next few nights so that I can have as much time as I can with the kids. It is going to be so hard to leave them; I don't even know how to begin to prepare myself. Being with and taking care of these kids has become my life- I miss them when I am not with them and the times goes by too quickly when I am. I know Friday is going to be rough- I'm not looking forward to it.

There has been a big elephant in the room (ok- in this blog) that I haven't addressed and maybe since it is my last few days, I feel more comfortable bringing it up. That is the health of the kids. It has been a subject that I've been avoiding talking about on the blog I think because it is not really something that I am able to fully process. Some of my kids are very sick and all are in constant poor health. We have a number of kids with HIV, serious kidney infections have become standard, horrible and painful skin infections have become routine and the local doctor and I are on a fist name basis. It is so hard to see these kids so sick and know that they are really limited- in access to health care and in lifespan. It is absolutely horrible to watch these kids be in pain and know that there is absolutely nothing I can do about it in the long term because my time with them is limited as are my own personal funds. They have already been dealt a rough hand in life, being left orphaned or abandoned, and it is only made more difficult by disease and sickness. The health of the kids is something I have avoided thinking about and dealing because it is the one thing that has caused me the most grief and anger since I have been here. And now I am leaving and no other volunteers are coming in behind me to hold their hands when they don't feel well or are exhausted or to buy them an ice cream cone after a series of injections.

Friday is definitely going to be rough. I'm not looking forward to it.


Namaste.