Day 11: Makazi (homestead; residence; home)

Our final day in Iringa included more work on the water distribution system design, delicious meals, and new, tailor-made clothing for everyone!
Today was the last day staying at the Lutheran Center in Iringa before taking off on our safari (Swahili for "journey") to our safari (the English one) in Ruaha National Park. This morning we continued working on the water distribution system designs to figure out a few more logistics. Now the rest of the work—determining pipe sizes, well location, prices, and so on—will be done back in Minnesota over the next couple of months. All groups were happy to have the brunt of the work out of the way with only the arduous task of taking pictures of lions, warthogs, and apparently, lots of zebras.

For lunch, we went to Neema’s (Swahili for "grace"), a restaurant that provides opportunities for the deaf and physically impaired members of the community. We have given a lot of business to Neema’s over the last week and we had to cap it off with one more group lunch at what is arguably our favorite spot to eat in all of Tanzania.

After lunch, most of the group hit the town one last time in search of any last-minute bargains. The shop owners of the Masai Market were happy to see the naive wazungu (Swahili for "wanderers") flocking in for our final purchases.

One of the trips to the market in Iringa included all of the students purchasing different African style cloths which were then taken to a local tailor and transformed into everything from suit coats to skirts. After a few long days waiting, the outfits were finished today! We all wore them out to dinner tonight at our local Italian favorite, Mama Iringa’s, to show off our newly found Tanzanian spirit.

We were happy to be accompanied by our friends from St. Paul Partners along with the students from the University of Iringa that had joined us over the weekend on the village visits. Tonight we will be laying low and packing up for the exciting adventure ahead.

P.S. So all of the moms out there aren’t worried, there will be no wifi available in the National Park over the next couple of nights. Students will be back in Iringa on Friday night with access to wifi. Usiku mwema (good night)!