Friday, January 11, 2019

Day 7: Kwa heri rafiki yangu or “goodbye my friends”

This was our new vocabulary of the day and seemed very fitting as we left our new friends from the school in Lutangilo.

Kwa heri rafiki yangu or “goodbye my friends” was our new vocabulary of the day and seemed very fitting as we left our new friends from the school in Lutangilo. They sang, danced, and worshiped with us as we dedicated the new science apparatus to Ken's father, Peter, and celebrated the school's new ability to better teach physics and chemistry to their students.

The students cheerfully welcomed us by running down the hill and greeting us right at our cars in dance and song. This followed in a lengthy Tanzanian welcome in which we were able to see the joy that these students and teachers had for our presence. It was incredible to see their passion and energy on full display! When it was time for us to head back to Iringa, we left Ken, Keane, Ian, Alisha, and Laura behind, as they will begin their trip to Idunda from Lutangilo in the morning.



On this trip, we also got a nice break from our favorite Toyota Coaster to try out the four wheel drive Jeeps. That meant far fewer bumps and much faster travel through the mountains. Along the way we got to see arguably the best views of the trip, so far.




In the evening, we enjoyed some intense games of Werewolf at the Lutheran Center in which we were all winners and losers. Tomorrow is a big day for our group as we split up and head out to our respective villages to begin to collect data for designing clean water systems in the villages. I think it would be an understatement to say we are all excited to get started! With that being said, we will not be able to update you all with our blog posts until we return to the Lutheran Center on Sunday when we will have a post from each of the three village groups.


--
Aaron B.