Goodbye Tanzania!

Was it really 5 months ago that we were packing up our final boxes and saying our goodbye's back in Tanzania?! With all that that entailed and the settling in process at this end, these next few updates might be a little overdue! 

The end of the first term in Dodoma and the girls last day at CAMS was Sports Day. Abigail had lots of fun competing and Naomi's class came along to watch. For the first time in years and years, the yellow team won (spot the colour of Abigail's t-shirt), so it was a perfect end to our time as a family at CAMS!

It was also probably one of the hardest days in the way of goodbye's as well, even though by this point we had already said goodbye to the majority of our MAF friends. Teachers and friends at CAMS, made up a large part of our Dodoma life, both Tanzanian and Ex-pat and there were lots of them to say goodbye to and tears on all sides! 

When we got home after Sports Day, we had to say one of the hardest goodbye's ... to our House Mama, Maria. She was most definitely part of our family and with her limited education and no means to travel, one of the hardest people to keep in touch with. For Jenny, it was the second time she has had to say goodbye to her and it didn't get any easier.

The following day all we had to achieve was the safe collection of our belongings and the final few goodbye's. In true Tanzanian style this did not go off as planned. In fact, at an already extremely stressful time for us, it probably couldn't have got any worse. Instead of a 9am pick-up, the team and truck didn't arrive until 5pm. The truck was too small and there wasn't another one available. 

A good friend had to frogmarch the driver to their local depot and proceeded to sit on a pile to tyres while waiting for them to sort it all out! The new truck had no breaks or fuel so had to be fitted with both and so in the dark and after the girls were in bed, they finally loaded our belongings onto the truck below. Having driven through the previous night and then seeming to be extremely spaced out, we confiscated the keys from the driver until the following morning. Driving on the Dar road is dangerous enough without them having to drive through the night once again.

As we had spent so much time waiting and on the phone trying to sort out the collection of our stuff, unfortunately the final goodbye's that we had planned for that last day never had came about and there were some really lovely friends that we never had the opportunity to farewell as a result. 

However, the end was inevitable and very early on the Sunday morning we slipped out of town almost unnoticed, except for one of our favourite guards who came to say goodbye. Having lived at the bottom of Lion Rock for so long we drove by it for the last time.

Before the mammoth trip across the world to Australia we took a few, much needed, days out at the beach in Dar Es Salaam. Having some time to take stock as a family and also just have some fun after such an emotional roller coastal of the previous weeks and months.

We visited some of our favourite spots one last time and then just concentrated on having fun ahead of the hard work that we knew was to come, settling in Australia. As you can see we definitely succeeded with the latter!

On Wednesday 8th October, we bid farewell to Tanzania and all the work, memories and friendships ... ready for the next adventure!