It's my first day of school at Luther and reality is hitting me. The transition has been more intense than I first realized. I guess I came home from Tanzania excited and ready to relax. Of course I missed certain things immediately like the great fruit, the random Swahili all around me, and the freedom and life I felt in Tanzania. Now that I am at school though I'm realizing I live in a bubble here. I feel isolated from people somehow, like I have a secret that I can't tell people. I just don't feel like I have words yet to describe my experience to people, and the only people who I can talk to about Tanzania, Anna and Bekah who were there, are not at Luther. Thus, I'm resigned to a slow adjustment back to the Luther world.



It's hard looking back on Tanzania. The longer I am away from the experience the more my glasses become rosy. Thinking back now I want to return right away and just spend more time there. Luther is not as I remembered it for a variety of reasons and it seems that the old saying, "the grass is always greener on the other side" is true for me. But I don't want to be that way. I know, as my journal shows, that my time in Tanzania was not always fun. At times I was frustrated, I wanted to come home, and wanted to be with friends. Now that I have left though, the frustrating becomes desired and the magical Shangri La I was returning to seems to be a regular place.



Going to Tanzania was the best experience I've ever had. I learned tolerance, humility, and gratitude all in the span of a few months. However, best does not equal always fun. Life in Tanzania is tough, tougher than here, but it still is life. People are just trying to live, support family, have fun, spend time with family and friends, and experience the world. It seems people here like to depict Tanzania and Africa as a whole as this poor, wretched place...and it is poor, at least poorer monetarily than the US, but when you're there it is just life. People enjoy what they have and they live! I hope if there is one thing I can take from the entire experience, it is the zest and zeal for life that Tanzanians demonstrate everyday.



As the cold weather and the constricting whiteness of the landscape, people, and walls set in, I hope to remember the colorful moment in my life: Tanzania. Thank you for joining me on this adventure. Asante sana rafiki yangu. Enjoy these last images from Tanzania and enjoy life.



Last Look at Tanzania