A Day of Lasts

On Saturday, May 17th, we spent our last full day in Iringa. Our research papers were also due this day. So, I woke up and immediately got started on that. I had finished it the night before, but wanted to read through and revise it a little before turning it in. After I finished, I just watched Monsters Inc. in my room while I waited for Julia and Renee to finish. Once we were done, we headed off to spend our last day in town. As much as I hated those daladala rides into town, it was very bittersweet to take our last one. Our first stop was one of our favorite restaurants, Neema's, for lunch. After that, we went to a little craft store so that Renee could finish buying some gifts. Justin then picked us up along with his son, Juma, to go play volleyball. A lot of the people that we play rugby with were there and it turned out to be a lot of fun. After volleyball, we headed off to our goodbye dinner at Mama Iringa (a really good italian restaurant. Justing told us we could order whatever we wanted because we had some money leftover in the budget. So we all got pasta and some pizzas for the table. We also ordered a bottle of wine and a bottle of champagne. We all toasted to "The Pioneer Group of CIEE Iringa." Juma decided to be depressing though and toast to "The End." All day I was trying hard not to think about it being our last day, but it was hard not to. We all ordered some delicious dessert and then headed back to school to pack (none of us had even started.) Packing went quicker than expected. I was thinking I'd be able to leave with only one suitcase and my backpack, but I definitely need both of my suitcases.

On Sunday, we had to wake up early to get the rest of our stuff together and leave. It felt good to be leaving the dorms, but sad to be leaving Iringa. We brought all our stuff down to the car where we also said our goodbyes to Justin. That was hard. Even though he was only our director for 6 short weeks, he was awesome and we all really grew to love him. He did welcome us to his house if we're ever in Iringa again so I will probably take him up on that offer one day! The car ride to Dar started off fine, however after about 1 and a half hours it took a turn for the worse. It turns out that I was extremely sick. Luckily we had a bag in the car because I started throwing up. I sadly could barely even lift my head to look out the window for our last mini safari through Mikumi. It would come in waves where I would feel completely horrible and then better. When I was feeling sick though, it was absolutely horrible. I've never felt so sick before. At one point, we stopped because everyone else wanted to buy some food and the guys on the side of the road were just sticking mean in my face. It was awful. Also, this one guy just kept blowing kisses at me and saying he wanted to make me his wife. I was so over it and I was so glad when we left. I continued to throw up the rest of the car ride. I couldn't even keep down water so I was really afraid I was going to have to go to the hospital. Luckily, I didn't have to when we got into town we went to Paulo's house to drop off our suitcases. I drank a small amount of fresh mango juice there which I thought I was for sure going to throw up. As soon as I drank it I felt like I was once again going to puke. When we got to the hotel, it felt so good to lay down. I felt perfectly fine as long as I was laying still. My juice was still staying down and I was even able to keep some sprite down! I was glad I was feeling a little better because the next morning I needed to pick Sarah up from the airport. I was starting to think that I might have to send Julia. I was really sad that I was sick on our last night together though. We had been planning a sushi dinner and froyo night for weeks. As much as I wanted to go, I just couldn't. There's no way I could've sat in a restaurant. So unfortunately, I had to stay behind.

On Monday morning, I woke up feeling a lot better at 4:45 a.m. to catch a cab to go get Sarah from the airport. She was the first one to come out. Oh yeah, and before I left the hotel, I also had to say goodbye to Renee because she would be gone by the time I got back. We just gave a quick hug goodbye since we had both just woken up and were tired. When Sarah and I got back to the hotel, we woke up Julia (unintentionally) and the 3 of us went and had breakfast at a place called the Tea Room. Since I was feeling better, I ate one chapati pancake. Afterwards, we returned to the hotel where we all took naps and then looked up some places to eat lunch. We decided on some Indian food places. We got a little lost on the way there and had to ask for directions. By the time we got there, I was not feeling well at all. I ordered some juice and masala chips though. I drank the juice, but by the time my chips came I thought I was going to throw up again. After we paid, we walked back to the hotel where we took yet another nap. When I woke up, I was feeling better so Julia and I went to this ice-cream place called "Creme-Stone." It was basically Coldstone and it was so good. I was able to finish it all and I felt fine afterwards. We walked back to the hotel and it was time for Julia to catch a cab to the airport. I walked her out to the cab and gave her a hug goodbye and started crying. It was really weird to say goodbye to someone who you've spent every day of the past 4 months with. The 3 of us did everything together and were never apart for more than a few hours. Now, I don't even know when I'll see either of them again. Those were some hard goodbyes. That night, Sarah and I walked to a South African chain pizza place called Debonairs. It was good and I was also able to keep that down. Yay!