It's Hard To Say Goodbye

The next few days, Andrea and Cassie started to pack their bags. Sad to see them leave, I decided a work-from-home day was in order. Andrea and I went to Kigongoni Lodge (they have wireless internet so I did get some work done!), and got ourselves pumped for the Canada party we were hosting that night. All of us girls took our time getting ready and put on our red and white; so proud to represent Canada in Africa! All of the law interns from the ICTR came to our house (they had all made friends with Ronnie) came over. We had a Canadian musician only play-list and danced our night away to the sounds of The Barenaked Ladies, Justin Bieber, The Tragically Hip and Bryan Adams. In front of the house, Ronnie set off the fireworks that he had bought and we celebrated the great nation we were from. After that, we loaded ourselves into a rented dalla dalla and headed to Via Via to share the Canadian spirit. We danced even more and made our way home in the wee hours of the morning.

We all woke up feeling like champions the next day. We went for breakfast at Africafe and wished that the clocks would all stop. Andrea was going to be the first to leave, departing just after noon. We all moped around our room, Andrea and Cassie packing up two months worth of memories. Agrey, our taxi man, pulled into the drive and we loaded her suitcases in. Proving myself as the baby of the house, I teared up and said goodbye to a great friend. The rest of us sat around for the rest of the day, in disbelief of how fast two months had gone by. We went for dinner to our favorite restaurant; savoring every bite and not wanting to go back home. On the way back, I realized that in the past two months, Cassie and I had not spent one night apart. On all of our trips and the whole time in the house we had shared a room. At home, Agrey came once again and took away another friend. Meghan, Marlee and I, the last three of the original five, sat on the front steps of our house and tried to come to terms with how little time we had left and how much had already gone bye.

At this point I was ready to come home. The thought that Andrea and Cassie would be seeing their friends and families in less than a day, and would be going back to normal made me resent my surroundings. I was tired of being shouted at walking down the streets and I craved the personal space that all of Arusha seemed to lack. I just wanted normal.