Before I begin, I need
to be sure to thank some very important people.
It’s a big list this time. Since I
am heading back to the US on the 1st of July, I wanted to make sure I
had a chance to thank all of the supporters I’ve had, but who I haven’t been
able to thank yet. This list includes
supporters for May, June, and July. I’ve
had an amazing year, in part thanks to: Bishop John Smylie, Press Stephens and
the Foundation for the Episcopal Church in Wyoming, Christ Church Mission
Committee and the Bargain Box, The Cowger Family, The Fox family, Pat and
Connie Keller, Lee Ann Hand, Betsy Sell, The Sunderlands, Madeline Galagan,
Mary Caucutt, Jill Carow, Randall Neilson, The Schnackenbergs, Carra Wetzel,
John Galagan, The Whitlocks, Mrs. Wilkinson, Connell Keegan, Sue and Dallas
Davis, The Call Family, Francis Clymer, and Nick Galagan.
Home is a funny concept.
At this time last
year, I was in between two trips that I would have considered huge in any
normal year. I had just returned from
France and was getting ready to spend 2 weeks in New York. I was absorbing every moment I had at home.
When I left for
Tanzania in July, I knew that I was doing the right thing. I was excited to have the amazing experience
I knew was coming, but it was hard to leave home. I don’t remember ever living anywhere but
Wyoming and have always considered Cody home.
The 2 hours from Cody to Billings and the airport I was flying out of
was the hardest drive of my life. It’s a
good thing I was only in the passenger seat.
My vision was a little blurred. J
When I pulled into
Dodoma the first time, I remember thinking, “Here’s my new home.” It didn’t feel like it yet, but I hoped it
would soon. I walked into my front door,
looked around, and thought “Sure, I can live here for a year. It’s quite good, actually.” I had walls around me, a roof over my head, a
bed, cooktop, refrigerator, and a mosquito net.
Simple? Yes, but I really didn’t
need anything else. After all, this was
a temporary living situation as far as I was concerned.
When I came home
from my safari in October, I realized that Dodoma wasn’t quite home yet. The safari seemed like another thing to do on
my trip to Tanzania. I had begun to
refer to Dodoma as home, but it was mostly out of habit. It’s much easier to think that way and to
talk that way than it is to feel that way.
Returning still felt like I was coming back to a hotel room after a
short trip away.
A couple of months
later, I had another opportunity to travel around and see a bit of Tanzania
that reaches farther than my Dodoma bubble.
I had an eventful Christmas break and was glad to get home to a familiar
bed. At the time, I would have told you
that it felt like I was returning home, but I realize now that it wasn’t quite
there yet. Even after 5 months here, it
still felt like a temporary place. I may
have been resisting the urge to fully call it home knowing that it was only
mine for a short time.
After my week and a
half away at Easter, I knew all of that had changed. The time away felt like a vacation, much
different to the feeling I had in October.
The bus pulled into the stand in Dodoma and I looked for a taxi to take
me home. It was no longer a temporary
place that I got to experience. It was
my home.
I sit here with
three weeks left before I leave Tanzania.
Three weeks to the day before I hop on a bus, taxi to the airport, spend
roughly a day and a half in airports or airplanes, and land stateside with my
parents at the airport anxious to see me. I think back to what was surely ten years ago,
but also could be last month. Three weeks
before I came to Tanzania. In a way, I feel
the same, but in so many ways it is different.
How can I describe
it? The short way I’ve been telling
people who ask is that it feels like I’m leaving home to go to a place I only call
home, knowing that if I ever actually get to make it back, it won’t be my home
at all. Confused? Let me try to help.
I will have spent
almost a year in Tanzania. Every person I
met and every friend I hung out with was here.
My entire life, with the exception of a few Skype calls and Facebook
messages, has been in Tanzania. It has
truly felt like home. Not only is it the
place where I escape at the end of the day, but it’s the place that has granted
me adventures, growth, and fantastic new friendships. I have fallen in love with Tanzania.
In three weeks, I will
say goodbye to everyone I have met this year.
They will all return home or to a vacation destination. Most of them will return a month later, but
some will stay away. Like me, they are
done with Tanzania, at least for now. If
I make it back at some point, even if it is only a year away, Dodoma will be
changed. Friends I leave will have left
and new people will be here. My home
here will never feel the same.
As excited as I am
to see all my friends and family in Wyoming, part of me isn’t looking forward my return. It is so hard to leave home knowing it will
never be the same again. It is harder to
return to a place that should feel like home.
Yes, I am looking forward to real hamburgers, and root beer. It will be nice when a hole in the road is
not “fixed” by sticking a branch from a nearby tree in it so that people avoid
it. I’m not sure I’m ready to be
bombarded the things I have lived happily (and been better off?) without for
the past year.
Home is where the heart is
No matter how the heart lives
Inside your heart where love is
That's where you've got to make yourself
At home