Thoughts - Annie

We've been here in Tanzania for about ten days, and it feels like we just got here. We're going to leave the day after tomorrow and fly back to Chicago, and I am so not ready to go back home. Being here has opened my eyes to the outside world, and I don't know if I am ready to go back to Wilmette. I love being at the school and being with the kids. Even when we come back to the hotel, I miss and think about the children; it is going to be so much harder when we leave on Friday, knowing that I won't see them the next morning. I really do not want to leave. I'm going to miss the kids most of all, but I'll also miss other things. I'll miss the 5:30 AM Muslim prayer I hear every morning; I'll miss the sound of the birds outside; I'll miss having little kids running after the van waving to us as we drive down the road; I'll miss the amazing food; I'll miss the loud voices of the kids at school saying the alphabet over and over again; I'll miss so much about this place. But most of all, I am going to miss the children. I love playing with them, hugging them, laughing with them. I love always having a kid on my lap; I love how excited they get about going to school; I love everything about them.

Today at the school, I worked on stenciling the alphabet and numbers onto the walls of a classroom. While it took a long time and involved a lot of careful scrubbing, it felt really good to paint these letters on the wall and know that they will stay there for a really long time. So many children are going to see the numbers and the letters, and just thinking about that made me feel really good, as I physically made a mark on the wall. As I write this, I think about the children, and I cannot believe that we will be leaving them in only a couple of days. I have held so many of them and played and danced with them every day, and it is going to be really weird not seeing them every day. I am never going to forget these days that I have been here, and I really want to return again. I know that when we leave, I am going to think about these kids and hope they're doing well every day.

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