Thoughts - Annie

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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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