Coming back...

We land in Nairobi airport in Kenya. The airport is bigger than I expected. The plane is late. At this point, we are exhausted, yet still anxious about our arrival to Tanzania.

We land in Mwanza, Tanzania. The airport consisted of security check-in and baggage claim in one long hallway and a few offices. I stood in line to get my visa and yellow card checked and walked over to the other room to retrieve my bag. We found Paula outside and were greeted by the Mayo Clinic students who were leaving in an hour to Zanzibar. The weather was in perfect 70s and clear sky. I already love Tanzania.

Nykato is about 20 minutes away from Mwanza. Before heading home, we ran a few errands. We went to the ATM, exchanged money, got info on safaris, and got a few groceries.

Why “Coming back”? It has been to long since I have traveled. In college, I would travel out of the country every break I had. It has been a year since I have been out of the country; my last travel was last summer to The Gambia and South Korea. In college, I traveled to Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Dominican Republic, Peruvian Amazon, Galapagos, Ecuador, Mongolia, China, and Korea. Except for Italy and Korea, every country has this feeling of home. You may be surprised that I don’t consider Korea as home. Although I consider my relatives as close family, I’m not a fan of the materialistic and over-westernized culture that S. Korea has become. I don’t consider the other countries to be home because they are all developing countries. This isn’t a situation where I, the westerner, feel that I am in any way superior or feel that I am needed or necessary to make a change in the area. If anything, I feel that I can learn a lot from people anywhere I may be. As we drive pass the stores and people walking along the road, I have this overwhelming feeling of joy and calmness in my heart. I feel that I am at home. I am a simple person, not needing much to live happily. I think I love the raw simplicity of daily living in these countries. Not to say that some of these people have chosen to live “simple” lives, to say that life is easy, or not to say that they are not entitled to the luxuries that busy the lives of developed countries. There’s an emphasis of taking the time to indulge in relationships. It is the way that time is spent. Perhaps it’s a personal thing, where sometimes I would like to not be so caught up in many things and to take time in relationships. I am learning. To place my family and friends first and think of others before myself. If I have the faith that God will provide and I do my part, what do I have to worry? Right? So yes, I have come home. It feels right.

Finally, we arrive to the compound. The other UNC students were just finishing at the clinic early for the day. Brittany gives us a quick tour of the clinic and we meet some of the staff. The bungalow is pretty nice and spacious with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room, dining area, and kitchen. There’s a trash basket, a paper basket, and compost bucket. No toilet paper down the toilet. Hot water. We are spoiled. Laundry hung on the clothes line out back. We are also welcomed by the boys from the Scottish med school (1 from England (Neal), 3 from Ireland (Pete, Chris, Michael), who will be here the same month as us.

Friday is market day in Nykato. We went into market, where I bought cloth to give to a local tailor. African shirt and skirt, check. We go to a local pub to watch a world cup game, where I ordered fries, a ginger soda, and tasted Pili Pili (yummy hot sauce!).

Usually, there’s a lady named Lucy, who cooks amazing dinners, but she was away when we first got here. So we cook stir-fry for dinner at Paula’s. Yum.