No way! 200 days away from home spent volunteering and exploring across East Africa.
I woke up yesterday so so so grateful for a regular nights sleep. Finally I was able to sleep from 10:00pm to 6:00am (resuming my comfortable sleep schedule) and woke up feeling well rested. Of course I still battled with my alarm because I’m sure I could have used a full 24 hours of sleep to catch up—in the end I made it out of bed though.
I’ve been very eager to share something since being back in Arusha, but I’ve held off in case I might jinx it. At this point I think I’m in the clear though. There have been no barking dogs throughout the night! I remember taking issue with the noise a lot six months ago when I first arrived in Arusha. Every night, right around the time I was shutting my eyes and laying my head down it seemed, a bunch of dogs would go howling at the moon or something. (I’m pretty sure it was just one dog, but boy could it play the role of a pack of em). So anyways, I was very happy and grateful. Also, in Shinyanga there was always quite a bit of noise at night on the surrounding streets, so I’m happy to be back in a kind of suburbiaish area here where busy roads are far enough away that they can’t be heard.
Yesterday I fell straight back into my past routine. In the morning me and Grace wordlessly agreed that I would like a delicious omelette for breakfast accompanied by some fresh juice. I did have to eat the omelette on the walk to school—Abi and I were running a little late as usual. From there it was as every other Arusha day went in the past: bus to pick up the kids, school, bus to drop the kids off.
I missed all my kiddos on the bus route and it was heartwarming to see their smiles as they recognized me while they were jumping up into the bus. It was funny to hear them greeting me, and I was a little taken aback, because I forgot that at school I was referred to as “sir Mason” by all the students. All the other places I was either brother, my son, Mason, or mase, so hearing that threw me for a loop and had me giggling. But ya, the bus ride was definitely something I had missed a lot.
I was a bit of a recluse at school. I have this whole internship thing to do remotely, so I told Pius (the head teacher) that I wouldn’t be available like last time. I found a good quiet space in the music room with Ezekia, but that was disturbed when classes came in after lunch for dance rehearsal and then music class. I’d say my day was 3/4 productive compared to working in a quiet office, and I think that’s a good start.
After school I went with the bus route and then for my run. I will say, running is a bit more difficult here than in Shinyanga because the latter is flat as heck while Arusha seems to have some sneaky hills nestled in all over the place. After getting home and having some dinner (which I ate alone at 7:30pm because apparently that’s “too early for dinner time”) I went to sleep very early in hopes of locking in my good sleep schedule.
Today I feel good as a result of that, but there is a certain chill in the air that tried to push me back into bed and under the covers. I persevered though and am now up and going, just about to leave for the bus route!