The world has changed since my last post.

We are back in Hamilton having left Tanzania Monday March 23 - now three weeks ago.  The aeroplane tickets saga is a post on its own but suffice to say I’m on first name terms with Judy from Ethiopian Airways.

I had started packing.

Our departure from Arusha was rather rushed in the end.  We woke on Monday Mar 23, still just half packed up, to the news that our Emirates flights, organised by AVI and scheduled for that evening after a flight with Ethiopian via Addis Ababa to Dubai, had been cancelled over night.  I emailed the AVI travel agent and we planned for staying in Arusha.  I rang my brother Cam for his birthday and told him we wouldn’t be leaving after all.  Five minutes later the agent ordered us straight to the airport and promised tickets for the Qatar flight.  So suitcases were untidily finalised, keys left with a neighbour to empty the fridge and hurried and most unsatisfactory goodbyes said to guards and housekeepers - no hugs and no language to explain why not! We flew via Dar es Salaam and Doha to Perth and then by Qantas to Melbourne Reagan’s boys arrived with our car and we drove straight home.

Curios that made it home, there are more still in our house in Arusha!

It’s strange to be home.  We survived our 14 days quarantine with the help of Toby as well as several friends who shopped for us and dropped off meals. (Everyone has wanted to be helpful!)  My first trip to the supermarket showed the reality of what we’d read about in the newspapers.  No toilet paper, no rice, no pasta, no flour. People were shopping like automatons - just looking straight ahead - no smiles, no greeting.  It was very unsettling.  But now we’re into the new rhythm of life and planning for when we’ll be able to return to Tanzania.  Our assignments with the Australian Volunteers Program have been officially terminated and I have submitted my final report.

Library monitor Maria made sure all books were returned

We tried to tie up loose ends before we left Arusha.  It was very difficult as so much was in a state of disruption.  A decision was made by the centre where I worked to send the trainees home early for Easter.  All the books were returned to the library.  I knew I would be returning to Australia before the decision was made to close the centre so all the self education resources are prepared and ready for use.

We had bought a laptop computer to replace Steve’s MacBook that died after a whisky-related accident and we have left it to be used by staff at the centre.  It has all the documents I was working from so trainers will be able to update and/or repurpose whatever they’d like, and reprint the most useful worksheets.  My laminator and several hundred pouches are there to be used as well.  As with our departure from our home in Sakina, leaving the centre was for me so difficult as there could be no hugs, and explanations were too difficult.  The trainees had been evacuated swiftly - before I arrived on the Friday so I missed saying goodbye to most of them - but the ones who still remained enjoyed the lollies I’d brought to be shared into pockets for their journey.  The Flying Medical Service pilots were all out on various duties too, and the Dispensary staff run off their feet as is typical on a Friday so it was a rather dismal farewell.

We will return to Arusha when we can - we still have a house and car there, and a granddaughter who has been promised a safari in Tanzania.  Whether it will be later this year or not until next year, or even the year after, remains to be seen.

My quarantine task was painting the deck that had just been finished before we left Hamilton in March last year.  It's all ready now for future parties.

Love from Jenny