Goodbye Simba

Yesterday I spent the day in Songea helping Simba move out of his apartment. After three years of service in Songea, there was a lot of people to say goodbye to, and a lot of stuff in the apartment! I went with him to visit Songea Boys secondary school. It was fun to see another side of Songea...not so much the city, but more of a village. These pictures are of one of the families near the school that Simba was close with and some of the students at the school.

I spent time around town running some errands for St. Laurent's too. I had some boxes made for the donated art supplies so the kids can use them in their respective classrooms. I also bought a bike from Simba! I will head into town maybe tomorrow or this weekend on the bus and then ride it back to Hanga. It will be about a 40 km ride I think. Not too bad for an afternoon workout!

Today I got to class ready to begin teaching again, but was told "no school. Holiday!" It is the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan, and since there is a number of students who are Muslim, there was no class today, and there will be no class tomorrow. The celebration is called Eid and it wasn't announced until late last night. Has something to do with the moon cycle...

So tomorrow I will do some more work on the computers in the trade school lab, and perhaps head into Songea to ride my bike back to Hanga. I think school will begin again on Friday...

Below are some more pictures I found of the Germans and the Italians with me and Charlie. Our friend Gaudence is with us in the pictures, too. Strange that these friends have already been gone from Hanga for almost a month now. Life in Hanga is lonely without them, but we are getting by :)

more updates to come soon, with more pictures from the past week. They will be a little out of order, but I am currently having power issues with my laptop. Hopefully I will figure that out soon so I can at least get the necessary files from my hard drive...

all for now. Happy Eid