Sunday, December 12, 2004
Saturday, 11 December
That last day in London was pretty uneventful. I passed a library, and went in to do a search on corporal punishment as a method of school discipline. Copied a couple of articles I want to post in the staff room back at Nsumba, along with an advertisement for various kinds of paddles for every type of student.
Dar es Salaam is crawling with Peace Corps Volunteers just now – a few just passing through, some here for medical reasons, but mostly scads of Volunteers who have completed their service and are now packing, making flight arrangements, completing some last sightseeing in Tanzania. Eight or so are flying out tomorrow morning on the flight to London and then on to points west. It is great to talk with them, hear what their plans are as they talk about the next phase of their lives. It is strange to think that now we, I, are the old timers, the volunteers who have been here a year and are comfortable with the customs and the tasks and the system.
Today a gang of us went out to Mwenge, the center of the high end handmade crafts in Dar, at the end of the daladala line. Many of the retiring volunteers have bought chests, furniture, carved headboards and big statues to make use of joint arrangements to ship everything to the States in one big container. It is a great system that I hope my group also arranges a shipping container for next year. A Zanzibar Chest would be a great way to remember these two years in Africa.
Also, Mwenge is a must destination for the clan in August, if we all finish our safari in Dar es Salaam.
That last day in London was pretty uneventful. I passed a library, and went in to do a search on corporal punishment as a method of school discipline. Copied a couple of articles I want to post in the staff room back at Nsumba, along with an advertisement for various kinds of paddles for every type of student.
Dar es Salaam is crawling with Peace Corps Volunteers just now – a few just passing through, some here for medical reasons, but mostly scads of Volunteers who have completed their service and are now packing, making flight arrangements, completing some last sightseeing in Tanzania. Eight or so are flying out tomorrow morning on the flight to London and then on to points west. It is great to talk with them, hear what their plans are as they talk about the next phase of their lives. It is strange to think that now we, I, are the old timers, the volunteers who have been here a year and are comfortable with the customs and the tasks and the system.
Today a gang of us went out to Mwenge, the center of the high end handmade crafts in Dar, at the end of the daladala line. Many of the retiring volunteers have bought chests, furniture, carved headboards and big statues to make use of joint arrangements to ship everything to the States in one big container. It is a great system that I hope my group also arranges a shipping container for next year. A Zanzibar Chest would be a great way to remember these two years in Africa.
Also, Mwenge is a must destination for the clan in August, if we all finish our safari in Dar es Salaam.
