Independence Day

Posted by Ali

It was a few minutes after 8:30. I was late and preoccupied with getting to the office as quickly as possible. I walked in and greeted Simon before realizing he wasn't really paying any attention to my pleasantries. "It's rather quiet out there today," he said, staring out the window toward the Conference Center. "Do you think they're all just late for work or is everyone still in worship?" I peered out the window, noticing for the first time that the campus was still and void of any human presence. Doors remained closed and curtains still covered the windows visible from our office. "It's like a ghost town," I replied, wrinkling my forehead. "Do you suppose it might be a holiday?" Simon queried. I looked at him, then whirled around to face the calendar on the opposite wall. December 2010. My eyes followed the Thursday column down and stopped on the red 9. "Yep," I pointed after confirming the date on the two other calendars adorning our office walls, "it's Independence Day. Nice how we're always told about our holidays so far in advance, eh?" Simon rolled his eyes. "I could have tried to get Friday off too and had a long weekend in Moshi." "I could have slept in," I sighed. "Well," he said, "let's go find something else to do." So we left our office, locked the door and returned to our cottages.

No one at ADRA Tanzania EVER tells us about the country's statutory holidays. If we find out ahead of time at all it's always just through personal investigation after accidentally overhearing random conversations. Most of the time, though, we discover the national holidays upon arriving at our office and finding the rest of the ADRA campus deserted. Although I'm annoyed no one thought to tell Simon and I about the holiday, I'm thankful for it. I was in need of a week day off. Since I was already awake and knew I'd never get back to sleep, I changed into more appropriate clothes and headed to the baby home, arriving just in time to help feed breakfast. I spent the rest of the morning playing with babies before doing some organizing and cleaning in my room. In the afternoon I was able to go to the Ngurdoto Lodge pool with Shae, Danielle, Kezia, Jordan and Ruth to get some much needed relaxation and sun. I'm so glad Tanzania had an Independence Day right when I needed it. I was thinking about sneaking off to the pool during my lunchtime (and the hours surrounding lunch break, too) to join the other volunteers so I definitely appreciated not having to try to sneak off campus and just having the whole day off instead.