Two years ago...

Posted by Ali

Two years ago I arrived on a small campus in a beautiful African country. Two years ago I didn't know how much my thoughts and feelings and ideas would change over the next eight months of my life. Two years ago I had a goal: to write passionate public relations articles so others could learn about how ADRA Tanzania was helping the people around them. I didn't meet my goal. Not even close. In fact, I completely failed. But, along the way, my goal changed. And so did my life. Instead of changing the world (or at least the ADRA community and those who donate to it), I gave the hours after work in the ADRA office to 40 babies and toddlers and the volunteers who helped take care of them. Two years ago, when I stepped off the plane at Kilimanjaro Int'l Airport, I didn't know the names Nancy, Witness, Patrick, or Tessa, Anya, and Nina. But now my heart will never forget them and the many other names that are engraved on my heart. I didn't know I would gain Tanzanian-dadas (sisters) during the hours I spent up in the volunteer apartment above the baby home. I didn't know how much my heart would ache when I kissed the babies' cheeks for the last time, and later squeezed my friends goodbye at the airport. I didn't know I would cherish the pictures I took in Tanzania so much. And I didn't know that looking at them, even months later, would make me wish that I was back there again. Tanzania, I didn't know that you would bewitch and enrapture me. Your jungles, your mountains, your colours, your people. Not a day goes by that I don't think of you.

Today marks two years since I set foot in Tanzania. And I never want to forget the experience. So I want to revive this blog for a little while to post more pictures from my time there. I neglected it for the last few weeks I was in Tanzania, and I still have half-finished blog posts sitting in my drafts folder. I still have hundreds of pictures that have never made it onto my blog or onto Facebook. And they are pictures people should see. They are pictures of the year I fell in love with Tanzania. They are pictures of how I became who I am today.