Goodbyes and motorbike rides

June 25, 2018

Salvete omnes!

Today (Monday) was the last day that we were at Tumaini. We woke up especially early (530am) in order to be prepared to walk the secondary students to school for the first time (they have been off all week, if you recall). It was darker than when we have walked the primary students, so some of us brought flashlights with us on the walk. The secondary school is a little farther down the road from Tumaini, but I treasured the longer time as I got to walk Naomi, Gladys, and Lucy, and talk to them a little before we said our goodbyes. (I did break a rule and walked back to Tumaini without an escort. Whoops!). I took pictures with some of the girls and said goodbye to others that I saw on campus.

At about 700am (I had plans for 700am, which will be revealed soon) all the secondary students had gone to school and I found some primary kids to walk to school. I was on my way back at 712am when I was called by some students to walk them to school. I went around the classrooms and said goodbye and took some pictures with the younger students.

At around 724am I was finally walking back to the apartment at Tumaini when I heard an engine and decided to run towards the gate. There was my 700am ride! Emmanuel, the parish elder who had given me a short night ride the previous evening, was waiting to give me a longer morning ride on his motorbike. He came prepared with a bright safety vest and helmet. He explained the circuit that we would take, which would be around 30km and take about 40 minutes. The total trip ended up being around 1.5 hours, but I enjoyed going on the dirt and tarmac roads around Nyeri and a couple other neighboring towns. You experience places differently when you are open to the air and can look all around you. Emmanuel treated me to a short breakfast at what I would consider a "Kenyan diner" before returning us both to Tumaini at 900am; just in time to leave!

The group packed the "van", said some painful goodbyes to the adults around Tumaini that have been our brothers and sisters this trip, and drove off. We made our way back to Nairobi (luckily for me, no scary Africana this time around) to the Methodist Guest House. We had an early night and focused on packing our small bags for our safari which would begin on Tuesday. While we went back to some normal activities, I'm sure that our hearts and minds were still back at Tumaini, and would be so for a long time.

ex animo,
Stella aka Ngwaci (Sweet Potato)

Me on the motorbike in GIF form: