Mambo, friends!
By the time you read this, you will probably be home with your family or in a college dorm
room or coming back from an after-school activity, somewhere on the other end of the
world. Right now, I am sitting on the couch on home base, smelling spices wafting in from
the kitchen, listening to Peter and Lodrick speaking in fast-paced Swahili and folks singing
(well, more like shouting) along to some Katy Perry song outside of the boys’ bedrooms,
and reflecting on the past three weeks and all the triumphs and struggles we shared as,
together, we navigated a culture completely different than our own.
We danced to drum
music with Mount Meru towering over us in the distance. We felt the cool air against us as
we descended into the Ngorongoro Crator. We dove into fresh, icy waters at the base of
Mount Kilimanjaro, or watched our friends do so and shivered vicariously. We said the
words “Asante” and “Karibu” until the words became stuck in our heads. Some of us taught
in front of a group of students for the first time and experienced the challenges of trying to
convey messages across a language barrier.
We delved into complex topics in mentor
groups, pushed through discomfort, and grew deeper our capacities to listen and
understand. We laughed together, sometimes cried together, and made friends who might
stay with us for the rest of our lives. Most importantly, we learned a great deal about
ourselves: who we are, how we handle conflict, what it means to step up to lead, and the
ways in which our own identities and home contexts inform how we relate to the world
beyond ourselves.
As I sit here, I am wondering where you will be in six months, how you will have processed
these experiences when you read this letter, and how you will continue to be compelled to
enact change in your own communities. On our last day in Arusha, a few members of the
group collected memories from the trip and responded to the questions: “what is one thing
you could say to yourself, as you were a month ago” and “what is one lesson you have
learned over the past three weeks.”
I have compiled some of these messages on the next age. I hope that, wherever you are, you can take a moment to sit with them, reflect on our
journey together, and remember all that we shared.
Asante sana!
-Sarah
Feeling nostalgic? You can experience that same sense of friendship and adventure abroad again! Check out all our new destinations for Summer 2018, or enroll now.
