Going Places

For my college graduation gift, my grandparents had bought a large, moss-colored suitcase.

“You’re going places,” my poppy proudly said as he presented me with the luggage. I had just earned a bachelor’s degree in communications with an emphasis in print journalism, and his statement warmed my heart and boosted my spirit for all the future’s possibilities.

Two years later, the suitcase made it all the way to Kilimanjaro International Airport in Tanzania, East Africa. After six take-offs and six landings, it was a miracle the luggage made there at all. Still intact (minus missing sunglasses and a Ziploc baggie of Kudos bars) and positioned to be wheeled out, it was probably just as ready as I was to finally reach our destination.

It was January 2007, and I spent the next three weeks as a voluntourist, teaching English as a second language to girls ages 14 to 19 at a vocational training school in Nkoaranga, about 20 kilometers east of the city of Arusha. In my free time, which included afternoons, evenings and weekends, I engaged in cultural exchange with local Tanzanians and visited several villages and well-known destinations, such as Lake Manyara, Ngorogoro Crater, Serengeti National Park, and the United Nations Headquarters in Arusha, home to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Today, I could talk for days about my volunteer vacation, but that wasn’t always the case. In fact, it took me almost a year after the trip to be able to openly share about my experiences without tearing up or having to collect myself. Looking back, I now realize that I was initially so emotional because I had changed in Tanzania. Any experience can influence change in a person, but to have a heart and soul reshaped and refocused takes time, and that is what I believed happened to me throughout the first 12 months after my return. I was processing. I was unknowingly being prepared for a new life path.

In 2009, in a discussion on what fate my future might hold, my boyfriend described Tanzania as one of the great loves of my life.

I was speechless.

He was right.

Now, three and a half years after first landing on African soil, I am packing my bags to return to the great nation and great people of Tanzania. I’m excited and I’m nervous, but I’m going with faith. And my green suitcase.

L

TZ Contact Information

Even though I'll be halfway around the world (quite literally!), I won't have fallen off the earth! Here's the best way to reach me while I'm away:

Send Email
& Check This Blog

Please reach me at Ms.Gordon@Ymail.com. (Notice: Ms DOT Gordon) Many of you have another email address saved for me, but please know this is the only email inbox I plan on checking regularly. Please save it to your contact list because I would LOVE to receive emails from you!  

The internet in Dar is about the equivalent of dial-up here. (Maybe a little worse, I will see.) To maximize my internet usage/time, I plan to check one email account and update this blog. Any other places on the web, like Facebook or other email accounts, are not a priority for me to check. (At least for awhile!) Photos and things like that will be posted on this blog, so make sure to come back!  :)

How Friends/Family Can Mail Things to Me

Use HOPAC’s address:

            Laura Gordon

            c/o Haven of Peace Academy

            P.O. Box 70027

            Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

I don't know how much postage will cost you.

Mailing Tips

The Tanzanian mail system is not always reliable.  You can expect mail to take as little as a week to get to me, or as long as six months or more.  Some tips for mailing me things:

• Never mail anything electronic or valuable.
• Be obscure on the customs declaration form.  For example, write “garments” instead of “clothes.”
• Don’t gift wrap things—the customs officials will just unwrap them.
• Never send anything by surface mail.  In the States, the post office will tell you that surface mail only takes six weeks, but in reality it will take at least six months.  Air mail really is the only option if you want me to receive your package before I leave Tanzania!
• Mailing envelopes that can fit into a regular-sized postal box arrive faster and more reliably than boxes.

Cards and notes would be most welcome! (And a few photos too?) They will sure make me feel less homesick when I can have them out and around to see.  :)

Kwa heri sasa (bye for now),

L

Midnight Musings

With just under two weeks left before I leave for Dar, last night was the first night that I couldn't get to sleep because I was excited. Finally! A night without laying there with nerves keeping me awake. I've recently started communicating via email with Erin (roommate) and Heather (English), who are already there. (I'm late because my processing has taken longer; school started Aug. 23.) Their emails have really been helping me look forward to my new life. The most recent topics circle around housing and curriculum. Good stuff! Anyway, the building excitement kept me awake last night and I had to keep turning on the light and scribbling a list of things to do.

My midnight musings. Should have grabbed actually stationery, but oh well LOL

My mom is awesome, and she found a GREAT flight over. I'll leave LAX on Wednesday, Sept. 29 at almost 8 p.m. and arrive in Dar on Friday, Oct. 1 at 7 a.m. That's 25 hours of travel, baby! LOL It breaks down to a non-stop 10-hour flight fromn LA to Heathrow, a five-hour layover there, then a non-stop 10-hour flight from London to Dar. Yayyy.

OK, I better get to that growing list now.

L