Week 07: Reflected in the Lion’s Eye: The Week We Didn't Want to End

Final fieldwork, deep connections, and the bittersweet joy of departure

Every week seems to be the best week of the trip. This week was incredible and maybe one of my favorites. This was our last week at our field site and we had a lot of wrapping up to do with our research. 

Since our weeks here start on Saturday, we started our week on safari!! In classic Kate Glass fashion, I waited until the last weekend to go on a safari, even though I had been talking about it for months before we even arrived. The best bang for our buck ended up being a 2 day, 1 night safari to Ruaha National park, joining another pair of travelers who had booked it too. On Saturday morning we walked into town to meet our driver and he informed us we would be driving to pick up some Italians at Tosamaganga. The likelihood of us knowing them from our work at Tosa was slim, but never none. To no surprise, it happened to be 2 medical students that were nearing the end of their 1 month stint in Iringa through a CUAMM scholarship (Italian Doctors with Africa). We embarked on our 2.5 hour drive to the park and it was mostly silent while Lucy and I read and the Italians scarcely looked at us. 

1-24) Photos from Safari at Ruaha National Park

Our safari commenced with an afternoon/evening game drive proceeding lunch and a quick drive after dinner on our way to our accommodations. The highlight of Saturday’s drive was seeing a young male lion up close and personal. If you examine the photos, you can see the safari car and myself reflected in the pupil of the lion. I spent the day taking pictures while Lucy rode as passenger princess with Kulwa, our driver. If you had guessed we selected the budget option for safari lodging, you would be correct! We stayed for a handful of hours in bandas, a semi permanent tented structure situation. We arrived around 10:00pm, after dark and left before dawn at 6:00am. The hours in between were full of restful sleep after a long safari and the sweet serenade of wild dogs in the night. Sunday’s morning game drive brought more elephants, giraffes, hippos, and even a snoozing hyena. On our safari home (safari means journey), Kulwa took us to a house made of recycled plastic water bottles which was odd but cool. Shortly after, we heard a loud clanking noise and stopped to find our driveshaft was detached from the car! Upon some research in the African bush, AI told me that we were fresh out of luck, but Kulwa was once a mechanic and he spent around an hour under the car and soon we were back in action. 

1-6) Last photos of safari, including the driveshaft!

As soon as we arrived back at the hostel, we were greeted by the group of friends we had made as they came over for chai. At this point, the study abroad group from UF had arrived and were now staying at our quaint hostel, drastically changing the vibe and free space that we once had reign over. The next few days were full to the brim with friendship, research and laughter. When we weren’t at the hospital, we spent the afternoons with our mentors, the students and friends.

On Monday night, we walked Dr Strong back to her compound and stayed to say hi to Luca and her host, Getruda. As we were walking back to the hostel, we joked about seeing Ahmed and James as we often do around this time. To neither of our surprise, a white truck with dark tinting revealed our friends inside. We hopped in without a single possession to our name and went for a sunset tour of Kihesa and Iringa before landing at our favorite Ruksana for dinner. During the meal, Erick had called James’ phone to ask about us and I answered, calming his fears that we had been kidnapped and ensuring him we were hale and hearty. We returned to have chai with more friends and then moved locations down to the Hidden Bar to hang out for the evening. 

On Tuesday, we had a going-away gathering planned before many of us started to leave for different reasons. Ahmed had generously ordered Ruksana to cater dinner for us and the entirety of the study abroad group. We spent the evening joking, playing card games, and making stories with our beloved friends. At the end of the night, James presented a beautiful chocolate cake that said “See you soon…” to celebrate our departure. 

On Wednesday, we invited our intern friend, Edson to join us for dinner at Sunset Hotel, a place we often saw him on the weekends since he lives nearby. We arrived first and he rolled up shortly, rocking a snazzy sweater. When we complimented it, he responded “thanks it’s my grandmothers”. How charming! We taught him to shuffle a deck of cards while waiting for dinner and he would later thank us profusely saying that he impressed the ladies with his new skills. It was bitter sweet to have dinner with a friend we had spent 2 months with, working side by side and now having to leave him. I am incredibly grateful for the miracle of the internet and it’s ability to keep us in contact. I will continue to check in and talk to the many friends that I made here, long after I leave this continent. After a less than confident dark walk home through the “back door” shortcut, we arrived to find none other than Ahmed, James, Edo, Erick, Jerry and more friends waiting for us, having chai. 

Each of these nights, we stayed up a little bit too late, soaking up the fleeting time we had left with our new found family. I feel as if I am repeating that we hung out with our friends, drank chai with our friends, watched sunset with our friends… but I can’t stress enough how much being accepted into a friend group made a difference in our time and experience here in Iringa. It had its pros and cons but it opened more doors to opportunities that we wouldn’t have had without these connections. We would never have been able to see the largest dairy farm in East Africa, tour the sights of Iringa or crack as many jokes as we did if it weren’t for these fools. 

After saying our goodbyes at the hospital on Thursday and collecting the last of our gifts at the Maasai market, we headed back to Hidden to face the real beast: packing. Our room had become disastrous with last minute laundry, trinkets and the accumulation of weeks of life all built up around us. I jumped in first, completely destroying the room and doing my best to sort my bags into what I would need for the remainder of my trip versus what was packed for good until I got back to the States. I packed into the night, stopping briefly to say goodbyes to friends that were hanging out downstairs at the Hidden Bar. 

Finally, Friday had arrived; our day of departure. July 25th snuck up on us, surprising us with how hastily it arrived. We had to say goodbye to the dadas that took such good care of us, Josephina and Devotha, as well as Jerry the house manager and one of our good friends. Although we were going to see Erick the next day in Dar, it was still bittersweet to know our time in the country was increasingly waning. Erick was conveniently going to Dar the same day we were but was driving and had generously agreed to take our larger bags so we didn’t have to pay to check them on the plane. Soon, reliable James arrived to drive us to the airport, braving my tears and helping us savor the time we had left in Iringa. Once we arrived at the teeny tiny Iringa airport, he helped us with our bags and waited for us to make it inside, past security before waving one more time and seeing us off. 

Once arriving in Dar, we got a ride to our luxury hotel (it was a Marriot) that we had splurged on for the end of our trip. We laid low the rest of the day, eating at the cafe across the street and doing some computer work before eating at the hotel restaurant and playing cards.