Switch day was a success!!

I am very exhausted after traveling all day so this post will be a short one. Today was switch day and the students left TCDC to move into their hospitals.  Here's a group photo we took the morning of switch day. I love this picture.

Once everyone was ready, all the students with hospital assignments in the Moshi region went with me while Ash took care of the Arusha group. I took a quick picture of all the Moshi students before we left in the morning. The Moshi students are great and since I'm based in Moshi, I couldn't be happier working with this group!

Everything went smoothly today. We left at 9 AM and dropped off the Machame girls first. Since I was at Machame hospital last year, the visit brought back great memories for me. It was nice to see the hospital and the staff again. The Machame girls are in good hands.

After leaving Machame, the bus took the remaining students to Moshi. Once in town, I got off at the bus stand with the Marangu and Huruma groups to take them to their hospitals via public transportation. We ended up buying out a NOAH for 30,000 Tanzanian Shillings for a 60 km drive (just shy of 20 dollars for about 40 miles). Since this was the first year we tried this arrangement, I was not sure how it would work out. It ended up great and in the future, I recommend that the students placed in Marangu and Huruma hospitals get dropped off in this manner.

While I was dealing with Marangu and Huruma, the bus dropped off the remaining students at KCMC and Kibosho. I would have liked to see off all the students myself but the TCDC bus needed to get back to Arusha by 1:30 PM and we were limited on time.

When I finished with Marangu and Huruma, it was already 3 PM and I still had to get myself back to TCDC. It only took me 2 hours via dala dala and an Arusha-Moshi bus to make it back safely. I really appreciate that transportation is so inexpensive here. It means that with only a little bit of money you can find yourself very far away having another adventure.

If not for evening tea, I would have been fast asleep as soon as I got back to my bed. Since the students made it safely to their new housing and are taken care of, I think I will sleep in tomorrow morning. :)