Vacation!

December's been a busy month. It would have been busy under any circumstances since the end of the year brings all sorts of deadlines for annual reports and donor updates, but this December was even busier than usual since the Ministry of Home Affairs finally decided to officially close Nduta Camp. The thousand-or-so Congolese and mixed nationality refugees who had been living in Nduta had been transferred to Kanembwa Camp (also in Kibondo) back in October, so the remaining caseload of about 10,000 Burundians have been given the choice of repatriating or relocating to Mtabila Camp (down in Kasulu). Not surprisingly, the majority are opting to relocate, so convoys have been shuttling back and forth for the past 2 weeks and by the end of the month the empty camp will be handed over to the government (only 6 months behind schedule!).

The past few weeks have been especially busy for me since I'd planned to stretch my second R&R out by combining it with the Christmas Eve/Christmas/Boxing Day/New Years Eve/New Years holidays, so I needed to finish all those reports and proposals up before leaving for my extended vacation. After putting in some long hours at the office all week, I packed my bags and caught my ride to Mwanza. By afternoon, I was marveling at the difference that 6-7 hours (and 1 ferry ride) makes. I'd known that Mwanza was Tanzania's second largest city but after several months in Kibondo my expectations were pretty low ... and in this case, incorrectly so. Not only was Mwanza beautiful (it's situated right on Lake Victoria), but it's quite the bustling metropolis and (as it turned out) full of fun, interesting expats. I spent the night at Tunza Lodge ... which meant that in addition to meeting a number of those fun, interesting expats, I also got to wake up to the sound of the lake's waves lapping practically at my doorstep. Saturday brought several hours worth of airline headaches (which seem to be par for the course for me anymore), but I finally got on a plane around 7 and was in Dar soon enough. A short taxi ride later, I met up with Tim (fellow PiAf-er) who I'm crashing with for a few days before we head to Zanzibar for the holidays.

(the view from our place in Dar)