As we head out on safari, leaving our good friends at the institute of agriculture, who have cooked and cared for us, as well as laughed and danced with us, it's a chance to reflect on the project.
We've got volunteers from Brasil, Germany, America and the UK, all in Tanzania, working on school classroom construction, art classes for children, seeing what is needed to expand the health clinics, meetings with local leaders, mapping the local area, checking all the water points and more. As the president says, 'hapa kazi tu' - 'here there is only work!'
With so many languages and cultures in one place, the team has worked together, along with the Tanzanian team who are here year round driving the projects forward, and the community, to achieve a huge amount in a short time.
Yesterday's farewell ceremony, also a celebration of Nelson and Marshall's birthdays was a marathon of songs and speeches and gift giving. One feature of Tanzanian celebrations seems to be why stop at one song when five will do perfectly fine!
More than the work completed, it is the relationships forged during the lightening fast two weeks that continue to allow Karimu and now it's Tanzanian board and community leaders to work together to prioritize projects according to local need, not outside assumptions of what's best.
A Tanzanian phrase sums up this philosophy and approach, and the feeling between the volunteers, Tanzanian team and community - 'tupo pamoja' -'we are together'