50th Peace Corps Celebration/Tanzania

On December 5, 1964, eighty P.C. volunteers met at Kennedy Airport in New York City to embark on a two year adventure in Tanganyika, East Africa. We would be the 6th Peace Corps group into Tanganyika, and we were going to teach school, most of us, for the first time in our lives, partly in the language of Swahili. We had trained for three months at Syracuse University and were now ready to go. Looking at the picture of this group in New York, sent to me by a fellow volunteer, I wonder now what each of us was thinking at that moment. Me? I was both scared and excited for this adventure to begin, having said good-bye to my Dad, Mom & six siblings who sent me off , by train, from Cincinnati, Ohio (all of us in tears.). At the time, not much was known about the "dark" continent of Africa, so my family was also scared for me to leave. But, oh well; I went anyway.
Forty-seven years later at the 50th Celebration of Peace Corps in Washington, D.C., I met this adventurous group again! Three days sped by as we looked closely at each other for signs of recognition; got names & places strait; shared memories and stories (and pictures); learned what life had brought to each of us, and laughed until the single digit hours of the morning over glasses of wine. We felt like a family again. The years just slipped away, back to the place where we all lived in Tanganyika (Tanzania) for two years both together and separately. We listened to an update of Tanzania 'today' by the former American Ambassador to Tanzania, and left Washington very proud of what we had done and what we had contributed to that Africa country.
Today, there are 125 Peace Corps volunteers in Tanzania, East Africa serving in the fields of health, Aids prevention, Environment, Engineering and Education (Tanzania has asked for many more U.S. teachers). President Obama feels that Tanzania is one of the strongest and well run countries in Africa today.
Aside from all that, personally, this was one of the most wonderful, thrilling, satisfying and fun adventures of my life.