The Beginning of the End

Happy Friday. Happy last day of classes. Oh happy day!

My schedule for the next month is going to be crazy, I’m not sure if this is good or bad. I leave for a safari tomorrow. Next week is the last full week at UCU. We leave at 5am (ick.) on the 17^th for our 10-12 hour bus ride to RWANDA!! Ten days in Rwanda, a few days back in Uganda before most of the students leave, then on 5/1 we leave for our 5 day hike up Mt. Elgon! Come back to Entebbe, then head home on the 9^th. More than the busyness, it’s probably going to be very emotional, as we will be saying goodbye to our Ugandan friends on the night of the 16^th before heading to a very emotional trip into Rwanda. Upon our return, those hiking will again have to say goodbye to the wonderful friends we’ve made through the Uganda Studies Program before our next adventure.

For the first time, the sadness of leaving hit me. I originally expected to feel this way, which is why I originally was set to return home in July. However, being here and learning about different aspects of poverty, culture, religion, politics, art… life… made me realize how much I could do at home and how many people in the US are just as needy (in some ways more needy) than the people here (that sounded really bad, I feel like God is calling me to be faithful at home right now). Missing my family and friends and having the desire to finish school and start whatever comes after that only added to my desire to go home, so I changed my flight to return 2 months sooner than planned. The other day, in the last chapel, I realized that I would actually be leaving UCU and Uganda, the place I have called home for the past 3 months. I would be leaving my dorm-mates, my class mates, the monkeys outside, the beautiful sunsets over Mukono’s hills. I will be leaving crazy mzungu-poker-man, and the walks into town to get a juice box of iced tea, or chips. I will be leaving the packed taxi rides over bumpy Uganda roads. Sitting outside the library at crazy hours of the night to talk to use the internet. All these things I have taken for granted; the sights, the smells, the feelings. While there are many things I will not miss (doing laundry by hand and taking cold showers, for example), there are so many things that I don’t even think about on a daily basis that will stay here as I travel back to my side of the world. I have gotten so used to watching the bushes as I walk around campus in hopes of finding a chameleon (yes, honestly). I don’t think there are any chameleons that live in the wild in NJ or PA. I won’t be able to catch lizards on the porch of Florence Hall, or sit with my roommate and talk about things like Mardi Gras, how men are the same in every country, and how we both miss home. I won’t be able to go buy 5 passion fruits for 1000 shillings (about $.40), or pick up avocados that have fallen off the trees. I will miss the cows and goats tied up on the sides of the road everywhere you go. I will miss sitting on the porch till late at night eating papaya or bouncing a ball or coloring with the friends I’ve made here. The reality of leaving has set in and now that it’s here, I’m not sure what to do with it… That seems to be my thoughts on life lately, there’s a lot I’m not sure what to do with.

As the semester comes to an end here in Uganda, I just want to share how grateful I am to those who have read this and kept up with my often-crazy thoughts. I am posting another blog about Rwanda at the same time as this, and hopefully I will get to post some safari pics when we get back. If not, this is it till the US. See you soon!!