*** When I started this blog I intended just to blog while I was in Uganda but I’ve had such a great time with it that I’m going to continue it at least for a while. Don’t worry even though I am now back on American soil, I will still continue to be involved in projects to help my friends living in Western Uganda. I will post those events here ….
Thanks to all your prayers and positive thoughts I had a safe trip home and landed on July 25th! It’s hard to believe that I’ve been back home for nearly a week now! Time truly flies when you’re having fun! After a long trip home with a wonderful layover in London, I’ve had a great low key week back in NC. Here are just a few highlights from my first week back in America.
1. Landing at RDU and seeing the sign for the PONY tournament which is of course run by the Raleigh Jaycees! I knew I was home…
2. Waking up in downtown Raleigh with a view of our beautiful city, a perfect way to spend my first night back.
3. Seeing my house for the first time and being relived that it was all in one piece!! After living without so much for so long I realized how much stuff I have!! I’ve been wedding though much of it this week, like do I really need five winter coats?? The size of my bedroom amazes me, it’s at least two and half times the size of my entire house in Uganda! To put it into perspective my banda in Uganda was smaller than Henry David Thoreau's cabin at Walden Pond.
4. Spending time with my three furry children- when I left for Uganda my kittens where just six & seven months old, now they are full fledged cats. It has been great to spend time with them and my five year old dog Juno! I was so blessed to have great friends taking such good care of them while I was gone; all three were very well taken care of.
5. Cooking- one of the things I missed most was being able to cook and prepare my own meals. I’ll admit it was certainly a luxury to have all of my meals( not to mention my laundry )prepared for me everyday however, I did miss cooking. So far I’ve made pretty simple dishes; I think my most complicated was a breakfast scramble with smoked salmon, spinach, mushrooms, and dill! Just that fact that I have a refrigerator has opened up a whole new culinary world; I can have dairy, orange juice, cold water, ice cream, all things that I have missed!
6. It is just like a ridding a bike- since I admittedly I am not the best driver I was a bit nervous getting behind the wheel for the first time in six months! Thankfully, it is just like ridding a bicycle and I hadn’t forgotten how.
7. Enjoying the great metropolis of Clayton, NC- While I work in Raleigh, I live in a small town just about 20 minutes south east. It has always reminded me of the small towns in Virginia that I grew up in. In the past I have often been two busy to enjoy living here instead spending much of my time in Raleigh. This week I’ve gone to our new farmers market (not quite like the ones I grew up selling at around the DC metro area), had my late fees forgiven at the library (evidently one library book was in my car the entire time I was in Uganda), and danced the night away to great band at the local bar just a couple miles from my house!
8. Thank you - I’ve been blessed though this entire journey to be supported by an entire “village” back here and it hasn’t ended yet. Before I even landed my car wasn’t working so three of my friends took care of it so that it was in working order when I got back! Before I got my plates back on my car Monday afternoon, my friend Stacy spent nearly an entire day running errands with me. From pet sitters to package senders to taking care of my bills to just listening to me when I had a rough day in Uganda; I could not have done this without everyone’s support.
9. Spending time with loved ones- The best part of this week has truly been just catching up with old dear friends. There have been lunches and dinners where we tried to catch each other up on the past six months. Laid back evenings just catching up in my living room, cooking for my sweetheart, long phone calls with those I haven’t seen yet, and lots of relishing in the simple moments. I am so blessed to have such amazing people in my life!!
10. Abundance- As time goes on I will begin to process my time in Uganda, for now I’m just truly to recalculate to my life here. In all honesty, it was been much easier to slide back in to my old life than I ever expected. Everything seems completely normal and just as it should. Right now my time in Uganda feels like a very, very, very, very long dream and this feels normal.
One thing that has struck me is the absolute abundance of everything that we have available at our fingertips. Even in my little town of Clayton, I have the choice of nearly any cuisine for any meal that I could want instead of just what I can grow in my garden. I have enough clothes in my closet to clothe half the women in Bigodi! I certainly have enough furniture for a few homes. We all have a car instead of being the only one in the village with one. Going into Target, Wal-Mart, and Lowes Foods were all lessons on abundance; I haven’t seen that much stuff since I left the states. While I believe we have and use more than we need we are so very blessed to be Americans!
My experience in Uganda will always be with me and I will always be grateful that I took that leap of faith. However, for now it is great to be home!!
