I Miss It

Via Facebook, several friends from Uganda contacted me to wish me Merry Christmas. I was touched by this; I know that getting to internet isn't exactly cheap, and that they could have moved on with life and forgotten me, seeing as I was only one volunteer out of the 25 from our group--this YEAR. I replied to them wishing them the best and asking how life is progressing. Remembering on my time in Uganda brings a pang of loneliness. I know I have the ability to help people there. I know I have knowledge which can be used to improve lives, give kids a future, a family, a hope. And what am I doing? Trying to be pretty, trying to be funny, trying to be the kind of person people can like. I put that into perspective of where I was in the summer: I didn't have to try to be any of those things because who I am innately was what shone. (or, I hope it shone). I'm a steward over the personality I have naturally been given, and I need to improve that to go and serve.

In Uganda was a very kind, thoughtful, change-making pastor, Pastor Paul. Actually, I went to his church one week he was preaching. Very interesting and moving. He had a grass-roots organization, Buikwe Village Care,  which works with the community in a very personal way. I miss that. I miss the bottom-up approach.
I miss Uganda in numerous ways:

• Pastor Paul
• Rose, his wife
• Patience, their baby
• Matoke
• Power outages
• Lack of running water
• Bucket showers
• Hanging clothes out to dry
• Kids hanging on our fence calling out, "Muzungu, muzungu!"
• Kids running up with dirty hands and holding our hands as we walked up the street
• Our street
• Eve and Rose, our cooks
• Sister Ssanyu
• Wednesday market
• Gonjas!!!!
• Chapatti. 
• Godfrey
• Godfrey's fuschia ten-speed
• the ladies from the mushroom house
• Rose & Paul's orphanage
• Samuel, from said orphanage
• Collin, also from orphanage
• Collin teaching me logrthyms 
• Bodas
• the shoe peddler
• Richard at the internet cafe
• Alice, our neighbor, teaching me to make a mat without speaking any English.
• The Church is true no matter what country you're in
• wearing dresses every day
• cooking with Eve & Rose
• doing laundry by hand
• paying Eve and Rose to do my laundry, and knowing they needed that money
• the constant rains
• how the Ugandans "fear rain"
• getting bananas from the guy down the street
• stuffy taxi rides
• TYOM
• "Obama is the real African hero" song
• the yogurt
• the delicacy of powdered milk
• tic-tac-toe, African style. 
• the mud huts
• the neighborhood "chids"
• going to Rwanda
• wearing a gomas with Eve, Rose, and Ssanyu
• walking everywhere
• trash burning in the street
• learning Lugandan
• blending with the African culture by getting my hair plaited and wearing a gomas
• jajas! (the elderly group)
• 4th of July at the embassy: the pride I felt for America
• Kampala
• Rwanda: the reality of its history
• journeying back to America

I do not miss having to say good-bye, especially at the orphanage. That ripped my heart out. 

I want to and am planning my return. This time it's time for Africa.