So, where to begin.... my first real reality check that i was leaving happened when we went to the Bunabuyoka Village. CFA had put together a thing called THANKS giving. It was a huge feast/celebration where we got to talk with the community leaders and express our happiness and joy in working with them and our excitement about the future of the health clinic. the meeting was a bit longer than i would have liked.... 2 hours too long :) but it was important to them and so that is why i tried to be patient. So after the meeting we all got in a circle around the clinic and prayed for it... it kinda felt like we were dedicating it, which was an experience in and of itself. After that we were able to plant a few trees with some of the community. which i was actually dreading cause thought it would be weird, but it was kinda fun. that's when i think it first hit that i wasn't going to be coming back up to the village the following week...i was planting these trees and were not going to be able to see them grow at all...i had a somber moment or two. Then the best part of the day. We got to go into the school where the kids had picked banana fibers and had paint and we dressed them and made war paint on their faces and then they painted our faces. It was so fun because they were so excited to teach us more about their culture and i think maybe a little to see us mzungus with paint on our faces...
Then we had the best feast. literally felt like an American thanksgiving with Ugandan food and it was so incredibly good.
it was so incredibly hard to say goodbye to them. but i held on to the fact that i will see them again. it still hurts my heart a little bit to think about that last night. but i am working on trying to go back and so i am filled with hope about seeing the cute Joseph again.
One of the biggest things that happened what a few days before i left.... i got malaria... and was admitted into the hospital... just for a 2 days. it was a really not that bad. Malaira is just like getting the flu in the US. they know exactly how to treat it and you are able to bounce back pretty easily. One of the greatest part about getting spending my last days in uganda in the hospital was that the team all came and had their dinner in the hospital room with me. Only our team could make a hospital stay fun. we watched a movie and at what our cook Sam had made us. It was comforting to have the team there.
I was released from the Hospital Tuesday afternoon and went into a frenzie of saying goodbye to as many people as i could and then got a taxi wednesday morning and it is all kind of a blur how i was able to get home. i was on pain medication for the Malaria. But i honestly think it was a blessing. I wasn't ready to leave uganda, i wanted to stay. I didn't know how i was going to emotionally handle having to leave all of the people i have grown to love and care about. Having little time to say goodbye and not having the ability to fully process it helped me to be able to get on the plane.
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| Cute Baby Cyrus! |
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| Teaching the Pukani |
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| Wild Hearts Can't be Broken.. |
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| Teaching Joseph how to dance! |
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| How can you not fall in love with these kids! |
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| Joseph Joseph Joseph.... Cami Cami Cami! |
I don't know how to wrap up my experience of being in Uganda and i think its going to stay that way. because my experience with Uganda is just the beginning. There is no wrap up. just a start.
