whirlwind

The past few weeks have been pretty crazy to say the least... One weekend I was up in Gulu, the next I was camping on the Nile river and then flying back to the US. And now, a week and a half later, I'm back already. See... whirlwind.

I got asked a lot if I was having culture shock, and my response was always no, because they are like two totally different worlds. Its kind of like a parallel universe. Everything in the US was what I expected, and how I remembered. And Kampala is just the way I left it.

That was actually part of what was hard about being home... It felt like just the way I left it. I graduated from college and moved out here before most of my friends parted ways, so I wasn't around for the difficult departures and the reality setting in that the community I had built up over the past four years was splitting up. I guess I sort of just accepted the fact while I was over here. But when I got back, it was kind of like nothing had changed, and here's why: a wedding.

The main reason I went back to the states was to be a bridesmaid in my roommate Claire's wedding (which was great, by the way). The week before the wedding I got to see all my best friends... I got to laugh with them, pray with them, talk for hours with them, and cry with them. Everything with them just fits... its a truly beautiful thing. But while I was enjoying them, it also made me sad feeling like I was missing out on this beautiful thing that was happening without me... It wasn't until Sunday after the wedding that everyone started leaving town and heading back to their perspective new cities, that it sunk in for me.

As good as my week home was, most of it was like a false-reality. It was a taste of something I had, that doesn't actually exist anymore. Now Claire's married and moved to Dallas... Abbey's living it up in Austin... Tracey is headed out to Seattle.... Francis 307 has been vacated by all my roommates... the Hendricks just moved to Haiti for goodness sake! As hard as it was to realize this, it was so good to come to terms with. I feel like it freed me up even more to be wholly here, in Kampala. After this week, I know that even if I were back in the States, it wouldn't be the same.

And now I have returned, and it really does feel good to be back. Kampala is beginning to feel more like home.... and it doesn't hurt that my life here is pretty great. I mean, who gets to not only do a job they love, but also live in a place where they can go camping on an island on the Nile, get a first hand account from a girl in Gulu about her experience living on the run from Kony during the war, enjoy amazing weather (85 everyday... yes, please), experience a new culture while learning to examine your own, and go to a market where you can find literally anything you would ever need for a costume for under $2.50 (Owino is the best. Halloween 2010.... watch out).