stay or go?

The past month or so my mind has been filled with that question: "stay or go?"

At the beginning of August, I found out that I had the opportunity to stay on longer with Sseko. It took me a little time to sift through the decision making process.... I had to ask myself questions like..... Do I want to keep living in Uganda? If so, how much longer? If I didn't stay, what would I do? Where would I live? Where would I work?... Lots and lots of questions. But in the end, they all boiled down to the big one- stay or go?

And I've decided to stay! I'll be living in Kampala through August 2011... I decided on that time because one of the big factors that lead to me staying longer was that a good deal of the work I'm doing now is in preparation for the next class of girls. I want to be able to see all these things through. By staying through the end of next summer, I will be able to see these new girls go through our whole program and then go off to college. I am really excited about the idea of getting to see them all the way through.

Sseko isn't the only reason I'm staying though... I'm also staying for the people I've met here and started building relationships with. Julie and I already have synchronized thoughts- multiple times a day she will take the words right out of my mouth and I swear she can read my mind so I can only imagine how much scarier that will be when we've spent a whole year together.... Dani just moved in- this morning she caught me working out to my Jillian Michaels workout video, The Shred, and instead of just closing the door and rolling her eyes, she started doing the invisible jump rope right along with me.... Amanda and I have weekly lunch dates- I could say so many things about her, but I'll just keep it simple and say that spending time with her is like a breath of fresh air.... These are just a few of the people here that I have come to know and love. And those three ladies specifically will be here for a pretty big portion of my time here. The community in Kampala is pretty transient- people come in and out so often, so it will be so SO good for me to have some consistency in these girls.

I am excited to call this city home for a little longer.