6 days!!

6 days?!?

Wow. I don't think I can really comprehend that. But I'm excited.

This will probably be the last blog from Uganda. Saturday we leave for debrief in Entebbe, and then fly out from there on Tuesday evening. I should get to my house really early (3 am?) on Thursday the 17th.

Ohio is going to be cold. Brrr.


Things I will miss:

Other USPers. Oh, friends. It will be weird to not see everyone everyday...or be crammed into a small room with them.


(this is just IMME...USE people are awesome as well)

The sky. It's so big...and lovely...and I just love it. Included in this would be awesome thunderstorms, refreshing rain almost everyday, lightening storms, and rainbows.




Food. Weird, yeah. I've been eating the same things over and over again, but honestly, I love beans and rice. And the fruit here is awesome as well.




Also, the boy who I pass who likes to say, 'You are sweet'
The random movies that are on TV that are dubbed in Luganda. For example, I have seen parts of The Terminator, The Fugitive, and some Jackie Chan movie. I have also watched High School Musical at home. Awesome.

...and probably many more things that I won't realize I miss until after I get home.


Things I won't miss (at least anytime soon):

Boda drivers/Ugandan men in general/being called 'mzungu'
Sweating at all times of the day, regardless of what I'm doing
Eating right before I go to bed/having to eat large portions of hot food
Rats in my room

Things I'm looking forward to about going home:

Family



You are correct, Anna. We need an updated family picture.

Friends








...those are the main two. I'm excited for little comforts that I have missed. For example, having toilets that are close by that have toilet paper there. I'm also excited for having a variety of food. And so many other things.

Things I am not really looking forward to:

Answering the 'How was Africa?' question. Specific questions=great. It'll be easier to focus on one subject, instead of trying to put 3 1/2 months of intense experiences into one small response.

...that is the big one, actually. I guess I could put culture-shock (and freezing weather shock too...) on the list as well. It'll certainly be different than what I've experienced these last few months. Hm.



There are some little habits I have picked up, although I think they will probably fade somewhat soon after I get home, but just in case I do these things, don't be offended, this is what they mean:

1. Raising my eyebrows to say yes. Usually I combine this with actually saying yes, but just in case I don't...I am answering.
2. Making a mmm sound in response to everything. Maybe I'm actively listening, maybe I'm agreeing with you, maybe you brought up a point I've never thought of, or maybe I am just avoiding actually responding. These are all possibilities. Good luck deciphering :) Most likely it'll just be an acknowledgment that you're saying something. Maybe I'll work on fading this one out of my life after I get home...



Here are some quotes from our final class that I think are sweet.

"There are years that ask questions and years that answer."
-Zora Neale Hurston

"...I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."
-Rainer Maria Rilke (1903) in Letters to a Young Poet

I definitely am not coming home with a bunch of answers. So I will live in the questions and be okay with that. I think it'll actually be pretty sweet in time to come to see what all I have learned while I've been here. Awesome.


7 months of summer has been sweet, but I'm ready for some colder weather, I think.
I'm coming home, Snowpig, I'm coming home...