Coming Home

I suppose it’s time to put some sort of closure on this blog...considering I’ve been back in the US for nearly three weeks already!

Once I was back from Gulu I only had five days left in Uganda and I did everything I could to make the most of it...I wanted to soak in as much of Africa as possible! I can’t begin to think about how many chapatti I ate in those last five days!!! =P

Speaking of Ugandan food, the one night that I was back in Kampala between Rwanda and Gulu I was invited to dinner with the other volunteers at Mukisa. The cook at Mukisa, Annette, had all of us to her house. I always loved the food she made for us at work but it didn’t even compare to what she had for us at that night! There was a huge spread of nearly every traditional Ugandan dish you could think of; matoke, rice, beans, posho, g-nut sauce, chicken, chips, pea pies (kind of like a pot pie), Irish, cabbage, delicious fresh juice and a huge fruit salad for dessert. We found it quite funny that Annette had included chopped carrots in the fruit salad...not something people in the US or Germany do but she assured us it was normal! Of course we all enjoyed the food but more than anything we enjoyed the company and the fact that she was so incredibly generous in opening her home to us and feeding us. Here’s someone who doesn’t have a whole lot to spare yet she went above and beyond to thank us for our time at Mukisa and to wish us all safe journeys. That’s pretty incredible if you ask me!

Once I was back from Gulu I spent a lot of time hanging out with the friends I had made while I was there; Ugandans, Americans, Canadians, and of course, Germans! I also spent a significant amount of time at craft markets around the city. I realized with five days to go that even after more than two months in Uganda I had very few souvenirs picked out for family and friends; I needed to get busy!

When I left Michigan in May, I was prepared to go. I was excited about being in Africa and I knew that when I got back home in August my life would still be here, waiting for me.

However, I was anything but prepared to leave Uganda. I literally had no idea how hard it would be. I realized as my time there got closer and closer to the end that there’s a good chance I’ll never make it back to Uganda, and even if I do, it would never be the same; many of my friends were volunteers who left just a week after I did. Once I was gone, the life I had lived for two and a half months would be over.

My plane was scheduled to leave at nine a.m. Monday morning, the 15^th. That meant Sunday was my last day in the city. I had invited some of the girls to dinner Sunday night to say our final goodbyes. On my way to dinner I was on a boda and I was thinking that I needed to clear all the numbers and texts off my phone so that the next AIM person would have a “new” phone. It was just a simple thought and it was something I knew I needed to do but suddenly as I was riding through Kampala for nearly the last time that simple thought really got to me. Before I knew it I had tears streaming down my face and I felt like the world was just going to end right then and there. Dramatic, I know, but it was the idea of it all. It’s not that the phone was important to me, but it was my connection to all the people I had become friends with...and in a matter of a few hours it would be empty.  

I managed to pull myself together before getting to the restaurant for dinner. We ate at the food court in Garden City and had a great time. I spent most of the rest of the night packing and mentally ignoring the fact that soon I would be gone. I had arranged for a private hire to pick me the next morning and he got there at 6:30. We chatted on the way to the airport but I was really in no mood to make small talk, I felt like I was on the verge of tears the whole time.

I just wasn’t ready to leave, I wanted more of Africa!

Thankfully all forty-five hours of travel went smoothly for me. (Yep, forty-five hours from when I left my home in Lungujja until I got back home in Hastings!) The forty-five hours was due in large part to a twenty hour layover in London. Now, a twenty hour layover has a lot of potential to be awful, but it turned out to be fantastic!
I had wanted to go out and see the city rather than sit in the airport for twenty hours but I was really low on cash and didn’t exactly know the best way to get around. I had mentioned this to a Ugandan friend of mine who spent sixteen years growing up in London and he had the perfect solution. He called a friend of his who still lived in London and arranged for him to meet me at the airport to show me around the city. When I got to Heathrow I used a pay phone to call his friend, we met up at the arrivals area then I got my own personal tour of the fabulous city! We went past Harrods, a bunch of other great stores, and Hyde Park. We drove through the gardens of Buckingham Palace and past the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. We walked all along Southbank where the London Eye and the National Theater are located. After Southbank we drove to Covent Garden and walked all around there and Soho, just taking everything in. In one of the squares there was a huge countdown to the Olympics, I thought that was really cool! We ended the night in Piccadilly, where we walked all around the “Times Square” of London, had dinner in China Town, and got juice at an Old English Pub. I felt so lucky; I basically had a private tour of the city and it didn’t cost me a thing!

By the time I was back at the airport I was completely exhausted so I slept on the floor for a few hours until one of the benches opened up. I never thought I’d be so thankful to sleep on an airport bench but it sure beat the floor! After that things moved pretty quickly; my plane for Chicago left Heathrow at noon on Tuesday, I landed in Chicago with a short layover and soon enough I was walking off the plane in Grand Rapids. As much as I didn’t want to be home, by this time I couldn’t wait to see my mom! The entire time I was walking from the plane to the arrivals area I felt like I couldn’t move fast enough! I don’t think I stopped talking from the moment I saw her until I finally crawled into bed at three a.m.! The poor lady had to sit at the kitchen table and look at every single picture I had taken, all the crafts I had bought, and listen to all the Ugandan music I had downloaded. Somehow showing her everything was comforting, if I couldn’t be there anymore I was at least going to talk about it as much as possible! The next few days went by in a blur. I was very jet-lagged and very emotional...like I said before; I just wanted to be in Africa!

I had to leave for Cross Country camp on Saturday and it was only then that I finally accepted the fact that I was really home.

Even though I still wish I was in Kampala, I think it's important to say that as hard as its been to come home, I wouldn't change a thing! The saddness is there because I had an incredible summer. I was blessed beyond what I could have imagined. One of many reasons I went to Africa this summer was to see if long term mission work as a physical therapist is something I can see myself doing in the future. Well, I left with more questions about that particular subject than I went with, but I’m perfectly ok with that! I realized that in one way or another, though not on purpose, I had planned my whole life out in my head. Now, thankfully, that’s all gone to pieces! I have no idea if long term mission work is something I’ll do in the future, and the great thing is that I don’t have to know!! I discovered a new peace that comes from letting go of the plans I’d made and the expectations I thought I had to fulfill and instead trust that God will take my life where He wants it to go.

I had one of the greatest summers of my life and I’m excited to see what's in store for me next! I want to say thank you to EVERYONE who supported me this summer with money, thoughts, and prayers! I probably won’t get a chance to personally contact all of you who have been so supportive but if you’d like to see more pictures or hear more stories feel free to email me (molly_michelle12@hotmail.com) and we can figure something out!

All my love, from good old Michigan,

Molly