Hello & Goodbye

You say goodbye, and I say hello
-The Beatles


Yesterday I got to go meet all of the new volunteers from the March group, it was super fun! There are SO MANY of them- 50! There were only 12 in my group, so training will be a very different experience for them than it was for me! I was on a “Homestay Experience Panel” with a couple other volunteers, where we talked about what it was like to live with our homestay families, and about life in Uganda in general. It was fun, but I feel bad because I kinda think we scared them half to death, and I hope they don’t have a bad impression of Uganda.

When you first come, you want to know the worst-case scenario. But, it’s really scary to hear about rats and bats and feeling useless for months upon months and getting really sick and lack of privacy and people beating their kids and husbands cheating and town drunkards and people suffering and dying and kids not going to school and being homesick and people constantly asking you for money because your skin is white. But, that’s life here. And when you’ve just gotten off of the plane, it’s scary. I feel like we presented the reality, but I’m afraid that we didn’t take into account that the reality is completely overwhelming.
Anyway, it was fun to meet them, and they’ll make it- PCVs always do! :)

While yesterday was good, yesterday was also very sad, because one of my very good friends left the Peace Corps. I know it's the best decision for her, but it's still such a loss... she's so awesome. But, I know that she's going to do great things wherever she is. I kinda think she’s going to be the President in about 20 years.

So, a small tribute, to one hell of a hard-core PCV:

Here's to the girl who left her family, fiancé, and career, to do something no one would have ever, ever expected her to do. To the girl who brought her blow dryer to staging, so that she could look fabulous right up until the time we left. To the girl who fully and happily participated in all the fun but horribly corny staging activities, then at night on the phone told her family what a load of kum-bay-yah-BS it was (that's when I first knew we would be friends). To the girl who, on the plane, told me how incredibly worried she was about learning the language, but then tied for highest score on the end-of-training Luganda test. To the girl who wore an unsightly traditional Ugandan dress on homestay thank you day, just to make her homestay family proud. To the girl who saved her shoe from the pit latrine by catching it with her foot! (And who has many many other crazy pit latrine stories, but I'm sworn to secrecy.) To the girl who had huge worms on her floor- worms so big she originally thought they were part of the decorative floor tile. To the girl who was marooned on her bed during a midnight flash flood, and could do nothing but watch all the cockroaches do the backstroke. To the girl who gave an awesome speech, in Luganda, on swear-in day- it sounded flawless, even though we had just written it the night before. To the girl who, when her overcrowded taxi wrecked in the ditch, just climbed out the window- and hauled her gas stove with her back to town to catch another ride. To the girl who had to clean up the mess after a goat had bloody diarrhea in her bedroom. To the girl who made friends with her incredibly sketchy neighbors- all of them male motorcycle drivers. (Well, there was one petrol station worker...) To the girl who laid on her concrete floor instead of her bed, so that she wouldn't be “the volunteer who stayed in bed all day.” To the girl who turned down an important local leader’s marriage proposal, even though it was accompanied by eggs and cabbage. To the girl who survived more intestinal problems than you could ever, ever think possible (I seriously don't know how her digestive system is still functioning). To the girl who missed her fiancé so so so much, but stayed a million miles away to help people learn about HIV through drama. To the girl who had terrifying nightmares from mefloquine malaria pills, so bad that she couldn't ever really sleep. To the girl who was so dedicated to her organization that she missed her own birthday celebration weekend at my house. To the girl who cooked outside, because she didn’t have an indoor kitchen area. To the girl who went to Sunday mass in Luganda, even though it just wasn’t the same. To the girl who danced with her organization’s drama group- and endured old women from the community shimmying all up on her. To the girl who shared whole snickers bars from her care packages, even though she loved snickers the best. To the girl who said, “Excuse me, I’m going to face my fears”—and meant it literally.

To the girl who survived the absolute worst that Uganda had to offer, but somehow laughed about it all... I'll miss you, Nalumansi!

Courtney, Nora, Me, Amanda on our last night together...