"Home?"

It is Friday morning and I have been home for less than 2 whole days. I knew I had to type a "final" blog about this experience but feel as if the experience will live on in many ways...I thought that my own bed, my own room, toilets, hot showers, and sleeping in silence would be a blessing upon return. I arrived exhausted- mentally, physically, and emotionally. It was good to see my parents walking through the airport towards me, welcomed with hugs and tears. I was not at ease, comfortable, or "happy" to be back in Chicago though.

My last days in Gulu were happy days. Andy and I took one last boda ride Saturday morning as we made a stop at the bank. It was rather early and the streets were less congested than normal. Reflecting on it now I can vividly remember his arms outstretched behind me on the boda saying, "Gulu bye" (reminiscent of the children who followed us in the streets for 6 weeks shouting, "munu bye" until we left their sight). As we said our good-byes we took "family" photos, and latrine videos. We stood in the back yard as Jennifer (our cook) sang us 2 songs. The first song was a good-bye song where she called each of our names one by one to stand in a line and clap. We had fun and slapped each other's hands as we went down the line, seemed like a nice way to close up our house. The next song was more of a "safe journey" song and as we all stood around in a group it began to sink in that our time has ended. Jennifer sang softly with her hands over her face and we looked around our circle to see tears welling in each other's eyes. She said, "I'm so sorry but I cannot finish", as she uncovered her face of tears. She hugged us one by one and ran into the kitchen weeping softly. Such a beautiful woman who worked so hard to take care of us for 6 weeks, again, I was baffled by her thanking us. We hung our heads out of the metatu and waved good-bye to group 2. As we neared the end of our street we saw the most beautiful sight and memory to leave Gulu with- Big John Magee stood on the corner surrounded by Ugandan children who held up the Ugandan flag and saluted us. Again, we wiped the tears from our eyes in realization that this was "good-bye".

The drive actually went quicker than expected and our spirits truly were high. We wandered the market and marveled at the items for sale....Another interesting shopping experience in Uganda. We had about an hour and ten minutes to get our shopping done and we were back in the metatu for our journey to our rafting trip. All of us were piled in 1 room, some bunk beds 6 high. The bar area overlooked the Nile and the wicked bungee jump spot. The night was relaxing as we had some drinks and had real conversations about our lives. We feel asleep to the sound of the small rapid that was below our room and woke up to monkeys running across the tin roof. The first group bungee jumped before rafting and we took pictures of them and laughed at their form, or lack there of.

Rafting on the Nile was a truly amazing experience! Swassers, Julie, Andy, Nathan, Amanda, Kristin, and I were in a raft with our fearless leader, TuTu. We dubbed ourselves "Team TuTu" instantly. We got in the raft and learned the basics- paddle forward, backward, get down, and how to "properly" fall out of the raft. We then had to learn how to get our from under the raft if it landed on top of us (Now is the point when I became nervous) and how to help each other back into the raft. And Kappow, within minutes we were headed down the Nile. We rafted rapids that ranged from category 2.5 to 5...At a category 3 TuTu said it would be the easiest rapid to capsize in. We approached in anticipation and before we had time to really brace ourselves we were out of the raft. At some point all of us were stuck under the raft and I think we got out just before sheer panic set in. After each rapid we banged our helmets against one another and put our paddles in the middle of the raft to yell, "Team TuTu". "Big Brother" was the name of our category 5 rapid and he let us have it. Miraculously we only lost Kristin and Amanda from the raft and Nathan notified me afterwards that, "Sister, you had the most terrified look on your face". Well, imagine that brother, duh.

Our drive back to Kampala was slower than expected as we hit traffic most likely caused by the A.U. We saw numerous motorcades pass by us and the streets of the city were lined with officers holding guns. We passed the U.S. Embassy and eerily enough the Ethiopian restaurant where the bombings occurred. We got to our hotel partnered up in double rooms and quickly put down our luggage to leave for "our last supper". Catherine took us to a Mexican restaurant where we had ritas and took pictures. I couldn't believe my eyes when my watermelon and feta salad arrived at the table. We returned to the hotel and packed our stuff for what would be the final departure. 4:00 a.m. came too fast and we said our good-byes to Catherine and Danielle in the lobby as we headed for the airport in the dark. Of course "The system was not there" when we got to the airport and we knew that our manual check-ins by British Airways would only end poorly as far as our luggage went....And our assumptions were correct...We looked like the family from Home Alone as we ran through the London airport with less than an hour to get boarding passes and pass through security in an attempt to make our flight. Miraculously we all made the gate as boarding began with swack and swass due to our workout.

Arrival in NYC was also no surprise as no one, not a single one of us, got luggage. Our good-byes were tired and we waved each other on our separate ways. I must say, the biggest surprise was ending up in a nicely air-conditioned NYC hotel room welcomed with white roses. It went something like this: Andy-"Oh look, the room has flowers."

Me-"Yeah, those are pretty."

Andy-"Looks like there is a note, why don't you read it."

Note read- "Because there were no flowers in Gulu..."

He called NYC from Africa and had flowers delivered to the room; I am at a loss for words. We spent the next day roaming Central Park commenting on the lack of bodas in NYC. We were lucky enough to catch The Black Keys sound check and ended the evening passing out from exhaustion.

Flash forward to now...I do not feel at "home". I have ended up with the exact flu symptoms that I started with in week 1 and I miss Africa terribly. I miss the latrines, I miss sleeping in a room with 5 other girls, I miss SSB, I miss waking to the sounds of many people in a small space. I miss all of the things that I didn't think I would. I miss my new "family" and the support and friendship that we created together. I have read that upon arrival back into the country after a trip like this adapting may be difficult. This is an understatement....It is also all the more reason to stay "in touch" with my new family, with my new students and Elizabeth, and to work hard to be a part of Gulu from here. I haven't figured out exactly how this will happen but have learned from this experience that I am more than capable of accomplishing my goals...