So close, yet so far....

While my departure is over two weeks away, I can't help thinking about East Africa and my upcoming travels a few, ok many many many times a day. This WILL be the greatest thing I have done in my life so far. I can just feel it!

While I do know what areas I will be living in (Kampala, Gulu, Kigali, and Butare), I have very little idea what I will be doing while I am there (in terms of classes and trips). When people start asking me about my trip I tell them the title of the program is Post-Conflict Transformation and that usually answers some questions, but opens up a bunch of new questions in my mind. I realized this last night when some of my family friends, John and Jan, (who have done fascinating work with HIV/AIDS and children in these countries) came over for dinner. While I could not answer their questions about which NGO's my program would be working with, I did gain a sense of how profound their experiences in Uganda and Rwanda have been.

The main thing, as I learned from Jan, is to be open to anything! If my homestay family doesn't speak english I have to be open to learning their native tongue (which I am very excited for). If the food looks like something I would never eat in the States, give it a try anyway. Afterall, isn't the point of travel to learn new things through first hand experience?

I hope this blog becomes a way for me to sort through and share my emotions and experiences with the ones I love and left back at home. I'm not sure how accessible internet will be while I am "on the move" in East Africa, but I will try to update frequently.

Now only 1 more day of work at AASECT, and about two weeks to catch up with as much of my friends and family as I can before the big day (well 2 days of travel)!