Final Blog!!!!

LAST BLOG!!!!!!

This is my final week in Uganda I leave the April 17 to go to Rwanda and learn about the genocide. Therefore this is my last blog of the semester!!! WOOHOO!! I’m not going to blog about Rwanda just because, I know it is going to be hard for me to see and hear the things that happened there and I don’t think it would be helpful to blog about it. So this is my last blog… What should I talk about? I guess some people are wondering if I’m ready to come home, if I learned a lot about the Uganda culture, or what I have learned about myself. Answer 1)Well I actually do not want to go home I rather stay here! I asked my mom if I could extend my plane ticket and stay a little longer she said, “No”. Answer 2) I have learned a lot about the Uganda culture as well. I learned a lot about hospitality and about being present with people. Answer 3) as for what I have learned about myself I have learned how strong I am but how weak I am as well. This is something that your not going to understand by just reading this post but I hope it answers your questions. I also hope that you get a chance to experience this type of emotion. But that not what I want to talk about in this blog. This blog is my way for me to thank my Uganda friends/family, my USP classmates, and people back in the States who made this experience possible. I will not mention everyone by name but you know who you are and THANK YOU!

I'm so thankful for my grandmother paying for me to
go on a safari. This elephant chased us.

To start off I’m excited to come home and see my family and friends. I have had people e-mail me and ask me if I hate America now that I have lived in a third world country. Honestly, I don’t! I think it okay to love home. And America is home for me and I love it. However, am I scared to come home, ABSOLUTELY. I have wash laundry by hand for the past four months, ate rice and beans, had very little luxurious, and have seen and heard things that are troubling I have lived and witness the third world problems. Which makes coming home exciting and nerve racking all at the same time. I also know that reverse culture shock is going to be hard to overcome but I’m up for the challenge. I also know that I have a really supportive family who is ready for me to be home and that is going to help me readjust to American life. I’m also excited about going home and having a month off to rest and then start working in June. Just an example of how people think differently between the US and Uganda. I was in Luganda class and telling my teacher where I was going be working at this summer and I told her that I was going to be a camp counselor. Her response was camp counselor I did not know that there were refugee camps in America. It totally caught me off guard. In the US we think of camp counselor as hanging out with little kids during the summer and she though of refugee camp, her and I come from two different worlds.  

Me riding shot gun on the bus. Car sickness is no joke
in Uganda,

Well that is not the point of this blog so I shall continue…..

I stayed on campus at UCU, Uganda Christian University, which is not like dorm life in America. It is such a privilege to go to school in Uganda and the students here do not take that for granted. That being said some of the cultural difference are apparent through that. Many of the USP roommates were UCU students. Some of the UCU roommate would turn the light on at 2 in the morning, having discussion with fellow classmates at 2 in the morning, or turn on the light while there roommate was sleeping and kept the light on the rest of the night. I however did not have that problem. My roommate was from Nigeria and only 17. She had been to boarding school since she was 5. I have been so blessed getting to know her and spending time with her. She came and supported me when the USP program had to lead chapel worship or when I played soccer. She also never turned the light on when I was sleeping and when I would leave for homestays I came back to my room being clean with my bed made. I also received phone calls from her checking on me and making sure I was okay when I was at my homestay. This may seem weird to those of you reading this but this is absolutely beautiful to me. We were having a conversation the other day and I was telling her that I only have a few more days here and she informed me that I should stop reminding her because she really going to miss me. If she only knew how much I am going to miss her. Knowing that the possibility for me to see her again is slim. I’m not sure how I’m going to handle saying goodbye. But I do know that she has impacted my life.

Me and my roommate at her dance show

My Uganda host family was INCERIBLE. I wish I could convey how great they were and how they treated me but some of the things are really personal and I don’t want people reading this to make fun of it so I’m choosing not to make mention of it on here. I have never been treated with such honor and grace before. I have never had people I just met take me in as their own daughter, sister, and cousin; and serve me and make sure I had everything I needed. Having them buy me a soda for afternoon tea (because drinking tea in the afternoon made me sick), my host mom bought me things and fixed me skirt. Which was hard at first because I knew I had more money then she did and I felt awful her buying things for me but it was humbling and beautiful to see that my Uganda host mom was taking care of me just like my mom in the States would. This does not due justice to how grateful I am to them.

 

USP girl dorm. Showing some knees,  (which is not
something that is okay to do in Uganda).

Within the USP, Uganda Studies Program, I have learned about what it means to live in community and to have compassion for one another. I do not have this type of community back home in the States. I’m upset about having to leave this community of people who have experienced the ups and down of living in a third world country together and going back to the States and having to deal with reverse culture shock alone. It gives me comfort to know that I have a community throughout the States from Maryland, to Jersey, to across the states in California. I’m the furthers one away from everyone so that is hard knowing that I might not see these people that have experience Uganda with again but it also nice to know that we all are taking what we learned here and applying it to our home in the States. I’m thankful for what I have learned from these people and living in community with them. It’s something that I will always cherish.

Rural home-stay debrief after we were picked up

I also want to mention the support I had back home. Living in Uganda is not some walk on clouds. Life here is hard. Not having the things I’m use to and having to follow other people rules was new for me. Easter Sunday was a hard day. I’m not going to mention why on my blog because I do not want to give a negative image of Ugandans, but an incident happened that really scared me. I did not have any airtime on my Ugandan phone and had no way of calling my mom and telling her what happened and having her talk to me and calm me down. I used my American phone texted her and then called her for 40 min, which I then informed her what had happened. Then she did what any mom would do and calmed me down. Side note. Calling someone international is really expensive but that did not matter she let me talk to her as long as I needed and did not even worry about the phone bill that would be coming in later that month. Nor did she ever complain when I called her and woke her up at 2, 3, or 4 in the morning. Instead she was happy that I called and enjoyed talking to me. The time difference was a struggle, but she never once complained about me calling her and random times and for that I’m truly grateful.

Along with talking about people from the States, I received two packages from people while I was here. In those packages were granola bars, cheese its, and yummy treats. I appreciate the packages so much, also the money that was spent in sending the packages half way across the world. It was nice to have snacks from home when I was tired of rice and beans.

This blog was really long. And I do not even come close to conveying how truly thankful I am to all the people who made this trip possible, helped me along the way, and I meet while I was here. This experience has shown me how sometimes I worry about losing the ones that I hold dear, or that my time here is unclear, but I don't want to live my life in the confines of fear. This experience has been eye opening to me and has caused me to question a lot of what/who I want to be and how that transfer to being a Christian who is an American. I leave Africa April 30, and after 33 hours of traveling and 4 airplane later I will land at Fort Walton Beach. Then I will start trying to implement everything I have learned in Uganda into my life in the States. April 30 is also going to be a hard day for me I will be leaving part of my heart in this great country. I’ll see you in a few weeks America. Uganda thank you for the memories and the love that you have shown me I will have a Uganda shaped hole in my heart. I thinks it true sometimes you do not know what your missing until you experience it. 

But before I end this blog I wanted to share some things that would help me re-enter American life:

*Surround me with love. I'm leaving a community here in which we have cried together, challenged each other, and been each other support. Leaving that and returning back to the States is going to be challenging so don't leave me alone to much because I will get lonely. But at the same time I need alone time to process I'm sure you will know when I need to be left alone and when I need to hangout with family and friends. But most important surround me with love.

*I would love to talk to you about my trip. I did not mention everything that happened on this blog because I did not have time, but also some things were really personal and better shared in person and not over facebook, twitter, or e-mail. That being said don't ask me when you only have five min because I will not be able to explain. Instead let grab coffee, eat lunch (that is not rice or beans) or sit down in a group and just let me talk. At the same time I want to HEAR about YOUR life. Its a two way street.

*Also remember that I was doing a STUDY-abroad not a mission trip.

*Phrases like "welcome back" would be great to hear and will cause me to smile. I hear that phrase multiply time a day here but it sounds like "we come back" so feel free to say that to me. Also be prepared for me to say it to you as well. Avoid phrases like I understand what you mean, explain to me how I feel, I bet you had the time of your life. I can not convey exactly how I feel sometime and these question and comments leave me frustrated I can't give you a response to my trip in response to those question or comments.  

*Be patient with me this experience has opened my eyes to a whole new world. I need time to be vulnerable and to adjust to life back in the States.

*Last and final thing. Thank you all for reading, I look forward to seeing you in a few weeks. Also thanks for not mention my spelling mistake and word use error I had limit access to internet and tired to upload blog when it was available. 

Much love,

Katie Cooper