Three Years Later...

Kind of sad I missed the actual day this year. And by that, I mean the anniversary of when I left the USA for Uganda. It was the 8th. We arrived in Uganda the 9th.



Honestly, it should be considered one of the more monumental days in my life. Because it started the experience that has changed me the most so far...that is still changing me. That's the interesting thing about Uganda. It wasn't just four months. That's the amount of time I was living there, but the experience was more powerful than four months. The memories still consume me at times. I still have moments where a smell, a sound, a sight, takes me instantly back to my home in Uganda and some memory hits me like it happened just yesterday. I still look back and consider experiences I had there with things that are happening in the present. I'm still integrating my Ugandan and American selves, very gradually reconciling the pieces of my identity that Uganda successfully fragmented. I'm still re-fragmenting things as I continue to move and journey into new territory with new friends. I don't regret the shattering, however. On the contrary, it has been a joy to piece myself together again, to discard pieces that do not fit and bring new ones into the puzzle...it has been a joy to realize my identity is kind of blurry, that my heart has many homes and it's a good thing to live "unsettled." I say unsettled because what Uganda challenged me to forsake my American peace, that part of me that was content, even proud, of my cultural and religious heritage and identity, and to find my identity more in Christ and His Kingdom and in His people, who are of many nations and cultural and religious heritages. I'm starting to understand what it means to live as an alien and outsider for His glory. Nothing looks the same in Ugandan and the USA...not everyday conversations or university courses, not towns and cities or families and homes, not worship services or dinner or free time. But the same God created all people in His image and desires all these worlds revolve around Him, all these cultural rivers flow from and to Him, that all things be reconciled in Christ and in Christ alone.



So my reflection has not ceased, and I hope it never does. I'm thankful for technology that allows me to stay in touch with friends and family overseas and I'm still looking forward to returning "home." While I haven't set a date yet, I'm hoping to do some research in Uganda for my PhD in 2014...which would seem far away for some people, but if my experience with time the past few years rings true, then 2014 is just around the corner. I can almost feel the sun and the dust and hear the village calling to me! I can almost see Kwagala, my family's cow, waiting for me to come home (you'll have to read my blog for that story...).



I'm incredibly thankful for the USP semester of Spring 2009, an experience that blessed me then and that continues to challenge and bless, and change, me now.