"We know that Americans pity Africans," he told me. "But sometimes I think Africans pity Americans."
"How so?" I asked him.
"Americans seem to expect that everything will be provided for them. For us, though, this ear of corn is a gift from God. This evening's rain is a shower of mercy upon us. This healthy breath is life-giving. And, maybe tomorrow we will not have such things, but our hearts are so full from God's provision."
~Jena Lee in Hope in the Dark

"While talking with a friend from Rwanda, I was struck by our global friends' compassion toward the Western church. In many ways, they feel sorry for us. They see our arrogance toward the rest of the world, our addiction to pleasure and comfort, our culture of sensuality and excess, which make it hard for us to fathom many of Christ's teachings- they see these not as evidence of superiority, but of disadvantage and poverty. They mourn our deep losses and have told us that they pray for us about these very things."

"We see what you're up against," he said. "When you have medicine to cure the dandruff in your hair and for the fungus in your fingernails, it's hard to believe that you need God on a daily basis. That's a difficult thing to be up against."
~Rick Mckinley in This Beautiful Mess (GREAT book, by the way!)

Interesting thoughts, hmm? Having been in Uganda for four months, I can understand a piece of what these people are talking about. When it rained, it was always a blessing from God, no questions asked. Even on Easter Sunday, when it rained for eleven hours straight, we couldn't spent the day outside like they usually do, and my sisters got soaked while cooking the family's special dinner, they came in and told me the rain was such a blessing from God because first of all, we needed more water that week, and second of all, the rain kept the drunks off the roads, which in the end, kept people from dying. The church service was interrupted because of the rain (we couldn't hear because of the tin roof). We had to walk home from church that day, twenty-five minutes in a downpour, completely soaked by the time we arrived. What was going on in my mind? "God, couldn't you have waited a little longer to let it start raining? Wouldn't it have been a much nicer day had it been beautiful and sunny?" (Not to mention that when it rained, it was a very hard task to convince my family to let me go outside to the pit latrine!) What was going on in their minds? "Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful blessing of rain!"

Each evening before and after dinner my family would pray. They usually prayed the exact same prayer daily, which was frustrating at times, but although their words were always identical, they really meant them. "Thank you Lord for giving us all one more day on your earth," was one of the common lines. We say that, too, I'm sure, but do we really mean it? There, where malaria, AIDS, and a number of other deadly diseases threaten their lives constantly, they realize the true gift that each day here on earth really is. They know God provides for them everything they have. They realize that what they have is not their own, but simply a shower of God's blessings on them. They don't take anything for granted.

Maybe we could learn something from them....

For Mildred

For those who don't have Facebook, and for Mildred, who didn't get to see the pictures over the weekend, here is a collection of random photos from Uganda....enjoy!

The "fantastic four" (Becca, Danielle, Sharon, and me) at a resort we spent the afternoon at in Rwanda

Brooke, the IMME leader, and me

The main building we had classes in

The IMME room on campus. Since we didn't have dorm rooms like the rest of the students, all twelve of us spent the majority of our on-campus time in these two little rooms...quite convenient and a great place for bonding (aka, the famous music videos!)

The entire group of USP students on our last day

Cooking goulash for my host family on an outdoor portable coal stove!

Birthdays traditions: In Uganda it is apparently a tradition to pour water on the person whose birthday it is....and they thought they should continue that tradition even in Rwanda, so as you can see, I'm soaked.

Inside of a mass grave at one of the Rwanda Genocide Memorial museums. This one was outside of a church. You actually walk underground inside the mass grave and see rows and rows (probably thousands) of skulls and bones....and you are right there with them...no glass to separate you from them.

The clothing that remains at the genocide site

We stopped at a rock formation site and toured it....and of course, as was true anywhere we went, the children who lived nearby followed us

Danielle, Sharon and me "climbing" the mountain at Sipi Falls

Oh the lovely mosquito nets....

A stop at the equator: The fantastic four and V-money

Mudding/building a home for the pygmies! One of our favorite experiences of the entire semester!

Beautiful scenary from campus

The Way of the Cross on Good Friday

My wonderful "shower" room during rural homestays

Matoke, pre-cooking

Yep....I ate that....and it was DELICIOUS!

Just one of the gorgeous views of campus...

My host mom running the "printing press." It usually started around 3:30am and made a loud clicking noise about every five seconds. She was the school's secretary and did all of its printing from home...

Julie, Mom, Dad, and Nathan greeted me at the airport when I finally arrived... the sign says "Welcome Back Betsy! A warn shower, running water, and a cold glass of milk await you!" And she actually had a bottle of COLD water and homemade chocolate chip cookies waiting for me!

Forget the List!

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’" ~Matthew 22:37-39

Often when I journal, I find I don't even know where to begin. So much is going on inside my mind at the time that it's hard to choose what to write about and how to sort through it all. Today is one of those times. But I think I'll choose love.

As I spend time thinking about the people I met in Uganda, I think about love. I don't think I ever came across a person who didn't love in Uganda (ok, so the man who asked me to come home and lie with him and the men who constantly yelled out "Mzungu, I need your love" may have been loving in a different way, but still, love was in the air...). I think the four months I spent interacting with the people of Uganda helped me break away from my legalistic view of Christianity. How often I've felt like a "bad" Christian because I forgot to read my Bible or pray. I made Christianity out to be a giant list of do's and don'ts. I had my daily "Christian to-do list" and if I neglected anything on the list, I felt guilty and unworthy of calling myself a Christian. But the people of Uganda taught me a different way of living.

"What does it mean to be a Christian?" I asked my host-brother.
"Well, I think it means that you really love God. And that you really work hard to love others," he responded.

Now, I've heard that philosophy before. Love God, love others; that is the meaning of life. But did I ever believe it could really be that simple? I was so caught up in the to-do list that I overlooked love completely. The love shown to me by the Ugandans I lived with is a love I'll never forget. They poured their hearts out for us. They devoted themselves to us. They loved us before they even knew us. They loved without hesitation. Relationships are such a key aspect of life in Uganda, much more so than they seem to be here. Relationships trump all. You have a meeting to go to at 9:00, but your neighbor shows up at your door to visit at 8:30, you better forget about that meeting. Your neighbor is far more important. Now I'm not sure how well that method actually works, and it was definitely the cause of some frustrating situations now and then, but the concept behind it is beautiful. Investing in people is far more important than in our job or anything else we might involve ourselves with. Essentially, the Bible tells us that if we fail to love our brothers, we fail to love God. I'm not sure I ever quite got that before....I would tell myself, "well, just because this person gets on my nerves and it's hard for me to love them doesn't mean I don't love God!" I'm not always great at loving everyone. Some people really rub me the wrong way. Some people are just incredibly different from me and I don't understand them. Some people are just plain annoying! But God calls us to love them all. . . to love the least of them. This new perspective on Christianity tells me that, in a way, loving others IS loving God because God is love. Perhaps that's not completely accurate, but I believe it to be far more true than I did before I left.

It's all about others. Abby, our leader's wife, commented the last day with words that I will never forget....

"It's not that I am forgiven, but that I forgive. It's not that I'm comforted, but that I comfort. Giving up ourselves and laying your own interests and needs aside is true Christianity. We must hand our selfishness regularly over to the cross. It takes a true conversion of self to love others genuinely. Relationships need to be our focus in life. Relationship with God, relationship with people. That is all that matters."

I don't know why this topic came to mind today. Maybe because I miss those people. I miss Robinah, our cleaning lady, who was possibly the most loving woman I have ever met in my life. She poured herself out for us day after day and expressed a love towards us I'm not sure I've ever seen in anyone before. I miss my family, the Jjembas, as they continually chose to love me and treat me as one of their own. I miss our leaders, who selflessly put their needs aside to help us, to listen to us, and to encourage us. I even miss the children I passed every day on the way to and from school who, at the beginning of the semester, yelled out "Mzungu, mzungu," but by the time I left were yelling "Betay, Betay!" Love was all around us. Not once did I hear a Ugandan gossip about someone else, speak badly of someone, or really even mention anyone else. All they did was love. And it was amazing. I need to learn to love like that. I need to learn to put my Christian to-do list aside and simply focus on loving God and loving others. That's what it's about.....relationship. Love. Oh how I miss their love.

Straddling two worlds...

Becca, a close friend I made while in Uganda, sent me these two quotes today. They describe almost perfectly how both of us currently feel. They're from a book called "Hope in the Dark" by Jena Lee.....

1st quote: "I straddle two worlds. One foot in America. One foot in Africa. My heart is split. It's an awkward place to be, as it stretches the legs upon which I stand. I would prefer to be in one place instead of straddled awkwardly across an ocean. Contrary to American doctrine, however, i think we are supposed to be a little bit uncomfortable as we live within the tensions of this complicated world."

~It's true, I believe part of my heart is still in Uganda. . . with my family, the Jjembas, with my USP leaders, at UCU, in the streets of Mukono, with the cleaning lady Robinah, and V-money our driver, and all of the other amazing people I met while I was there. The goal is to integrate both worlds into one, but that's easier said than done. Afterall, America really isn't anything like Africa, and the concept of simple living seems to be completely lost here.

2nd quote: "It would be wrong for us to close our eyes and our hearts to everything that we have learned. Our experiences won't let us do that. Our passion and anger and hope don't give us permission to abandon these experiences, because the time we have spent in Africa is beautiful and tragic, rich and life-giving, horrible and yet redemptive."

~Horrible isn't a word I'd use to describe my overall experience in Uganda, but I certainly remember going through days and experiences thinking I was having the worst day of my life. Part of me worries constantly that because I forced myself immediately back in to the "real" world by coming back to school less than 48 hours after arriving back in America, I also forced myself to forget about Africa and push aside everything I learned. But I'm realizing that's impossible. As hard as it may be to figure out what changes are taking place and what all I learned while I was in Uganda, it's absolutely impossible to ignore them completely. Because I did change, and I am different, and I'm learning more and more just how exciting and frustrating that is. It frustrates me beyond belief to question what on earth I went to Uganda for, to try and figure out how I'm different, and to try and make time to think about Uganda and figure those things out in the midst of this crazy American lifestyle. But it comforts me to know that forgetting about those experiences is impossible. . . for they are forever ingrained in my mind and are now a part of who I am.

Just some thoughts....now it's time to get back to homework and grading papers...oh how I miss the days when at this time (9:50PM) we'd be sitting down for a family dinner in front of the tv, ready to watch "Mis Tres Hermanas" or "Nunca te Dire Adios" or "Secreto de Amor." Now instead i'm sitting down alone in my room to work on hours of grading papers and working on homework. Such is life in America....

Capstone

Well, again, I have no idea who actually still reads this thing now that I'm back, but I enjoy writing, so I'll continue to update it now and then. For this update, I decided to include my capstone paper, which was our final project in our Faith in Action class. We were to write from a future perspective, anywhere from five months, to fifty years, and I chose to write a journal entry from the day I begin student teaching. Just a warning, it's rather lengthy, as the requirement was 5-8 pages, so don't feel like you have to read it all. I'm just posting it, well, I'm not sure why. Read through it if you want to, or skip it. It really doesn't matter to me....

January 12, 2009- 5:30am

It’s raining again and while I love being in control of the situation, I cannot help but think back to the days eight months ago when the rain stopped everything. On those mornings I had no control. I could not go outside to the toilet or the shower. I could not go out to brush my teeth. My family stayed in bed and did not expect me to go to school. They told me I would not have lectures that day. They told me the rain made it too dangerous to walk down the hill to school. And when I finally convinced them that I would in fact have lectures that day and that I needed to leave if I was going to be on time, I left the house only to find an empty town, for the entirety of life stops when it rains in Uganda. I walked past empty shops and noticed the normal abundance of school children were nowhere to be found. I arrived at school much later than on normal days, and it was all because of the rain. Those days for me are in the past, though, and the rain no longer stops me. I cannot let it stop me. After all, today of all days is a day I cannot be late. Today, January 12, 2009, is the day I start student teaching.

This day is one I have feared for years. Even before I began college, I knew this day would come and I dreaded it. Though being a teacher has been the one job on my mind since fifth grade, the thought of standing in front of a classroom and actually teaching has always somewhat terrified me. I am not one for public speaking, and while teachers played an incredibly influential role in my own life, I have often questioned whether or not I would ever have the same impact on others. The question has constantly been in my mind, “What if I begin student teaching and realize that this is not at all the job for me?”

For years I have lived fearing the unknown, and I will admit, I definitely still do, especially at times like this. Looking back, however, I now find comfort in what I learned throughout my semester in Uganda. It was one year ago today that I left my parents in the airport, walked onto a plane, and began to wonder what on earth I was doing leaving everything and everyone I knew to spend four months in Africa. I constantly questioned my decision, even for weeks after my arrival. “What was I thinking? I am not cut out for this. What if I hate it? What if my family hates me? What if I can’t make any friends? Did God really call me to this or did I make it all up? Am I making a huge mistake?” Now here I am this morning, hours away from showing up at my first day of student teaching, and I am haunted by some of the same questions. It is only by reflecting on the past that I can convince myself that even if I hate it, even if it is not for me, even if at times I feel it is the worst experience of my life, God has a purpose for it and He will undoubtedly lead me through it.

Aside from student teaching, it seems I can relate nearly any situation to something I learned while in Uganda. When I think back to what I learned and the convictions that grew so strong in my heart while I was there, the first thing that comes to mind is simple living. Reading Ronald Sider’s Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger and a small excerpt from Discipline of Simplicity by Richard Foster created a passion for simple living I had never before experienced. That being said, I should clarify that I did not and still do not feel called to sell all I have and give it all to the poor, but I have been called to a simpler lifestyle. Since returning to America I have consistently lived out two of the commitments Brooke challenged us with during CIS class. I have kept the Sabbath and have not purchased any unnecessary clothing. As soon as I read Foster’s comments on clothing, I knew I needed to change. “Consider your clothes,” he says. “Most people have no need for more clothes. They buy more not because they need clothes, but because they want to keep up with the fashions. Buy what you need. Stop trying to impress people with your clothes and impress them with your life” (90). Those very words made me cringe as I thought about my over-stuffed closet at home and how often I buy new clothing on the spot simply because it is the latest fashion or my friends tell me to. Committing to avoid any unnecessary clothing purchases for one year has not only helped me reduce my wardrobe, but it has also forced me to avoid impulsive purchases that were so common to me in years past.

Keeping the Sabbath has been the most difficult challenge for me, though, as schoolwork always seems to pile up and free weekends are the perfect time to catch up. However, while I found it challenging at first, I have more recently been finding that when I purposely choose to set aside time for rest and for God, everything else seems to fall into place as well, and somehow I always manage to find time to complete every item on my to-do list. If nothing else, keeping the Sabbath has helped me stop worrying so much about the future and when I will accomplish all of my tasks. Richard Foster states in Discipline of Simplicity, “Worthy as all other concerns may be, the moment they become the focus of our efforts they become idolatry” (87). Not only did I worry about when I would finish my work if I kept the Sabbath, but I grew hesitant of the smallest petty matters such as what I would wear for student teaching or what my friends would think of me when I told them I could not buy new clothes. I grew even more concerned with financial matters such as how I could possibly afford to go an entire semester during student teaching without having a job. But as Foster pointed out, the simple life is all about trust. “Simplicity means the freedom to trust God for all things…If we truly believe that God is who Jesus says he is, then we do not need to be afraid” (89). Never before have I better understood the verses in Matthew that urge us not to worry. Never before have the words “Therefore do not worry saying ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after these things and your heavenly father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” meant so much to me (Matthew 6:31-34). I am eight months in to the two commitments I made while in Uganda, and while they have been challenging at times, I can say without a doubt I have been incredibly blessed by keeping those commitments.

While it has been eight months since I returned to America, and life seems to be back to normal, I cannot say the transition has not been without challenges. It has been difficult to find a balance between living simply, helping the poor, and simply being an American. I have often found myself questioning how much I should give to the poor or wondering how to best spend my money on the poor. While those are probably legitimate concerns, I find myself growing frustrated because I think back to the examples my host family provided me when it came to helping those in need and it makes me realize how selfish I still am. Jason Carpenter, a man serving with Samaritan’s Purse in Uganda added to this example by saying, “If a neighbor is in need, they don’t stop and question whether they can afford to assist them, they simply help- no questions asked. They are not worried about the future, they simply rely on God.” I remember seeing what he explained firsthand as our neighbor ran to our house in a panic last week because her four year old daughter had fallen and broken her arm, but she did not have enough money to go to the hospital. My family acted immediately and provided her with enough money to treat the girl. They did not hesitate for even a moment. They did not stop to question whether or not the person in need was a hard worker or was a good enough friend to be worth their money, they just acted according to the need of their neighbor. I long to be that compassionate and that selfless, but I constantly see evidence that I still have far to go. Perhaps one of the statements I have most remembered from Uganda is from Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger and says, “The life of the most degraded person is worth far more than the most valuable possession” (Sider, 95). I only wish I could say that statement defined my current state of helping others, but I have to admit I still find myself questioning the worth of a human’s life when deciding whether or not to give to them. I participate in a program called Save Our Streets where we go walk the streets of Chicago and visit with the homeless people, and I enjoy nearly every moment of it, but I still constantly find myself questioning whether or not a person actually deserves my help. I can only hope that by continuing to consider the needs of the poor, I will eventually follow the example of my host family and simply give: no questions asked.

One hour later:

I feel much more confident going in to this day now that I have prayed. I am finding more and more how effective prayer is and how much it really can change my life. Something happens during prayer that allows me to realize it really is possible to hand everything over to God and to trust Him completely. I have grown up hearing about the power of prayer and the importance of trusting God, and have seen both concepts at work in my life, but it was not until my semester in Uganda that I began to fully grasp the concepts and began to understand how they fit together. Before leaving for Uganda one of my professors encouraged me with a verse about trust. Psalm 31:14-15 has since become one of my life verses. “I trust you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hand.” I can remember trust being both a struggle and a blessing during my first month of Uganda they dropped me off alone at my homestay even after I had specifically requested to have a roommate. I did not have an easy time adjusting to family life and constantly questioned my ability to relate to my family. Throughout the semester life just was not what I wanted it to be as I constantly struggled to fit in at home and was not able to help around the house or be a part of the family. I began to question whether God really wanted me to be in Uganda and though I was constantly praying and asking for prayers, I doubted at times whether they made any difference. Time and time again, however, as the semester progressed and I began to share my struggles with various individuals, trust and prayer started to show up in unexpected ways and forever (hopefully anyway) changed my perspective on the two subjects. During times of the semester when I felt I was at my absolute worst and felt discouraged beyond belief, God showed up through comments that I will always remember. For example, after rural homestays I was fighting back tears thinking about returning home to my host family. I still did not feel like I felt in and I felt extremely discouraged about the entire situation, especially after listening to others describe how wonderful their host families were. At that moment, Brooke’s husband, Wills, said exactly what I needed to hear. “I truly believe God has a specific reason for everything. You guys didn’t just show up in Uganda for no reason. He wants you here, and I believe when you get back to America slowly by slowly just how much you learned.” And at that moment, my tears disappeared. Yet saying that God’s plan is perfect is much easier than actually believing it. That is where prayer came in. Wills also commented in the same conversation that “If you start each day in prayer saying ‘God, may you guide each step I take today and do not let me step outside of your will,’ then your choices should reflect God’s choices, and in turn, God should be at the center of your life. And since the moment I heard his statement, I have tried to start each morning with that very prayer, and have tried to keep Christ in the center of my life. I cannot say I always succeed, and in fact I have failed miserably at times, but prayer definitely has been a larger part of my life than it ever used to be. Learning to trust in the fact that everything actually does happen for a reason and is part of God’s plan was a crucial aspect of surviving the rest of my semester in Uganda, and in turn, has become an incredible encouragement in every other moment of my life. Had it not been for my semester in Uganda and the emphasis I saw my community place on prayer, I would not be so committed to prayer at this time in my life. It was experiences such as an overnight prayer service to combat witchcraft in Mukono and my family gathering around my bed when I was sick just to pray for me that allowed me to see how essential prayer is to our lives as Christians. Prayer is not simply presenting our requests to God, though, and prayer is not always an easy task. As Henri Nouwen states in Compassion, “Prayer requires that we stand in God’s presence with open hands, naked and vulnerable, proclaiming to ourselves and to others that without God we can do nothing” (102). I do not always succeed in my prayer life. I do not always remember to pray. There are times when I should first run to God in prayer but I instead run to another friend or source of encouragement, but overall, my experience in Uganda greatly influenced my attitude towards prayer and allowed me to see the benefits of finally giving every aspect of my life to God and trusting Him with everything. Even as I sit here and write, minutes away from my first day of student teaching, I feel somewhat at peace because I can confidently say that whatever happens, whether I hate it or I love it, it is happening for a reason and God can work through it.

Only minutes from now I will begin another adventure and I am not entirely sure where it will take me. I do not know whether or not I truly want to be a teacher. I do not know whether or not I will enjoy it or whether it is the right occupation for me. I know nothing other than that trusting God with my life is really my only option. I could spend hours contemplating what I should do with my life or worrying that teaching is not where I should be, but in the end, whether positive or negative, the experience will somehow benefit me, because I have learned that God works both on the mountaintop and in the valley. I really have no concept whatsoever at this moment in time what my future might look like, or where God may lead me, but I know that my goal is to keep Christ in the center of my life and seek to love God and love others and believe that everything else will fall into place. I may not feel the call to sell all I have and give my money to the poor, but as Sider points out in Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, the point of the rich young ruler story is not necessarily to convince us to sell all of our possessions, but rather that Christ must be the center of our lives and we must not let anything become more important than Him. He is only demanding total submission to himself (191). I know my calling involves living simply and trusting in God’s plan for my life, and whether or not that involves education, well, I guess I will find out how I feel about teaching in a few minutes when I walk out this door and into the classroom for the first time, but whatever happens, I can rest assured knowing that it is happening for a reason and that God has it under control. Now, that’s easier said than done, but whenever a decision comes or I find myself worrying about some issue, I hope to look back at my experiences in Uganda and remind myself that as long as I am striving to live for God, He will guide me in the direction I need to go. And now, just as I wrote one year ago minutes before getting on the airplane to Uganda, I’m about to begin another wild and crazy adventure, but I am ready. Student teaching- here I come

Sources

Carpenter, Jason. Personal interview. 7 Mar. 2008.

Holy Bible. Matthew 6:31-34. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989.

Nouwen, Henry J.M., Donald P. McNeill, and Douglas A. Morrison. Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life. New York: Image-Doubleday, 1982. 102.

Isingoma, Williams. Personal interview. March 2008.

Sider, Ronald J. Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity. 4^th ed. Dallas: Word, 1997.

Here's the proof you've been waiting for...

145 feet down....

HOLD ON!

Too late.... we're doomed!

Ahhh, rafting and bungee jumping in the Nile River....quite the experience! It was definitely an awesome adventure, but one I'm not sure I'll ever try again :-)

Well, it's now been exactly two weeks since I arrived back from Uganda, and I must say, America sure is quite different, but then again, I guess I knew that. I missed my flight from DC to Indy and ended up getting home around 12am Sunday morning. The reverse culture shock grew more real each day. In Amsterdam, my first purchase was an $8 happy meal from McDonalds. I thought it was pretty ridiculous to pay that much, but it was the cheapest food I could find (even just a slice of pizza was $10) and I figured not eating for the 7 hours we were there might not be the best idea. During my extra 7 hours in DC, I began to realize how slowly I walk now as I watched person after person fly by me, most of them walking quickly while talking on their cell phone, and definitely not talking to other people (relationships were HUGE in Uganda....people would never just fly by you without stopping to have a conversation). The first headline I heard in the airport on CNN was "Americans use 400 million gallons of gas per day" and then the newscaster continued to complain about high gas prices. I thought about prices in Uganda and wondered why we think we have any right to complain here. At church on Sunday I found myself quite disappointed during the upbeat songs when most people didn't even clap, let alone jump up and down or dance! I found myself laughing out loud when my pastor used the phrase, "give above the what? the tithe," (a classic Ugandan phrase is to ask "the what? the....." and fill in the .... with whatever they're talking about. It might not seem funny to you, but we laughed every time!) and expected that everyone around me would laugh as well, but then I realized no one in my church would have any idea why that would be funny, and that I just looked stupid for laughing at something obviously not funny to anyone else.

After arriving home Sunday, I unpacked/repacked all of my things and moved back to Olivet on Monday afternoon. Now, if any of you ever have the chance to leave the country for an extended period of time, I would strongly suggest NOT starting school 36 hours after arriving back in the States! I was still quite tired from jet lag, didn't know any of the three roommates I moved in with, could hardly focus in class, and felt completely overwhelmed by the amount of work I now had to do! School here is nothing like school in Uganda. I was lucky enough to have Mom send me back with all sorts of leftover home-cooked food, but we had no microwave, pots, or pans, so I enjoyed cold leftovers all week (which I think are great, but some people might frown upon). I think the hardest part of all, though, was realizing that all of my friends have already gone home for the summer, meaning that there really wasn't anyone here to share my experience with. When all I wanted to do was tell story after story, I ended up sitting in silence in an apartment full of people I'd never met instead. Luckily within the first week I had the opportunity to talk with several profs and share my experiences with them, which helped immensely! I am quite thankful to have profs I know well and can share with.

Now that week two is over, I am feeling much more "normal" again. School and grading keep me busy, but not nearly to the overwhelming extent they did last week. My roommates and I are still pretty silent in the apartment for the most part, but things have definitely gotten better there as well. We've actually talked quite a bit in the evenings this week, which is nice. We now have a microwave, pots, and pans, but no television, which is fine, just different, considering all my family ever did in Uganda was watch tv! I'm excited to go back to College Church for the first time today, though I know it obviously won't be quite like the church I grew to love in Uganda.

I'm sure there is much more I could write about, such as my first experience at an American mall yesterday, but it is time to get ready for church and move on with the day. I don't know how many people will even still check this now that I'm back, but for those of you who might actually still be reading this thing, I'll try to update it every now and then. We'll see what happens.