There are sooo any white people here!

I'm currently sitting on a wonderful clean couch in suburban Kansas City typing on my computer. I'm not in an internet cafe, or on the SIT resource center computer, or using a modem to access internet. I'm on my own personal computer, in my house, using wireless internet. This all feels bizarre.

I got back home last night after a 24 hour journey. I hadn't slept in 44 hours, but seeing my family energized me enough to stay up another 5. I made a scene at the airport. I wore the African dress my homestay family gave to me the entire ride home. My odd attire coupled with the loud commotion my family made at our reunion prompted quite a few stares from the Kansas City airport crowd. Despite this, I felt like this was the most I had blended in in four months.

We drove from the airport to Chipotle. My first bite of my burrito was incredible. I literally had a dream about it last night.

Driving along the clean highways was bizarre. There's no traffic here. No taxi drivers yelling at me to get in. The suburbs are just so spacious and neat and tidy.

This all contrasted so much with the last week and a half I spent in Kampala. The second to last weekend I spent there was a true adrenaline rush. We stayed at a hostel which overlooked the Nile. That Friday night we cruised the Nile aboard a boat with copious amounts of alcohol. Saturday morning a group of six girls went bungee jumping while the rest of the group watched. Bungee jumping was the biggest adrenaline high I have ever experienced. Standing with my toes over the ledge, staring over 200 hundred feet down into the Nile, anticipating the jump, then springing off the platform, feeling my stomach lurch during the free fall, the cool water as I was dunked into the Nile, then the awesome feeing of being jerked back into the air and down again. It was a blast!

That afternoon a group of us hung out on the banks of the Nile and went swimming. The view was gorgeous, the company was fun, and it was blissfully relaxing.

Last Sunday night was the host family farewell party. My host family gave me a gorgeous traditional African dress, my brother Denis made me some cool key rings, and we ate dinner together. The conversation was continuous and I felt like I could joke with my host brothers as if they really were family. The evening ended with me dancing with the entire family for an hour. This was one of the best moments in Uganda--sincerely bonding and feeling connected with people from a different culture. Recognizing our differences but feeling like I belonged and that they understood who I was. It was great.

The next week we spent at a resort in Jinja. The landscape was incredible. Palm trees, tropical flowers, and thatched roofs abounded. It was a great and relaxing way to spend the final week in Uganda. The group spent a lot of time hanging out by the pool, playing cards, volleyball, and talking. By the time the week was over I was sincerely sad to be leaving Uganda. The group has been very meaningful to me. I have become more social because of them, more confident in who I am, and more accepting of all personality types. I sincerely believe that each person in the group taught me a valuable lesson or offered a needed insight to better my life in some way. Without them I would have never survived the semester. They were my friends, family, roommates, and support system for four months and it will be difficult to adjust to life without seeing them everyday. It was hard to say good bye.

This experience has meant the world to me. I will admit, it was full of challenges, but I wouldn't trade the experience for the world. It's hard to try and summarize the lessons I learned and the experiences I had, but I think it's important to reflect and try to draw conclusions from the experience.

I realized at the end of the experience how unessential material things are for happiness. Whenever I felt down, it was never because I didn't have a computer of electricity or a flushing toilet. It was when human interaction was a struggle. Sitting around in the dark, playing gin rummy with my friends made me ten times happier than any object could.

I also realize how important it is to feel a sense of belonging. The times I struggled the most was when I felt like people only saw me as an opportunity to be taken advantage of and not as a person, a potential friend. But when I felt like a member of my host family, when I had a loving message from a friend, when I ate dinner with my roommates in the apartment, I was truly happy.

I realized how important it is to me to feel busy. When I had nothing to do other than work, I felt restless, a sort of mental cabin fever. I need to feel like I'm always working towards a larger goal, a mission, in order to feel satisfied and stay motivated. I expect my biggest challenge of young adulthood will be to discover what my next big goal will be. In high school it was running. I am often amazed looking back at how much running dictated my life in high school, my dedication was absolute. In college I've tried to make it running and debate, but the lack of success in each of these has led to less motivation. I've felt lost without the same driving dedication and self-motivation. For my senior, I want to give debate and running one final chance. I want to treat each of these activities with a focused dedication this summer, I want to allow running to dictate my life again. I want to feel the reward of improvement. And meanwhile, I want to try to figure out what the next driving force in my life will be--what career will I love enough to give my all, to work hard at, and feel satisfaction from.

I thought studying in Africa would provide me with career answers. I anticipated I would find a calling in development, I would see Africa as a new home. I'm not sure yet though. Development is a complicated field full of moral gray areas and negligible success. And I don't know if I could ever feel completely accepted in Africa or be fully integrated into the culture. But I do care about the future of Uganda. I know I will follow it's news, politics, and care deeply for its development.

I think one of the biggest challenges about being home will not feeling "special" anymore. Not "special" is in how Ugandans thought my white skin color made me a novelty. But special as in not living fully in the moment anymore, being back to "normal." I'm no longer abroad, this is just normal life now. I had such a "seize the moment" outlook in Uganda. Go bungee jumping next week? Absolutely. Go up to Gulu this weekend? Why not, I'm in Uganda. I loved living for the moment, being spontaneous, and the outlook of always looking for adventure. I worry that I will become boring here, do the same things everyday and forget how to seek the best and most exciting outcome to everyday. I'm not sure how to work to ensure that this doesn't happen, but I hope that I can maintain the same passion for life in Kansas City as in Uganda.

I look forward to this summer. I am spending the rest of May and all of June in Kansas City with my family. Over Memorial Day weekend my family and best friend are going to Colorado together. I am intensely excited. The month of July I'm going to spend in Michigan living with my best friend Erin. I have missed her more than words can describe and think it will be wonderful to have an extended period of time together. My biggest projects for the summer are working on debate, running a lot, and writing a book about Kari's strength and her inspiring story. Hopefully this will keep me busy and happy.

I want to thank everyone who read this blog over the past four months. Knowing that people took an interest in me and my journey was very meaningful and helped me through some tough times. My experience in Uganda can't be answered simply, and those of you who read my blog will be a lot easier to talk to when describing the complicated semester. I look forward to seeing all of you again soon and talking more about my experience.

So, here's to a good summer and not forgetting Uganda. And maybe a Kyla in Kansas City blog....

Riots Recap

Alright, I suppose after the small panic I induced in several family members (*cough*mom*cough*) after posting some articles about the protests on Facebook, I should talk about what’s been going on here.

In February, President Museveni was reelected to a fifth term as president of Uganda. The runner up in the election was Besigye. Immediately after the election, things seemed calm. Besigye didn’t throw a fit at losing and it was okay.

Then, we fast-forward to April. The newspapers revealed that the inflation rate in the month of March had been around 12 percent. Fuel prices were excessively high. Besigye called for a protest campaign to pressure the government to take actions to provide relief from the high food and fuel prices.

Thus, every Monday and Thursday since April 11^th, some Ugandans have joined the “Walk to Work” campaign. Every Monday and Thursday, Besigye is arrested for “inciting violence” and the police use tear gas to break-up the crowds who are simply walking. The use of tear gas, mass arrests, injuries, and even a few deaths seemed pretty routine until last Thursday.

Then, last Thursday, Besigye was violently arrested. The video of this arrest is linked below. Needless to say, people were irate that such an important political figure was treated in this way.

Last Friday there were mass riots in response to the way Besigye was treated. The streets were blockaded by burning debris. The taxi system had to shut down due to the unrest on the streets. Five were killed as the police used live bullets to combat the protestors. Over 200 people were arrested, 200 injured. I could hear gun shots from my apartment. The police were swarming.

But, by the end of the day things had settled down. Today was supposed to be the next day of the Walk to Work protests, but the pouring rain ensured that nothing too crazy went down.  So, if anything more happens, it will most likely be on Thursday. 

I suppose I could go into a deep evaluation of my take on the protests and Ugandan politics in general, but I think those are discussions I would rather have with people who pursue the topic with me back in the United States rather than writing out a manifesto via blog.

In other news,  I’m home in two weeks. While I am incredibly excited to be reunited with my family, friends, vegan junk food, and country, I will also be sad to leave behind the group of friends I’ve established here. The SIT group has been fantastic. I have always been the type of person who has a few very close friends. But here, I have 17 friends, almost all of which I would consider good friends. This has probably been the most social semester I’ve ever had and I will be sad to say good-bye to the people I have spent so much time with and had so much fun with. I think meeting new personality types, new people with a different set of goals and ambitions, has been good for me and I truly cherish each person in the group. Our group dynamic is truly one in a million and I wouldn’t trade my time with them for anything. 

However, my anticipation at going home is undeniable. My time away from friends and family has made me appreciate the relationships I have in the United States. I miss working in the debate room at 2 am and trying to block out the noise of Tim and Alex discussing if we should have a Senate or not. I miss Sunday runs at Great Falls with the cross-country team. I miss seeing the Washington monument on my walk to class every morning. I miss reading the Washington Post.  I miss getting a phone call from Dad to let me know how many inches of snow Summit County got the night before. I miss going grocery shopping with my room mate Emily. I miss watching bad movies with my sister Kari. I miss being overly competitive with my brothers Keith and Kaleb. I miss hugs from my mom. I miss two hour phone conversations with my BFF Erin. I miss good food. I miss having an oven that works. I miss having a hot shower. I miss sidewalks. I miss the good people of Liberty United Methodist Church. I miss the Metro. I miss feeling independent. I miss two am runs on the National Mall. I miss chocolate almond milk. 

But most of all, I miss feeling like I belong in the country I live in. 

So, two more weeks and I’ll be home. Before then, I have to:

-finish my 40 page practicum paper

-buy gifts for the people I like in the United States

-go on another booze cruise (sorry you had to see that, Dad’s Sunday school class)

-go bungee jumping this weekend!!!

-hang out with my host family a final time at the SIT farewell party

-give a presentation on my practicum paper

-locate my passport

-move out of the apartment

-say good-bye to the awesome group

-try to write a blog post summarizing the semester….yikes!

Alright, that’s it for now. I apologize for the general lack of structure or intelligence in the last couple of blog posts. I’m fuelling all my intellectual gifts into the practicum paper right now. This is just bubbly lists and surface level news stories. 

13 days til I’m home!!!