As I write my final post and the prospect of being home draws nearer (a week from now I will be back home in Chicago), I have begun to think more and more about how I will describe my experience to my friends and family. I think most every adjective could describe the past two months in one way or another; maybe this is a way I can help people understand Uganda as I perceived it. Because this trip has been a bit of everything: incredible, funny, educational, scary, confusing, mind-changing…the list goes on. Every day has been an adventure which inspired, excited, or even disillusioned me.

            This confusion has been the most difficult of these emotions for me to deal with, and the one which I suspect will continue to aggravate my mind when I get back home. Never have I been so confused with such fundamental concepts that play such a large role in my everyday life. It drives me crazy that the overall ideas of foreign aid and international voluntarism are too large for me to get my mind around. So many problems that vex me entirely are attached to these do-gooders and good acts.

            So overall, the last two months have been experiential learning at its best. The half-naked, extremely malnourished children from TV advertisements became a reality as I looked them in the face and they latched onto my hands when we walked through Namuwongo. I am no longer afraid of bugs or snobbish towards bucket baths; I appreciate how much people gave me from the little they had. Uganda has managed to completely change my frame of reference.

            So how will I bring this back with me? I remember at the beginning of my trip scorning those well-to-do Ugandans who had no involvement with the problems and poverty in their country. I could not believe that they could see the blaring problems staring them in the face, and continue to look away and do nothing about it. I then realized, however, that Ugandans and Americans are not as different as one might think. When I took a step back and reserved judgment, I realized that I have lived six blocks away from the West Side of Chicago for my entire twenty years of life, and have never once thought seriously about what I could do for their community. My experience with them has been limited to locking my doors as I uncomfortably drive through Austin.

So I pledge to no longer look away, to count my blessings and work towards the betterment of my city, and hopefully later on, the world. If this was the only lesson Uganda taught me, it would be enough. I want to thank you for sticking arounde all summer and working through my confusing experiences with me. I also want to thank my parents for allowing me to come here and get confused in the first place, and to everyone who touched me when I was here.