Because I Enjoy Making Bulleted Lists...

I'M HOME... after 26 hours of travel, oy.  Someone really needs to work on that whole teleportation thing, because that trip was just plain brutal.
I know its been a while since I've arrived home, and longer still since I've posted last, but let's just blame it on jet lag and my needing an extended adjustment period, alright?  Good, okay, glad we all agree.

America is too cold and there are too many mzungus here for me to handle.  Reverse cuture shock is NOT a fun time.

Instead of venturing out into the white (in multiple respects) freezing tundra, I'm writing bulleted lists and missing Africa.

Things I've come to love and miss about Africa:

• Bridget, my homestay sister, and her feral child, run like the wind, giri giri-loving ways.
• All forms of African public transportation... well, mostly just boda bodas.
• My Gulu family: John Bosco, Rose, Bridget, Marina, Michelle, Paul, Teddy, and Kulusum.
• Mujaja tea.  SOMEONE FIND ME THE EQUIVALENT IN ENGLISH.
• The Gulu market and all of its wooden-stall glory.
• Being able to cook dinner for twenty for under $75 dollars.
• Accents and the fact that I developed one.
• Trying to teach Spanish to people whose language does not have the "r" sound.
• Power outages.
• Water outages.
• Rolexes and our rolex sebo.
• The Mzoo.
• Being able to walk everywhere.
• Children asking for papaya outside our gate.
• Quiz Nights with the gang.
• Making new friends wherever I go.
• Constantly encountering people who just want to say hi, ask how you are, and go on their merry way... for no reason other than, well, there's no reason not to.
• Driving through the bush in a rusty matatu, queuing a playlist that tugs at my heartstrings, and using the closest any of us could get to alone time to get up in my head and think about life.
• Boy Meets World and How I Met Your Mother marathons with Luke.
• Hookah Thursdays at Shokola in Kigali with Luke and Rachel.
• The night sky in Gulu.
• Mango juice.
• Nighttime thunderstorms.
• To expand on this, one of my favorite things:
  almost every night at my homestay in Gulu, I would sit on the porch at night and watch the rainy season's storms roll in.  My family thought this was very strange behavior, but it was one of my favorite things to do.  You could see the lightning blaze through the black sky, feel the wind on your face, and sense that the temperature of the air was dropping.  The clouds would gather, the stars would disappear, and next thing you knew, the rain was falling.  Never did it begin with a drizzle and build to a storm, oh no.  It would start and end as a terrific downpour, drenching anyone caught without shelter and blowing our heavy windows and doors shut.  Soon after it had passed, you could see the million stars again, as if nothing had happened at all.
  We all need to take more time to be in awe of Mother Nature.  She can be terrible, but that terror can also be beautiful.
• Being introduced as her firstborn by Rose, my homestay mom.
• Being awoken by the sun, not an alarm clock.
• The sky, both day and night.  If you haven't seen it, you'll never understand.
• Constantly being surrounded by natural beauty.
• Using my headlamp.
• Being surrounded, 24/7, by people who are as passionate as I am about the things I'm passionate about.  That's been a new experience for me, and I cherish every single one of them because of it.  We needed each other to get through this experience, and it made us a family.
• The music that's always playing wherever we go.
• Life-affirming talks with Rachel.
• The Kimironko family... "Don't be intimidated when you see me at the taxi park this morning, I have my shirt tucked in."
• The Nile group.
• Bartering in the market.  I tried to in a thrift store last weekend... what a fail.
• Wearing clothes that have been dried by the hot sun.
• Drinking tea every hour of the day and night.
• Kivu Shore: live it up, drink it down.
• All forms of produce.
• Digging a fire pit to finish cooking a meal when the stove breaks.  (AKA the most successful group effort ever).
• Feeling so alive, for the first time in my life.
• Language ticks and how habit-forming they are.
• Being outside under the sun all the time.

Things I do not love and do not miss:

• Cockroaches.
• Rats.
• Sleeping on the floor.
• Mosquito nets.
• Matooke.
• Posho.
• Dust.
• Never feeling clean.
• Washing clothes by hand.
• Near-death experiences in Kampala traffic.
• The smell of burning trash.

Language ticks I brought home with me:

• "My dear."
• "Even me, I don't know."
• "Sorry sorry."
• "Mmm." - as a response to anything you would normally respond to with a "yes."
• "We go."
• "You come."
• "Ah!" and "Eh!"
• "The what?"
• "Even me."
• "For sure?"
• "You want what?" and "You are going where?" ...essentially all inverted sentence structure.
• "You will take what?"
• "S'okay."
• "Faster faster" and "slowly slowly."
• In the same vein... "small small" and "big big."
• "You, you are very stubborn."
• "This one, he's very rude."
• "You are so smart!"
  ...And essentially the accent in general.  Even me, I love the accent.

A few lessons learned:

• In America, we have so much more than we could ever need.  As a collective people, we don't stop to recognize or appreciate that fact as often as we should.
• Reconciliation and healing are not just nice ideas to hope for, they are tangible and achievable.
• The people that I encountered, many of whom have experienced the worst tragedy and human cruelty anyone can imagine, are some of the sweetest, kindest, and most giving people I've ever met.  Despite hardship, despite pain, they are able to move on and appreciate their lives and count their blessings.  I think its an attitude everyone could learn from.
•  Time isn't always as important as our society deems it to be.  Its much better for your relationships, and your soul, really, to live in the moment and not worry about the next errand you have to run or place you have to be.  Slow down.  Don't rush.  Appreciate the person in front of you instead of running off to your dentist appointment.  You'll get there eventually.
  In Africa, we keep appointments, not time.
  
• Africa is nothing that you anticipate it to be, in every possible respect.

Little things I have a new appreciation for about America:

• Seeing family & friends.
• Hot showers.
• My bed.
• My dog.
• Driving my car... on the right side of the road.
• Free (and reliable) internet.
• An expanded wardrobe.
• Refrigeration.
• Real coffee.
• Unlimited texting.

As much as I love bulleted lists, I think that's enough for now.  I have a lot more to post as far as reflections after returning home, as well as a lot of commentary about the chaotic times East Africa will soon be facing (the Sudanese referendum this week and elections in Uganda in February), so if you're so inclined, keep checking back.

If you know me, you know I usually have a lot to say, and when it comes to Africa... you ain't seen nothing yet.

Do not ask what the world needs.  Ask what makes you come alive, and do that.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.