February 23, 2017

Thankful.

So to put Ugandan life in perspective I'm starting a Thankful Thursday post. Living overseas is hard. It's not mentioned on instagram or social media every day and you don't hear too many people talking about the nitty gritty daily frustrations that go into it but they're real. 

Nothing in Uganda is simple. What you would think would take no time at all could take you all day. And maybe a 2 week project is something you're still working on a month later [hi that would be me]. 

Recently in moments of emotions I got this from someone in my tribe. "Simply going to Africa because God tells you to go is in oxymoron.  There is nothing simple about leaving your own tribe to go in search of another.  There is nothing simple about leaving everything familiar to you without a laid out step by step instruction manual.  What there is in that is endless possibility that God will be able to move and work in you in ways you thought impossible." 

These words ROCKED MY EVER LOVING WORLD. At this point in the journey I've learned to consolidate the facts and can tell the story of my journey to Uganda in under 1 minute, under 2 if you get the extended version. But it's not that simple. It's not easy or comfortable to leave your tribe. Especially when you're thrown into a culture and community though WONDERFUL are so different than your own (seriously carrots in the spaghetti- WHY?!). It also isn't easy that you're currently the only American working with your NGO (or only westerner for that matter). I find myself missing the strangest things like cutting boards and lettuce and dreaming about kitchens and places with stoves to cook on. No really I almost drooled all over the kitchen at a guest house we visited, it was amazing and perfect and I was sad and pathetic all at once. But without sounding like the biggest cliche there are really good things happening every day. Sometimes I just want to get lost in the hard or difficult things because they seem so big and frustrating and they let me just sit down and wallow and miss my tribe. 

But then the question pops into my brain: what good is that? 

Now don't get me wrong sometimes nothing is better than sitting down and crying or complaining it out. But I've found I can only do that for so long. One of my best friends calls this the venting vs perspective question. Are you venting? Are you ready for perspective? 

So to help keep things in perspective we're starting Thankful Thursday's. 

This week I'm thankful for: 
  • American Friends who listen to alllllll your random circles and thoughts. 
  • Friends that invite you to sleepovers because having a girls night is important. 
  • A market that for some reason got fresh cilantro, fresh mint, and green onions in from Kampala (the capital) this week. 
  • INTERNET. Seriously. I'm obsessed. And it makes the world seem a little bit smaller. 
  • The fact that Uganda doesn't have many similar things to home but it does have Potato Chips or rather Potato Crisps. BLESS. 
  • Mostly running water.
  • A flushing toilet with no pipes sticking out. Can we get a huge Amen?!
  • A fan that works whenever we have power. 
  • Seeing a man in town wearing a shirt that says "Bye Felica"! My goal is still to get a photo. 
  • A tribe that loves me, emails me, texts me and never lets me forget that I'm loved. 





xox.

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