"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." – Dr. Seuss

I prayed about it and while it may have been foolish I said forget about the Ebola thing, and I hugged everyone goodbye! I am sincerely going to miss everyone here, even the people I didn’t work with. This place is another home. I can walk down the main road and see at least 4 people I know personally by name. It’s such a great feeling. People kept on thanking me for everything I did in Kaihura and for a wonderful summer. I just can’t imagine that I’ve touched their lives half as much as they’ve touched mine.

My silly kids

I went and visited the children’s home for the last time. I held up pretty well until I got to one of my students that asked me every day if I would come back to Kaihura. He was hesitant to even give me a hug, my heart throbbed and I quickly moved on to hug the rest of my students so I could leave. As I was leaving he came for another goodbye and I couldn’t do or say anything but wrap my arms around him. That’s when I lost it. What touched me the most was that he said “Madam, it’s okay. Don’t cry!” Our roles had totally switched! I was supposed to be telling him that. I figure that the emotions are so real and I believe it shows strength to allow them to flow freely. I was in no mood to act tough, so I was true to my feelings. Tears streamed down my face and as I looked down at him and he said those words to me I could tell that he knew. He knew that I genuinely loved him.

Kings of Kaihura Volleyball Team

Our last night of volleyball was fun and we actually played pretty well too. Once again, we had another round of goodbyes to say. Afterward we went on a final hike as a group up a big hill on the side of town. We didn’t take a trail, but instead treaded through tall grass to create our own path. I can’t help but think of the symbolism between the hike and our entire trip to Uganda; an unconventional, life changing summer.  We may have faced challenges along the way, but in the end it was a beautiful sight and well worth it. The view on top of the hill was great and we got to watch the sun set. It started raining on our way back down. Kenneth pointed out that it rained on our first and last night in Kaihura. We had come full circle. The rain was like a total cleansing. We are now starting afresh, life continues to move on and so must we. The rain washes away, but you still see the remnants of it and never forget that it rained. As much as I hated to leave, at this point my heart was ready to go.

On top of the hill

We had quite the meal for our last super. It was one of our favorites, fried food night! We had fried Irish potatoes, fried eggplant, beans, pork, and my personal favorite chapatti.

As expected, our Wednesday morning departure was pretty emotional. A bunch of people in the village came to say goodbye. Before getting in the van we made a big prayer circle and Faith prayed for our safe travels. Talking to our friends for the last time made me feel really good because I know that by just being myself I touched other people’s lives. I don’t think I did anything extraordinary, yet I was sincerely loved. I feel like Kaihura was way better to me than I was to them. If I had a dollar for every time I told someone in Kaihura I loved them and sincerely meant it, I would have hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

Our Ugandan friends that lived with us and
helped us out so much!

We spent 3 days in the capital city of Kampala. It was a culture shock for most of us because we drove 4 hours and went to an entirely different world. Kampala is just another big modernized city. Big buildings, hundreds of people, malls, restaurants, and pretty much everything we have.

The busy city of Kampala

Our last dinner/ cultural dance show

Rafting in "The Bad Place"

Thursday all of us went rafting in the Nile. Most of us had never rafted before, but that didn’t matter. We were convinced that we wanted to do the most adventurous thrilling rapids there were. 15 beginners went class 5 rafting. Class 5 is the highest you can do in a raft! I am a thriller seeker, but no way was I prepared for this. A full day of rafting is a big workout and I woke up pretty sore the next day. Our last rapid before we got out to eat lunch was called “The Bad Place.” Little did I know that it certainly earned that title. It was the toughest of them all; we were all thrown out of the boat. It seemed like I was underwater for an incredibly long time. I can’t help but to remember that while I was underwater I told myself “this was it” and said a little prayer. For those few moments I actually thought I could die. Water is incredibly powerful and fighting it is a lost cause. My body was literally beat up by the waves, just thrown every which way. I ended up very far from the raft and had to be rescued by one of the safety kayaks. It was an experience and it’ll be some time before I attempt rafting again and an even longer time if I ever do class 5 again.

Sunday8/5 (excerpt from my journal):

“Touch down in D.C. in 20minutes, yet I already feel like Uganda is so far and so long ago. That’s exactly what I was afraid of. I know I’ll never forget, but I desperately want everything to stay fresh and relevant in my mind. I want to remember all the scary, good, funny, and absurd times we had. It’s time to go home, I want to go home, but I’ll forever miss everyone in Kaihura. Relationships like that don’t just disappear.”

There are just so many people I love here. Other than school, this was the longest I’ve ever spent anywhere away from home. Life goes on, but I’ll never forget Kaihura, Uganda as long as I live. It will forever me a part of me. Kaihura helped make me who I am today.

And because it happened, I smile.

This is the End,
*Nicole

Even the Best Dancer Must Leave the Floor

Hope Academy!

Friday 7/27 (excerpt from my journal):

“I am so incredibly nervous! It’s 6:45am and today is our last day at school with the students and it’s only a half day too. L It’s going to be so hard to say goodbye. My stomach is in knots right now. I printed individual pictures and class pictures for each student and wrote them each a long letter. It was hard to even end Ronald’s letter because I had so much to say. I have biscuits, silly bands, and soda for the students today. Ahhh I’m lying in bed freaking out right now!”

Hellos are so easy to say, but goodbyes are the hardest thing ever, especially with children. We sat with these kids Monday- Friday for 2 months, we’ve created amazing relationships. This morning was such an emotional roller coaster. My students loved their gifts and soda. All of the student teachers preformed a song and dance for the school since the kids are constantly singing to us, it was horrible but they got a kick out of it! We also passed out report grades.

It's so easy to fall in love
with these students

Some of my students cried a lot. I told myself to stay strong for them, but I knew from the beginning I would be an emotional wreck. It’s so different from saying goodbye to people back home, because I know unfortunately there is a good chance that I may never see my students again and that is a harsh reality. I just love them so much; they are incredibly precious and loving.

Cooking

Saturday we had our big party in our front yard. We all woke up early that morning knowing that we had a lot of preparation to do before our 4pm party. We invited people from the community that we worked with during our time here. It was our way of saying thank you by serving them. We had a guest list of about 80 people! Malena and I were on cake patrol, and by cake I mean banana nut bread. We had to go to Faith’s house early to bake it that morning. We thought there would be a recipe for us, but instead it turned out to just be an ingredient list so we just had to go for it. We had much needed help from some of our friends at Faith’s and the bread turned out extremely delicious! At the party we had chapatti, mashed potatoes, spaghetti with tomato sauce, minced meat, chicken, pork, and watermelon.

Serving our guest

Dancing all night long

The party was phenomenal! The food was delicious, the company was great, and we danced for what seemed like all night long. We had a couple random visitors, but for the most part it was all of our friends. Did I mention that we danced and danced and danced? The party went from 4pm to about 8:30-9pm, 4 ½ hours of partying! We were all pretty exhausted afterwards and by the way we were acting you would have thought it was 4am haha. We had about a million dishes and decided to wake up at 7am to wash them. Everyone really enjoyed themselves. Africans love to party and dance, that’s for sure!

Sunday all of us teachers went to the nearby city Kyenjojo for a farewell lunch.  We went around the table and each made little speeches. It’s hard to keep saying bye; I never know when it will officially be the last goodbye. We have all become a Hope Academy family. When I see my students around the village it’s exciting and confusing because I never know if it’s the last time. I keep trying to deny it, like if I don’t talk about leaving then it won’t happen. Goodbye is so hard and I can’t in good conscious say “see you later” because I don’t know if that’s even true.

At the end of the night

On Monday we went to our last staff meeting and back to the farm for the last time to paint their new dormitories and say our final goodbyes. Staff meeting was a bit weird because they had all of these new visitors and it almost felt like we were being replaced. It is completely selfish, but I hate the thought of our roles being replaced. I also can’t help but think about the people before us and how they may have felt that way about us.

Teacher's lunch

We got alarming news that night about the Ebola outbreak in Uganda. What was even more alarming was that it was in the district directly above us. About 15 people died from it. Ebola is a very dangerous virus disease that is extremely fatal. Duke Engage called our professor immediately and wanted to know exactly what we would be doing up until we left Uganda. It’s recommended not the shake hands or hug people! Now that is just horrible timing, because this was a time when all I wanted to do was hug people bye. I stayed on my knees to keep us all safe with God’s help!

Though I would love to dance a couple more songs, it’s almost time for this dancer to leave to floor.

Until Next Time,
*Nicole

No More Pretending, It’s Coming to an End

Us Americans like to eat our food, but not see it. I saw 2 chickens being slaughtered in the morning for dinner that night. Let’s just say, I would be okay if I never experienced that again in my lifetime. What made it even worse was that the knives aren’t very sharp so it wasn’t one big chop, but instead required a brief sawing motion. Some boys in the group wanted to stay and successfully did it, but I just couldn’t handle it. I love chicken; however a chopped, cleaned, and air sealed package is the best way for me to deal with it. That goes for virtually all my food.

Saturday afternoon I got a chance to go back to the farm. As always it was a pleasure to spend time with the boys there. We played volleyball, talked about some of the contrasts between Uganda and America, and ate a ton of fresh maize and pineapple. Some of their questions were a bit off the wall and made our eyes get big. Marriage is always such an interesting conversation! But, we also understood that these were innocent questions that they are genuinely curious about and we are their peers so who better to ask than us?

At the farm

After church

Sunday we went to church in the village. Compared to the churches we visited in Fort Portal, I would say that this church was probably the most culturally preserved. The others seemed like they had some western influence, but Kaihura Full Gospel Church was definitely a cultural experience. Similar to my church at home, the praise and worship was a big part of the service, but it lasted much longer here. In total the service was about 3 hours 15 minutes and that’s just until we left, there were still people at church continuing the service. We may not have wanted to admit it, but I think it was a bit of a struggle for some of us to stay alert. Not because the service wasn’t good, but just because it is not what we are used to.

At this point in the trip I had about a week left in Kaihura and many mixed emotions. 2 months just seemed to fly by and I couldn’t believe it. I got a chance to go to the children’s home and help them paint one of the bedrooms. The children were so excited to have their space revamped. We used bright fun colors that are perfect for children. I’m not much of an artist, but painting a big wall wasn’t too bad!

Our neighboors

Hong tutoring after school

My students had also started taking their final exams. The scores seemed to be better than their midterms, so I was happy about that. It was slightly more nerve wrecking though because these scores help determine if the students continue on to the next grade. Grading is not my favorite thing in the world and is very time consuming, but it’s a great feeling to be grading your final test. I noticed that a few of my students have a lot of trouble reading. If I verbally read the questions for them, they understand and can answer it, but if they have to read it they just give up and either leave it blank or write nonsense. There’s just not enough time in the day, I would have loved to have some one-on-one time with these students. It’s so hard to give special attention to one student during class when you have 18 other students waiting to be taught as well. It’s also unfortunate that copying is such a frequently used method. In their defense though, it takes a lot of self-discipline not to cheat because some of my students literally sit on top of one another. Test papers sometimes overlap one another.

I really love my students! And even though they have started driving me crazy (literallyJ), I couldn’t imagine saying goodbye to them. It’s funny to think back to my first day in the classroom when I was so timid and nervous that the teacher or students wouldn’t like me. Now I couldn’t be more comfortable with them. I know them each by name and have no problem calling them out when they are acting up. I even know majority of my students by their Ugandan and English names, safe to say the Ugandan names took me longer to learn and even longer to correctly pronounce! Ronald (my teacher) is such a great teacher. He is a strong male role model for the students. He is both caring and stern with the students. Even though I sometimes disagree, he assures me that I am a good teacher. I can’t lie, sometimes it’s quite nice to hear that.

My P.3 Class

Until Next Time,
*Nicole