Preparing to Leave

So I woke up this morning and realized that I leave for Uganda tomorrow. TOMORROW. The past few weeks have been such a whirl wind that it kind of snuck up on me. I've been looking forward to going back for so long, and now it's finally here. Now I'm so impatient to leave that I don't even want to properly pack. I just want to go. (Though, really, do I ever feel like packing 

my bags to leave on a trip? No.)

 

Being back from Guatemala, I'm realizing how much I'll miss summer in Knoxville. I'll miss humidity that chokes you when you walk outside. Laying by the pool but somehow never getting tanner. The steering wheel in my car being so hot that I can barely touch it. Driving around with my windows down and the music really loud. Hiking trips in the mountains. Lazing around with all of my wonderful friends (and all those other weird things we do.) Cook outs on the back deck with the whole family and my dad's famous "Phil burgers." Fresh vegetables from the garden. I don't say this to make you feel sorry for me leaving Knoxville behind for the summer; I say this to let you know that my going to Uganda is not an escape from my life in Knoxville. Going to Uganda is one of many travels I hope to have because I love to travel, and the reason I go back to Uganda is because it has completely captured me. So know that Knoxville is and will always be my home, and I'll miss it and everyone here very much. 

So I leave tomorrow from Knoxville, connect in Newark, connect in Brussels, stop once in Rwanda, then fly on to Entebbe at 9:40 pm their time on Thursday night. 1:40 pm eastern time.  My ticket says the last leg of the trip from Brussels to Entebbe is going to last 18 hours. I know I'll have the stop in Rwanda, but how did they stretch a normally 8 hour flight into an 18 hour flight??? Dustyn's going to meet me at the airport and we'll stay in Entebbe Thursday night before heading to Mukono or Naggalama. I'll get a cell phone as soon as I can and give you the number if I want you to have it :) Use skype if you want to call. 

For those of you that don't know, I have some pretty awesome plans for this summer. For roughly the first month I'm there, I'll be in Naggalama working with Mukono Multi-Purpose Youth Organization (MUMYO), a grassroots community development NGO, and Educate!, an American-founded Ugandan-run NGO that focuses on social entrepreneurship and community empowerment. 

For my second month I'm there, I'll be traveling to the northern region to Kitgum. I'll be working as the go-between between Jazz for Justice and Bishop Ochola for a project he wants to work on. It involves recording and saving all of the traditional folk tales he knows. And some of them will be created into cartoons with a peace building emphasis to be distributed to kids. He hopes this will not only promote the folk tales importance with the younger generation, but also be a start to rebuilding the community. I can't draw, and it's certainly not my place to draw any cartoons, but I'll be helping to write proposals for funding and find Ugandan artists that would be interested in this project. 

Last, but not least, I have to thank the University of Tennessee Chancellor's Honors Program and the Parents Association for funding my travels this summer. And I have to thank Jazz for Justice for making all of this possible for me. None of this would happen without the amazing support that I have. 

So that's all for now. I'll try to be vigilant about updating my blog while I'm there. Yell at me if I don't update enough. Like I said, I'll get my phone number to you if you want to stay in touch. I'll be trying to do some twitter updates and the like. If I don't see you before I leave, have a fantastic summer! I'll see you in August!