Wrapping up and Heading Out

Our semester at UCU is COMPLETED! This means that I AM OFFICIALLY A COLLEGE SENIOR and, according to the Uganda Studies Program diploma I received at the farewell dinner last night, I am also a Uganda Christian University alumni. These two new identities both signify that the entire semester is coming to a close, but it sure does not feel that way – there is still so much more!

Let me give a recap of these last few weeks:

I spent Easter Sunday with my host family from Kapchurwa. A friend and I journeyed through the city, on and off many taxis in order to reach their apartment in Kampala. It was so great to spend time with them and be given the opportunity to meet their other daughters who had been away at school during my home stay. I feel so blessed to still be connected with them!

Finals: Overall, this was the most relaxing finals week I have ever experienced, although still not necessarily pleasant. Old Testament and East African Politics both had exams that required us to write in-class essays.  It was a little brutal, but 20 pages and 5 hours later, I was finished! Other than those essays, we just had presentations and final reflection papers to complete.    

With all the weekends and down-time between classes and projects, I have simply been enjoying life here. I have grown to love the fact that I can hear literally everything happening in the hall. We are frequently finishing each other’s sentences through the walls and joining in whatever activity is going on. Friends and I have been trying to savor our Ugandan experience by activities like hiking, star gazing, night runs, and eating a ton of papaya! I have learned so much about living in community and I love it!

We have spent the last week and a half preparing for our next adventures:

We are headed to Rwanda tomorrow morning for 10 days. While there, we will be visiting memorial sites, hearing from victims of the genocide, bishops, and reconciliation sites. From the movies and discussions we have had thus far, it will be an intense trip no doubt. We are all pretty apprehensive as we think about all we will be forced to confront in this next couple weeks, but it will be an invaluable experience. 

I have been enrolled in a Spiritual Disciplines course that will be wrapping up after most of the students have returned to the US with a 5 day backpacking trip on Mt. Elgon. We have been packing and making the food for that trip over the past couple days and I am pumped to end the program with that adventure.

Although the program officially ends on May 8^th, I will be staying until the 24^th with my Dad who is flying out to visit! I can’t wait to show him around my university and the surrounding town. We are then headed on our own safari adventures in Uganda and Tanzania – I think it will be a killer way to end my time here.

Before I can go on any of these trips, though, I have got to pack… something I have put off for the entire week. I’m off to do that now but will be sure to do a final blog after I have returned to the states!