Well as you can see, my blog looks slightly different and I have not posted
anything when I said I would (big surprise there). Things have been a little
wild the last couple weeks and I just have not had the energy to write
something.
A week ago, I arrived back at site in Fort Portal after a three week
vacation in America. People have asked me if I had culture shock coming to
Uganda a year ago and of course I did but I feel like I had more culture shock
going back to America after a year of being in country. I remember walking
through Target for the first time and thinking to myself ‘why do people need
this much shit?’ That basically happened every other place I went and also just
driving through neighborhoods in the land of suburbia. At times during my trip,
I really felt out of place in America.
I landed in America after about 18 hours of flying in Minnesota and it was
rainy and freezing out (okay it was only like 55 but to me that is cold). I had
a couple days of sleep and trying to get on a time schedule (Uganda is 8 hours
ahead of Minnesota time). I then jumped in the car and drove 950 miles to
Denver, Colorado to visit with some friends and also see my older brother who
is working at the Denver Art Museum for the summer. I also went out to Buena
Vista and Colorado Springs to see friends and attend Association before heading
back to Minnesota. I forgot what it was like to have long days with lots of
sunlight – Uganda has 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness every day,
every year so it was amazing to have the sun rising at 5AM and finally getting
dark around 10PM. With all the traveling and driving around people would say
'that is so far to travel' but I would compare distances with traveling in
Uganda. It takes 16 hours to drive from Colorado Springs to my house and I
would look at it as that one time it took 16 hours to travel from Kigali,
Rwanda back to my site (if Kigali and Uganda had been in America it would have
taken tops seven hours).
Traveling takes a lot out of you and I did have a few hours of sleep on the
different flights but I got to sit next to a woman who refused to close her
window shade the whole flight from Brussels to New Jersey and my TV screen was
not working (an eight hour flight with a broken TV screen sucks). I became a
pro at falling asleep at random times and places when I was in America because
my body never got accustomed to American so I was just tired and cranky all the
time.
I think what got me the most was how out of touch everyone was with the
world.
Media plays a large role in giving misconceptions of what is going on in
the world and also its now entertainment and it is not so much news anymore.
Also smartphones – my smartphone broke about seven months into my service and I
never replaced it so I went most of the last year without one and I forgot in
America people spend their lives on their smartphones and forget to live. I had
dinner with a friend who spent most of the time texting another person
throughout dinner and I sat across debating if I should just leave or throw the
smartphone and that was not the only time - if a situation got awkward they
would get on their smartphones where here in Uganda you end up laughing and
living with the awkward situation. Be present people come on. I brought a
smartphone back with me and I have mix feelings about it already. I don’t want
to pay for internet on it and two I do not want to be glued to it again like
everyone else in the world. Ugandans find it extremely rude when you pull out
your smartphone when they are talking to you (Americans have forgotten that I
guess). Currently I am switching out sim cards and checking my smartphone once
a day – otherwise still sticking to my Ugandan burner phone.
It was great to have American food again that was not boiled to death or
bland with no flavor – Yes I ate a whole box of cheez-its and a couple bags of
potato chips and I am not ashamed. I had a great time eating different foods
again but it was also an eye opener to how unhealthy Americans are when it comes
to eating.
It was nice to be in America when the Supreme Court ruled on gay marriage
and I got to share some joy with fellow friends during that weekend and it is a
step forward for the world. It was a good trip and good to see people but at
the same time I could have gone elsewhere in the world and dealt with less
stress and saw some cool sites and after doing two roughly 20 hour flights it
is not really worth it and I do not plan on taking that flight again for at
least another year or two too much flying.
