Final thoughts on the trip

I just want to let you all know I arrived home safely. I've been a bit messed up with jet lag for the last two days and am adjusting back to life here in NY. Well, truthfully, I've barely left my apt since I've been home so I am SLOWLY adjusting back to life in NY.


I wrote this in the Brussels airport during my layover on Sunday...

In the Brusslels airport. It is weird to be on my way home to NY. I just went to a store to buy a bottle of water and when the guy said it was almost $6 I just gasped in shock and said out loud "I can't pay that after where I've been!" He looked at me strangely and I just walked away thristy. Intense culture shock. Also, people are on the plane here were so pushy and rude and irritated. It made some of us miss Africans. For all of the dificulties they may deal with on a daily basis, they are a peole full of warmth and cultural bonds and friendly attitudes. Although they are so poor in so many ways, in spirit, they are very rich. In many ways, they are better off than many of us who have tons of money (compared to them) but are stressed or unhappy with ourselves or any of the other problems that come with the luxury of time and comfort.
I am sad to leave my new friends. It has been great to be part of ths community for the last few weeks, working with them, laughing with them, sometimes freaking out with them or just sharing stories of joy or difficulty of our lives back home.....


Back to Tuesday, Feb 23
So, now that I've been home for a few days, I'm seeing how much I need to process all that's happened and what I've learned. I saw a lot of things that are sad and hard to make sense of and also experienced a joy that was so amazing and pure. Reintegrating into life in the US will be a bit of a challenge. I am also very aware of changes I need to make in my life and that is feeling a little scary at the moment. In general, I'm partially excited, partially scared, and partially just really tired.

Thank you all for taking this journey with me. It felt so good to know that people out there were with me and listening to what I was going through. I plan to keep you all posted on what I'm up to next and what comes out of all of these experiences for me. I will also send out photos soon so you can have a visual of what I was up to there.
Until then, be well and take care of yourselves and the people around you.

xo Heather

Birthday, safari, and getting ready for home

I have twenty minutes of paid internet time so I'm in a time crunch but wanted to write something. Oh, I miss the days when I had free interent service at the hotel :)
My birthday was really nice, filled with hippos and wart hogs and giraffes. Also, filled with fun with my new friends, a dip in the lodge's swimming pool and a cake brought to me with singing and a candle :) It was a great end to my experience here.
I will write more when I'm in Brussels on a layover or back home in NY. I head to the airport in a few hours. Please wish me safe and easy travels!
xo Heather

Safari and a different kind of Birthday coming

Well, this is a differnt experience than the last two weeks. I am in a safari lodge, surrounded by lots of weird and cute looking animals. It is our first night here and tomorrow (my Bday) we will be taking a game drive to see giraffes and hippos and elephants and then a boat ride to see crocodiles and other water based animals. Exciting :) We were told very clearly to keep our distance from the animals and we've heard enough stories of tourists who ignored that rule for us obey it! So, tomorrow is my birthday and I was torn before I came as to whether I should stay here for my Bday or head home. Well, I'm glad I stayed for a few reasons. First, I get to see weird animals :) Second, I get to spend more time with my new friends. And third, I get to have 2 days to relax and decompress from our intense work before I head home. I think it would have been hard to head home today without a little downtime here to enjoy myself with no work or difficult situation attached. However, a birthday in intense heat and humidity without my loved ones around? Very weird. I do wish I could see some of you tomorrow. I don't think it's going to feel like my Bday AT ALL. So, I'll certainly want to celebrate when I get home. I need to wear a scarf, coat and hat for it to feel like my Birthday :) And believe it or not, I can not wait to get back to the cold and snow after this heat!!!
And I'm starting to dream about food other than rice, cooked veggies and lentils.
I can not wait to eat sushi and salad and fruit and nuts and even meat!
OK, heading to bed early so I have energy for tomorow.

xo Heather

Our last day of work!!

Today is the last day of our project! I can't believe it. It's been quite a day and is still going. I'm writing this on my 1 hr break before we have our last dinner and a closing celebration. I'll still be here for a few more days on safari and will celebrate my birthday here on Friday :)
We were at the school today and it was so much fun. We played games with kids, danced, sang, played soccer and more! I connected with a few girls today that just melted my heart. They were so sweet and open and happy to be there with us. We are also talking, as a group, about how we can continue to support the projects we've started and helped while here; the Acholi slums, the birthing center, the school, and the orphanage. I am called particularly to the slums and the orphanage. I feel like they need the most help and they are not getting very much assistance at the moment. A few of us just spoke to someone who represents the slums (they call them quarters) and we discussed giving scholarships to some of the kids so they can go to school. The goal is to educate the children so they can have a different life for themselves and not continue the poverty into the next generation. It's kind of exciting to think we may be able to help some of the people we met. A few of us will probably get on this project when we get home. A child's education for one year of school is $800. I hope we follow through with this. We're all aware that we're super motivated right now and that may change as we get back home to our busy lives. However, I hope we can rekindle each other's passion and motivation for this project if we start to fade away from it. Either way, I know we'll all be going on to make our differnce in the world, through this project and/or in other ways.
I'll write more tomorrow or the next day. I just wanted to get some thoughts out there before I got swept up in our evening.
I'm imagining tonight will be really fun and really sad since we're saying goodbye to Seane and Suzanne, our leaders/mentors/friends. Their inspiration and wisdom and silliness and toughness and kindness have kept me inspired, focused and strong for the past two weeks. I am so grateful for them.

xo Heather

Building the school

Today was our first day at the school site. So exciting! The foundation is there and the rest in being built.Hundreds of people from the community were there to help build and to meet and watch us. It was a pretty incredible sight. The women were digging, building and doing just as much as the men. The kids helped out by carrying bricks to where they were needed and our OTM team worked our butts off until we were all dying of heat and our muscles were worn out. We're some strong women but we are not used to this kind of physical work and heat! So, I keep saying "we" but my day today was a bit different from everyone else's. I'm still suffering from some kind of heat exhaustion or something and every time I exert too much energy, I get dizzy and need to stop. So, I had to take it easy today. I took all the photos of the site and played with the kids. I did feel kind of lame not helping out with everyone else, but I really was not ok to do much. I had a great time with the kids though. Right when the camera comes out, they are no longer shy and language doesn't matter. They just want to have their pictures taken and then to see themselves on the screen! It is very cute. I fell in love with this girl, Juliet and her friend Abiba. I included a photo of them. Juliet has this smile that lights up and warms everyone around her. There are always so many kids around and they like having us there so it's a good time. It's not like the orphanage which I am still thinking about. These kids have family and community and moms and dads to go home to. You can see in their eyes that they are loved and cared for.
Tonight we have dinner at the hotel and are getting together to process our experience and talk together as a group.
I'm hoping I feel better by tomorrow and can participate in the building. I'm pretty sensitive to extreme heat so I am certainly out of my comort zone here but I'm here and I'm doing it and I just need to take care of myself. I was telling a new friend, Terri, today that I had an image of me doing too much, getting dizzy and collapsing out in the middle of this field with nothing else around... and no doctor or smelling salts or anything to help. That would not have been good. She at least made me laugh by saying someone would probably yell, "Musungu down!" which means "white person down!" That cracked us up so at least we're still finding the humor in the challenging stuff :)
OK, I'm off to relax and enjoy the rest of the night here....

A Day to Reflect - and Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! We have the day off today which is much needed. We are all exhasuted. It's nice to have a day to rest and reflect a bit. We are all wondering how our lives will be affected when we get back to the US (or Canada). What changes will we make? What will feel good, bad, hard, confusing? For me, I know there are things that I want to change in my life, things that have not been working for me. I'm hoping my experiences here help me to shift my perspective a bit and make necessary changes that will bring my life more into alignment with what I really want and need. We will see... There are also things that are wonderful in my life and I want to nurture those things and celebrate them even more. I'm also wondering what comes next in terms of service, making my difference in the world. I spent 6 months focused on this project and now I'm here doing what I set out to do. My desire to help the world has only grown bigger from my experiences here, so what comes next? I have no idea but I'm eager to see where this all takes me. It's exciting to see how much of a difference one person can make. Most of us think, there is so much wrong with the world so what can I do? or it's too much of a mess so why bother doing anything? Well, I want everyone to know that one person CAN make a huge difference. You just have to belive that to make that difference. I raised 20K and because of that hundreds of kids will have safe drinking water, kids will have a school to go to learn and teachers there to teach them, and new moms will have a safe place to give birth. That's a big deal. It is possible to make a difference. What else are we doing with our time besides buying new stuff and obsessing over things that don't matter to anyone but us in our world of luxury, excess, and sometimes superficial priorities. OK, I'm a little punchy today :) It's just how our culture is. It's not our faults but it's important to step outside of it and look around a bit to gain some perspective. I get caught up in it too. It's just what we know in the US. We are lucky to live in such safe and fortunate circumstances. But, maybe we can all look around and see how lucky we are, shift our priorities and then start to give to others who are not so fortunate. It's also a bit daunting to see how much of a difference one person can make because it gives me a sense of responsibility. Like now I can't ignore it and must do something becasue I know it makes a difference and if I don't, how can I expect others to? We can all turn a blind eye to the rest of the world or we can see that we're not so different from people all over and acknowledge that if we don't help, who will? Who is responsible for helping, if not us? Small non profits and NGOs seem to make a much greater positive impact that big, government or corporate organizations. That's us. People like us can make the most difference. We're all the same all over the world. People are people. Kids are kids. Eveyone deserves a clean place to live, healthy food, safe water and clothes on their backs. And everyone deserves love and support. I still can't imagine what Miriam'a birth would have been like if these four eager, loving white women were not there to rub her back, comfort her, and be with her every step of the way :)
OK, done with all of those thoughts for now. Needed to get all out that out!

Other things....
I'm taking the night off from the group's plan because I'm feeling kind of sick. Not sure if it is the malaria pills, effects of the extreme heat and sun or just exhaustion. or all of the above. I'm hoping some rest in the A/C of the hotel and sleep will make me feel better.

Tomorrow we go to the site of the school which should be great. We'll be building again. I'm hoping there is some shade there somewhere. This heat is intense. Half of the women here are sunburned. I did get a heat rash one day which has thankfully gone away. Anyone who knows me knows I HATE sunburns and don't deal with them well so I'm being extra careful about protecting my super white skin :)

OK, last thing. I finally had some chocolate today :)
Oh, how I missed you, chocolate.
I told people that if they can produce some dark chocolate for me on my birthday (Friday!) then I'll be a happy girl. I can't have a birthdaty without chocolate!

xo Heather

So many kids without parents to take care of them

We went to the New Hope orphanage today. It is a school/orphanage for about 100 kids. These kids either lost their parents to AIDS or were sent to the orphanage because their parents couldn't take care of them, mostly for financial reasons. The kids were so happy to see us and prepared two songs for us. It was really incredible to hear these songs and to know the amount of time it must have taken them to learn them. I have video of it and will show people when I get home. We bought them new mattresses (their old ones were stained and just pretty grosss over all), created a garden so they can grow their own food, and gave them a water system which is important since the water supply there is really contaminated and basically unsafe. Safe water is even more important for these kids because most of them have HIV and exposure to diseases (like typhoid) in the water is particulary dangerous. So, they are really excited to be able to drink, cook, and bathe in clean water. We brought them TONS of books, games, soccer balls, jump ropes. We took photos of them and printed the photos for them to keep and also did fluoride treatments for their teeth. THey had a great time today with us :)
But, what I'm generally feeling now is sad. I could see how hard is was for them when we left. They just looked so sad and some girls were crying. They are used to being abandoned and we came in, brought great stuff, made their lives better, safer, and easier which is SOOO important for them, but then we left too. Of course, we had to leave. We can't stay ther forever but it was just heart breaking to see the sadness come in as we drove away. I'm not sure what to do with these feelings at the moment. It's just the way it is here. It is like this all over Uganda (and Africa in general). The country is made up mostly of children. There are soooo many children here. Actually, one thing that has struck me is that all the kids seem so joyful here. It is kind of amazing. They are just happy kids full of laughter and life. They seem happy with their families, friends, and their big communities. There is a true sense of community and culture here. But the kids today seem more withdrwan and sad than all the other kids I've seen before today. I can't imagine not to have a mom or dad to hold you when you cry or to pick you up when you fall. The orphanage is run by a wonderful man who is doing his absolute best with his limited resources. I guess I need to be grateful that we were able to do something to make their lives better and safer. At least that is something.....