It has now been exactly 21 days since my arrival here in Uganda and though it truly was a long and emotional journey to get to Kabale, the city I'm living in, I made it safely. Frustrations ran high my first week as I came to an unfinished home, unfinished furniture and so much more chaos. From constant phone calls to the landlord, electricians, and plumbers to sleeping with quite a lot of bugs, things slowly took place and I was able to get my place together. One of my happiest moments in those first days was that I was able to find a hammer at one of my 5 neighbors. I wish I'd brought a tool kit with me, LOL! For those that have moved at some point in your life, you can somewhat understand me. Moving across the ocean, to a different continent and all the way to Kabale with 11 luggage's was not only a hectic and hilarious sight, but I have these mixed feelings of never wanting to travel with luggage again, and also asking myself, why didn't I bring more, ha! I keep making all these lists in my head of like, I wish I had brought this and that and that.. oh goodness! Regardless, I am happy that I have a very decent home here in the town of Kabale. When I step into my home I feel like I have a piece of my American home with me. When I step outside my front door, I know without a doubt I'm in Africa, lol. I live in a cement structure building, where 5 homes are attached together, yet separated with different entrances. Though it is a major adjustment to have so many neighbors with children mere feet away from me, it is a welcome adjustment at the same time. I honestly feel like I live in a village more so then in town.
Birthday Celebrations
This birthday for me was the hardest and most significant. It was my first birthday without my mom, I had just moved to a different continent, let alone a different country, and life was in so much chaos. The morning of my birthday, I'll be honest, I just broke down and cried. I missed mom so much, I still hadn't been able to see Moses or move him in, and I still wasn't comprehending all that had happened and was still happening. The days were going by too fast for me to truly understand all the major life changes happening. But I gave myself a pep talk, said pull yourself together and try to make the best of it. The day didn't get much better till about noon or so when I finally found a friend to come help me, by bringing Moses over. In the meantime I'd tried to bake a cake and totally burnt it because I couldn't figure out this particular stove. I promise, I was thinking this is seriously just not going to get better. I'd invited a few people earlier in the week, to come over and celebrate both my birthday and Moses's belated birthday, so I had to get ready for that. I was thankful I had sent the invitation because it pushed me to get out of my funk. Moses had also finally come shortly after my cake fiasco, so the day was looking better already. Everyone came around 6pm or so and we had African food and African ginger cake. We celebrated Moses turning 3yrs old (his given birthday by the authorities is Jan 3rd) and my turning 29 yrs old. It truly ended up being a bittersweet birthday, but a thankful one nonetheless.
Among all the fun of getting to spend time with Moses, I've also been extremely busy with the actual projects I'm here to do as well, but that will be my next blog so hope you stick around :). The first two weeks were extremely busy, stressful, and hard emotionally, but as I look back on it now, I'm thankful I made it through and didn't fall apart. I hope this has been delightful and insightful... I like to rhyme every now and then, lol! But I truly do enjoy sharing life from here with you all, when time permits and the internet behaves. Feel free to continue sending me messages, whether they are through the comment section below or through private messages. For those that have continued messaging me, encouragement or otherwise, you will never know I thankful I am. It can get really lonely sometimes and those messages help keep me going, so thank you from the bottom of my heart!