Close of Service

Well, I finished my Peace Corps service and returned back to Kansas this week. I left Uganda a day earlier than I was scheduled to in order to make it back for my Grandpa's funeral. I had made a trip back to the Kansas in February to see him one last time. That had been the first time I'd been back in the US since leaving for Uganda in March of '06.

I know that I haven't kept up with this blog very well; letting you know what grand experiences I've been having, what wonderful things I've been doing to save the world, sharing the wisdom I've gained along the way. Maybe because I've felt like there's none of those things to share, or because it's seemed too difficult to convey anything accurately and in context, or maybe just because I'm lazy. Probably its a combination of those things.

Over the last months I've been living on the island that I wrote about before. I haven't been able to do a whole lot there, but did a little bit with lifejacket availability for the people living there. Around Christmas time I took a trip to Zanzibar, which was beautiful. Toward the end of my time in Uganda, I visited my former home out on Lake Albert, and I said goodbye to the people I've developed friendships with, and wrapped up my time in Uganda for now.

I’m not sure how to describe the last two years. I’ve been working to understand a culture and people not my own, yet I’m connected to. I've met a lot of local people and developed relationships with some that have been, and will continue to be, very important to me. I’ve been trying to do some good while I’ve been there. Whether or not I’ve done more harm than good or good than harm, I don’t think I’ll know. I do know I’ve done both; pretty much anyone, anywhere does both, but especially for me, a westerner, in the context I was in there, I’ve done both. I’ve learned a bit; about Uganda, her people, western peoples, Americans, humanity, the aid industry, perceptions, reality, God, religion, beauty, brokenness, myself. So what great things can I pass on from my experiences, what great wisdom have I gained? I can’t really tell you. Maybe that’s not a nice, satisfactory answer, but it’s the answer I have right here, right now. I know that I've learned and grown an awful lot, and also that I know next to nothing about anything and being there for the last two years makes me an expert on nothing.

So what comes next for me? I don't have that all figured out right now, but things that I'm planning on are: trying my level best to figure out moving forward with my experiences a part of me and not let the experiences of the last couple years slip away into oblivion, which I feel could happen because in the context of being here in the states, that part of me feels completely removed and pretty much irrelevant, even though I know it's still a part of me and doesn't have to be irrelevant; visiting friends and relatives; researching other options for jobs in the states or overseas, or possibly graduate schools. Let me know if you know what I should do with myself now.