An Unexpected Journey

My spirit has had a rough couple of weeks.   There are no words to describe the extreme, mixed range of emotions that have been swirling through my heart.   It has surely been a tough time for me in ways that very few people can understand.   But there is more to the story than my grief alone.   While I am by no means over the entire situation that has exploded in my life one week ago, I cannot look back on my experiences in Uganda without feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude.   I am tremendously thankful for so many people and experiences that I have been able to have over the past three months.   It is through this gratitude that I am slowly finding healing and hope for whatever the future may hold.   I have created a very short list of my “thankful moments” for you to be able to experience a small tinge of the great joy I was able to find in a tiny country called Uganda.        ...

One month before leaving for Uganda!  Friends don't let friends study abroad alone. She stands on the stage in front of her entire community dreading the moment that is about to happen.   There is nothing that she can do to save herself from her fate because it has been sealed by those at the very top of society.   She sheds a tear as her name is called, once again, to enter into a horrible “game” that is an almost guarantee to take her life away.   There is no one who can take her place and there is nothing she can do to get herself out of this situation.     The only thing that she can do is prepare herself for what is to come and maintain hope that all will be well. Over the course of the past few days, I have been feeling a lot like what Katniss Everdeen must have felt standing on the stage (as described above) to be reaped for the Quarter Quell.   I like to vicariously live through fictional characters because novels present stories t...