An Unexpected Journey

Last October, I was going through some of my old documents, photos, and videos from high school.   It was incredibly nostalgic (and extremely embarrassing) to see my world as a teenager.   While reminiscing my teen years, I found a bucket list in which I had started to write out 100 things I would like to do before I die, but I hadn’t quite finished.   My teenage mind had conjured some basic and interesting goals, but I was surprised to see that I had wrote “join the Peace Corps” somewhere amongst them because I don’t ever remember being interested in joining Peace Corps until three years ago after my semester abroad.   But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that maybe it shouldn’t have shocked me…because maybe there are some things in life we find our way back to even when the original idea leave our conscious minds. I don’t think that my teenage self would have ever predicted that I would make it this far.   These last few months in Uganda...

I have a secret: one of my goals during my Peace Corps journey was to become fluent in the local language of my region, Acholi.   Actually…that’s not so much of a secret.   My guess is that this same desire is the hope of many PCVs worldwide.   When we speak in the local language, we connect with our community in a new way.   Community members are both entertained and touched that a foreigner would take the time to learn their language and make an effort to use it.   And we are placed with a host family as we undergo weeks of language torture training to help prepare us for community life.   I really enjoyed my homestay experience.   Once again, I was placed in a family headed only by a woman; I have never had, or met, a Ugandan host father!   It’s crazy to think that all three of my Ugandan host families, all from very different parts of the country, have been similar in this way, but I am grateful because it allowed me to be more comforta...