The Leaving Post

I’m not in Uganda anymore.

And it is strange. 

I thought it would be important to start at the beginning, the beginning of this process.

I left at 4:45 on a Monday Morning from Entebbe airport.

The week before I had spend teaching at 10 Principles of Leadership Short Course to the Missionaries of Africa, based in Kampala.  I had been a bit sick, but it had been an excellent course.  No better way to leave, then leave doing what you love with people you love!  Friday evening I was exhausted, so I chilled at home and packed. 

Saturday morning of my last weekend in Kampala, Pheona, my amazing house keeper, came to help me out for the day.  She helped me with some clothes and a little cleaning before the party.  I made a shopping list for her, and she went and bought everything we needed.  Then I proceeded to teach her to make guacamole, hummus, and chapatti chips.  It was great fun with a lot of laughter. 

The party was to start at 2 pm.  I had a lot of things to get rid of, but felt I was pretty organized.  A little after 2, 2 of my female interns arrived at my house, and thus began the great clothing try on of 2013!  I had many clothes I did not need to take with me, and all three of them, Jovia, Perepetua (the interns) and Pheona jumped into trying on all the clothes.  All of them found something, and it was a great time of laughter and sharing and fun.

Then others came.  At one point I looked around and pretty much everyone on my team was there.  It was an incredibly special time.  Some people brought beautiful gifts and cards, there were lots of hugs and a few tears.  The party lasted longer than expected, but by 6:15 everyone was gone and I was loading things into Tred’s truck to take them to a friends to be given out to other people... this is an expat tradition. 

That evening, I had invited a number of people out for dinner.  It was perfect.

We went out for Indian, the crew was comprised of:  Tim and Kathy Kruetter, the head of Cornerstone Development and his wife.  Emily G, from Sseko and Ember Arts, a dear friend.  Marcus and Elizabeth from IJM, Sam and Yen from the Embassy Community, and of course, the awesome and amazing Susanna and Peter.  It was such a diverse and wonderful crew of friends, representing every part of my life in Uganda.  It was just the right size, I was grateful. 

 

The group for goodbye!

 

Afterwards, Elizabeth was awesome enough to be up for going on for a little while.  We enjoyed a totally empty dance floor at a place across the street.  I went home and slept, one last time, in my apartment.

The next day, Sus stopped by in the morning to pick up my stuff.  She took it to her house, where I was to end up later in the day. I had breakfast at Endiro, and then went home and suddenly felt overwhelmed by the things I had forgotten to do.  I tried to catch up, but finally just surrendered and went to S&P’s house.

Spending my last hours in the country with them was wonderful.  It was the perfect ending, it felt so normal, but also so right.  The kids and I had a great time, and a wonderful was to close my time in Africa.

Around 10 pm, my taxi drive came to pick me up.  Sus, Peter and I all agreed that it didn’t feel like a real goodbye.  Goodness, I am going to miss them!

Goodbye giggles with T... see you when you're 4!

 My flight was at a crazy hour, so I had a long and tiring wait to board a plane for Cairo and leave my African home behind.