16 Day Countdown. (Jesse)

Takeoff to Masaka is in 16 days.  For most of the past year, this trip to Uganda has been something to look forward to, but it was far enough off that it remained remote, a distant milestone.  There was the initial anxiety of applying for this practicum and then the thrill of acceptance that followed.  However, until recently, it had still seemed removed, a far off date that generated conversation and a lot of interest from others, but that somehow hadn’t yet felt real.  My feeling has been steadily shifting over the last while.  When I found out that I’d be working in a mental health setting and with street youth a few weeks ago, I felt a tingling sensation just under the surface of my skin, and it felt like I could feel my hair follicles jumping.  This sensation was repeated, only with the intensity ramped up, when my confirmed flight itinerary arrived in my hotmail account a little while later.  A year ago, the meetings we as a student group have been attending seemed endless, talking about a far away destination.  Now we’ve got two left and leave nearly immediately after.  As the date gets progressively closer, the trip is beginning to feel very tangible and that feeling under my skin is has transformed into a constant humming in my bones.  When I think of how long I’ve wanted to travel in this sort of capacity, and how I will be doing it very shortly, I find my mind becoming chaotic.  Trying to think of all the loose ends to tie up has me feeling a sort of vertigo, and I’m quite sure as far as loose ends go, mine are pretty limited.  In other words, the speed at which the trip is approaching has gone to my brain!   So I’m sure the next couple of weeks I’ll be bumbling around in circles thinking that I’ve forgotten something critical right up until I exit the plane on the other side of the world. 

Right now, I’m trying to prepare for the trip by making sense of all the information I’ve absorbed through group meetings with our student group and our instructors facilitating this experience, by continuing to seek out relevant information and avoid projecting any expectations about how it will go.  I don’t want to speculate here what my experience will be like once we get there, because everything I’ve learned about life and work in Uganda has been filtered through my own very limited frame of reference, and I’m stepping into something far removed from that.  So for now, I’m only writing about how I’m feeling leading up to the trip.  So thanks for now to all involved who have made this opportunity possible, from the faculty  at the college, to the people in my life creating the support allowing me to do this.  More to come!