The end has come at last. I am currently sat in a guest house in Entebbe all packed up and booked on a flight in the morning back to London. Not entirely sure how I’m feeling apart from hugely sad to be going. Leaving Mbale was far more difficult than I ever anticipated and the thought that I won’t see my friends again for ages is really tough. The past few days have been lots of goodbye events which have been nice and also finished of the two weeks that my old youth group was here working at Beersheba. They have been an awesome team and have managed to finish their projects of making a library and painting the banda as well as beginning a Kids Club each day and making friends with all the staff! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team do so well and it was nice that they could have such an impact even in just two weeks. I sent them up to Sipi on Friday and they left on Saturday morning so then I was able to really get to grips with leaving. I managed to not cry on Friday at Beersheba until I went out to say goodbye to some friends and several small children greeted me at which point I realised how much I had grown to love Musoto. Saturday was a lunch for all the staff to which my friend Peter also came even though he left Beersheba several months ago. Great being with him again and laughing a lot, felt like old times with all the team being back together. Kept being given presents which was nice and showed me how much I really have been accepted here and treated as a friend rather than as some visitor to be kept at an emotional arms length.
Yesterday in church was really good. Thankfully there was a power cut so the PA system was down meaning just voices for the music and drums, far better than out of tune keyboard and squeeking speakers! At the end of the service Agnes and Leah said they had a song for me and in front of the whole church made everyone sing about how they were going to miss me and asking if I would write and return. I was laughing so much that my cheeks actually hurt a lot! Then they’d made a cake which said on it ‘U’R part of Redeemed’ which everyoe enjoyed eating. Even up to your last day you can learn things and I learned that there is an etiquette to passing around cake. Turns out you serve visitors first, which was my parents, followed by the pastor then pastor’s wife and then the rows of the congregation. Partly to make people laugh and partly as a serious respect symbol when I gave Pastor cake I knelt down which is what women and girls do here to their superiors. I came to Agnes and did the same before then refusing to kneel to Dave! Once the church stopped laughing I did which I think he enjoyed a little too much!
The end of church was far too emotional trying to say good bye to everyone. I started to lose it when leaving Maggie who has become such a close friend. In the end after hugging each other about 8 times she just turned and walked away and didn’t look back. Noticed lots of people asking if she was ok as she walked through church but I had to pull myself together and continue my goodbyes. Not easy at all.
The evening was my community Bible study group who I am also going to miss so much. Thankfully two of my favourites are part of CMS so I will get to see them in my new job which made saying goodbye a little more bearable. When we got home Tiff and I did two very standard activities in our house which were sorting out bills and watching Glee! The packing was nearly done although was attempting to put everything in 2 cases as one of mine has disappeared from the house and so I’d taken a massive unwanted one of Tiff’s. Trying to close it this morning had me beginning to lose my mind and in the end I bought a new case in a trading centre just outside Entebbe and have repacked everything! My full on falling apart came this morning as I left home. Somehow it then hit me and for a large part of the day if I really think about going I just end up crying which is actually what I’m doing right now as well. Thankfully my friend Sam was taking us to the airport and so he just kept asking if I was ok as he knows us mzungu women can be a bit emotional! He actually said that mzungus had taught him to appreciate Uganda because they always don’t want to leave and so Uganda must have a lot going for it!
Although I know it is time to go and that for the time being trips back here will just be holiday, it is still really hard to leave feeling happy. I finished off the work that needed doing (including printing out the full adult literacy curriculum on Wednesday morning; such a huge sense of satisfaction and also delight from Dennis when he saw it!) and I also know that all the things I’ve done here have not been in vain and that I have helped to bring change to Musoto. However even knowing all that though it is still really hard to not feel like I’m about to lose so much by returning to the UK. It is funny how some people have said to me that they think moving to Africa is a huge sacrifice as you go without so much but I genuinely cannot understand and feel so priviledged to have worked in Musoto with wonderful people who have taught me so much about so much. I don’t think I have ever worked in a place that made me laugh as much as Beersheba and that is something I think I will miss a lot. I’m already planning in my mind a return trip within the year and lots of skype calls before then.
So, reading this back I realise how all over the place my mind currently is which I guess should be expected. Hopefully after a couple of days in the UK I will begin to feel normal and start to adjust to life again. But for now, au revoir Uganda, you’ve been great, a blessing and have given me more good memories than I could ever have expected. See you again one day…
