Wednesday, August 08, 2007

It is pretty stranger to look back at this blog post-travel. Most people now know that I have been back in the US for 7 weeks. My first two weeks back in the states it was surreal experience. i suffered from alot of culture readjustment and post-travel depression. I was happy to be back, but yet missed the adventure of not knowing where I going or how I was going to get there; it felt well.....boring. Through the weirdness of all of it, I blessed to live and hangout with my mother and little sis and two of my stepsisters who allowed me to lay around the house and be at times little grumpy. I had such a great time hanging and reconnecting with my family in Oregon. Now I am back in Colorado total immersed in American culure. i have cellphone and bought a car and just accepted a job for next two months as a fly fishing guide at a Guest ranch ( i know i still have not grown up; hehehehehe). For those you who do not know why i came back earily; i came back to go to one my best buddies weddings. Now having the hindsight of the wedding behind me I so glad that I did not miss it. I have never felt so blessed by another persons wedding as I did at Tony and Jess Caldwell's. It something special to be part of watching a good friend move on to another chapter in his life.

So you might be wondering why I did not write in Africa. The shear truth of it was I did not know what to say. Africa and especially uganda is one of the most beutiful places I have seen so far with some of the nices and amazing people I have ever met. Yet, has the worst corruption and the most frustrating broken system that I have ever seen. I never felt so cheated, lied to and utterly frustrated as there. Nothing is simple in Uganda and most times the most fundemental things do not work. However, through all that the organization that i worked with "Come Let's Dance" is making amazing advances and impact in empowering Ugandans. The hard fact is in uganda sometimes no matter how great your intentions are the good things you do have bad consequences. A great example are orpahange. They are totally need for orpanages with all the AIDS orphanes and abandend kids, yet they create more orphanes by being there. Poor people see orphanges as the only hope for their kids to go to school, to eat hopefully at least once a day, to get most basic of medical care and if they are really luck adopted and taken to America were they have chance to "make it". Thus, weekly we would have kids abanded at the orphange or we learn where another kids parents are living, but unwilling or unable to take their kids back. The systems at all levels creates a circlur problem. Honestly because of how hard it was to process what i was witnessing I chose not to say anything at all. I apologize to all of you who I left in lurch.
Well... it is time to wrap this thing up. What did I learn from all of this? First off, the hardest part of traveling is getting there. To face the fear of the unkown and to leave what you come to believe is comfortible. Secondly, I gained a great apprietation of how diverse this world is it the the differences of people and culture that makes traveling so much fun. I also feel that i learned what a blessing it is to have friends and family that love and care for you. So many times people would e-mail or make comment on this blog that encouraged and regenerated me to keep on going. Thanks Guys. Finally, i feel so greatful to have a strong faith, which grounded me when things seem out of control or I needed to make a tough decison. It was my faith that allowed me step out there and also to be content at what did and saw in my times that I traveled.

So what is next for me? God only knows. But, I do want to do backpacking trip across Mongul/Nepal and Seberia. Does anybody want to go?

2 comments:

hlw said...

i'll go.

great entry. thanks for sharing!

My voice said...
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