Home at Last

Last Tuesday we moved to the village.  Canceling was almost unavoidable, but the chairman of Fractal’s NGO saved the day.  We’re home after more than three months of swearing in as Peace Corps Volunteers.  We’re glad to be home.  We discovered along the way that it takes a village, a town, and folks across the Atlantic to make a home.  Under the safety blanket ceiling, solar-powered lighting, hungry geckos, and armies of diligent ants, we’re home at last.

As we hike and bike our village, we meet faces and smiles that remind us why we’re here.  To live a different way, learn a new perspective, and make a change.  Small changes in oneself.  Small steps towards meeting people in the middle.  I’m really glad that summer day in ’07 I sat at my desk to fill out the on line application.  No, this is not a pitch for increasing the number of applicants who apply to the Peace Corps.

After living in Uganda for close to six months, I believe travel should be part of everyone’s life.  Living in places outside a person’s birthplace in the first ten years of one’s life is essential.  Traveling abroad is not the only way to gain novel perspectives.  Seeking opportunities to diversify experiences add colorful dimensions to a person’s life.  Perhaps the first step to thwart wars, or fights from precipitating is to put yourself on a chair in a conversation with a person who has another view.

The people help me see new ways.  The people help me hear different beliefs.  The people make me a better person.  I’m glad to be in their home.  A kind of home where I see more stars at night, hear fewer vehicles when I go to sleep, breathe fresh clean air when I wake up, and experience a connection with another group of people on the planet.  Perhaps we’re connected because our ancestors were brothers.  Or maybe because we see the similarities in each other.  No matter what the reason is I’m content to be home in the Pearl of Africa.

Close to the Rift Valley.  In the emerald of Africa.  Among the Bantu.  Under the same sky.  Home At Last.