Mwereba

Getting back in the swing of life in the US definitely left me with some reverse culture shock.  We simply have so much that they don't in Uganda, and at every turn I keep running into all the small simple things we totally take for granted.  In some ways too, I miss my life there.  I miss the colors and warmth and simplicity.  I had adjusted to the way life worked in Uganda, and I honestly didn't usually feel the absence of the things I was missing.  I think when you leave a place like Africa you don't saw goodbye when you get on the plane.  It takes awhile for the experience to leave you, and in some ways it never does.  "Mwereba" is the Lugandan word for goodbye (referring to many people.  "weeraba" would refer to one person only).  It's one member of the small amount of words I collected... as Martha would always say to me, "you just keep gathering a little at a time, and soon you have a small bundle".  

Everyone, of course, asks you "How was Africa?!" when you see them.  It's totally expected, but an impossible question to answer.  Good?  I lived by myself in a developing country and saw and experienced a lot of things which left a print on my life that I'm sure even I don't yet fully understand.  So, as a random point, if I haven't seen you yet and you want to ask me about Africa, try starting with a specific question.  (:

One thing that helped bring a piece of my life in Uganda back home was the large, 18-lb jackfruit that my dad surprised me with on my second weekend back.  I had thought this delicious fruit was out of my reach in the US, but I was wrong.  You can buy it at the Payless on Greenbush (and I'm sure others), as long as you're willing to fork over a fairly hefty fee.  They only get a couple of them at a time, and they're not always there.  Hence, my dad became known as "the guy who called about the jackfruit".  It was perfectly ripe and yummy, seriously one of my favorite fruits.  Rumor has it that Wrigley modeled the flavor of Juicy Fruit after jackfruit, and I think it totally tastes like it.    

It took five of us a good chunk of time to deconstruct the jackfruit.  If you're looking for an expensive group bonding or ice-breaker activity, I highly recommend it.

For the main point of this post- I wanted to put in a plug for anyone who thinks they might be interested in this kind of opportunity.  As I've said, Catholic Relief Services is an NGO whose mission is to serve the vulnerable in a variety of developing countries.  This happens through several types of development and relief projects, which means there are lots of different opportunities.  Mine was just one example.  There are also many other NGOs, so if you're interested in this type of work I encourage you to do some digging to see what's out there.  

Catholic Relief Services is always looking for volunteers to complete assignments like the one I did in Uganda.  A lot of the assignments of course pertain to agriculture development, but some assignments are looking for other business, food, or nutrition skills.  The link to open assignments (in Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia) is below.  And because I'm sure you realized that this is an expensive trip- all of my expenses were paid for by the Farmer to Farmer program.  

http://farmertofarmer.crs.org/  (click on the "Assignments" link to view open assignments)

As one last push... this truly was an awesome experience.  I learned a lot, and I think the work I did in Uganda was able to impact their lives for the better.  I've talked about how much more we have than Ugandans, and by far the most important thing is simply knowledge.  Not usually advanced or complicated knowledge, but rather the kind of stuff we don't even realize we know.  If you think that you can be of service, you'd like to get out of your comfort zone (and really, we all should), and spare a few weeks sometime now or in the future, check it out!