The big farewell

This past week has been very full with end of semester events, grading and getting ready for a few weeks of travel. A highlight has been a visit from my friend Heather! She was here my first 6 months in Uganda and was able to come back for a visit before I leave. Heather has been a wonderful guest- cooking for me, being encouraging and having lots of good laughs together. She got to be here last night for our big USP farewell dinner (probably 350+ people!) which was also a UCU farewell to me. Here we are as the event gets started:

There were a lot of nice speeches, both about the students and me, and a very sweet one from the Bartels family. Here are Rachel and Mary in their Ugandan outfits:

It was hard not to feel a bit self-conscious about all the nice things being said. I tried to embrace and enjoy the time with so many people that have become important to me over the past 4 years- the host families, the practicum site staffs, the UCU community and, of course, the USP staff. This year we did the matching outfits again and you can see the results below:

I am definitely grateful for all the ways I have learned from and been challenged by the various people at the dinner last night. During my "farewell speech" I read the quote that is on the side of my blog by Miriam Adeny. Very aptly describes the feeling of leaving Uganda right now.

Tomorrow I leave for Rwanda with the group and will be traveling through the time the students leave May 2nd. Will be back to blogging in May!