Full Circle

I am back in Mukono after the past few weeks of busyness and travel.  The Rwanda trip went well overall, and there was lots of good debriefing from the trip and the semester.  The students left Wednesday night and now I am resting and starting to think about things I need to do/ people I want to see this month.  More to come on that I think!

After the Rwanda trip we usually have 2 days of debrief time with the students at Lake Bunyonyi near Kabale, Uganda.  It is close to the Rwandan border and about 8-9 hours from Mukono.  We usually stay 2 nights and the place we prefer to stay is Bushara Island Camp, where we can rent out the whole island for our group.  It is rustic in a way- no electricity, water heated by fires, permanent tents but very beautiful and comfortable with good food and lodgings.  The students always love it for it's camping feel and it is a good place to talk about Rwanda and what was learned.

Lake Bunyonyi

Below is the group from this semester listening to some announcements upon arrival.  Behind them is the dining area.  We all arrive by boat, which makes the logistics even more interesting!

Bushara Island Camp

 For me, the place has even more significance.  When I studied abroad in Kenya 12 years ago (!!) I made a one week trip to Uganda.  I came with a big group to do rafting on the Nile and then stayed on with a friend, Melissa, to travel more.  Melissa knew a missionary in Kabale so we trekked down to southwest Uganda to visit.  I remember various things from that visit and one of them is visiting Bushara Island, which was just under construction.  We canoed out across the lake to this new place and checked out their new facilities.  Somewhere I have pictures of us in a dugout canoe making our way to Bushara, I remembering thinking it was a cool place then.

On the way to the island

Now I have come back to Bushara many times with groups of students, which I would never have expected back when I was a sophomore in college.   Kabale and Bushara will always hold a special place in my heart because they were one of my first experiences in Uganda, and now because of all the new memories with students and staff.   When we were leaving last week I was glad that I got to visit one more time.

While I don't have any digital pictures of that trip 12 years ago, I am still friends with the person I took that trip with.  One of the best things about studying abroad was the friends I made there, and Melissa and I have stayed friends over the years.  I am glad I can look back on that first trip and share it with someone!  Below is a picture of Melissa and I from one of our summer visits when I was visiting from Uganda.  

I'll end with this quote, given to me by a friend who I studied abroad with in Kenya:

So much happened in that part of the world where our paths first crossed that it's hard not to think of our time there, and of the time in which is was contained, as an island, now submerged.  Perhaps the same is true of any journey you begin to look back on.  But if comfort and distance have given this recollection of events the flavour of a tide-borne dream, the essential trouble remains.  Once snared, as you well know, one never fully leaves; a portion of ones heart is forever woven into the fabric of that place.

- Jason Elliot, An Unexpected Light