Farewells

 Tuesday, I finished everything for my undergraduate degree. I have done all the presentations, turned in all the papers and taken all the tests. I'm amazed how quickly not only the four years have gone, but also how quick this semester has gone. I remember being picked up from the airport being sleep deprived and homesick for the first four nights. It's going to be hard to go through time zones and homesickness again.

Unfortunately, on Tuesday we found out that we will not being going to Rwanda. For those of you who don't follow the news Rwanda and Uganda are having some border issues. Nothing to be concerned about my safety but my program is going on the side of caution. Instead, we are going to Northern Uganda "to learn more about the history of northern Uganda and see and hear from some of the incredible efforts being done to rebuild individuals and communities after years of devastation and loss." I'm very excited to learn more about the history of the place that I have called home for four months.

On Tuesday, I went home to celebrate being free from being a student and also to "help" my family cook for the farewell dinner.  Tuesday night, I helped defeather one chicken while my brothers did like five or six each. I then helped wash out the inside of the chickens (30 chickens). I went to bed and I over slept, so I missed the whole butchering the pig thing. I'm not too upset about that for some reason (just so you know I woke up at like 7:30). The rest of the day, I helped take the garlic and grate it. I only got my finger once in the process so it's kind of a win. I then followed Alex around with whatever he was doing.

The farewell dinner is an event with lots of people and speeches. My family made incredible food and there was so much of it. There were over 250 people there. (28 students+ each student got 2 coworkers from their internship+ host families + staff). I was luck that I had another person interning at ROTOM so that I got to see four people from my practicum site. We got to celebrate that I got a certificate that says I completed a the Uganda Studies Program here at UCU and am now part of the alumni association. This is super cool since my supervisor graduated from UCU so it's like we're alumni together now.

My group of social workers (not everyone made it for the picture)

Supervisors and the supervised. ROTOM blessed both of us.

My ROTOM family

Babirye to my Nakato (It's a twin thing)

Today was my last day on UCU's campus as a student. The bus rolls out at 8:00 am and I'm going to miss this place.

Last Weekend in Uganda (As a USP student)

I am done with my internship- I ended with 409 hours. I learned so much through being here. I learned how to practice with clients through a translator, how to be okay with silence, how to connect with coworkers that are so very different from me, how to ask a million questions and still prove you are a competent social worker,  about power dynamics (being educated, white, a social worker) and how to try to balance the power I do have.  I also got to experience chickens sitting inside clients houses (I only got pecked once), dance parties with jjajja's, making a fool out of myself and being okay with it (I'm talking about the dance parties) and making relationships.

I finished all of my classes here at UCU, the only thing that I have left for my undergrad is a case study paper and presentation on Tuesday. It's super said to realize that my time is almost done. This week, I'm turning all of my stuff in and getting ready for our trip in Rwanda. We will be watching some educational movies and having orientation to prepare for it. We leave on Friday.

This past weekend, on Saturday I got to go to Kampala and do some last minute shopping with a good friend of mine. We took a taxi and accidentally got off on the wrong stop. Thankfully, Ugandan's are more than willing to give directions. We made it to craft Africa safe and sound. We were extremely impressive, we got all of our last minute shopping for people done and left in like two hours. We then went to Lugogo, which is a shopping mall. We went to a big super market than tends to have some American food and we found some American candy bars. We then stopped at Cafe Java's. It's a chain that I've mentioned before that has "white people" food (Ugandan's words, not mine). We treated ourselves to chicken alfredo and iced coffee. We got back at a decent time so I went home.

Alex taught me to make chapati, it's actually much easier than I thought. It's basically flour, water, salt and oil. You can add veggies in the mix: we added onions, peppers and carrots. It was super fun and I'm excited to make them at home for people to try. I stayed overnight and then went to church in the morning. After church, we were getting ready for the farewell dinner. There's going to be 300 some people there and my family is cooking for them. It's basically a way to say goodbye to our host families and people from our internships. So on Sunday, I helped dry plates and some 300 forks.

I did some planning for when my dad comes, we are going to have a full week! One of my favorite parts, is that ROTOM upon hearing my dad is coming offered to take him to a fellowship so he can actually experience what my internship was like. I originally was hesitant as I did not want to get in the way of the work that they are doing, but everyone was so excited! It will be a really fun time!