G.R.I.T.S. in Kampala: WHAT? You Mean It's Been a Year Already?

Fresh off the airplane and standing by

Lake Victoria on my first day

On July 19, 2011, just one year ago today, I stepped off an Ethiopian Airlines plane after almost 24 hours of flying and stepped onto Ugandan soil to begin my adventure of serving as a Baha'i pioneer. It's hard to believe a year has already passed! Where has the time gone? So much has happened that I can hardly keep up. And I certainly haven't been able to keep my friends and family up to date as much as I would have liked. I was literally tossed into the deep end of the pool as they say and within 48 hours of arriving here was hard at work in the National Baha'i Centre in Kampala - situated on Kikaaya Hill just four miles north of the city itself. And I've hardly stopped since!

To say my life here has been magical would be the understatement of the year. Yet interestingly enough, there are times that it feels somewhat mundane as well. Office work is office work no matter where you live in the world. But beyond the office work is the opportunity to learn about a completely different culture than what I was raised in, to make friends who have become like a second family to me, to learn to detach myself almost completely from material things (although I do love my electricity and hot water heater!), to live in a cottage within such a short distance to the Mother Temple of Africa that when I look out of my bedroom window in the evenings I am comforted by the light emanating from it - my personal nightlight as it were. The bounties have been relentlessly showered upon me during my time here, and I'm grateful that I'm being given a chance to extend my stay as I was not yet ready to leave - there's still so much to do and see!

There have been challenges to be sure. But I haven't had nearly the problem of assimilating into this culture and this lifestyle as one would think a Southern girl might. Of course, I am fortunate that my first three months here I was staying in the home of someone who has lived here for 4 years and who was able to guide me through the transition from living in American society to living in an African society. So by the time I moved into my little cottage on "the hill," I was pretty well equipped to function fully in this life with few problems.

JBEckl has a song titled "New Creation" and I certainly feel I have been completely re-created by making this move to Uganda. It was necessary and timely and I am grateful to God for opening the doors that led me here. I feel like I have become my true self and the world I'm living in now has opened me up in ways I would never have imagined and has unleashed a whole new level of creativity that I wasn't finding in the States. The Joyce Jackson who left Nashville one year ago is not the Joyce Jackson who is now living in Kampala, but is a better, new and improved Joyce!

I've been thinking of all that I have learned in this first year, and the observations I've made and even the skills I have developed while here, and I'll share some of them here:

I can fearlessly cross a busy Kampala street, dodging taxis and bodas bodas, and that's even with having to look the opposite way toward traffic than one looks in the U.S.!
I actually will climb onto the back of a boda boda (motorbike taxi) to get where I need to go.
With money, I now think in terms of shillings instead of dollars and have a better appreciation for the value of things.
I've learned to peacefully co-exist with geckos and other critters (but not rats or snakes!)
I've learned to live without a television.
I don't need air conditioning.
Sarcasm and irony are completely lost on the average Ugandan and only confuses them.
You can both be speaking English and still not understand one another.
Ugandans are considerably more polite to each other than Americans are. The way people interact with each other in doing business, etc., is much more like the mannered way in which Americans used to treat each other back in the 50s and 60s.

And here's how I know I'm acclimating to life in Uganda:

I'm taking on some of the speech patterns of the Ugandans.
I can speak a few words of Luganda and can understand some (and would know and understand more if I would actually take the time to practice what I've learned!)
I'm not afraid to take my portion of matooke or posho for lunch. But their sweet potatoes are NOT the sweet potatoes I know and love!
I can actually bargain with boda drivers or in the markets (not necessarily very well, but I can do it!)
Here I am in April at the National Baha'i

Convention with one of my most favorite

people,"Maama" Edith Senoga.

I don't miss American politics.
I find myself getting annoyed when I am in an area where there are other bazungu (foreigners-Americans, Brits, Canadians,etc). I find myself thinking, "What are THEY doing here?" as if no one has ever said that about me!
I find myself tearing up when I think about the possibility of ever having to leave Uganda (for more than just a trip somewhere).