back to school

i have officially been away from home for five weeks which totals exactly one half of my time in uganda. i have mixed feelings about what today symbolizes in regards to my africa experience. from one perspective i feel i've had five great educational weeks that have gone by slowly enough for me to grasp the experience fully. but on the other hand i sometimes feel like time is going by so quickly that i don't have enough time to really root myself in this experience and absorb everything there is to learn. it makes living life quite confusing when i cannot comprehend everything that is happening to me and around me. i think i must be patient and wait to see what i'm taking from this experience once i get home and have time to make sense of it all.

my work at the daycare today was very brief; there were only two young children at the center since the new school semester begins today. this means many families are busy arranging for their children to get to, and settle in at school. as a result many of the younger children who i would typically see at the daycare are out with their families accompanying their older siblings to school. not only that, the older children who i am accustomed to working with at the daycare will no longer be attending the service because they start school today. they had only been attending the center during semester break.

i have mixed feelings about this as well. on one hand i am happy to hear that most of the children i've been working with have the opportunity to go to school, but on the other hand i am sad they will no longer be coming around the center. i've built some very strong relationships with these children over the past four weeks and feel i must mourn the loss of some of those bonds today.

it is a strange and saddening feeling i must deal with because now, during school time, the primary function of the daycare is to support children who come to uganda cares for hiv/aids testing and treatment. i hope to see the children i've come to know so well again, but will find myself constantly reminded of the many challenges they face living with hiv since their visits will fall on clinic days (tuesday and friday) alone. don't get me wrong, their visits to the uganda cares clinic for hiv/aids treatment are extremely positive and i am very thankful the clinic serves children. but from my emotionally-connected perspective it is very difficult to look forward to their visits now, as i will be constantly reminded of the challenges they face living with hiv. i witness and attempt to understand/believe that these children live with such a debilitating disease every day but continue to find it very challenging to comprehend. until today i had almost completely forgotten that these wonderful, innocent little children were hiv +.

who knew something as simple as a new school semester would elicit such emotions and ignite a profound learning experience.

till next time,

-rachel-