Day 28: Tears and Reunions

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We arrived at the Entebbe airport and the change was drastic. The walls were postered were tourist attractions. It only took 45 minutes for a visa instead of 2 hours. Armed security guards were only by the doors separating those in from those outside. As we taxied to Kampala, our driver explained the majority of the expanded highway from Entebbe to Kampala was now complete (the project started 5 years ago). However, as we neared the city, it was evident much remained the same: women bent over sweeping the highway with stick brooms; workers chopping grass on the wayside with machetes; Bodas and cars making 3^rd and 4^th lanes of traffic appear out of no where; people living and selling out of shacks, the smog and presence of an elephant on my chest while trying to breath. We checked into the hotel and I turned on the facet and only a single mist came out. I am not sure why it was that, but I immediately welled up with tears and just cried. I am not sure if they were tears from sadness, frustration, anxiety, but they just kept coming. We got a hold of Norah (who is 70%!o(MISSING)f why I am on this trip). She came to the hotel to eat and took us to where she was staying. Wherever the tears came from, they disappeared. I love Norah! The woman came from nothing. She grew up in a poor village with 5 siblings and only her mother raising them for the majority of her life to a college graduate. Also, she is employed by a company researching minerals within Uganda. Everyone has said how rare it is to get a job straight out of university. It often takes years. Many Ugandans go to university but few get jobs and return to their villages to wait. As she talks, you realize she doesn’t see challenges only opportunities. She was not only the first woman student president of her university, but the first Christian president. She maintained many volunteer opportunities throughout her schooling and now goes to local high schools to talk to young girls about how they can make it. Her current goal is to help young village girls attend school by helping with school fees and providing them reusable sanitary pads so they don’t miss school when they have their periods. Norah is a person you want to surround yourself with. She makes you believe anything is achievable. I am so proud of her and her accomplishments and thankful to have met her.

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