This Is It

This is my last post in Africa and I’m freaking out. I am currently in a hostel in Entebee. About 5 hours from Mbale. Let’s back track a little before I talk about how I am on the verge of crying.

Sunday was so great. I actually didn’t cry which was surprising but it was so unreal to say goodbye to everyone from the ward. I’m going to miss them so much. They have inspired me to have more dedication and to be more serious about being a member of the church. One of the biggest lessons I learned from them was that the church isn’t a Sunday church, it’s an everyday church. I need to be living my life faithfully every single day. 

The missionaries serving in Mbale made our life and got braceltts made for us. That is when the tears first started rolling. How cute are they to make up custom made bracelttes with our names on them? It’s so rad because we can totally relate to them. We both are in Africa doing some kind of service and I’ll see half of them back in America and ahhh I just have an obsession with missionaries, esspecially these ones AND all of my besties all over the world, obviously.  

 Elizabeth is so adorable and wrote me this amazing letter. She is so cute and was the first one to welcome me to the ward. I am going to miss her so much.  

Maddy and I spent our last full day in Mbale (Monday) buying fresh fish and a live chicken. Yeah, a LIVE chicken. It was the best. The chickens here are so chill, they don’t even cluck unless they are in a taxi. We Boda’d home with it and it was just straight chilling not even knowing we were going to be eating it for dinner in 3 hours.

This would be considered animal abuse in America, here in Africa we call it dinner. 

I really didn't feel bad eating it. Am I terrible? Nope, just African. 

Our last meal was Mr. chicken, fish, avocado salad, cabbage salad and fried rice. Cami ended up getting really sick with Malaira actually so we ate it at the hospital with her that night. I couldn’t sleep that night because I was leaving the next day and I just staying up blogging and thinking about my time here. I still can’t believe I am leaving. This is not real life. Did I really just spend four months of my life in Africa? Yeah, you did Kelsey.

Tuesday, I woke up early and made sure everything was packed. I’ve been progressivly packing the past week. I met up with Sam at a random restaurant in town to say bye. I made him a bracelett of American colors and gave him my backpack. It was so sad to say bye to him. We became super close and I’m just really gunna miss him and visiting his restaurant and the food he made for us and everything about him danggit. Our final goodbye was a super short hug and a wave as I Boda’d away. That is when I cried. All the way home. I thought about all the people I've met here and how big of an impression they made on me. How I am obsessed with Africa in general and relying on a random stranger for transportation. How I am considering coming back and opening up my own restaurant.... 

..I met up with Maddy at home and we ate our last rolex at our favorite internet cafe. The waitress’ Sara and Olivia had like a full on speech for us about how much they are going to miss us. It was so cute.

We rushed home to get our suitcases and I took one last picture of the house. Sam spray painted this wooden plank for us. Ahhhhhh, I’m freaking out right now.

Here I am on the way to the bus station. Thank you Maddy for capturing this moment. This is my last picture in Mbale. I really hope to go back one day. I am not ready to leave, I could see myself living here but I know my life is waiting for me in America. This experience has changed my life forever I can’t even explain. I have grown so much and learned so much about life and cultures and who I am and what I want to be. I get on a plane in 8 hours. My next post mostly likely won’t be until I get home on Satuday. I don’t think I’ll have time to post in Paris but we shall see. I love my life. I am so blessed and grateful I was able to spend my summer in Africa.