Covered in Dust: My Last Day in the Village

My last day in the village was super emotional, yet wonderful at the same time.

The moms and the ECM staff planned an awesome going-away party and I felt so blessed to be honored by them in that way.

The day included me getting three live chickens as gifts, to take home to my family. The concept of customs is definitely foreign, so I just said thank you and later gave the chickens to Ugandans who most definitely have more use of them than I. Chickens are very expensive to them and it was a huge sacrifice for them to do that for me. I was SO blessed for them to be a part of my life for the last 6 months! Here is me and my favorite mom, Evelyn, with the two chickens her family gave me. Also, notice my semi-traditional dress. I had it made specifically for this party and yes, I did bring it home. You know, for a night on the town or something...

Here I am with all three of my chickens. Two are hanging upside-down and I'm holding them by the feet. This is quite normal in Uganda and has some strange calming effect on the chickens. They just hang there, totally docile.

Not pictured events: the moms all pooled together and bought a goat, which was slaughtered for the occasion. I am NOT a fan of goat meat, but was so honored that they would do that for me. Once again, when they're struggling to feed their children, this is a huge sacrifice. It's definitely something that you want to refuse, but culturally you just can't. Instead, I just made sure I shared my portion of Billy...

Some of the moms gave me speeches thanking me for being with them and asking me to come back. Talk about emotional! But as hard as it was to leave, it was WAY cool to have some new Jesus-followers there sending me off...such a cool representation of why I went and what the Lord allowed me to be a part of during my time there.

Some of the moms had written letters (with help) and had them translated to send home to my parents.

We danced/sang/jumped around. They think this is hilarious for me to do with them - I think it's totally embarrassing, but joined in anyway.

Side story: I had ordered some drums to bring home and they were ready on this day (The party was a Saturday and I was leaving Monday on the bus to go to Kampala. ) What I didn't expect was that these drums were "fresh," meaning the leather part of the drum had been on a warm animal just a couple days prior. The drums smelled like dead body. It was awful! I left them outside on the porch and it smelled up the entire house. I honestly wasn't sure I would be able to even take them home. But I wrapped them in plastic and they made it into the States! They are still curing outside, over a month later!

Here's some more pictures of my last day:

Grace REALLY wanted to have her picture made with me. She gave her life to Jesus a couple of months ago and now smiles all the time! She speaks English quite well, so she was always a good friend to have!