A slightly mushy one

I joked my way through the tales of our Tz/Ug exploits (as I tend to do), but I'm going to take a moment to get a little mushy on you.

It's not always easy for loved ones from home to fully understand and truly embrace the fact that we've chosen to set up shop somewhere so far from home. They're happy that we're happy, but at the same time, they feel a bit slighted. They want us back. They've told us so. Several times.

One thing that we might not make clear enough is that we miss our family and our friends dearly. You might not tell them enough and you might not write them enough and you definitely don't call them enough (and your facebook photos might suggest otherwise), but you're always thinking about your friends and family. There's no place like home. But second best is when home comes here.

As hard as one may try and with as many pictures as one may take, it's never easy to explain "here"...why you're here, what here's like, how long you'll be here. But when those from "there" show up here with a suitcase, it's not just the physical distance that disappears.

Since I moved here over two and a half years ago, I've been lucky enough to have some of the closest people to me in the world come visit...my best friend from home (Sewda!), some of my best friends from undergrad (CRH, Beccav, Tracy!), one of my best friends from grad school (Hils!), friends of friends that then became "friend friends" (Heida!), my sister (Kay!), my near brother-in-law (Matty! No pressure).  Each time someone comes, it opens up a new world of understanding. They meet the people that have become my family here. They know what I mean when I say quiz night and who I mean when I say Meredith or where I mean when I say I say the Bugolobi bungalow. They've seen the chaos of town, they've learned how to bargain their way down from the mzungu price, they know that it makes more sense to say "We go" than "Let's go", they've felt the freedom and the terror of a boda-boda ride.

Kaylan was my biggest guilt-tripper when I first found out I was moving to Uganda. She would play out the following scenario, in reference to X number of years from now, when she's married and has a gaggle of trouble-making children:

Kaylan the mom: [Makes a reference to me in front of her gaggle of children]

Gaggle of children: "Aunt Jenny? Who's Aunt Jenny?"

Kaylan the mom: "Oh, you don't know her. She's the one that lives in Africa."

At one point in Kampala, Kay turned to me and said quite simply, "I get it now."

I almost cried.

Dad and Mitch...your turn.