Ok Please

Back in the saddle! The months of August and September have flown by and I'm sad to say that I haven't written in two months. August was filled with birthday festivities (including a bada$$ safari on horseback, thanks to my boyfriend), finishing up the term at school and preparing to go back home for a short visit. It's strange to think that I actually went home, it feels like a dream--a wonderful, Target-filled (I mean…family-filled) dream. I had a week to myself before my boyfriend Jim arrived to meet my family and come to the much-anticipated family wedding. The real impetus for my trip home was to attend my cousin Liz and Tig's wedding, an event that's been on the calendar for over a year. Some may recall that before I left for the Peace Corps, I was dead set on staying in Uganda for my service and not making the trip home. Well, circumstances changed and my family and I decided that a wedding was a great excuse to come home.

Heathbrook

My first meal in country? Sushi. Something you certainly can't get in Uganda. My parents immediately whisked me up to New Hampshire to our cabin, but not without picking up my best friend Andrea, in town from New York. What a fun weekend-- filled with hiking, boating, story-telling, visiting with aunts and uncles, and a new card game Ligretto. And oh, the wine! And the beer! To have good draught beer was such a treat. 

Waterskiing on Silver Lake!

We visited all week with friends and family, and I felt so lucky to have so many friends involved in our lives. I visited six states (six!) in two weeks-- MA, NH, ME, RI, CT and NY. I spent a few nights in Brooklyn, NY with Andrea, and was introduced to a very charming, lovely side of Brooklyn. We went for a Sunday afternoon bike ride, took a ferry (free!) to Governor's Island and had a perfect pique-nique. Jim arrived the following day and was immediately thrown into our typical family mayhem once we got back to Boston. We had a beautiful day of waterskiing, tubing and boating on Silver Lake, and then crazy lightning storms the following day. Our family joke goes that we try and maim the boyfriends at least once during their stay. One boyfriend involved a nearly fatal wood-chopping incident, with Jim, it was almost getting struck by lightning. Welcome to the family--you survived!

Family photo! (all we're missing are the matching white turtlenecks)

Me and Jim 

The wedding weekend in Maine was a blast-- I saw all my lovable cousins, including my twin cousins for the first time in years. We couldn't even remember how long it's been, which is funny because the three of us used to be inseparable when we were kids. The whole family was back together, the only person we were missing was my grandmother, who passed away in June. We talked all weekend about her, shared a few tears, and did our best Grandma impressions. At the reception,  my cousin Liz played a voicemail that my grandmother had left a year ago, and left our whole side of the tent in blubbering sobs. If we weren't all crying so hard, we probably would have been laughing at how much noise we made. The after-party was an upscale pig-roast; we were all wearing our pretty dresses with rainboots from all the mud. Maine-style!

Cousin photo, in order of height, just as Grandma would have done!

It was great to be back together, all 10 cousins, just like old times. The whirlwind weekend was over as soon as it began.

I'm back now in Uganda and I have to say, it felt really good to be back... at first. As soon as I landed in Entebbe, I could smell the fresh rain and loved the cool night air. It smelled like Uganda--I really can't put my finger on what that smell is, but it's a combination of roasted meat and burning trash (and some other things, they don't really come to mind now. The best time to figure this out is when you get off the plane). I missed the smell, I missed the constant sense of adventure in this country that you just don't get in America. As nice as it was to be home, I realized that my place is here, for now.

We had a few nice surprises when we got home from a month away. Our water was no longer running, our water tank was bone dry and our cat, Captain Cuddles, had run away. Welcome home!


*Title of this post comes from the funny way Ugandans use the word "please" for everything. Usually when you order something off a menu, and the server responds "Ok thank you please."