On January 5th, 30 people/classmates arrived at the Entebbe Airport in Uganda.

Fast-forward to the final weeks in Rwanda.....

At the genocide museum we completed self guided tours of torture, disgust, silence and questions.  We faced the walls covered with violence and evil that spanned throughout history.  Emotions.  Numb.  Questions.  Cool steps lined with scattered white people with no thoughts to summarize such horror.    

At the school house we peered into the rooms where white preserved bodies were strewn upon wood slated tables.  Their bodies contorted and their faces stared of torture into space.  Young and old were "extinguished" without any compassion and now they lay behind locked doors to prove history.   

We mourned with a friend, but couldn't feel the depth of her pain as she received news of her elder sister’s death.  We were quiet.  Reality hit in a way we never wanted it to.  On April 27, two dear friends caught an emergency flight home from Rwanda. 

Time passes and we go back to our lives.  New things happen and the old pictures begin to fade.  How do you live in the present with knowledge of the past and still have hope for the future?

But the story doesn't end....

Reconciliation.  She lives with the woman whose husband killed her own.  Forgetting isn't the answer, but forgiving the neighbor who with humility admits to massacring your entire family is.  Hope is in Rwanda and Rwanda put hope in me.  How can you not forgive?  How can I not forgive?

Rwanda was shared with us and we are to share Rwanda with the world.  But Rwanda is only one story of many.

Now, on this May 6th we continue to disperse.  We leave each other with no guarantee of being together again.  We shared tears, fears, smiles and laughs.  We share memories.   We leave now, but our stories only stretch further to our families and friends. 

Well my USP friends, I will miss you.  Thanks for sharing life.  Remember, our struggles are there to strengthen our bonds of friendship. 

And yet amidst such blur and thoughts too big to contain I say Whoopee! because I am home.  Not New York, but the USA.  I am home and I am thankful.  I am changed and I am thankful.  I am faced with challenges and I am thankful.  I know my Savior, Jesus, better than before and I am thankful.  I am thankful for people who care and I am thankful for the friends at home who so often helped me make it back, and not too soon.

So I said goodbye to Uganda and hello to America.  I'm home.