I had a conversation with a friend of mine a couple months after I moved to Kigali about finding that one country that really feels like home – or your place the in the world. She was in the enviable position of having decided that Rwanda was her place. I had been talking about Haiti and beaming, as I always do when I talk about that screwed up but wonderful country, and she proclaimed that Haiti must be my place. I have lots of friends there, I love the craziness and the culture, and being there makes me feel really alive (and somehow sucks the life out of me at the same time… however that works), but I can’t imagine myself living there forever and ever.
The ‘this is my place’ feeling comes to me when I’m in New York, London, Ireland or Scotland but, as pretentious as this probably sounds, I can’t see myself living in a Western country. It all feels so stuffy and restricted and I feel way more at home in places with a bit of chaos thrown into the mix. What that says about me, I have no idea.
Enter Uganda. I’ve been here for a week, in a city in the eastern part of the country called Mbali. I’ve mostly been holed up in an internet cafe working on a website for an NGO based here but the vibe of this place has grabbed my attention in a big way. The people here are friendly, the streets are lively, the food, while not inspiring, is edible, it’s cheap, the countryside is lush and beautiful and being here just gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling.
One of my dreams is to buy some land, grow lots of great plants (even though I almost killed my housemate’s tomato plants within three days when he want on holiday and I doubt my abilities to grow anything – but I can learn, right?), build a house and do all this with the help of volunteers while trying to avoid turning into a hippy. I’d also love to have some sort of positive impact in whichever community I end up in. It all sounds a bit far-fetched but that’s the whole point of dreams!
The countryside here in Uganda seems to my untrained eye to be very fertile, land is affordable, it’s in the centre of Africa and close to lots of places I like, Entebbe where the main airport is is well connected to the rest of the continent, people speak English, there are plenty of people who could use help here and Kampala has all of the conveniences of any modern city for when I feel like I need a break.
The only other place I’ve felt such a connection with is Ometepe in Nicaragua after spending two months on a beautiful farm there. But, even so, there seemed like there was something missing. I loved the natural surroundings and the farm I was on remains the most beautiful places I’ve ever been, but Nicaragua didn’t capture me in quite the same way as Uganda has in such a short period of time.
I realize that it’s probably ridiculous to make such crazy proclamations after only a week in this country but I’m pretty good with first impressions and trusting my instincts rarely ever leads me astray. Having been to around 40 countries and never really feeling a definite sense of belonging the way I feel here, I’m pretty sure I’ll just go with it and see what happens. What that means, I don’t know. I’m planning on spending December in Ethiopia and returning to Kigali until April. Then back home to North America and, of course, Haiti… but I really have this strong feeling that Uganda is somewhere I’ll be spending a lot of time in in the future.
Maybe it’ll be time soon to scrape together some money, buy some land and try not to murder too many tomato plants? I don’t really know yet but, what I do know is that, of all the places I’ve been so far, I’d prefer to kill plants in Uganda than anywhere else.
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