I still have time left in DC.  Two more weeks at my internship (okay, two more 4-day work weeks), as well as three more TWC Friday events, with three more weekends.  And a Monday.

If you can’t tell – I’m getting a little anxious to leave.  If you’d talked to me a month ago, I would have been gung-ho about staying in DC for the summer, convinced I wasn’t going back to Montana until the day or two before fall classes started.

Yeah – I’ve definitely changed.

Don’t get me wrong – I did look into staying in DC for the summer (and it’s still an option – just one that shrinks by the day).  I did the Craigslist hunt for an affordable apartment, quickly learning that my dollar goes a lot farther in Montana than it does in DC.  Seriously guys – Montana rent is so much cheaper than DC.  Just to compare:  $375 gets me an apartment with all utilities, internet, and cable in Montana.  In DC – $450 would get me a bed and room for nothing else, utilities partially included, in a bad part of town.  I also applied for a buttload of summer internships.  But again: a couple of snags.  I needed a paid position (to pay for my overpriced and undersized apartment) and those are few and far between.  Another issue – most of the internship deadlines were back in February, during my first month in DC and long before I considered staying in DC.  For the positions that had later deadlines in April or May, those positions wouldn’t start until late May or early June – too late for me to just hang around in DC without a job.  The biggest issue though – my lack of experience.  DC is a place where you need at least a Bachelor’s degree.  Most positions wanted me to either have or be working towards a Master’s degree.  So . . . that’s an issue.

I don’t want to blame my lack of a summer internship on the hiring places – I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that I’m not a qualified candidate.  But it is a bit of a shock, realizing how much weight DC puts on a degree.  Especially for interns.  That’s what I’m starting to love about applying back in Montana – they let their students be students, and they let their interns be inexperienced.

But speaking in broader, non-job/non-house related terms:  I just miss Montana.

But I miss home.  Not just the mountains, not just the ability to get out doors.  Not just my car and my bed and my stuff (I came to DC with two suitcases, okay?  90% of my clothes are back home) – but all of it.  I miss living in my own room, without a roommate to battle for the shower lights out time.  I miss my friends, and I miss being able to call up someone to just go hang out.  That’s not to say I haven’t made friends in DC – I have.  My roommates are great people, I’ve clicked with some of my classmates, and there are a few people who I know I’ll definitely keep in contact with after this whole program is over.

But I went from Helena to Missoula and took a good chunk of friends with me.  Most of my good friends in college were people I knew in high school, or people I quickly clicked with during freshman year.  It’s weird, leaving behind friendships that I’ve been building for 2+ years and come to DC, where no one knows anyone (okay, that’s a lie – some schools here bring in 10+ students.  I’m the only student from my state, so my situation is a little different).

I miss home.  I miss the comforts I was used to, comforts I can’t reproduce here for various reasons: I can’t put down some roots (for example – I’m wary of buying anything I can’t eat simply because I’ll be flying out in a couple weeks and my suitcase was already stuffed when I came here), and friendships are tricky when you know you’ll both be leaving soon.  It took a couple months, but I’ve finally developed that homesickness that hit people I know a lot sooner.

I’ve loved DC – I’ve met great people, I’ve done awesome things (both in terms of job and personal), and I’ve got to experience things here that can never be recreated elsewhere.

But I’ve also realized that DC – it’s a city I like to visit.  Not a city I permanently want to settle in.

So Montana:  I’ll see you in a few weeks.  And I can’t wait.

He pasado 136800 minutos en Oaxaca, México y me ha gustado cada uno de ellos. Ojalá que tuviera más tiempo aquí para explorar y aprender más pero tengo que regresar a los Estados Unidos para terminar mis estudios universitarios. Recomiendo a todos que viajen a Oaxaca porque esta ciudad, ubicada en un valle de gran altitud al sur de México, es un crisol de la cultura, el arte y la gente.

Siendo de los Estados Unidos, es fácil juzgar y usar los Estados Unidos como una “vara de medir” para comparar muchos aspectos de la vida en México. He aprendido que se puede comparar México con los Estados Unidos y mantener los estereotipos perjudiciales, o se puede entrar a México con una mente abierta y cuando se le enfrentan situaciones que son incómodos o diferentes… puede preguntarse, ¿por qué no? y aprovechar la situación como una oportunidad para aprender más sobre la cultura mexicana compleja.

Tengo que admitir que no es fácil tener una mente abierta siempre. Es fácil pensar: “¡que esto no pasaría en los Estados Unidos!” y es absolutamente correcto—no pasaría en los Estados Unidos porque estamos en México. He visto choques entre coches y motocicletas, una falta de cambio cuando se compran productos sencillos en los almacenes, maestros protestando en las calles cada semana, una falta de seguro, y la lista sigue… algunos de estos “problemas” ocurren porque hay o había algo en la cultura que resulta en las acciones, pero algunos ocurren sin ninguna razón.

Mucha gente cree que el sistema en los Estados Unidos es la mejor manera de hacer cualquier actividad, pero he visto muchos aspectos de la vida aquí en Oaxaca que son al contrario de esto. En el estado de Oaxaca, más de 61% de la población vive bajo la línea de pobreza y 16% de la población es analfabeta pero esto no para a la gente de disfrutar de la vida y tener fuertes lazos familiares. Me temo que la falta de fuertes valores familiares en los Estados Unidos vaya a ser evidente en las generaciones futuras.

México ha abierto mi mente a una nueva forma de vida y de alguna manera me hizo más crítico de los Estados Unidos. En lugar de usar la vara de medir para “medir” México, creo que es mejor medirme a mí y cómo me relaciono a mí mismo aquí en México y en mi vida en los Estados Unidos. Me siento privilegiado y esto es evidente aquí en México; ahora: ¿qué puedo hacer para ayudar a otros seres humanos que no son tan afortunados como yo?

Para empezar voy a quedarme aquí para un mes después de clases para ser voluntario enseñando inglés en un pequeño pueblo fuera de la ciudad. También compartiré mi experiencia maravillosa en Oaxaca con los otros estudiantes universitarios y alentarlos a también viajar y ” medirse a sí mismo”. Estoy muy agradecido de haber tenido la oportunidad de venir aquí y además de mejorar mi habilidad en español, he ganado a nuevos amigos, una perspectiva mayor de mi lugar en el mundo y espero mejorar la vida de al menos un ser humano.

Martin Luther King. “I am not hurt by the acts of the bad people. I am hurt by the indifference of the good people”

After we left our village we traveled through larger cities until we finally got back to Kampala the capital of Uganda. From here we started our safari adventure. We went to a nice hotel resort on the outskirt of Kampala where we lounged by the pool, had a couple beers and oven brick pizza. It didn’t even seem real that I was in a third world country and was laying by a pool, and basically one of the nicest resorts that I’ve ever been to. It was very nice and relaxing to be there, but I felt guilty and not happy that I was able to enjoy a beer and pizza and a short 10 minute drive away people sleep in little shacks with no sanitation or any clean water. The next morning we went on another long car ride, 8 hours. We traveled into the national park of Uganda, we saw a lot of baboons, which are very aggressive animals, also a lot of antelopes. We arrived at our safari home, where we slept in tents, but there was running water and a food shack with good quality food and a full bar. We went and explored an enormous waterfall. Once we arrived at our camp I was walking to the restroom and pack or warthogs came charging at me. I was very nervous cause I thought that they were rude animals, but the ones here were friendly, simply because they are used to a lot of human interactions. The next morning we went on our first safari we started at 6:30 n the morning. We saw hippos, elephants, a lot of different types of antelopes, hyenas, crocodiles, giraffes and many many other animals, that you only see in zoos. It was amazing to be able to see these incredible animals in their natural habitat. We went on a boat tour later that evening and saw a lot more animals, then the next morning we went an our last safari. We saw the same animals as before, but this time we saw fresh kill by a couple hours. I was disappointed that we weren’t able to see a lion, but all in all it was an amazing experience. I will never forget my amazing experience that I was given. I now have a travel itch and won’t be able to stop traveling until I see the world, and can hopefully help at least one person in each destination that I can hopefully one day travel to. Thank you for reading this, I hope you all had a great day.

Once I had been in the culture for a couple days I finally started to appreciate it and truly understand it and the people. It was strange at first though, because if a women is showing her knees she is considered a prostitute and the men will try to rape her, because they believe that this is what this type of women wants. That was a big culture shock. Another major one, was their court system. There is a court system and people can go to prison/jail, but if someone is murdered, the murderer will get away with it. This is because a dead body cannot defend oneself so there is no one to accuse the murderer of it, even if their was a witness. Being from America this seemed absolutely crazy. There were a lot of eye opening experiences, sadly there was a women who was found dead in the river at the bottom of our village. There was many sick children that came to the clinic looking for help. My time at the clinic was very well spent. I mainly did vitals of patients, taking their BP, heart rate, and symptoms to see if any testing for malaria or an STI needed to be done. When I wasn’t taking vitals, I was either examining patients with Alison and Kelsey who are both PA’s, working in the lab, working with the HIV center, or helping in the Maternity center. When I was with Alison and Kelsey I patiently watched while the translator translated and then once the patient was cleared they would explain everything to me. When I was in the lab I would look through a microscope of samples of blood, or do pH testing of urine. When I worked in the HIV center we had an OVC program which was for orphaned children who’s parents died of HIV and now they have HIV. I would transcribe for the main HIV doctor and help examine the children and their charts. In the maternity center I was able to feel babies inside or women and determine if they women’s growth was healthy and discuss their living situation and make sure it was safe and healthy for the baby. I learned to love the people of Bulaki and everything about it. I loved the people and especially the children, they loved the white people, which they called us Muzungu. They were so cute, I’ll never forget them, or any of the people in Bulaki.

Since I never had the opportunity to blog when I was in Uganda, in the small village of Bulaki I am starting my blogging journey now after my Ugandan journey has sadly come to an end. The start of my journey was a very interesting start. After an hour delay with only a short 45 minute layover, I almost missed my connecting flight from Minneapolis to Paris. Thankfully I made it with only minutes to spare, I was full on sprinting through the airport. Once I survived my 9 hour flight to Paris, my connecting flight to Nairobi was completely cancelled, this made the journey real interesting. They redirected me to Istanbul, Turkey then on to Rwanda then finally on to Uganda. I arrived 6 hours later then when I was suppose to, so I was still able to go with the driver that Alison and Kelsey (my sister and her friend), were taking to the village where we stayed and aided at the medical clinic. It was a long 7 hour car ride in the heat of Uganda. It is a very beautiful country. In Kampala the capital of Uganda it is overly populated and disgustingly polluted. There is garbage everywhere and the air is hard to breathe, it hurts my lungs and gives me headaches. Once outside of Kampala it is beautiful, prairies with hills in the distance, and as we travel closer and closer to our village the area is turning into a jungle. Hills turn to mountains, bushes turn into large lush trees, and over population turns into solitude and beauty. In Uganda, pedestrians do not have the right away,, so it is dangerous for them, but also dangerous for us. If you hit a person, you are not suppose to stop, because then any of the locals who may have witnessed the accident will try to attack and kill anyone in the car. Most people there drive “Bota-Bota’s” which is equivalent to a dirt bike here. The Bota Bota taxi drivers are crazy, they have no fears. We had to go through another village to reach ours, and it happened to be their market day, so we got stuck in a full blown market and didn’t move for roughly 30 minutes, once we could find a way through the packed crazy market we reached our village and went to the “guest house” which is where we stayed. It was a lovely home, it was not like the traditional african mud homes that most people had in the village it was a nice and clean brick home. I instantly fell in love with our little village. We went to the clinic which was a short but hilly hike to the clinic from the house. We got a brief run through on how the clinic works and just explored and met all the stay. The clinic is fully equipped with local doctors and staff to keep the clinic running functionally. All the staff is very kind and welcoming. My journey getting to Uganda and my first day was extremely eventful, but wonderful, it was exactly what I was looking for in an around the globe experience on my own.