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In the last few weeks since I’ve decided to travel to Northern Uganda, I’ve received various comments:

“wow that’s so amazing, you’re going to have a life changing experience”

“you have BALLS!!”

“why can’t you go somewhere that is safer?”

“I know enough about Africa, that I will NEVER visit that continent”

“what you’re doing is so fantastic, thank you for doing such great work”

The funny thing is, the trip I’m about to embark on, I don’t find amazing in the sense that my actions are amazing, I don’t think I have “balls”, I believe it’s what you do. I’ve been fortunate enough to have all of my needs met in some manner in the past 32 years, isn’t it my responsibility to go pay that forward? Whether I choose to feed the homeless in Nashville, donate my time at woman’s shelter, or travel half way across the world to provide beds to even a small percentage of the displaced children of Uganda, I am compelled to make a difference in at least one person’s life.

It is true Northern Uganda has had it’s far share of strife and civil war in the past 20 years, but currently things are relatively peaceful. Am I a little nervous, yes. Are the living conditions I’m about to witness, unlike anything I’ve ever seen yes. I wonder how I’m going to handle being around children with hungry bellies, when I know I will have food provided for me that day or even if I go a little hungry while I’m in Africa, it’s only 3 short weeks for me, not my life time, that I’ll have to experience that constant ache of hunger. Sure the conditions we may be sleeping in may be rough, but again I know it’s not my lifetime that I will have to experience this.

The comments that usually bother me the most whether it’s about Uganda or another part of the globe are the ones when people say “I’d never go there”….fill in with whatever narrow minded, media driven, opinion, that stereotypes whichever part of the world they are referring to. I remind myself frequently that most people are fearful of the unknown and things that are unlike their world. I think it’s hard for me to process because that is what drives me, to go to see other parts of the world and to learn about our differences and all of our similarities.

My trip to Uganda I imagine will be amazing and life changing. I’m looking forward to the lessons I will be taught, not necessarily the lessons I will teach.