The Rwanda Program

In a dream, you're usually in a short time taken to a bizarre place. You wake up and find yourself at home, in your bed - sometimes abruptly waken up to find that you're no longer in this place that once felt like a complete reality. Rwanda for me was that reality, a lovely reality in which I became enfulfed in very short amount of time. I got on the plane in Kigali, and didn't step on land again until back in Burlington. 30 hours later on a plane ride home and I found myself soon enough in bed and shaken from this rude awakening. The plane ride home is the equivalent to laying in bed, dwindling with your time after just you've waken up from a dream until you find the energy to get up. This is the exact set up for the perfect dream, and a nightmare to wake up to. If I didn't write almost everyday in Rwanda, take pictures, or have others around me back at home who also experienced this dream then I don't think I'd believed it happened. I remember it so vividly, each moment, each day, each person I met, but how come when I woke up it was all 7,000 miles away? This place I'm in now feels like the dream, and back in Rwanda feels like home.

 If there's anything I can say about coming home, it's that previous travelers weren't joking when they said it was an extremely difficult transition (coming home). 

Coming home is a beautiful thing-really, it is. I was welcomed by family and friends, not to mention a very excited dog. My room was exactly as I had left it, bed made, floor vacuumed, photo frames dusted, books stacked on shelves, laptop in it's sleeve atop my organized black desk that occupies a far corner. What did I want to do? I wanted to write, I wanted to read, I wanted to finish homework, I wanted to eat, I wanted to shower, but I couldn't bring myself to do anything of the sort. Instead, I fell face-first onto my bed, and closed my eyes. 

Trying to make sense of everything in my head. Impossible. I miss my host mother. I miss Gyslaine. I miss Alexi. I miss Yigal. I miss tree tomatoes. I miss everyone being happy to see me. I miss being late. I miss smiling and saying "it's Africa." I miss the group. 

I miss the group.