Today I am feeling hopeful

Today I am feeling hopeful. About Uganda, about school, about things in general. I don't know where the feeling came from really, but something about today makes me want to
live more brightly
love more fully
care more deeply
give more freely
listen more truly
hold more loosely
walk more bravely.

So this is my "hope journal," a place to put into words the hopes and thoughts and questions that have nowhere else to go. As silly as it sounds, there's something about writing something down that gives it a little bit more power, a little bit more magic, a little bit more possibility.

I am going to Uganda. I bought my plane ticket last week. I forked over $2115 and on January 15 I am getting on a plane in Kansas City, smack dab in the center of middle America, and getting off in Uganda, deep in the heart of sub-Saharan Africa.
See, I wrote that down, and somehow that makes it a little bit more real. (But not really; it still hasn't actually sunk in. Though the giant hole in my bank account helps!)

Anyway, I really am spending five months in Uganda. I will be an intern with TASO (The AIDS Support Organization) in a town called Jinja. Please follow this blog and take this journey with me! I want you to be along for the ride - read my hopes and observations, share yours in return.

Thanks so very very much and have a day full of wonder :)