All good things come to an end

They say that you shouldn't be sad that it's over, but glad that it happened. I believe this to be true to some extent but I still feel sad that something good is coming to an end. In just a few days I will be boarding a plane and heading back to my life in America. I can't believe how quickly time has passed by and I can't believe that this experience will be coming full circle and to an end. Although I will be taking the same route back (Nairobi-London-DC), I will be taking it with a different perspective. I am confident that I will carry all the memories, both good and bad, with me as I continue on to the next journey. I am confident that I will apply the lessons that I have learned during this experience to create a more fulfilled, happy, and understanding life when I return. I am reassured and confident in the skills that I have gained or sharpen, and i'm reassured and confident that the path that i'm heading down is the right one, even if at times it may not appear so.

I spent the past two weeks being a sloth and enjoying the coast of Kenya. Although the original plan was to travel to Malawi, finances wouldn't allow it. I am sad that I didn't make it back this time, I know that I will make it back one day. These past two weeks have been amazingly beautiful. I have found peace and obtained a calmness that I don't think that I would have been able to if I had did all the traveling I had originally planned. For the first time, I feel completely content and ready to leave a place, even if I know I that I am leaving a part of me behind. I'm not good with transitions so these past two weeks have given me time to breathe and relax and mentally prepare all that is waiting for me back in the states. I'm not good with goodbyes and know that it will be difficult to leave the friends that I have made while in Kenya, but I feel good knowing that I can come back and will have a place where I can find people and feel at home.

I will never forget this experience, will be forever grateful for it, and looking forward to going back to where I belong for now.

Until next time...

Kwaheri Africa!

This is it

Today is my last full day in South Sudan. Tomorrow afternoon I will be leaving this country. It's a bittersweet feeling. I'm ready to go but wouldn't mind staying. I will miss my life here, although I was only here for a short period of time. Wow, I can't believe that its coming to an end. I have an amazing calm over me, I have made peace with the decision to leave and I have made peace with the idea that this experience, this chapter is done. I'm looking forward to the next 2.5 weeks of relaxing and getting myself back into a place mentally to focus on being back in the states.

I will miss South Sudan, but more especially the people who I met here.

So this is it. I'm out.

The art of Goodbye

Tonight is my last night in Kuajok. I should be sleeping seeing as it is 1am, but thinking that this will be my last night here is keeping me up. I'm not good with the whole goodbye thing, I always say it's see you later, but that later, who knows when it will come. I'm not good with transitions, i'm not good with the whole packing up and leaving thing either. But for some reason, that seems to be the most constant thing in my life. I shouldn't complain seeing as I have been afforded the opportunity to meet some of the most amazing people along my journey. These people, at whatever point they have entered my life, have shown me something about the world and taught me something about myself. Today will be the first of many goodbyes as I prepare to depart South Sudan and although it's not easy, I will say goodbye knowing that the memories that were created during my time here will continue with me on the next journey and all the journeys to follow.

I don't know if this is the beginning of me settling down. I'm not sure I know how but I do know that i'm ready to move on to the thing that life has in store for me, whatever that and wherever that may be.