Freedom

While living abroad in a small community like Ktechyme, Uganda it is important to fit in. If you eat, think and say the right things you will be accepted by the community members but if you stray too far outside the social norms it can be an isolating experience. Examples of how to fit in include wearing modest clothing below your knees, living in accordance with God and acting in culturally appropriate ways. Maybe the most common piece of advice I received was to avoid men. With high rates of HIV and AIDS transmission and infidelity many women told me in groups or in private that they did not trust a lot of the men to be faithful. For this reason among and to fit in with societal standards many young women choose to wait to have sex until they are married.

In contrast living in Canada feels a bit like being a kid in a candy store with $30 worth of nickles. You can wear whatever you like: bohemian, punk, business casual, classic, grunge and decorate your body with piercings and tattoos and no one will bat an eye. You can choose to be religious or atheist and often being religious can carry more of a stigma than being nonreligious. You can engage in premarital sex or sex after marriage. You can eat bananas or oatmeal everyday or eat food from different nationalities at every meal, you could never eat the same thing ever again if you wanted. Independence and individual freedom has never been so tasty.

When One Door Closes Another Opens

Just as I am feeling settled in Kamloops it is now time for me to move onto the next chapter of my life.  My family is currently selling our house and holding a giant garage sale. It is so overwhelming to see truckload after truckload of household items being given away. We have collected too many items that we no longer use, it is easy to give things away now that I know what is really important: your family and enough items to fill a suitcase, the rest does not matter.

I will be moving to the University of British Columbia to attend university where I will be majoring in International Relations with a double minor in languages and sustainable development. I am very excited about my upcoming Cree language class. My grandmother used to speak Cree but after Residential school she rarely spoke it around us and the language died with her. In addition to connecting with my traditional language I have also started drumming. I was incredibly humbled to be presented with a drum by Bruce Perisian at the Victoria Friendship Centre on National Aboriginal Day and have been playing ever since. It is amazing how quickly you pick up traditional songs and start incorporating it into your life. I played it recently for the first time in public at my grandmother funeral service as we prayed for her safe travel into the spirit world. I think she would have liked that.

I have Uganda to thank for realizing that a connection to my culture is important to me. Hopefully this is the start of something great.

I Started an Organization

I wish I had done a video blog for my blog to talk about my experiences but I have finally made one. With the help of my friend Cam we put together a video produced with the beautiful sacred mountain in Kamloops as its backdrop. Please visit

 my website at http://www.medicaltextsafrica.org/


the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va0ocoj96sA&feature=player_embedded

A New Perspective

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power."
                                                                                                           -Alan Cohen

I knew I had changed as a person in Uganda because every day I learned new things, grew more peaceful and happy and saw things from a new perspective. Lately I am realizing how much I have changed, how some things that I felt were so important when I left Canada have become meaningless, and how other things have dimmed in their importance and I am now making decisions based on my values rather than things I love, or even once felt addicted to. 

It is tempting after a life changing experience to hope you will turn back into the person you were before you left. A combination of sleep deprivation and culture shock confuse you just enough for a few days into thinking you can pick up your old life, your good old life, where you left it. Once that haze wears off though you realize you have changed and that you will never be the old you. That is where the scary part starts, you realize you need to change your life to fit the new you.

The good news is I know myself better than when I left, I know what makes me happy and what I value.

I have chosen to continue this blog, the process of writing is enjoyeable and I am on a new adventure to move to a major city in two weeks where I am starting an International Relations degree and integrating into a new community where I hope to focus on incorporating the lessons I learned in Uganda into my new life. I hope to write about how to live more sustainably, connecting with my first nations culture and my new perspective on Canadian culture.

See you soon,

Kirsten