What would I do without Ariane's bubbly personality, Jessica's support and JET inquiries, KaCee's sweet southern belle personality and accent, Kristine's sense of humor, Becca's understanding and shared experiences, Josh's companionship during morning workouts, stellar eye for photography, and sweet dance moves, and everything about my namesake, Sarah? Although we had a lot in common in terms of mindset, goals, and life experiences, everybody brought something unique and valuable to the table. It was so incredibly interesting and inspiring to meet and know each of these people. I hope they each know how much I love and care about them. Thanks to Jessica's "love letter" initiative, I got to spend countless hours writing it all down.
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| Me, Jessica, and Sarah |
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| Our last night together, dancing it out Cupid Shuffle style in the hut. |
An unexpected event on the last night Group One and Two had together was my phone being stolen. I'll be the first to admit that I am not the most responsible person with my belongings. I lose ish... a lot. I have lost many a purse, wallet, phone, sunglasses, sandals, clothes, wigs, hats, scarves, cameras, flashlights and other personal belongings in the past. So many that I can't even keep track any more. I take ownership for that and my bank account feels it. SO, when within the first week my headlamp and camera were missing, I assumed I lost them. Must've fallen out of my bag at some point in time. Must've been my fault. Left a zipper undone. Left them on a table. Left them unattended. My bad.
On this particular occasion, however, my phone/camera/mini-boombox/clock/alarm/notebook was stolen. In my hand one minute, on a counter for ten minutes, gone for eternity.
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| The Samsung Galaxy and I having our last glorious moment together on the dance floor with Shockley |
I became frantic, anxious, worried, sad, and eventually angry. The music stopped and a full search party began. It was gone. Not in the bushes, beams, behind the bar, in my purse, or in the house. We searched everywhere short of every single persons pockets. How could this be? We knew everyone, right? These were our friends, right? Did someone actually take it? Don't they know that this is my lifeline? That small piece of technology contains my memories from the past two years, essential notes and numbers, texts that I can look back and smile at fondly like love letters in middle school, music that just weeks ago had bonded me with coworkers and kids at the Children's Home? Don't they realize what an inconvenience this is going to be when I get back stateside??? How could this be happening to ME? Most importantly, how could they take away my trust in human beings?
But maybe it wasn't about me. Maybe it was about whomever took it. That little piece of technology would take a lifetime to afford for the majority of residents in Gulu. Selling that could pay for school fees for a year, meals for months, clothes for awhile. It was an immoral band-aid that could temporarily stop the bleeding of poverty.
While it was still difficult to be without my lifeline, I began to understand it. It's never okay to steal, and I hope whoever did it saw and felt some of the turmoil I was experiencing as it happened, but I do "get" it. What is a material possession for many of us in the first world and something we can get another one of relatively easily is a LIFE changer for many in third world countries. I understand and empathize with that temptation. I still hope that whomever it was can also understand and empathize with the pain I felt, not of the material possession, but of the memories and experiences I had had with it.
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