From Lakewood to Uganda: Home

Walking through the vibrant, packed, energy-filled streets of Mbale every morning filled me with a sense of belonging, community and home.

Life is so simple in Mbale and the surrounding rural villages. Time is a more abstract concept. Relationships with family and friends take first priority. Fresh fruit and veggies abound. TV is mostly for watching football, not filling the day.

Music and dance move everyone, from babies to barely walking elders. The presence of a consumer culture is almost nonexistent. The city and village trading centers are full of folks selling their wares, produce and crafts, but people aren't buying things they don't need (for the most part).

Our friend has a two-year old boy and he has under five toys, not because his parents can't afford them, but because a room full of toys for one child is not part of the culture. Daily meals are usually prepared with food recently harvested from the home garden or bought at market that day.

Transportation is a community effort. You walk, ride a bike, ride on the back of a boda-boda for a small fee (motorized or traditional bikes), catch a ride in a friend's car, or load onto a taxi-bus or a cargo truck. Cars are everywhere, but you see more people on foot or two-wheelers. And a driver will usually fill their car/truck with passengers, never wasting an opportunity to transport a friend or a stranger, especially if traveling a long distance. We always had extra people in the TASO vehicles and the delivery truck. An empty vehicle seat is a rarity. 

In Uganda, greeting the people you pass and meet throughout the day is paramount. You can feel that so many people are living in and for the moment. I felt so grounded and supported by the community. And by the end of , I was getting good at being present.

When I was leaving Uganda, I felt homesick and desperate to see my daughter and husband.

But I wanted to take the lifestyle, landscape, music, people and food of Uganda with me. Obviously, that's crazy and greedy, and I needed another plan. I started thinking about the community I was going home to.

Sure, Lakewood has better infrastructure and less mountains than Mbale and other differences abound, but the things that make Mbale feel like a lively, connected community exist in Lakewood too.

As I sat on the plane, I started thinking about all the parallels between Lakewood and Mbale, and I felt excited--excited to live in a town where I can walk to everything I need (even if it's snowing — boo), where people know my daughter's name (I'm more forgettable).

Lakewood is a place where people walk and ride bikes and grow their own food, where there's tons of trees and a lake, where I talk to almost everyone that lives on my street, where people from different cultures and countries coexist, where I can hear live music any night of the week, where I can go bowling at vintage lanes, where I'm close to family, where I can sit on my porch and watch the sun rise, where I can ask my neighbor for help, where I can be me, where I feel safe, loved, happy, grounded and at home — in Lakewood.

But Uganda can still be a second home and the anywhere a third because as Thich Nhat Hanh said, "our true home is in the here and the now. It is not limited by time, space, nationality, or race."