6 days

6 days and counting.... I'm leaving for the adventure of a lifetime soon. Uganda, East Africa: Source of the River Nile, home to the mountain gorilla, site of some of the world's worst human right's abuses. Home to kind, enduring, welcoming people who live with very little. Ugandans have a 60% literacy rate, a majority of the inhabitants live on less than $1 per day, in extreme poverty, a kind of poverty that is unheard of here.

So why am I going to Africa? Why Uganda? Why the northern frontier town of Gulu to be exact? It just happened to be the place I felt I could do something good. A place I could be stretched as much I could possibly be stretched. I'm going on a journey, for myself, for my growth and development as a human being, and I am going for the people of Uganda who surmount challenges every day I can hardly imagine, such as starvation, illness, violence and a lack of basics. I am going, not to fix anything, achieve anything, or become anything. I simply feel that I need to go, and thankfully, I have the chance to go now.

I sit in my favorite cafe, a block from my house, and write this first entry. I hold on to my experiences here with a certain intensity, a certain tenderness, knowing that my perceptions, my attitudes, my whole life will change dramatically in one week, and although I fear change and uncertainty as much as any other person, I know this will do me so much good. Maybe, I can do something good for someone else while I am there too.