June 24, 2009

I’m sitting in a plane on my way to LONDON, ENGLAND! Oh my freakin’ God this is crazy. So much for being creative and succinct with my writing - I’m just too excited! This is crazy, this is ridiculous. I just finished watching a movie (He’s Just Not That Into You).... in the sky! We’re on a British Airways flight and the flight attendants have accents! One has an Irish accent (from what I can tell) and when she asked me if I wanted some tea or water I thought she said, “Tear water”, so I kept asking, “What’s tear water?” Oh my! First stupid mistake of many. It still hasn’t hit me which is so odd. It might not even hit me when I’m there. The true surprise might be when I’m on my way back home to the world of privilege and disconnect, fast-paced life and expectation. I mean, I’m going to Uganda?! Good Lord this is so CRAZY! Absolutely unreal. Everyone else is sleeping, but I cannot - I’m on a rush of adrenaline - I’m eyes open, ready to go! These past few days in D.C. were incredible. Yesterday over 2,000 people descended upon Capitol Hill to bring the stories of those who have been affected by this conflict to the leaders who have the power to change policy. Tom Shadyac (the director of Evan Almighty, Bruce Almighty, Liar Liar, etc.) spoke with us yesterday (might I also mention that he funds the Schools for Schools Program) and really put things into perspective. We are the leaders, our politicians are the followers. They represent us and it is our duty to show them what it is we care about. We care about the voiceless, we care about the child soldiers in Central East Africa. We care and we have voices that we aren’t afraid to use. Last night when all was said and done, the group I was with had met with Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma and representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts.  Both strongly supported the northern Uganda Recovery Act and LRA Disarmament Act of 2009. (Although Senator Inhofe has a little stipulation over money - but that could be easily fixed when the bill goes to committee.) Some kids from our group later traveled to the House Floor with Representative Royce of California to get Representatives to sign the bill. Apparently the method was very effective and over 50 Reps signed on! Later on that night when everything was done we were walking around the Washington Monument and granted the opportunity to go to take the elevator to the top and view the nation’s capitol during its most beautiful hour - it was spectacular. On our way back to our sketchy morel we stopped by a 7-11 and bought pints of ice cream to eat. As we returned to our rooms around 12am there were sketchy men drinking beer and checking as out as we walked up the stairs. The fact that we stayed at a Days Inn Motel only added to the experience and made me realize that as long as you have a place to sleep and loving adventurous friends in your company - your accommodations really don’t matter.

I feel like I’ve hit a wall and I can’t really see what I wrote, never-mind the page in front of me. Time to sleep a little before London - 3 hours and 50 minutes remaining and I haven’t slept at all! It’s just the excitement of it all...