Thanksgiving is officially over and that means Christmas is coming at full speed. Let me explain to you how excited I am about Christmas: the day after Thanksgiving was a rainy day here in Uganda, so naturally I wore a sweater and LuLaRoe leggings because yes it was actually cold, watched Christmas movies, and drank coffee. It was the perfect introduction to Christmas season. However, this isn’t what this post is about. This post is about the second Thanksgiving spent away from my family. This year was much harder than last years. Probably because I have missed a lot of holidays in between last Thanksgiving and this one. Here is how this Thanksgiving went.

I had school this year so I stayed at my site. Which is very okay, I love my site and being around my kids. My school let me have the day off so naturally I just hung out for a bit at school and then went back to my house and finished marking papers and worked on some lesson plans for next term. I also watched TV and just rested.

Now let me explain to you about how I was feeling, honestly, I don’t get too homesick often. I don’t know why, I mean I miss my family but not in a homesick kind of way. Now, on Thanksgiving and thinking about the other holidays that I missed all I wanted was my family. I wanted to be sitting with them and going over all that we have missed in the past year together and all that we had to look forward to in the next 15 months. Naturally, I cried several times that day because I just wanted my family but I also wouldn’t trade being here in Uganda for the world. I could have celebrated Thanksgiving with other PCVs or Expats, but I think I needed to be just around my school with my community. I missed an opportunity and should have shared with them about Thanksgiving, but I didn’t. Hopefully next year I will.

Well anyway holidays away from family are difficult, however this Peace Corps journey and finally living in Uganda is worth it all and I am so thankful that and I wouldn’t trade any of these moments. I also know that I will have many holidays with my family again soon. I know that they love me and support me in this journey.