Gulu Redux or Uganda Unique?

This time last year, in anticipation of GSSAP 2011's inaugural journey to northern Uganda, I felt transported to the summer of 1995. I was a rising senior at Barnard College when I embarked on my own transformative journey to the brand-new African country of Eritrea. As my first 2011 post captures, I was suddenly standing back in my old shoes as I imagined what it felt like to be in my students'. I recalled distinctly my excitement and anxiety about the territory ahead. I was acutely aware of how embracing the histories and cultures of other nations can shape your own life course and that of the people you come to know. I was full of vicarious anticipation for our twelve intrepid students as they sallied forth towards their own unknown horizons.

Tomorrow we depart again for Uganda with a new and equally amazing group of eleven young people. I am again filled with anticipation for what lies ahead, especially for them. And no doubt they are full of the same excitement and perhaps trepidation as those who went before. But for me, the anticipation feels different this time around. The groundwork was laid. Logistics and planning all went smoothly. We know what to expect. Is it Gulu Redux?

And then I remember a lesson I thought I knew well. No place is ever the same twice. No set of experiences is reducible to another. And certainly the students are special: Kaitlin, Katie, Helena, Brook, Hannah, Joshua, Candace, Jody, Candice, Michael, and William - each one of you comes to GSSAP 2012 with your own backgrounds and experiences, each one of you brings something irreplaceable to the table. At least four of last year's group are returning in other capacities this summer - a testament to the success of GSSAP 2011. Other new faces will join the mix, adding their own colors and characters: Dr. Randal Hepner and Dr. Dawnie Steadman. Together with old and new friends from Kampala to Gulu to Kitgum, we will form our own humble kaleidoscope of humanity, shifting and changing in the striking patterns we make together. We will be Uganda Unique.

Although I eagerly await the opportunity to see everything anew through the eyes of this year's team, I stick by my words to last year's group. This summer experience may or may not change the course of your life. But it will forever shape the way you think about the world and your place in it. You will grow in ways you can't yet imagine - and some of it will be painful as well as joyful. You will return home more critical in your thinking, more empathetic, more inspired, and perhaps a bit disillusioned as well. You will form friendships that may last the rest of your life, both with one another and with the Ugandans you meet. And hopefully you will leave something equally important behind, something you co-create with Ugandan friends and mentors - the sense that human solidarity can always transcend the arbitrariness of our birth and nationality. From that realization great things can follow.