Displaced

I wrote this in an email to a friend, and then when I sat down to write in this I realized that I'd said everything that I'd felt and been able to transcribe... so I'm copy and pasting it here.

I wish I had the words to express the feelings that Displace Me has put in my heart.

They're the same feelings I had upon seeing Invisible Children the first time, upon seeing it every subsequent time, upon attending the global night commute, upon volunteering to work directly with IC to promote for Displace Me, upon spreading out on my living room floor and getting started, upon receiving all the promo materials direct from the IC office, upon running around on campus for hours on end putting up posters flags flyers and stickers... and doing it all again when they all got torn down......


and yet now it is magnified that much more.


I had the unbelievable, amazing luck and opportunity to meet, shake the hand of, and talk with Bobby Bailey, one of the 3 filmmakers/founders of Invisible Children-- one of my heroes, my motivation, my inspiration. I was reluctant at first, because it's so cliche, but I told him all that. About how his film changed my life, how I'm now studying International Development, and how one day I very much want to go to Uganda and actually meet these people I feel like I know from having watched the videos over and over. ("and YOU WILL!" he kept saying, "YOU WILL! I can see it in your eyes, you WILL!") I didn't have my picture taken with him though... as much as I wanted to, that was just a little too cliche for me. ("I can't wait to travel with you!" he said... well, somehow I doubt I'll ever have that chance, but boy it sure excited me)

Anyways, he told me about opportunities to intern with Invisible Children in Gulu, Uganda. Every passing moment since then has made me feel like this is more possible.

We had rations of food and water, and had to get them modelling the way that the Acholi must do it-- women ages 18-22 getting water, only one container at a time, so you must go through the line again and again for those who aren't women aged 18-22, and men getting the food rations, only 3 rations at a time so they too must go through the line again and again in order to get food for themselves and the women.

And there were some Ugandans there! I got to meet some Ugandans... Come to find out, Jacob ("the boy who cried" in the IC documentary) was actually the speaker at one of the locations (whereas ours was Bobby) . They came to thank us, and to remind us to write letters and keep being active.

There's so much more I want to say but so few words to say it in. It was such an amazing experience. It rained, but I hardly think of the rain at all when I look back on the night. I'd do it again.... over and over and over again.

In the long run, Displace Me (however huge it may have been) is naught but a grain of sand in all of this... yet still, it made me feel so powerful! It's like when you get an A on the first test of the semester and you're instantly more confident that you can get A's on all the rest... and so you're more likely to. Same thing.

I'm bouncing and my heart is 3 times bigger and I met Bobby Bailey and I ate nothing but saltines and water (and even those just once) in 15 hours and it was nothing compared to what the Acholis experience, but it was a step.

I just want to hug everybody around me, even those not around me, and spread my motivation, I want to be contagious!