Today I watched the Last King of Scotland for the first time. I knew what to expect, but still.. I wasn't prepared for what I saw. If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about. The movie seems pretty happy-go-lucky there for a while, and you start to think maybe he's not as insane as supposed... hm. I'm a very visual person, so it might take me a few days to get some of those last images out of my mind. I even put the subtitles on and fastforwarded so I wouldn't have to sit there and watch it. The thing that really got me though was at the end when they were telling the year that his reign ended.. I think it was '79.. and then having seen the Invisible Children documentary and having participated in Displace Me.. I realized that there were only 7 years between the end of his reign and the start of the war in Northern Uganda.

My mind can't even try to wrap itself around it all, what those people lived through day by day, the horrors that they faced. My heart can't even pretend to understand the pain that they've endured. Then I started thinking about being gone for 5 months. I know that I'll get homesick, and I know that I'll miss spending Wendesdays with my little niece. I know I'll miss being there on my brother's birthday and on Emma's 1st birthday. Thanksgiving, my birthday, etc... I started to get sad last night when I left my cousin's because we realized that I would be missing a lot while I was gone, and that Emma wouldn't remember me when I came back. I made her promise to show pictures of me to Emma so that she would still know me. But after watching that movie and realizing that terror is all that some Ugandans have ever known, I felt convicted.. almost as if I didn't have a right to feel sad about being gone. I have been so blessed to have my family so close during my life, to see Emma Kate grow up and change week by week, to have friends and relatives so nearby... I have been so blessed! And I forget every day how special that is. I don't want to take them for granted anymore. I don't want to take our freedoms here for granted. Even though I don't like a lot of things about my culture, I don't want to take it for granted.

If you haven't watched the Invisible Children documentary, please do. The war there is not over yet. Even though peace talks are in process and the government officials are meeting with the LRA, there's still a long way to go to repair the damage done. Thousands have been abducted and brutally murdered, families destroyed. Take a look at their website and see what you can do to help end the war. And in the meantime, don't take our liberties and freedoms for granted...