It’s been 6 months since I moved back from Uganda and by now I fully expected to have had moved on. As wonderful as my time in Uganda was, living in the past is pointless, futile and quite simply a complete waste of time so I’ve always taken the mentality of ‘you just need to get a grip and move on’. By now I therefore fully expected that I’d be embracing the next stage of my life, I fully expected that there wouldn’t be any more reverse culture shock episodes in Tescos and I fully expected that ‘Uganda’ would be a happy and distant memory. Coming home for Christmas has made me realise how difficult it has been to move on and how much Uganda will forever be a part of me no matter where I am in the world.
This time last year Tim and I had somehow managed to land ourselves at Ndali Lodge for Christmas. Located near Fort Portal in Western Uganda, Ndali is renowned for being one of the top lodges in Eastern Africa. It is without doubt one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been and should definitely be on everyones list to go to before they die.
It was my first ever Christmas away from home and whilst Christmas has always been a bit crap since Mum and Dad divorced 10 years ago, I still expected to feel homesick with a few tears over Skype. In fact it turned out to be one of the best I can remember. Rather than stressing out about Christmas presents, reflecting on family relationships and being surrounded by an insane amount of stuff (presents, food, decorations, people…), we opened a couple of presents then spent the day by a swimming pool overlooking a crater lake followed by a wonderful meal around a large table with twenty others in the dining room.
Despite being back for 6 months, Christmas has totally screwed with my head. As with most years in our house the conversation goes something like “lets not do presents this year, we don't need anything” followed a couple of days later by one of us saying “I’ve just been out to get a few presents, I want you to have a little something to open” and so we all fall down the trap of going out to buy presents that we neither want or need.
As I walked into town today to buy presents I found it really hard to justify to myself what I was buying. I want to give, I don’t want to be tight, I’d give my Mum the world if I could but I also don't want to contribute to the amount of unnecessarily stuff cluttering up our lives and the amount of waste heading to landfill. Ultimately I don't want to be part of this excessive consumer mindset which I personally believe in fuelling the increasing disconnect within the UK. How can Christmas retail figures have risen whilst at the same time were being told that homeless crisis is worse than ever? After we spent time handing out meals to homeless in London on Thursday night, I walked away and promised myself that I wouldn’t spend money on crap presents for the sake of it this year yet today I found myself in panic mode in front of scented candles in House of Fraser. Scented candles. Scented bloody candles. Thankfully I didn't end up buying any (it did take me 15 minutes and a freak out to come to that decision…) and instead I bought something far more useful - a case of wine - something that can be shared whilst doing what is important at Christmas - talking, spending time with family and hopefully having some fun...!
