You Know You've Been In Uganda When...

Overheard in the car ride home from the airport:

• First question out of his mouth: "Who won the NBA finals?" That's my boy.

• "It's weird to driving in a car." Not only a car, but one that has the steering wheel on the "other" side.

• "I can't wait to take a shower. I haven't taken one for a long, long time." This is a miracle, considering I could hardly get Frack to take one regularly, even when the shower is about 6 steps from his bed. 

• "Are you hungry?" I asked him. "No, mom. The airplane food was so good!"

• "I wrote in my journal every day." You could have knocked me over with a feather. We had the biggest fight over including a small, wire bound notebook in his backpack. "I'll never use it," he said before he left.

• "The best part of the entire trip was when we got to play in an actual soccer game with the kids from the school we were at, against another team from another school. The entire village came to watch the match. We were like super stars." Frack reported that the people in the village they were in LOVE white people because they don't get to see them very often. "And I scored the only goal," he added with a smile. 

• "Yes, mom. I will get a buzz cut tomorrow." Again, shock. This kid is the same kid who could barely see out from under the shaggy bangs that covered his eyes. We had royal battles over hair cuts for picture day, his job and semi-formal dances. If I knew all I had to do was send him to Africa for three weeks...I will happily take him for the world's most expensive haircut today.

• "We talked a lot about our families. I told the group that my mom undoubtedly had our itinerary taped to the refrigerator door and was telling everyone what we were doing every day." he said. Well, it wasn't taped to the fridge...exactly. 

• "First thing I'm doing tomorrow is going to McDonald's and then to see Spiderman,"  he said. And it was then that I knew that my boy was home. Safe, and exactly where he belongs.