part of the process!

this moment was a lot more exciting than i imagined it would be. for a while, i doubted my absentee ballot would even arrive in time for me to send it back. right before a week-long trip to kampala for my mid-service conference, i decided to check our local post office one last time. amazingly, my ballot had arrived that very morning! i carried it away carefully, exitedly, guarding it from the alarmingly long sunshower that was soaking the cement capital of uganda. there was a rainbow over tororo rock.

the ugandans i've spoken to are amazed that i am able to fill out my federal election ballot and send it from so far away...and presumably have it counted. the common assumption is that i would need to fly back home to cast my vote, a notion which sounds ridiculous, but ugandans tend to underestimate the hassles of round-the-world travel while grossly overestimating the amount of money i have access to.

the act of filling out the ballot itself was incredibly satisfying. i took out my most emphatic black pen and marked every last fiber inside of "my candidate's" box. i triple-checked it to make sure i hadn't overlooked anything. i sealed the envelope. when i reached kampala the next morning, i marched straight to the post office, dropped it into the international slot, and voted.