Ever wondered how it has to feel to travel abroad to work with a foreign community in a foreign context?
Since way before the trip, we were expecting that our experience in Uganda would be impactful, intense and meaningful. Of course, as always, we did not even know how short and limited our perception was.
Travelling and working in another context is beautiful. Beautiful in the way that brings the very raw parts of yourself that you manage to keep inside in your daily routines. Beautiful also in the way that acts like standing in front of a huge landscape of things to discover and explore.
Beauty is not digested in the same way for everybody. Beauty can find you at your most unexpected setting and hit you right where you react. I truly believe the feelings we experienced came from the beauty - even if the variety of feelings attached to it started sometimes with laughter and ended with tears and frustration.
Feelings, emotions and thoughts flow our of you without you even noticing. You can't prevent using your own lenses and interpretation - but you can make your best to be concious about what it is that you feel and how you interpret it.
A big learning from our group has been to understand and not underestimate the power that feelings have on you, your individual and work performance, your experience, and your work.
The 3-week field trip felt like a roaller coaster of emotions and now that we are back, we can spot many things that were invisible to us before. The recognition of the importance on the intangible has become one of our most valuable sources of energy and work quality.