Lights Out!

I'm back home in Seattle after 11+ months in East Africa!  I'm enjoying the cooler weather and getting to wear sweaters and socks.  It's also nice to have reliable electricity, water, and (fast!) internet.  But the funniest thing just happened.  I haven't been home for 24 hours yet and the power just went out!!!  LOL, I think I brought it with me....Well the power didn't actually go out, we actually just blew a fuse in my bedroom because of the vacuum cleaner, but I just find that pretty ironic.  =D

I've been pretty busy in the last couple weeks, so I haven't had much time to blog.  I'll try to update little by little (or slowly by slowly, as they'd say here).

I'm leaving Uganda on Tuesday!  I can't believe it!  (I haven't left East Africa for 11 months!)  So things have been busy busy aroudn the office as we've been finishing up our big semester-long project.  We printed, binded, and completed our project on Wednesday.  It's so satisfying to bind a report (that's almost an inch thick) that you've been working on for 4 months!

For Thanksgiving, the interns and American EMI families and several other Americans we know (and a few Ugandans) all went to a big potluck in a big nice house.  It was a lot of fun to have a good old fashioned American Thanksgiving with lots of Thanksgiving-type food and lots of families and kids all around!  It's not really anything like my typical Thanksgiving (generally spent with 2 other people), but it's what I imagine a lot of big family Thanksgivings are like.  It's nice to know that I have somewhat of an extended family here.

Farewell to a Good Friend

Sunday night, Janet, an environmental engineer on staff here with EMI, left Uganda to move back to the States.  She served here with EMI for over 5 years, so she had many friends and a strong community here to say goodbye to.  On Saturday, she threw a big farewell party for all of her friends, and I think over a 100 people showed up!  I spent all morning making cookies, and then set out for Janet's place to help her set up.  I was kind of in charge of organizing the snack table, so I spent much of the afternoon running back and forth between the food table and the kitchen, restocking as necessary.  All the EMI families with cars helped out by transporting food, people, equipment, and soda (over 100 sodas were consumed!)  We also had a top secret (beautiful wood) picture frame and mat that we were covertly getting people to sign during the party.  Janet's church has an amazing children's dance program, and the kids performed several songs, which were really fun to watch.  They even sang a song called "Sister Janet, we love you!"  I was rather exhausted by the end, but I think it was quite the success for Janet, and was a very fun time for all!

One of the children's dance groups from Janet's church.

Women from her church performing traditional Buganda dances.

On Sunday, I went with Janet to her church, which I wanted to visit one more time before she left.  The church is entirely made up of Ugandans, other than Janet, and has a great community feel.  I ended up spending the whole day with her, which was really nice.  Janet has been my EMI mentor for the past 6 months, but I also feel like we've become friends.  I really admire how she lives out her values of loving people, being a part of the community, living simply, and opening her life up to others.  And the way she does it, it's not like she preaches it from her soap box, it just seems to come naturally out of who she is.  She lives with a Ugandan woman and her 2 children, so I got to hang out with them and a couple other friends all day too.  I've really come to enjoy spending time with them, and I plan on keeping in touch with them even now that Janet has left.

Me and Janet at Murchison Falls in September

After church, we ate some yummy Ugandan food that her housemate had made specially at Janet's request.  Then I helped Janet do some last minute packing and sorting of all the various things she was leaving behind for various people.  In the afternoon, I went with them all to the pool next door, where Janet swam with the kids, which they absolutely love.  A couple EMI families came by after that to help transport last minute items from her house back to the office and to say their final goodbyes.  After weighing her 4 bags for the umpteenth time, trying to get each one just below 50 lbs, I finally ended up with about half a bag full of stuff that I offered to transport back to the states for her.  (To her defense, one of her bags was almost entirely full of a 4-foot wooden giraffe, surrounded by a wooden cage that one of our guards constructed to keep it safe on the journey home!)  We finished the night with pizza and soda, and I said goodbye as the whole gang left to accompany her to the airport around 8pm.  I'm so glad that I got to spend the weekend with Janet and that I was blessed to have her as part of my life here!

Watoto Pictures

Here are some pictures from my visit to Watoto Children's Village last week.

One of the house clusters (10 houses with 10 people each):

 Here I am collecting wastewater out of a manhole and collecting it in a Tupperware (gross, huh?):

 The house that adopted Dan and I while we were there (several of the boys are missing from the photo):

Two of my new friends:

 Playing with the kids during my break (they taught me how to braid banana plant fibers into ropes):

Watoto ("Children" in Swahili)

Tuesday, I spent the night at Watoto Children's Village. This is the ministry I wrote about before that has a "village" of homes for about 2,000 children. They have groups of 10 homes in circles, each home with a house mother and 8-10 children who truly call that place home and their house mother "mom" their entire lives. They live in the home until they are ready to leave for university, at which point a new child is able to join the home.

EMI is helping to design a wastewater treatment plant for the children's village. Right now, all the buildings are connected to septic tanks and soak pits that are much too small, which means the wastewater is not getting treated properly. Pat (a civil engineering staff from British Columbia) took Dan and I out there to help us get set up, and then just Dan and I stayed out there overnight. Dan used complex GPS equipment to survey the topography of the site. My job was to collect wastewater samples so that we know exactly what needs to be treated by the treatment plant.

So we found a couple strategic locations, opened the sewer manholes, and taped a stick to half a water bottle; every 3 hours, I then got to fish out raw sewage (while wearing disposable latex gloves) and pour it into a semi-leak proof tupperware container, which I kept inside a cooler. Engineers do all the dirty work while architects stay in the office and draw pretty pictures. =) (Since joining EMI, I've learned there's an eternal rivalry between architects and engineers.)

Walking around with all our funny-looking equipment certainly drew a lot of attention from the kids. It was neat to see the kids all over the campus, full of life. The kids are incredibly well-behaved and open. Several little kids just ran up and hugged my legs as soon as they saw me. Everyone seemed so full of affection.

We ended up having all our meals at one of the houses, and they kind of adopted us into their family. We had met them a few weeks ago, and when they saw us again, they couldn't contain their joy. The house mom couldn't stop smiling and hugging all of us. And the two younger boys (in 1st and 2nd grade) seemed to want to spend as much time with us as possible. The house next door also had a 2-year-old girl, who ended up becoming attached to us as well. Since I only had to sample the wastewater every 3 hours, I ended up with a little extra time, and so Wednesday morning, I just went and hung out with the two young boys and the little girl for an hour. It was so much fun! They taught me how to braid banana plant fibers into a rope, and how to make "aeroplanes" out of leaves and thorns. Then the boys joined me on my last wastewater collection adventure and took some pictures and video of me!

Fortunately Pat gave me permission to skip the 3am shift, but I was SO TIRED from carrying around all that wastewater and from not getting much sleep. I was pretty wiped out for the next couple of days. In fact, the night I came back, I had a minor emotional meltdown because I was completely exhausted, and I had to go take a nap before dinner in order to be civilized enough to eat pizza with other people. =) We were then supposed to leave for a weekend in Rwanda on Friday morning, but fortunately we decided to postpone until Thanksgiving weekend.

Boda-Boda

"Boda-bodas" are the motorcycle taxis that can take you anywhere you want to go in Kampala. Although somewhat risky, they are definitely the most convenient way to get where you need to go. Just down the hill from us is a spot where the "bodas" sit and wait for customers. Over my several months here, I've gotten to know some of them pretty well. It's really nice to have boda drivers that you can call anytime and trust them to deliver you home safely.

Anyway, last Friday was one of my roommate's birthday, so 8 of us went out to a nice dinner across town at an Indian restaurant. We hired 4 of our trusted boda drivers to take us around for the evening. (Two people on the back of a motorcycle makes it even more adventurous....)

After dinner, we all went to a nice hotel for some free live jazz outdoors under the night sky. We invited the boda drivers in, and it took a lot of convincing to get them to join us, but they finally did. There's definitely a sense of class separation here that made them assume/know that they wouldn't be welcome inside the hotel. At first I think the guards didn't want them to come in, and we were all ready to argue with them, because as our friends and guests, they would have no right to not let these guys in. But then we all walked in together and it was fine. The boda guys even took off their heavy jackets in order to look a little dressier before they entered. It's really sad that that kind of thing exists here, although I realize it exists in the US too, especially when an establishment assumes you're not a paying customer. But I'm so glad they came in with us. It was so much fun to have those guys hang out with us in a casual setting, more as equals, since we're usually just hiring them (and Whites/foreigners are always treated with respect as a higher class here). I think that night will definitely be one of my treasured memories from my time here. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to get to know and become friends with Ugandans here. And I'm so lucky to have boda drivers who I consider my friends.

"Jesus Loves the Little Children"

Yay, this week has been a little cooler and rainier!  (Hmm, I never thought about the fact that rainy-er, or rainier, is the same as Mount Rainier in Washington State….is that where it got its name from?)

On Tuesday, I started a new volunteer opportunity.  We have an office “granny” (mother-in-law of a former office director), who works part-time for the office, and invites the interns over for homemade breakfast, etc.  She has a Ugandan housemate, Florence, who also has 2 daughters in their early 20s who have become our friends.  Anyway, Florence teaches at a nursery school (aka pre-school) just down the hill from us near a low-income/slum-like area.  I’m going to go there every Tuesday morning to help her out with the kids.  She has 25 kids, mostly ages 3-6, but she also has a couple 2-year-olds and a couple 7-year olds!  Talk about a wide range of abilities!  At first I thought I would just read books to them, which would be easy, but she would really like me to come up with activities to do with the kids since most of what they do otherwise is reading and writing.  So it seems a little daunting, but I’m also excited about the possibilities.

Tuesday was my first time, and I worked with what they call the “baby class,” that is, the 2-3 year-olds.  In the mornings, they typically split the class into 3 groups based on age and abilities and Florence and her 2 daughters each take a group of kids.  This week, Rachel was busy taking university exams, so I took over the baby class for her.  I had a lot of fun, although it was sometimes challenging to get them all to pay attention, especially since most of them don’t understand that much English yet.  (Typically, schools are taught in English, but Luganda is spoken at home, so kids don’t usually know English until they’ve been in school for a couple years.)  I did a math worksheet with them, which meant counting and writing down numbers.  By end, I had learned all 10 names, and had taught them “I’ve got the Joy Down in My Heart!”  Florence was SO excited that I wanted to come and give the children exposure to other ideas and activities, so I am excited that I can help out in this way.  I just hope that I’ll be able to keep thinking of activities to do each week!

One of our in-house EMI projects (“in-house” meaning we don’t recruit volunteers to come for a week-long design project, we just use the staff and interns that we have in the office) is to design a wastewater treatment plant for the Watoto Children’s Village.  Well, we’re actually getting a volunteer in the US to design the plant, but we’re doing all the necessary ground work here ourselves.  Dan will be surveying the property, and I will be collecting wastewater samples to be analyzed by a lab.  On Thursday, Dan, Pat (a staff member from British Columbia), and I went out to the site to get an overview of the campus and a better idea of what we’d be dealing with.  We’ll be coming back and staying on campus for a few days to do our work sometime in the next couple weeks.

Watoto Children’s Choir is one of those African children’s choirs who tour North America to raise awareness of issues facing Africa, to expose the children to new cultures, and to raise money to support children in and outside of the choir.  The Watoto choir is made up solely of orphans who live in the Watoto Children’s Village in Uganda.  They have a pretty neat model that is starting to be replicated by other children’s homes around Uganda.  I think Watoto currently cares for 1-2,000 orphans!  (See www.watoto.com)  They have a family-based model, where 8 children live in a house with a house mother.  The houses are then arranged into clusters of 8 houses, which becomes the child’s community.  There are over a dozen clusters of houses in the “village,” along with a primary and secondary school, a clinic, and a church.  There is also a separate babies’ home, where orphans under 2 stay until they are ready to be incorporated into the housing system.  Each house mother is also someone who needs a place to live, and is often an AIDS widow.  The mothers really become lifelong mothers for all the children who live in their houses.  The program is also trying to recruit men to volunteer to be a “house father” and visit the children in their assigned house once a week so that the children can have male role models.  Watoto was started by a Canadian pastor who started a church in Kampala that is now known as Watoto Church, which is where I have started attending.

By the way, if you ever get a chance to see the choir (or any African children’s choir, for that matter), you should definitely go!  Right now Watoto is doing a choir tour to raise awareness and support for the activities they’re doing in northern Uganda to help rehabilitate former child soldiers!  http://www.watoto.com/restoretour/  This tour will be in LA on October 23 and Seattle on Oct 30, then they’ll be off to Canada, the UK, and Australia!  (This blog was not intended to be a promotion for the choir, but I just got excited that you guys might actually be able to see them!  They never perform here, although one day I accidentally stumbled into a dress rehearsal, which was really cool!)

Lazy Weekend

Whoops, I wrote this last weekend, but I guess it didn't post:

I had a nice relaxing weekend.  Megan (intern who now lives 2 hours away) came to visit for the weekend, and it was really nice to hang out with her again, even though it was for a short time.  All 5 of us interns babysat the 4 kids of one of our staff.  We ordered Indian, watched Ice Age 3, then played Sardines (kind of like hide and go seek in the dark), which was pretty fun considering there were 9 of us and only 3 rooms to hide in.  =)

Saturday I watched some Pride & Prejudice with Megan.  (Yay for girl time!  I certainly won't get the guys to watch that with me.)  Then I helped her make a gourmet meal for 8 people.  Well, mostly I just made the cookies.  =)  Sunday, I went to church, and then came home and Megan made us another fancy lunch.  (She's living with a family who cooks for her, so I think she's missing the kitchen!)  It was nice to have a very restful weekend.  I even went out and took a nap in my hammock for a while!

The only un-fun part was that our water was out for over 24 hours.  =P  Fortunately, our water tank never ran out of water (like it did back in August), so we still had water in our bathrooms.  But our kitchen isn't connected to the storage tank, so we had all our gourmet meal dishes piling up.  Finally, the water came back on Sunday afternoon and the guys spent about 3 hours doing dishes!  (Thank goodness for the rule that if you cook, you don't have to do dishes!!)

It's been much hotter lately, which is not ideal.  It's supposed to be rainy season and therefore cooler, but we've had several days of dry, hot weather.  It reminds me of the dry/hot season when I first got here in January.  This is the hottest spell I remember having here since February.  Hopefully, since we're supposed to be in the rainy season right now (plus people's crops are starting to suffer), it will get cold and rainy again soon!

Safe Harbor Midigo

I spent the last week way up in the northwestern corner of Uganda.  We were only a couple miles away from the Sudanese border (but unfortunately, didn’t have the chance to go find the border and step across it).  Last time I went to this project site, it was a “quick” 10 hour trip.  This time it took us 14 hours, PLUS we left pretty late and took an hour lunch break, so needless to say, it was a very long day.  (We started packing up the van at 6am, and reached our destination at 9:45pm!)  But we made it safely and had an excellent and productive week.

This was a pretty exciting project to work on.  Safe Harbor Midigo has a great ministry to the scattered villages in the area.  We stayed on a 1-acre compound with the rest of the local staff, about 20 minutes outside of the small town of Midigo.  The ministry is run by a couple who are both doctors, and the husband is also the pastor of the church they have planted in Midigo.  The area is predominantly Muslim and also has a high index of poverty.  Safe Harbor runs the only hospital in the area (the pastor and his wife are the only doctors), providing a much-needed service to the community.  (The next-nearest hospital is about an hour away by car, and a car ride is hard to come by or afford for most people who live and farm in the area.)  Safe Harbor has also started a Christian primary school.  Many Muslims have also sent their kids to this school, recognizing that it offers better education than the public schools in the area.  Right now they only have Kindergarten and 1st grade, but they are expanding one year at a time and hope to eventually have a secondary (high school) boarding school, since there are none in the immediate area.

Our project was to design a farm and farm processing buildings for the 110-acres they have.  Their vision is to use this farm to teach better farming practices to the local community, to provide more jobs for the community, to provide a local corn processing plant for local farmers, and particularly to provide an income so that their hospital, church, and school can become more self-sustaining and less dependent on outside aid.  In addition to our team of 10 architects and engineers, Safe Harbor sent their Director of International Development and a business consultant, and they found a Ugandan agricultural engineer to join us, all of which helped provide better insight on what crops and services would make the farm most profitable and helpful to the community.  Usually farms like this are designed based on space and traditional crops without much strategic planning involved, so it was pretty amazing to have a professional business consultant working with Safe Harbor to conduct market research in the area and analyze various business plans to make the farm as efficient and productive as possible.

A little insight into what I do: My role was to assist the two civil engineers on our team.  We investigated water sources for the farm (which will include new housing, chicken coops that will house 5000 chickens, and ponds for a fish farm), figured out how much water everything would need, and tested the various water sources.  Safe Harbor has 2 properties: 40 acres surrounding the compound where we stayed and 70 acres a couple miles away.  I really enjoyed tromping around on the 70-acre property, out in the middle of the “African bush.”  We got a bunch of local men to slash through the 5-10-foot tall grass and clear us pathways around the border and along a stream that ran through the middle of the property.  We tromped our way along the stream and found several ponds, which gave us a good indication that fish ponds would work well in the area.  The chicken coops will have really large roofs, so we decided that we could provide enough water for the chickens during all but the short dry season, by collecting rainwater off the roofs.  The compound currently has a borehole well that they pump with a generator.  We are recommending that they install a solar pump so that the water can be pumped all day long just through the use of solar power.  Most of the compound and many buildings in Midigo town are currently running just on solar power, which is pretty cool.  It saves them a lot of money in diesel costs.

We also had two structural engineers who spent the whole week surveying the two properties, which is critical to our being able to design the site properly.  It was also fun to see what the architects and mechanical engineer came up with for all the crop processing and storage buildings and worker housing.  Basically, I do the “boring” but important part of figuring out where the water is coming from, how big water tanks should be, and how to dispose of the wastewater, while the architects to the “glamorous” part of making the site functional and attractive.  =)

Another really neat aspect to this trip was that we lived in a compound with a lot of the local staff, so we had many opportunities to interact with the Ugandans who serve in the ministry.  We also had excellent food prepared by their full-time cook.  It seemed like every day they were slaughtering a new animal for us: chickens, a goat, a pig, and for our last night, a turkey.  A couple of our teammates had the chance to kill the turkey and a rooster.  I think we had at least two different meats at each lunch and dinner!  And pancakes every morning for breakfast, served with their local honey!

The EMI team with the Safe Harbor Midigo staff:

 

We brought a bunch of balloons to play with the kids after church on Sunday:

On the way back from the project trip, we split the 14-hour drive in two and spent one night at a game reserve (i.e., we went on a short safari).  We had a game drive in the evening and saw elephants, giraffe, buffalo, hartebeest, etc.  Then in the morning, we took a boat ride along the Nile (and saw lots of hippos and some crocodiles) up to a large waterfall, where we disembarked.  We then hiked up to the top of the falls, surrounded by breath-taking views of the falls, the river, and nature exploding with God’s beauty.

 

 

 The pictures above are of Murchison Falls and of the Victoria Nile as it flows into Lake Albert. 


Also, I thought I'd finally post a photo of my awesome new fellow interns: Dan, Jonathan, & Daniel

Leaving for Midigo

I'm leaving at 6am this morning for a 10 hour car ride to Midigo, way in the NW corner of Uganda.  I will be there for a week and a half with a team of 10 people working to design their a farm and agricultural processing facilities for Safe Harbor Midigo.

Loaves & Fishes

Saturday, I tried my hand at another homemade bread project.  This one turned out much better than the last (actually edible!), although still not as good as I had imagined.  I made those dinner rolls that you bake next to each other in a large pan so that they end up square on the sides (you know what I mean?), and it took 5 hours! But this project was much easier and less discouraging than the last.  =)

Yesterday, we went on a field trip as research for our upcoming project trip.  We visited a government research fish pond facility.  They were under renovations, as the Chinese government is funding the expansion of their facility.  I didn't really understand what the point of fish ponds were before, but it's basically like having a wheat farm or something, but "growing" fish.  Since people like to eat fish, fish farms can be quite profitable, especially in areas of Uganda that aren't near a large lake.  You buy the fish as "fingerlings," then feed them, and grow them until they're big enough to sell in the markets.  Since it can be done on a relatively small scale, this can be an important source of income for Ugandan families in rural areas.  The research facility is trying to learn new techniques and to be an example to help improve the profitability of small fish farms.  They are also starting to manufacture their own fish feed.  They are hoping that producing more feed will eventually reduce its price, making it cheaper for Ugandans to raise and to buy fish.  It was pretty neat to walk around their facility and see the low-tech, but high-quality, example fish ponds that they have.  The ministry we'll be working with on our project trip is thinking about installing fish ponds on their farm, so we'll get to help design them.

Last night we had EMI girls night, which means me, Janet, and the wives of the 3 male staff.  We had chocolate fondue and had a good time of sharing and hanging out.  I'm glad that I'm starting to get to know the EMI families a little better, so that I feel like I have a little more of a family here than just my fellow interns and roommates (which feels a little like college - but I do love them!)

Tonight we're making fish tacos!  (I just paid $3 for a little brick of cheddar cheese that I know won't be as good as the cheese back home.  Oh well, I'll still enjoy the luxury!)

Utilities

Doh!  The power just went out.  Fortunately, the internet still works.  It's a pretty funny scene in our apartment, I have to say.  Six of us are sitting around the dark living room, each on our own laptops, using the internet...all while the power is off.  Ah, roughing it in Africa!

Hail!

Today we had a HUGE rainstorm that actually included HAIL!  Who would have thought it could hail in Uganda!?!?  Then I spent a while helping mop up all the puddles in our apartment and take sheets off of wet mattresses....oh well.  =)  I love how the rain instantly cools off the weather here, and I'm glad we're already getting back into rainy season!  (Says the Seattle-ite.)

Email Update

I took the day off today while the rest of the office went out to survey a project site.  After working so much during the last couple weeks of the "summer break" and working to finish up my semester project while participating in orientation last week and this weekend, it was great to have a day to relax and catch up on life.  I spent the day journaling, emailing, and making a coffee cake.  =)

I recently emailed out a summary update of the last 3 months.  If you did not receive it and would like me to add you to my update list, just let me know!

Fall Semester

Our Fall Semester has officially begun.  The 3 new interns arrived on the 25th (which was pretty funny because for months now, we thought they were arriving on the 24th).  It's been a whirlwind orientation week, while Megan and I have been trying to finish publishing our UCU report.  Today we all went to Jinja to visit the 3 construction projects that Megan will be working on, and then we dropped her off with the Hoyts, an EMI staff family who just moved out there.  We've had 6 girls in our 3-bedroom apartment for the last 2 weeks, so it will be a little less crowded now, but I'm sad that Megan is now gone.  But I'm excited to start up a new semester and get going on various projects.  (Well, I guess I'm going straight from one project to another, but I'm taking Monday off, so I think that will help.)  =)

At the beginning of the week, the water was off for over 48 hours.  That was not fun.  It was the first time the water has been off that long since I've been here.  Everyone here has a water tank that fills and then is used when the city water is turned off, but this was the first time that we actually used up all the tank water.  So that meant no flushing toilets, so washing hands, no taking showers, no doing dishes, etc.  We were really only without water for a day, and even then we could use the office bathroom because that tank hadn't emptied yet, but even that little inconvenience really made me appreciate the constant availability of running water!!  As soon as the water came back on, the power went off for several hours, but that seemed like nothing compared to having no running water!

Bread Flop

I recently got this giant bread encyclopedia with recipes for breads from around the world.  I'm excited to try them, but they all seem like a lot of work, since I've never made anything that requires kneading or rising before.  This weekend, I attempted to make a French brioche (a sweet, fluffy french bread), but I didn't really understand the directions, so I made it incorrectly, but continued with the 2-day-long, 2-risings process just in case.  It didn't turn out the way it was supposed to, and unfortunately tasted too much like yeast to really be "good anyway," although my roommates and I enjoyed picking at the crust a little....  Oh well, it's a learning experience, right?

Our water has been off all day, and our power was out for half the day, thanks to a big thunderstorm this afternoon.  Fortunately we can still cook with our gas stove!  And we appreciated that the power came back on just before dark! 

Midigo

I traveled with Pat and Janet (two of our staff) to Midigo to visit our Fall project site.  We spent 7 hours in a bus (fortunately we got ONE bathroom stop) to a small city, followed by 3 hours in a car on a bumpy dirt road to a small town, followed by 20 minutes into the middle of nowhere.  =)  (Then we repeated that trip, but longer because of traffic, two days later!)

Safe Harbor Midigo is a great ministry and has been doing a lot to make a difference in their region.  They have a medical clinic, child-sponsorship program, mentoring program, church, primary school with K&1st grade, and a small farm.  We are going to design the expansion of their farm and the building of facilities to process, store, and package the food, and a training center so that they can use the farm to employ and train people from the community in farming practices.  We stayed on a compound with the head pastor (he and his wife are the only two doctors that the clinic has) and a few staff.  They were all super nice (including their incredibly-energetic two kids), and the food was amazing.  It was kind of like camping with electricity...and flushing toilets.  It was really helpful to check it out ahead of time to get to meet the staff in person and see the site ourselves so we can get a better idea of what our project will entail.

Unfortunately, I got kind of sick while I was there, so the many many hours of traveling were not so fun.  I don't think it's anything serious, but I'm not really sure what it is/was.  I was really ache-y all over, exhausted, sometimes weak, dizzy, and nauseous, and I still have a semi-constant stomach ache.  I had a slight fever Tuesday morning, but feel a lot better now.  Since we were in the West Nile region, I started to wonder if it was West Nile virus.  =)  I really doubt it though, because I started feeling bad the morning after we got there, and I would think that would be too soon.  It's probably just a combination of traveling in a bus for 10 hours without drinking anything, standing out in the hot sun all morning surveying, and eating something that irritated my stomach.  This is probably the most interesting thing that has happened to me health-wise while I've been here, which is pretty miraculous, but I'm still sorry that it took up a whole paragraph of my blog.  =)

"In-Between Time"

Well, this in-between time (between the summer and fall semesters) has been a lot more eventful than I had thought it would be.  I thought the 5 weeks would feel like a long time, and I would start to feel lonely, but they've just flown by!  (And it's been great having fellow-intern Megan still around.)  My mom left Tuesday.  We spent the last few days of her visit going shopping for various items for my apartment/office and for crafts and gifts for her to take home.  We went down to Entebbe (an hour from Kampala, where the airport is) the day before she left and went to the zoo and stayed at a nice bed and breakfast.  The craziest part was that they had satellite TV, so we watched American movies and TV shows!  Occasionally, random little experiences like that (or like going to see Inception at the theater on Saturday) will put me mentally back in the US, and it's really weird to try to get my head around the fact that I'm still in Uganda.  I'm really glad my mom got to visit me and see where I live and what it's like here, as well as give me the opportunity to do some fun things around here that I otherwise wouldn't have done.  (Thanks mom!)

I'm now back in the office working hard.  We're still working on finishing up our summer project (drainage and landscaping design for Uganda Christian University), which means I've been working non-stop on AutoCAD drawings of the drainage plan.  We're hoping to print and bind the final report by the 20th.  A couple weeks ago, I also reviewed the wastewater section of the report for the Kijabe Hospital project (which I traveled to Kenya to be a part of in February and June).  It's exciting to see these design projects coming together!  (My project in the Spring was an "as-built" report, and didn't involve much design.  I also wasn't part of publishing the final product, since the project was based out of the Colorado office, so I've enjoyed being in the thick of things this semester.)

I found out that my Fall project will be in Midigo, way up in the NW corner of Uganda.  Our "client" is Safe Harbor International, an evangelical relief organization.  In addition to working in many other countries, they focus on serving people groups in Southern Sudan and NW Uganda (a primarily Muslim region) that have been affected by civil war and disease.  They have been moving more towards focusing on long-term development solutions.  Their Midigo ministry includes a church, hospital, and primary school, but they want to add an agricultural element.  They have recently obtained 90 acres of land, and our project will be to help them develop a working farm and training center that can be used to train the local community in agricultural production and processing.  It will also be a potential source of funding for the church, hospital, and primary school.  This sounds like an exciting project.  (See this link for more information about the project.)

On Sunday, I get to go up to visit the project site with the project co-leaders, Pat and Janet, so that we can be somewhat familiar with the site and possibly do some preliminary surveying.  We're going to take public transportation, which means probably a 10 hour bus ride, but it should be a neat experience to get to go on a pre-trip site visit!

And then the next weekend, I might go do some surveying for an orphanage project a few hours away, while all the staff are at their annual staff retreat.  And then the new interns will arrive on the 24th, and there is a lot to do to prepare for their arrival.  So all that to say, I certainly am keeping busy!

It's important to take time for fun, too, so last night we had a Pride and Prejudice night.  We were going to watch the first 2 hours of the 6 hour BBC version, but we couldn't find the DVD, so we watched the newest 2-hour version instead.  We had 8 people total, and I made pineapple upside-down cake from scratch (and a fresh pineapple)!  The night was a lot of fun.

Mom's Visit and Kenya

My mom has been here for the last couple weeks.  I had to move rooms in my apartment, so it was almost like she was here helping me move into my college dorm or something.  =)  She even helped me shop for some furniture.  The first furniture I've purchased in Africa!  (Just a couple bookshelf-type things for better storage.)

We spent 2 nights in Jinja, the small touristy town about 2 hours east of Kampala.  We did a lot of craft/gift shopping there, especially at The Source, a non-profit cafe/gift shop who's procedes go to help the local communities.  We stayed on Lake Victoria (the 2nd largest lake in the world), just a short walk from The Source of the Nile (where Lake Victoria feeds into the Victoria Nile, which eventually finds its way down to Egypt).

We just got back from 5 days in Kenya.  We spent one day in Nairobi visiting two girls that my mom has helped support for several years now, especially since their mom passed away.  It was really neat to get to spend time with them in person (I had met one of them before), and we even got to eat at the local restaurant that the older sister owns!!  The next day we did a one-day safari to Lake Nakuru (where I went in June, see pics in previous blog), which is only two hours from Nairobi.  We went with the two girls and Danielle and her husband Jon.  Danielle is a friend of mine from college, and we actually traveled to Kenya together way back in 2001!  She and Jon just happened to be in Nairobi doing research for her phd, so it was great to get to meet up with them and spend the day with them!

Then Megan (a fellow EMI intern) met up with my mom and I and we headed down to the Masai Mara for a 3-day safari!  The Masai Mara is supposed to be one of the best places for an African safari, so we were so grateful for the amazing opportunity to visit.  (The Masai Mara and Serengeti are basically the same thing.  The Masai Mara is the part in Kenya and the Serengeti is the part in Tanzania.)  We stayed at an amazing lodge in the middle of the park (a 1.5 hour drive from the park gate), and had lots of amazing animal sightings.  We got to see lions, hippos, giraffe, antelope, gazelles, crocodiles, jackals, foxes, vultures, elephants, warthogs, and many other beautiful creatures. 

Also, we happened to go during the great wildebeest migration, so we got to see hundreds of wildebeest and zebras that aren't always there in the park.  We also got to see some of them cross the Mara River twice, which is the highlight of "the great migration."  The park and surrounding countryside was absolutely beautiful, a testament to God's beauty, creativity, and majesty.

Also, to complete the experience of a lifetime, we took a sunrise hot air balloon ride over the plains!  We watched the wildebeest running below, and we even went right over a pair of lions!  What an amazing trip.  I know I am so blessed to be able to experience something like that and see that part of God's creation, especially knowing that the majority of Kenyans have never been to the park.

I'll post photos soon!

Parental Visit

My mom arrived at 7:45 this morning!  We spent the day around the office, unpacking her stuff (most of which was stuff she brought for me!), and taking a long walk to the grocery store.  She was determined not to take a nap, so she made it (almost) to 7pm before crashing.  =)  I'm looking forward to showing her around Kampala over the next few days.  Maybe we'll even go see Toy Story 3!

Final weeks of the term

This picture doesn't actually have to do with my blog, but I wanted to post a picture of the Nile, Uganda-style!



The last couple weeks have been jam-packed! 

For the 4th of July weekend, the interns traveled 6 hours to Sipi Falls and stayed at the same really nice cottage as we did in April.  We were right at the base of a waterfall, and in the midst of beautiful, lush, tropical mountainside.

 To celebrate the 4th of July, we repelled down a 300-foot waterfall, probably the craziest thing I've ever done!  I almost chickened out, but I did it, and it was definitely worth it.  It was amazing to be suspended in mid-air next to a giant waterfall, looking out over a giant, lush valley, and realizing how small you are compared to the rest of God's beautiful creation.  We got an up-close view of the giant rock cliff, something only birds usually get to see.  Then we hiked back up the steep valley while it started to downpour.  By that time we were all completely soaked through anyway, so it was actually pretty fun to walk back in the tropical downpour and not have to worry about getting wet.  Miraculously, Josh managed to keep my camera safe and dry under a banana leaf.  Actually, it felt a little bit like Bug's Life when we were all using banana leaves as hats and as we were completely dwarfed by the landscape.  We were glad to have a nice cozy lodge to go back to, where we ate amazing food and played board/card games all afternoon.

The interns are the little specs on the grassy hillside to the left of the top of the falls:

I'm hanging by a rope at the top of the cliff:
"What'd you do for the 4th?" "Oh, I jumped off a 300-foot cliff...."

Me hanging by a rope again:

Hiking through the mud after our grand adventure:
(Josh, Matt, Megan, Kait, me, Rachel)

The last two weeks in the office, we've all been working extra hours to get as much done on our projects as possible before the semester ended (on July 14).  The other team had to completely finish and publish their project report, but our team has a slightly more flexible deadline since both Megan and I will be here for the next few weeks.  I've learned a ton about using AutoCAD in the last month, and definitely enjoy doing it (as I thought I would), but still have a lot to learn.

We also crammed a lot of social activities into our last two weeks as we tried to do everything that we had wanted to do before leaving Uganda.  I volunteered again with Kait at the Babies' Home and also went to read stories to kids in a nearby slum, an activity that Josh has been doing all semester.  Kait, Matt, and I finally made it out to "Percussion Discussion," an outdoor live music venue that occurs every Tuesday, complete with spoken work, local music, local dances, and an open dance floor.  We also had a "girls' night" with all the female interns, staff, and staff wives, and we went to a nice hotel for live jazz and desserts.  A pretty cool Christian blues/R&B band from LA happened to be there as well, and we got to hear them play a few songs.  (Check them out at thestrangers.org.)  I finally got a skirt made out of fabric that I bought here (although it wasn't African-looking fabric).  And of course everyone watched lots of World Cup "football."

Monday, the 12th was my birthday, so I celebrated by going out to a nice Thai restaurant with the interns and a couple staff.  The food was really good, and it was just fun to eat something familiar.  (I realized that 4 years ago on my birthday, I also went out for Thai food in Boston.)  And they even had really good mango and sticky rice for dessert!  (I love it, but it's hard to find in the US because mangoes have to be in season.)  It was a fun way to celebrate my birthday - my 3rd one in Africa, actually!

Of course my birthday was also extra "memorable" because all day we were talking about and worrying about the bombs that had gone off the night before at the final World Cup match.  I was woken up at 6:45am by my roommate checking to make sure I was in the house, as per the request of a staff member who called to check on us.  Fortunately, we were all fine, as was everyone we knew.  As the day went on, we continued to find out more information and found out that 10 people died at Ethiopian Village, a restaurant that we occasionally visit and that's not too far from where we live.  Fortunately, all the interns who were out watching the game that night were over at a staff member's house and not out and about, as they often had been during previous games.  We are taking extra precautions now to try to stay away from crowds and generally be smart.  We were a little worried about all the interns flying home on the 18th, which is when the African Union conference started, which apparently was the "target" of the initial bombing.  This week there are a ton of police everywhere, presumably due to the conference, and airport security has become more strict.  Fortunately, everyone made it out of Uganda just fine.  (That's much better than a couple months ago when several people we knew were stuck here for an extra 1.5 weeks because of the Iceland volcano!)

Originally, I was supposed to fly home this past Sunday, July 18.  All the other interns left, so we all, plus Janet, the intern coordinator, went down to spend Saturday night in Entebbe (about an hour from Kampala and where the airport is located).  We had a nice last dinner together and shared things we appreciated about each other.  Then we exchanged last-minute photos with each other, and I stayed up until 1:45am helping Rachel re-pack her suitcases.  =)  Rachel, Megan, Matt, and Josh left super early for a 9am flight, and then Janet, Kait, and I spent the day in Entebbe while waiting for Kait's 10pm flight.  We got to go to a small house church that the Hoyts attend (Steve Hoyt is an EMI staff who lives out in Entebbe), and we also got to attend their daughter's 6th birthday party.  We hung out in the afternoon with a different Josh who is a college-age friend of the Hoyts and who also went to Sipi Falls with us.  We got to visit the Botanical Gardens, which are really pretty and home to dozens of monkeys.  We fed bananas to the over-friendly/aggressive monkeys and even got to see a one-day-old monkey!  Josh fed one monkey his "blow pop," and it was pretty funny to watch him sit there holding and licking the sucker just like we would (and then of course get impatient and bite into it).  The garden also touches the lake, so we enjoyed a few minutes of sitting on the grassy beach watching the waves hit the shore.  (It was almost like we were at the ocean!!)

The next 5 weeks are down time in the office because the Fall interns don't arrive until August 24.  I'm now alone in the apartment, and it's a little lonely, but I'm keeping myself busy working my way through Lost Season 5 and doing various chores.  I'm really looking forward to my mom coming to visit on Friday, at which point we'll be out and about on lots of fun adventures!

Sipi Falls, Take 2

The interns are off for a 3-day weekend at Sipi Falls (we went there in April, too).  Should be beautiful and relaxing!  (Oh, and happy 4th everyone!  It's easy to lose track of US holidays here....)

Weekend Events

This (as usual) was a full weekend.  Friday afternoon, we left early to go to the Friday Craft Market, a craft market located on the railroad tracks that is generally regarded to have the best prices around and takes place only on, you guessed it, Fridays.  My teammates who are leaving in 2.5 weeks did a lot of their end-of-term gift shopping. 

Saturday, all the interns were invited for breakfast at "grandma's" (the mother-in-law of a former staff member, who still lives here and volunteers for EMI).  Then I headed out with Rachel & Kait to visit and volunteer at a "Babies' Home" (an orphanage for babies and toddlers).  It was really neat to sit down and have a bunch of kids come over and sit on your lap and know that you could at least provide the touch, smile, and love that they needed.  I'd definitely like to go back again.

Sunday, we had a project volunteer in town for the day, so we took her to church and then went craft shopping all around town.  I've had fun shopping "slowly by slowly" with visitors, since I know I have a long time left to buy things here before I leave.  I finally bought some fabric ($9 for 6 yards) to get a skirt made by a seamstress down the street ($3).

Monday night, we spur-of-the-moment all went out for Indian food.  It was so good!  I love Indian food, and it's the first time I've had a chance to get it here.  Yummm.

Money Questions

At the end of our project trip, we spent Saturday and Sunday at a nice resort/bungalow place on the Nile in Jinja, where we had our "closing time," which included reflecting on what we had experienced and learned, sharing positive traits we had noticed in our teammates, and praying for each other.  The place we stayed was directly overlooking some white water rapids on the Nile (which we had rafted last month), and it was absolutely beautiful.  The three girls on our trip shared a nice "bungalow" with impressive natural rock accents, a separate bedroom, a secluded porch overlooking the water, and probably the best shower I've had in Africa.  The food was also amazing.  It was really nice to have a peaceful place to rest and process the week, and also to enjoy the beauty of God's creation.  But in order to get there, we drove through about 10 km of backroads past "village" houses of mud and sticks and kids playing in the yard. 

The contrast was quite striking and brought up questions for us of the "justice" of that kind of retreat place and nice Western places in general.  I think it's a difficult issue because I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing for there to be nice places for foreigners to stay when they visit Uganda, or for missionaries and aid workers to go for a much-needed weekend of rest.  I have found that "treating" myself to a nice cafe lunch or pizza delivery is the type of thing that can keep me going and make this sustainable for me.  But I do think that insisting on being surrounded by an excess of wealth in such a poor country can be selfish and narrow-minded.  Also, I think it's sad when people visit and surround themselves in Western luxury and never actually get out and get to know "the real Uganda."  I suppose you can argue that tourist places help boost the economy, etc.  I don't know much about the economics, but when I think about how that kind of system makes Ugandans view Westerners, it makes me sad.  It's true that we generally have much more wealth, but I think it makes a difference when people come to a place and get to know people and want to learn about the culture and history and foods instead of going straight to a Western luxury resort bubble and not ever getting to know more about the actual place they're visiting.

The place we stayed in Jinja brought these questions and the reality of the wealth disparity into our faces when we drove past dozens of very poor families and suddenly ended up at a resort with manicured lawns.  It's interesting to think about what was actually "wrong" with that picture.  Was it just that the contrast had been blatantly displayed and made me feel guilty?   Is it unjust that the place exists or just that it exists so close to poverty?  Would it better if they just circumvented the village houses and blazed an asphalt trail around the farmland, directly to the resort?  It doesn't seem like that is really the answer....  But maybe there is an injustice or insensitivity about having cars full of (mostly) White people driving down their road, bypassing the locals and heading directly to a resort that they will never be able to enjoy.  Should that type of resort not exist at all or do I just not like it when I'm reminded of how privileged I am to be able to benefit from it when so many people here can't?  I don't have answers to these questions, and I don't necessarily think that everyone needs to come to the same conclusions.  But I do think it's important that these types of questions are asked, especially by foreigners who live/come here.  I think it's important that I ask these questions of myself.

Uganda Christian University

A week ago, I was just finishing my second June project trip, this time at Uganda Christian University (UCU), just outside Kampala.  As I explained in previous posts, this project was different than most EMI project trips.  (I've said that about all 3 of my project trips now, but other people have also agreed that I still haven't participated in a "typical" EMI project.)  Generally, an organization needs a few new buildings and maybe a small master plan design.  We come in and survey the land, design the general master plan, design a few specific "phase 1" buildings in detail, and then the civil engineers design the water and wastewater systems for the site. 

The UCU project very unusual and pretty exciting in that we got to work with a Ugandan architecture firm who had surveyed the entire college campus and developed a master plan, including a general drainage solution.  Our job was to evaluate and provide recommendations in reaction to their analysis and recommendations, and then also to add some additional detail in 3 specific problem spots on campus.  This was also a super fast trip.  We were only on campus for 4.5 days, including our final presentation to the faculty.  UCU was also an unusual client in that they're not directly serving "the poor" (since they're generally serving people who can afford to pay for college (or afford not to get a job instead), although I think many students do receive scholarships).  I thought it was a good reminder that high-quality education is such an important factor when considering the long-term, sustainable development that Uganda needs.  This Christian university is raising up Uganda's future leaders, providing them with high-quality academics and a solid foundation of faith.  If Uganda is going to develop as a strong and healthy country, it will continue to need quality leaders in every arena of society.

We spent the first half of the week figuring out and analyzing what the Ugandan firm had done.  We even got to meet with them and hear their vision for the site.  It was exciting to hear how UCU wants to develop a long-term relationship with this firm (so that they're not relying solely on outside, "Western" consultants).  We figured out what their drainage proposal was, and then we figured out what our recommendations would be. 

For anyone who cares for the technical part: they get a lot of rain here, so we decided that in addition to just creating better ditches, etc. to channel all the water downhill and off campus, we would also try to create landscape/engineering features that would soak up as much water as possible next to each building or parking lot (areas where the rain can't soak in naturally).  The cool thing I learned about this drainage technique is that it's practically helpful, environmentally-friendly, AND aesthetically pleasing (plants/trees help soak up water)!  Then our architecture team took these recommendations and designed better solutions for 3 key problem areas for pedestrian circulation that UCU had (currently, almost all of their walkways are dirt, which become mud when it rains).

I was a little apprehensive about doing a drainage project since I knew nothing about it, but I actually am enjoying the project.  I ended up spending much of the week coloring a large map/diagram for our presentation to show how the drainage plan worked.  (Coloring is always fun.  I didn't appreciate it enough as a child.)  And I helped dig some holes for a percolation test, through which we found out that the soil soaks in water super quickly, which is good for our drainage design.  At the end of the week, we gave a presentation of our drainage proposal and improved pedestrian walkways/spaces to a few key faculty, and it seemed to go really well.  Then the American who was our host, invited us, some other visitors, and many of his coworkers to a big American BBQ, complete with hamburgers (cooked outside on a grill), potato salad, and a World Cup match!

Drainage

I have spent the week on the campus of Uganda Christian University.  This (once again) is a rather unique EMI project.  They have already had a Ugandan firm do a complete survey of the site and prepare a master plan that includes a general overview of drainage and pedestrian and vehicular circulation.  So we're here basically to use that master plan (and double-check their calculations) and add a few more specific details about particular problem spots.  Thank you for your prayers, as I have been able to engage and feel invested in this project.  This afternoon, we present our evaluation and ideas to the University, and then we're off to Jinja for a weekend of relaxation!

Off Again

"And she's off!"

I had a fun and relaxing weekend, and now I'm off again on another project.  Tomorrow (Monday) morning, 5 of us from the EMI East Africa office, plus 3 volunteers from the US, will start on a week-long project at Uganda Christian University in Mukono (just east of Kampala).  We will be working on drainage, landscaping, and pedestrian/vehicular circulation for the large college campus.

It's been a little overwhelming going straight from one project to another, so I've mostly spent the last few days trying to recharge and process and let my mind rest before making it run at full speed in a new direction.  I think I also just needed a few days to get used to being in Kampala again, going about daily life, instead of being in a fun, "summer camp-esque" environment with my awesome Kijabe project team. I was really looking forward to returning to Kijabe to get to follow up on the work I had done in February, and to get to see a few friends from my last trip.  But this upcoming trip is a big unknown, and I'm a little worried about the technical work itself, since I'm not at all familiar with drainage or hydrology concepts.  But I know that God will be with us during this project, so I really shouldn't worry.  I'm sure I will also bond a lot with this new project team, even though it will be completely different with only 8 people instead of 24!  I AM looking forward to being on a team that is based out of my office.  I will get to continue to work with and debrief and process with most of the team in the office afterwards, instead of, as with the Kijabe project, being the only one from not only my office, but from the continent.  I've seen all the other interns go on project trips and return back more bonded with the interns and staff on their teams, so I am looking forward to that experience.  And I think it will be fun to be part of putting together a whole project report in our office.  I just need to trust that God will be at work in this project just as much as in the last one.

On a different note, I can't believe that I've now been in Uganda for almost 5 months!  In some ways, it's amazing to think it's been that long, but in other ways it does feel like I've been here for a long time.  It does feel like "home" in many ways.  If I was leaving when I originally was supposed to, it would be only 5 weeks from today!  Instead, I have 6 months left, which is also pretty hard to fathom.  But even though I sometimes wish I could be back in the US, or at least see all the people I miss, I still do feel a peace about being here, and I know that God will carry me through each step of the journey.

Kenya Photos, As Promised

Vicky, from the EMI Colorado office was on my trip to Kijabe and she decided to visit our office for a few days before going home.  It's been fun to have her here because it's almost like a friend came to visit me.  =)  Today we went all over downtown Kampala doing various kinds of shopping and eating.  I spotted some fabric that I think I want to have made into skirts (a popular thing to do here), but I decided to wait to make sure I really want them first.
Vicky & me on safari:

Other photos from my trip:

One of the reasons that the hospital water needs chlorination (the bird is sitting over an open hole into their main water storage tank):

Local kids watching as Jeff inspects a septic tank:

One of the reasons the hospital needed us to evaluate and make recommendations for improving their wastewater system (a sewer manhole that is leaking out the side):

Another reason (broken sewer pipe that is spilling sewage into farms and a creek):

Hospital trash near an old incinerator (we strongly recommended that this be cleaned up):

Jim & Julie with 2 hospital staff under a cool-looking "cactus tree:"

Me standing in a 5-foot hole that was previously dug to help deal with the hospital's wastewater. (The pits, although not currently functioning, would have been about 7% the size they needed to be, so we designed larger oxidation ponds to provide secondary treatment and additional septic tanks to provide better primary treatment of the hospital's wastewater.  I've decided to spare you all by not posting my gross septic tank photos.):

A "Whoville" tree (ref. Dr. Seuss):

Kids outside of a church service:

More cute kids:

The "Poo Crew" (folks who spent most of the time working on wastewater evaluation):

Nick, Vicky, and me (the junior members of the "Poo Crew"):

Some of my new friends, on the shores of Lake Nakuru:

Inside our safari vehicle, at Nakuru National Park:

Cool safari photos:

(Those are flamingos covering the edge of the lake, and zebras on shore.)