Children's Ministry Concert

Saturday, we went to a concert/ministry/outreach event hosted by Amazing Grace, the local Ugandan church that Janet, one of our staff engineers, attends.  It was a ton of fun.  They had set up a temporary stage in a little field and brought in the requisite giant, extremely loud speakers.  The program was supposed to go from 2-6pm.  We arrived a little after 3, but the program actually ended up running from about 3:30-7:30pm.  But we stayed the whole time and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Children of all ages from the church performed various dances, skits, and lip syncs (which they called "mimes").  They were all amazingly good (like 8 year olds performing dances that looked practically professional) and were complete with matching outfits made from different African fabrics. 

The most interesting part was how our little mzungu (meaning "White people" or generally "foreigners") section became a magnet for dozens of kids.  Most of the time, their parents tried to keep them from bugging us too much (or from disrupting the program), but we always had several different kids around us, either sitting by us, holding our hands, playing peek-a-boo, or the most popular: playing with our cameras!  That became a huge hit, and kids were grabbing for my camera and taking dozens of photos with it for hours.  (I think 200 photos were taken with my camera that day.)  Below is a photo of some of our new friends taking photos with Megan's camera.

It reminded me of how much I loved spending time with the kids when I was in Nairobi.  Kids are such a blessing. It's amazing how well people can communicate with just a smile.  =)

Surveying Work

Yesterday our whole office traveled out to a site not to far away to do some survey work.  This is part of one of the many "small" projects that our office works on whenever we have extra time around finishing our large (fly-in-many-professional-volunteers-to-help) projects.  We were helping the Gaba Bible Institute survey their land so that we can help them develop it as needed in the future.  They are one of the only places around offering degrees and certificate programs in youth work (the director said there are hundreds of NGOs in Kampala currently working with youth), and they are also about to start a disabilities studies program.

I've never done any kind of surveying before, but I thought it was really fun!  (For those who don't know, it's basically using this line-of-sight tool to help you measure the distance and elevation of a large area of land or buildings, etc.)  We were also right on the shore of Lake Victoria, so it was beautiful!

Today I found out that I will be joining a team from our Colorado Springs office in a project they are doing in Kenya.  We will be working at Kijabe Hospital, near Nairobi, which was founded by African Inland Mission in 1915.  They have a large campus with a need for new buildings, but before they can plan for expansion, they need us to help survey and document everything that already exists on their site.  In a future project, EMI will then help them work on their 10-year growth plan for the site.

I am very excited to go to Kenya, where I spent 2 summers 8 years ago.  I am also excited to try to brush up on the Swahili I studied in college and see how much I can put into use while I'm there.

Daily Life

We've now had about 2 "normal" days in the office which, surprisingly, makes me feel like I'm settling into a regular pace of life. Every morning we walk about 30 feet from the girls' apartment:

to the office (the other half of our duplex):

We have morning prayer and devotions at 8:30am in our awesome gazebo.

Then we get to work on whatever the day brings.  So far, I've mostly just been trying to teach myself AutoCAD.  At 1pm, we all have a Ugandan lunch in the "garage" that serves as our dining room.

Each night we've been making homemade meals for 6 (all of us interns) from whatever we are able to find at the markets here.  We've had some pretty great meals so far, but we may need to cut back on the amount of money we're spending.  Cheese isn't too common here, but we splurged last night and had grilled cheese sandwiches and made-from-scratch tomato soup (YUM).  Unfortunately we hadn't bought much groceries for the house, so we first had to walk 45 minutes each way to the nearest grocery store, getting back when it was pitch black at 7:30pm, which meant we didn't end up having dinner until 9pm.  I'm sure we'll figure out the cooking and purchasing routine soon enough.  For now, at least, we decided the same people can't go shopping AND cook in the same night.  Tonight we had taco/fajita-type things along with homemade guacamole, salsa, and chapati chips.  In the evenings we all hang out for a bit at the girls' place, sometimes also with Laura, the girls' 4th roommate, although it seems like cooking takes so long that there's not much time left to relax afterward.  I guess that's what the weekends are for.  We got out our laptop and projector on Sunday and watched "Clue."  =)

Other interesting things about daily life here is that at any time, you can expect the electricity, water, and/or internet to go out, sometimes for hours on end.  Although this happens almost every day, it hasn't been too disruptive so far, other than being a little less productive at work.  Our fridge is currently warmer than our kitchen, and has been so for the last couple of days (I think they're trying to get someone out to fix it), but fortunately we also have a little mini fridge, into which we cram all our essentials.  Fortunately, things like eggs and unopened milk don't need to be refrigerated here.  We also keep our windows open all the time (all windows and doors here have bars on them, and we lock our front door with a padlock at night even though there's a 24-hour guard outside), which means we hear everything going on outside very easily.  We've all been woken up by roosters, dogs, rain, and people talking nearby, but I think we're slowly getting used to it all.  It's always hot during the day (the mild, early morning right after taking a cool shower is a glorious thing), and I'm almost always sweating, but we have fans, and fortunately it really only gets up into the mid 80s, and this is apparently the hottest month of the year.  We have to keep our knees covered for modesty reasons, but we're happily discovering that we can wear shorter skirts than we thought we could, and I pretty much always wear sandals and roll my pants up to just below my knees in order to stay cool.  =)

Jinja

Saturday, we drove out to Jinja, a more laid-back town about a 2-hour drive from Kampala. EMI has 1 long-term volunteer (someone who's committed to being here at least a year) and 1 intern out there, so we got to meet them. They also turned it into a "work day" for us, and the 9 of us who drove out from Kampala all helped work at their construction site for several hours (and managed to get pretty sunburned despite several applications of sunscreen). We all really enjoyed meeting the other intern, Danny, and the the volunteer, Phil, and his family (he and his wife are my age and have 2 little kids). Danny's parents were also visiting so we had a big work party to help them get some extra work done on the construction site where they work every day. EMI usually just does design work but, especially in the Uganda office, is delving a little more into construction management, to help see projects through to completion. We were working on a youth camp site, and spent the day sanding, nailing, and staining trusses.

Jinja sits at the source of the Nile (the Victoria Nile, which eventually feeds into the White Nile), on Lake Victoria, and is absolutely beautiful. It's a popular resort setting, and also a place for extreme sports like white water rafting, kayaking, and bungee jumping over the Nile. We went down to a little retreat center on the side of the Nile and most people waded a little. I sat on a rock in the shade and enjoyed the amazing scenery. (I'll try to post pictures soon.) It was great to go out there, and I'm sure we'll go visit again.

Funny story: On the way back home, we got flagged down by a police officer. Matt says "Should I put my seat belt on?" We all say NO, of course, because no one wears seat belts in the ubiquitous 15 passenger "taxis." Then the police officer points in Matt's window and says "You're not wearing a seat belt" and proceeds to tell us how we were all supposed to be wearing seat belts. We all thought that was the strangest thing because there were probably only 3 working seat belts in the whole van, and no one had ever heard of seat belt laws in Uganda. But we quickly tried to dig around and scrounge up what seat belts we could while she got in and informed our driver that she would have to escort us to the next town. On the way, she just read the newspaper (without putting her seat belt on). When we got to the next town, she told our driver to have each of us come into the police station one at a time...and then laughed. Apparently she had just wanted a ride....

Sunday we went to a local Ugandan church where Janet, one of our staff members attends. I loved the spirited, heart-felt worship, which reminded me of being in Kenya again. I am thankful that God has finally brought me back.

Tonight we (the 6 of us interns) made our own food for the first time. (Up til now, we've officially been in "orientation" and had all our meals hosted for us.) We set up a projector and had our first movie night, watching the movie "Clue" on the side of the living room wall. It was great to have a little down time and just hang out. I think we're all looking forward to figuring out a "routine" and having our first day of "real" work tomorrow.

Arrival

I've been in Uganda for only 48 hours, but already it seems like such a long time since Colorado orientation.

First, we (Rachel, Megan, Josh, Matt, & I) had to run for our connection in London and just barely made it. (Our only 1.5 hour layover was shortened by a slightly late arrival, and our transfer required a tram ride and going through security again.) Unfortunately, our bags were not so lucky. Only 4 of our 10 checked bags made it on our flight. Also unfortunately, the flight from London to Uganda only leaves every other day, so we will not get our bags until Friday. (We arrived late Tuesday night). As the one teammate without any bags whatsoever, I have been wearing the same shirt (day and night) for 4 days now ... but my teammates have been gracious in lending me things. I guess it's a lesson in flexibility, humility, and depending on teammates.

Another lesson in flexibility: I found out that I will be leaving Kampala on Tuesday (yes, 1 week after arriving and 4 days after receiving my luggage) and will be gone for 2.5 weeks! I will be traveling with Travis (the 6th intern at our office, who stayed on after being here from the Fall term) out to Kapchorwa, a mountain-side town in Eastern Uganda, to help oversee a borehole project that eMi started 2 years ago. After many complications, the organization out there is finally going to be repairing boreholes (to help irrigate the very dry region) and training locals in the process to be able to maintain them themselves. I will help by documenting and observing the work that will be done over the next few weeks (at least as far as I understand).

So far, we have mostly had orientation to Uganda, including culture, language, internship details, a walk around the neighborhood, and dinners at staff houses. Tomorrow we will be going all around the city (we haven't been downtown yet), and then Saturday, we will be traveling out to Jinja, about 2 hours east, where we have a couple eMi staff and interns working on a construction management project.

The weather is a little hot for me, as I expected, but I'm comforted by the fact that January is the hottest month. We have a pretty nice and safe place to stay, and I only have 3 giant mosquito bites so far. =)

Orientation

For the past week, I've been at the eMi (Engineering Ministries International) orientation at a retreat center in Colorado Springs. This week has been wonderful. Approximately 25 interns (depending on how you count) are here, and are going to 5 of eMi's 6 offices (Colorado Springs, Calgary, London, Costa Rica, India, & Uganda). I have been so blessed by all of the interns. We've really grown close over the last week, as many of the activities we've done have been either team building or sharing about ourselves. We've gone rock climbing, on two hikes (through mud and snow), learned about cross-cultural issues and God's heart for the poor, learned briefly about some developing country design techniques, met many eMi staff, shared our personal stories, and learned a lot about our own personalities (I'm a "CS", for those familiar with the DISC profile), gifts, and strengths.

It's been great to focus a lot on how we're each unique and made with different natural strengths and passions, in order to think a lot about how God might use each of us to make a difference in the world. Today, we wrote personal mission statements encompassing much of what we've been looking at in our own lives so far. Mine (in unofficial draft form) is: "Growing in love while serving and seeking justice for the poorest of the poor."

I love my 4 teammates who will be going with me to Uganda (Praise God!), and it's been exciting to see how we're similar in some ways and yet different and complementary in others.

This week has already stretched me and challenged me to step outside my comfort zone, be flexible, and truly trust my teammates, in preparation for Uganda. Also, as I've learned more about all that eMi does, I've been getting more and more excited about getting to Uganda and starting to work on a design project.

I think what's struck me the most this week is how much I'm really passionate about living simply and identifying with the poor, especially when serving the poor. I think it's important to try to live simply, both so that I can give more money to those without, and to try to live as economically-close to those I'm serving as is reasonable (obviously not in abject poverty, as I believe it needs to be a sustainable level). It's a struggle for me because I really do enjoy the "comforts of home" and want to have nice, comfortable, and convenient things, but I've also realized what a strong value this is to me. So I know that it's a big question that I'll be searching out through my time in Uganda. I've been blessed to have great communities and friends in Boston & Seattle who have been asking the same questions along with me. Fortunately, even though my teammates may not be in the same place as I am or have the same passions, they have been very supportive and seem to be excited about walking with me through these questions over the next several months. This strong support and care for each other has really come out in the short but intense week that we've had so far, and I'm excited to see it play out in Uganda.