Kenya

I just got to Kenya (via a 45 minute flight)!  I'm here for 2 weeks on a project trip, working on Kijabe Hospital.  I'm excited to get to return to the same place where I worked in February, and with a few of the same people.  I probably won't have much internet access while I'm here, but I'll try to update my blog after that, before leaving on my next project trip on the 14th.

Obama

The people here are (understandably) obsessed with Obama.  There's even an "Obama's Restaurant and Car Wash" down the street from us.  Today, as I was walking through downtown, I got called "Obama's sister." Ah, the irony.

Matt & Kait arrived safely and miraculously got all their luggage, despite a 30 minute layover in Amsterdam.  (When we arrived, we had a 45 minute layover in London, had to transfer terminals, and got 4 of our 10 bags.)  They had a whirlwind tour of Kampala and EMI, and then Kait, along with Rachel, Josh, and others left Sunday morning for their project trip in Tanzania.  I'm leaving Friday night for my project trip in Kenya.

As part of their orientation, we had a tour of downtown.  This included visiting Watoto Church, home to the world-famous Watoto Children's Choir, which is made up of Ugandan orphans.  We walked in when they just happened to be having a dress rehearsal, and we got to stay and hear them (and watch their super energetic dancing) sing a couple songs.  It totally made my week.  I absolutely love that kind of stuff (and I loved understanding some of the Swahili they were singing), and it's almost impossible to see them perform in Africa because they only do North American and European tours, and don't give concerts at their home church.

Goodbyes & Hellos

Last week we said goodbye to Travis, one of the interns.  Tonight we said goodbye to another intern, Matt (with spaghetti and MEATballs and ice cream!)  The four remaining interns (Josh, Megan, Rachel, and I) are all sad that Travis and Matt left and are missing them already.  As I said in a previous post, though, there's a lot of transition around here.  One staff family just left and another one just arrived (with four kids) to start their two-year committment.  And tomorrow our two summer interns, Matt and Kait, get here!  None of us can believe we've already been in Uganda for four months!  Matt and Kait will be here for two months and then leave with Josh and Rachel in mid-July.  (Megan and I are staying here for the fall term.)  We're all praying for safe and successful travel, considering the British strikes and the volcano! 

Ooh, and my ATM card and new camera get here tomorrow, too!  I can finally pay back all the money I've been borrowing for the past month!  And my camera with a nice zoom lense will arrive just in time for my project trip at the end of the month.

We've also been spending a lot of time over the last week or so designing an intern shirt (based on an inside joke generated by the guys deciding to grow mustaches back in March) and a mix CD of everyone's top five favorite songs (all legally-owned, of course).  Unfortunately, we didn't get the CD or tshirt finished in time for Travis or Matt to leave, but we'll mail it to them soon.

Today we realized that all this transition has made it feel like summer break or something, where a lot of people are leaving, but a few are staying for summer classes.  Also, our last week or two has been slower than usual because we are mostly in between projects, but that will all pick up on Wednesday when we start Orientation for the new interns.  Then one group is leaving Sunday for a project trip in Tanzania, and my project trip will be in Kampala in mid-June.  But in the meantime I'm also joining a Colorado-based project trip in Kenya on May 28.  Busy, busy.

Rats

Last night my roommates trapped a rat that had been in our apartment, and six of us were trying to decide how to kill it, when it escaped and the guard killed it with a machete!  Today, another guard killed its seven babies that were living in our director's office closet.  Ah, Africa.  Actually, that part reminded me a lot of my college dorm....

Gomesi Photos!

Helping Rachel put on her gomesi (all the extra fabric gets gathered up on the side and then held in place by a giant belt):

 

All the interns in our gomesi (me, Rachel, Megan) and kanzus (Matt, Travis, Josh):

The girls in our matching fabric:

Sipi Falls Weekend

I can’t believe I’ve been here almost four months already.  At our three-month/half-way mark, the six of us interns all went to Sipi Falls for an Intern Weekend.  Sipi Falls is a popular tourist destination, but of the more backpacker/hiker variety.  It’s right next to Kapchorwa in eastern Uganda, where I spent three weeks back in February.  It’s beautiful and super-green up there on the side of Mt. Elgon.  Sipi Falls itself is a series of four falls that make their way down from the top of the mountain.  We spent the first night a “Crow’s Nest,” a bare-bones backpackers site. We stayed in two “dorm rooms” (two bunk beds and a concrete floor) without any electricity.  But they had an amazing view of the lower falls across the valley.  We had a really awesome time (sitting outside in the dark around gas lanterns) of sharing how our three months had been and praying for each other.

The next day we walked down the road to the relatively-luxurious Sipi River Lodge (although that didn’t have electricity either).  They were located right next to one of the middle falls and along Sipi River.  The six of us stayed in a cute two-room cottage, complete with indoor plumbing!  The lodge served an amazing dinner and breakfast, and just being surrounded by tropical green and a waterfall felt so rejuvenating. Although I’m reluctant to live too much like a tourist with money to burn, I am realizing that some “pampering” now and then (like a good meal or a weekend getaway) really can help keep you going in a place that can be unfamiliar and sometimes stressful.

We walked to a cave behind the nearby falls and then the rest of the group hiked up to the top falls while I stayed behind and had a restful quiet time.  Later a few of us went on a coffee tour, where we learned how they planted and cared for coffee plants and then harvested and roasted them.  We got to walk through the whole process and even take home our own bag of roasted beans (which I gave away since I don’t like coffee).  But it was neat to see the whole process; it was somewhat like the cocoa process, which I learned about from Theo Chocolate in Seattle.

Even though Sipi was six hours away, and the transportation to and from was slightly stressful, spending the weekend surrounded by green nature was a wonderful refreshment and also a great time of fellowship for all the interns!

Big News

The big news is that I will be staying in Uganda through December (instead of returning home in July)!  I have decided to stay on for the "fall semester."  I have really enjoyed being here.  There are certainly hard and frustrating times, just like anywhere, but something about being here in Uganda just feels "right."  I've been waiting to move to Africa for six years, and now that I'm here, I know it's exactly where God wants me to be, at least for now.  I think it definitely helps that I did "the US non-profit thing" for four years.  I absolutely loved it, I loved my position and my organization and co-workers, yet I never felt completely satisfied because I felt a draw toward being in developing countries.  So, unlike most of the interns here who are recently out of college, I don't need to go back to the US and see what it's like to work there.  I've been there.  Done that.  And even though I feel less confident in the technical work that I'm doing here (still trying to learn how to be an engineer), I still feel more satisfied here.  I know it's not just a "feeling" created by being here.  I know this is the direction in which God has been molding my passions and heart desires.  (For example, one of our other interns has also always wanted to come work in Africa, and after being here, she knows that she DOESN'T need to be here, as she feels drawn to continue this type of work from the US.) 

I still have no idea what my future holds, but I'm glad be here for 11 months.  It will also give me more experience in civil engineering in developing countries, as I still feel like I'm just getting my feet wet (especially since I had an a-typical eMi project experience this semester).  Megan will also be staying for the fall, although she'll be doing construction management in Jinja, about 2 hours away.  And Rachel has decided to serve with eMi in the fall, but in the Colorado Springs office.  I'm also hoping that these extra few months will give me more of a chance to explore other non-profits in the area, and continue to seek God about what to do in 2011 and beyond!  It will also give me more of a feel for what it's really like to be at eMi and in Kampala, since much of my "community" that I've had these last several months will be gone, as a new set of interns and housemates will be here in the fall.

In other news, two of our interns and two of our staff families have just left/will be leaving in May, and we have a new staff family that just arrived, and two new interns that will be joining us for the summer, so lots of changeover around here!  We're all sad about the folks who are leaving, but I guess that's the way of life.  Hopefully I'll get to see some of them again at some point in the states.  The six interns really have become a family and have gone through so many life-changing experiences together, so I'm sure we'll always be able to keep in touch in some manner.

This week, I went on a short 2-day "project trip" to an organization in Jinja (Good Shepherd's Fold), which houses 90 orphans and has a primary school, a church, and a small clinic.  The organization was really cool, and the setting was absolutely beautiful!  We're helping design a few new buildings for them (a new larger clinic, a staff house, and a children's duplex), and I got to experience the typical work that the civil engineers do on an eMi trip: the perc test!  We dug a 9-ft deep hole (don't worry, it was only 3 inches wide), then filled it with water, and waited to see how fast the water was absorbed in to the soil.  This will help us calculate how to design the septic system for each of these buildings.  (Yep, the architects get to design cool-looking buildings, while the civil engineers get to figure out how to dispose of the waste!)  =)  This is the project that Megan will be construction-managing in the fall, so it's exciting to know that our designs will actually get built, and soon!  (Sometimes you have to wait for several years while an organization raises money then gets around to building a building before you can see the product of what you worked on.)

Rafting the Nile

And now I still need to write about my Sipi Falls weekend, which was beautiful and relaxing!

But I don't want that to stop me from posting, so I wanted to quickly say that I went white water rafting on the Nile this weekend!!  The source of the White Nile is in Jinja, Uganda (comes from Lake Victoria), which is only a couple hours away from where we live.  I was rather apprehensive about going, but was willing to join my fellow interns, and I'm really glad that I did.  I had a really fun time, and never quite thought I was going to die, even when I was sucked under the rapids and tossed around for a while before coming up grasping for air (several times).  That was actually all a "normal" part of the experience, and I definitely enjoyed myself.  The Nile itself was also extremely beautiful, as we were surrounded by green trees and bushes and all sorts of birds.  I'll post some pictures soon!