More Reflections on the Gulu Project Trip

Exploring the Site [photo: Tim]

To pick up where I left off, after our group visit to the 400+ acres of land on Tuesday (March 8), everyone spent the rest of the week working back at the guest house with their calculators, sketch pads, and laptops.  Only a few people ventured out to the site occasionally to collect information.  I didn’t mind staying back, though, because it was pretty hot the whole week, and at least the guest house had shade and fans (well, when we had electricity).  [Thank you to everyone who prayed for me in dealing with the heat.  Even though I was hot and sweaty most of the time, it didn’t ever get to the point where I felt sick or irritable, which is an answer to prayer!]  We had a whole section of the guest house to ourselves, which was great, because we basically took over!  We had 4 sleeping rooms surrounding a big living room area, where the architects spread out on a big dining table, and the engineers spread out around a circle of couches.

Engineers Hard at Work [photo: Kirk]

Testing Water at a Spring [Andrew]

I spent the first part of the week working with the water/wastewater team, since that’s what I’m most familiar with, and also somewhat helping John (the team leader) to coordinate/identify the numerous tasks to be done.  I was put in charge of coordinating the presentation, which is what I spent much of the end of the week doing.  I drew little diagrams in PPT and talked with the various teams (architects, structural engineers, civil engineers, agriculture, and livestock) to identify what was needed for their part of the presentation.

Architects (and Engineers) Hard at Work [Terry]

One day, about half of us (those who weren’t out at the site) walked into town for lunch.  I think it was about a half hour walk, and it was really dusty, hot, and sunny, so we were all grateful for the semi-air-conditioned western-style café.  On the way back, we took a “short cut,” which ended up taking about 2 hours!  One of the guys had GPS on his iPhone, so he knew which way the guest house was, but we kept trying these small side streets, which would end up turning or taking us into someone’s yard.  I think we crossed over some train tracks 2 or 3 times….

Traditional Brick Huts [Chad]

While it was long and hot and exhausting, it was a pretty neat experience because we basically ended up walking around residential “neighborhoods” most of the time.  It was interesting because we were on the outskirts of a major city, but it looked just like “the village” (although more concentrated), since most people were living in small round brick huts with thatched roofs.  I later found out that this unusual settling pattern was a result of the history of the area.  Families moved near the city (often into relatives’ yards) to gain protection from the LRA, so they set up simple “temporary” housing resembling their own houses out in the villages.  25 years later they are still living in these “huts”, many of which have been improved and added onto along the way.

Discussing a Sketch of the Site Master Plan [Kirk]

On this trip, EMI was uniquely partnered with an architecture firm from Australia, which has already been working with Watoto to create a masterplan for the development of Gulu town.  It’s exciting to see that a church/ministry is getting involved in caring for the improvement and restoration of an entire city and region.  Often ministries are only set up to help those “within their gates,” which can be of great benefit to those in the program, but I was excited to see this “bigger picture” approach, especially for a war-torn region that has needs at every level of its society.  The agricultural and technical college is a part of that bigger vision for raising up citizens to have skills that they can use to further develop their own communities.  Also, because of Watoto’s and the architecture firm’s connections, the incoming mayor of Gulu attended our presentation at the end of the week.  We think it was a great opportunity for the new mayor to understand Watoto’s vision for the college and also their overall desire to work with the government to help improve the region.

Nearby Church Under Construction [Andrew]

One of the cool things that happened on the trip involved structural engineering.  (Don’t roll your eyes yet.)  Our structural engineer and architects ended up having a really long conversation one night to try to figure out how to make these buildings both seismically safe and buildable.  (Watoto often has teams of volunteers come and build parts of their buildings, and we wanted to create a design that would allow that model to continue.)  Gulu is in a region that is more seismically active than Kampala, so it was great that we had a structural engineer on our team who works for a firm that specializes in seismic design.  The team finally came up with some pretty creative (and cool-looking) building designs, but we were a little worried about selling the ideas as well as the importance of designing for earthquakes.  (It is of course hard to want to spend money to prevent something that doesn’t happen very often – just like car insurance!)  We thought we were going to have to convince our audience that an earthquake really could happen in Gulu.  But the amazing thing was that ON THE MORNING of our final presentation, the entire region was woken up at 6:20am by a 5.0 earthquake!  How amazing is that!  It wasn’t big enough to cause damage, fortunately, but just big enough for everyone to feel it and to be reminded that Gulu is located in a seismically-active zone.  God has great timing (and a sense of humor)!  Who knows, maybe that one earthquake will cause buildings to be built better and save lives in the future!

Me, Tony, Chad, Andrew, Angus, and K2 on a Rock in the Middle of the Nile (really) [Kirk]

I had a wonderful week and a half, and found that it was just what I needed as I was transitioning back into living in Uganda and working with EMI.  I was worried that I would find it too exhausting or overwhelming to go straight from moving to Uganda and spending a week setting up my apartment to leaving again for a busy project trip, but instead it left me feeling energized and excited for the road ahead.  Thank you again for all your prayers in that regard.  I feel like God knew exactly what I needed, even though it didn’t necessarily seem to make sense.  The camaraderie and positivity of the team and the fun times we had together were life-giving, and the project itself was a great reminder about the difference that EMI is making in partnering with ministries that are doing great work here in East Africa.

Some more pictures of the trip (courtesy of my teammates):

Playing Games at the Watoto Children's Village [Kirk]

John Challenging the Little Ones to a Match [Terry]

My New Friend at the Watoto Babies' Home [Kirk]

Meal Time! [Chad]

Some Nighttime Visitors at our Safari Camp [Andrew]

Hartebeest [Tim]

Us and the Lions, No Camera Tricks (aka Does Angus look like Lunch?) [Kirk]

Riding in Style along the Banks of the Nile/Lake Albert [Kirk]

Having Fun in the Safari Van [Kirk]

Hope for Gulu

The project trip was a great week and a half, a lot of which was due to having a great team of people.  Everyone got along and worked well together and generally had fun spending time together.

Our Team (Minus 1) on Safari

After arriving in Gulu on the evening of Monday the 7^th, we kicked off our week on Tuesday morning by visiting the land we would be working with.  It was almost an hour drive outside of Gulu town on bumpy dirt roads.  Other than a few mud huts, nothing is currently on the land.  Fortunately Dan and another volunteer had gone up before the trip to survey the 400+ acre property, which was a HUGE help.  The land was pretty flat with some grass and underbrush and some scattered trees.  

Tromping Through the Site (photo by Kirk)

One thing that we saw a lot in the area was burned fields.  Locals set fires to their fields to clear out weeds and old vegetation and make room for new crops.  As we walked around the site, our clothes became covered in streaks of charcoal from all the reeds and twigs we passed through.  Over and over as we saw these burned fields, we also noticed the bright green new growth of grass making its way out of the blackness. 

New Growth (photo by Kirk)

 
This image really struck me and became a metaphor to me of the people of northern Uganda.  The people of this region have experienced such horrendous, evil things (see my previous post).  But we sang a song at the Watoto church on Sunday that includes the lines “Into the darkness you [God] shine.  Out of the ashes we rise.”  That became my prayer for Gulu – that in the midst of the pain and hopelessness and despair and trauma, that God’s love and healing and restoration would shine and that the people of Gulu would rise out of the ashes as the bright green grass, so full of life and hope and new growth.  Where there seems to be only death, I pray that God would bring new life to this region.

Project Trip Photos

I didn't take too many pictures this time, because several of the guys had excellent cameras, but here's a few that I took, for your viewing pleasure:

Watoto Babies' Home in Gulu

We visited Watoto's Children's Village and Babies' Home on Sunday during our project trip.  I played some clapping and ring-around-the-rosie-type games with a group of girls at the children's village.  Then we sat down and sang songs and played some games with a salvaged piece of string.  At the babie's home, I got to play with one of the babies for a little while, who soon occupied himself with chewing on my finger.  =)  Babies are rescued (or sometimes handed over) by Watoto and cared for at this separate site until they are old enough (1 or 2) to be placed in a home with children of all ages at the children's village. 

At the end of the trip (I still promise to write more about the actual project trip later), we all went on a short safari at a nearby game park (the same place where we went after our project trip last September).

Um, yeah. Our van was literally about 10 feet away. Truly amazing!

Some people rode on top of the van for a better view.  And yes, they were there when we were 10 feet from the lions!

Baby giraffes everywhere!

Pretty amazing safari!!

Gulu and the LRA

On Sunday March 6, I dropped off my mom at the airport and then waited to pick up some of the volunteers who flew in for our project trip.  We had a team of 13, including John (our office director), myself, 3 interns (Dan, who was an intern with me last term, plus Tim and “K2”), 5 American volunteers, and 3 Australian volunteers.  On Monday, we had our opening meeting with the volunteers, met with the Watoto leadership downtown, had a fancy Ugandan lunch, and then headed out on a 5-hour bus ride to Gulu.  We stayed at the Watoto Guest House in Gulu the whole time, which was pretty nice, complete with a bathroom in each room and fans!  Since I was the only female on the trip, I got my own room and bathroom to myself.  =)

Here's some information about what our project was all about:

Watoto Childcare Ministries was formed to help the thousands of orphans and widows in Uganda, many of whom are the result of AIDS victims.  As I explained in earlier posts, they have a few “children’s villages” around Uganda, where hundreds of orphans are placed in group homes, with up to 8 children to a mother.  The idea is that “it takes a village to raise a child,” not an orphanage.  (Watoto is starting a new village soon in Cape Town, South Africa, and churches and ministries from around the world are visiting Watoto to learn from their model of care.)  Watoto (Swahili for “children”) values the idea of community, and wants these children to have every opportunity possible, including growing up in a loving home environment.  (The house mothers are also a focus of Watoto, and many are AIDS widows themselves.) Watoto's current tag line is “Rescue. Raise. Rebuild.” communicating their goal of not just raising up youth but of empowering future leaders who can help rebuild their own country.  Some of you may have heard of the Watoto Children's Choir, which is made up of children from their villages.

Gulu, one of the main cities in northern Uganda, was the hub of the LRA’s activities.  The LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) is a rebel group that committed terrible, horrible acts against their own people, the Acholi tribe, since 1987, and is/was one of the longest-running conflicts in Africa.  They were originally formed to resist the Ugandan government’s oppression of their people after a change of power, but eventually turned to torture their own people as payback or insurance against being turned in to the government.  This is one of the places that is famous for the child soldiers who are taken from their village and forced to kill people.  The LRA finally left Uganda only a few years ago (but is still violently active in the Democratic Republic of Congo next door), so now various efforts are focusing on how the people in the area, all of whom were affected by these atrocities, can experience healing, rehabilitation, restoration, and growth. 

Watoto has been conducting a trauma rehabilitation program (somewhat like group counseling) in dozens of IDP (internally-displaced people) camps that were set up to protect residents during the fighting.  Families lived in these IDP camps for 26 years and now are returning to their land, but they are realizing that they lack both practical training and an older population to glean that information from.  That’s where we came in.  Our project was to design an agricultural and technical college, which will help provide people in the area with practical skills that they can use on their own farms or to get jobs to support their families.  It will be more than a vocational school.  It will offer college degrees in agriculture, livestock, farm management, farm mechanics, etc.  Not only will it provide a place for Watoto children to go to school, but the intention is to provide skills and hope to the entire Gulu region.  We were given an odd-shaped plot of land (435 acres, I think) and tasked with designing a college campus for 400 students plus 100 staff, including land for crops and livestock that will serve not only as a training ground but also as a food source to feed the college’s 500 residents (plus additional food, if possible, to feed those at Watoto’s Gulu children’s village or to sell on the market as an income-generator).

More on the actual project trip soon....

Thief Magnet

(This post was actually written on Saturday)

I got back from Gulu on Wednesday night, spent Thursday with our volunteers, then took the day off Friday, but more on Gulu soon.

Right now I just wanted to comment that my purse was stolen last night.  FORTUNATELY, praise God, it was returned!  I went with some of the interns to a worship night where the African Children’s Choir was supposed to perform.  (Side note: EMI designed and oversaw the construction of their new school and dorms in Entebbe!)  We showed up half an hour late and saw 6 different acts, but no children, so we assumed they had performed first.  Oh well, we still had a good time.  We saw several Ugandan singers and groups and a worship band from Texas .  It was a fun night of watching performances and singing worship songs, but I think my favorite part was when a popular Ugandan worship leader got up and everyone started jumping up and down and waving around their handkerchiefs to the songs.  It kind of showcased the equally good but different worship styles of contemporary worship from the US and from Uganda. 

At almost the end of the night, we noticed some guys kind of making a disturbance in front of us and I looked down and realized my purse was gone.  Someone at the door had somehow stopped the guy who took my purse and I think made him come back and show them where he had taken it from.  I am SO SO thankful that I got it back this time!  (For those of you who are new to my adventures, so far I’ve had the following stolen in Uganda/Kenya: purse [complete with phone, camera, & ATM card], phone again [pick-pocketed out of my purse], and Merrell shoes [taken off the porch of an apartment].  GOOD GRIEF, what is it with me???)  This time, not only did my purse contain the only copy of my apartment door key, it also had some important property belonging to someone else.  I even purposefully put it in front of me instead of behind me on the seat (we were standing most of the time) so that I could keep an eye on it.  I’m so annoyed with myself.  Well, I guess it will make me more cautious next time.  Thank you JESUS, that it was returned this time!  The guy who took it didn’t take anything out of it, and the security people at the event told me they were going to take him to the police afterward.  Ah, another night in Uganda.

Well, now that that drama’s over with, I’m spending most of the day indoor baking.  It’s a wonderfully cool day (low 70s), and I’m enjoying the breeze that my 3rd-floor apartment provides.  (We're solidly into rainy season now, with a downpour or at least shower each day.)  I’m having the 6 interns over for dinner tonight, so that they can finally see where I live.  I utilized my American brown sugar (very different in Uganda) and chocolate chips (non-existent in Uganda) to make some cookies.  YUM!

And speaking of apartment, here are a couple pictures of my new place with my new furniture:

Living Room (looking out to front balcony)

Kitchen/Dining Room (looking out to back balcony, where I installed clotheslines)

New Apartment

My mom and I arrived in Uganda on Friday Feb. 25.  We've spent the last week setting up my new apartment.  We went shopping pretty much every day, to grocery stores, hardware stores, and home supply stores.  We also spent a few hours in the furniture section of town walking up and down the road and ordering a guest bed, dining table and chairs, a couch and chair set, bookshelves, and a dresser.  The furniture pick-ups required at least 6 trips down to "furniture row," since things weren't always quite ready when we thought they would be.  We installed light bulbs the first day (light bulbs don't necessarily come with an apartment, but I was lucky to have been left with 3).  We hung mosquito nets over our beds...a couple times.  The first net I had was treated with a bug-killing chemical, and I woke up every morning with burning eyes.  It was also a little small.  So we went back to the store to get a larger one, and when we opened the package found out that it wasn't as big as advertised.  But my mom used some of the first net to fashion a doorway into the new net, so now it works great!  We've had a couple handy men over to drill holes in the ceiling for hanging the nets, and to install wood poles for clotheslines on my back veranda.  The plumber was also here at least 4 times to try to stop the leaking and giant puddles in my bathroom.  The leaking has finally stopped, but now I'm also hoping to find a way to have a hot shower.  (I can get hot water in the tub, and a cold shower, but I currently don't get enough water pressure for a hot shower.)  I also spent hours just unpacking all my stuff and figuring out where to put it all.  It was an exhausting week, but we made it through and I now have a fully-furnished, set-up apartment!

Now that I can rest in my new place on my new couches (just completed this evening), I'm leaving for a week and a half on an EMI project trip!  Tonight I'm going to the airport to pick up 4 of our volunteers and drop off my mom for her flight home.  Tomorrow morning I leave for Gulu, a city about 5 hours north of Kampala.  We will be designing an agricultural vocational training college and farm, which will benefit a community that was devastated by rebel fighting.  We are working with Watoto Children's Ministries, which also runs the Childrens' Village that I wrote about before (remember the wastewater sampling?)  I'll write more about the project when I return.  It's supposed to be in the 90s in Gulu, so I hope I survive!  (I have a hard enough time with the 80s in Kampala, although today it's been cool in the 70s!)

I'm glad to be back in Uganda and feel like I'm already back into the swing of things here.  I'm looking forward to getting settled into a normal pace of life once I get back, and figuring out what it looks like to be here as a long-term staff and not as a short-term intern.