My Bags are Packed and I'm Ready to Go

My four 50-lb suitcases (weighed and re-weighed) are packed, and I'm putting all the last-minute items into my one carry-on suitcase.  (I'm allowing my mom to take one carry-on for herself.)  =D 

We were supposed to have a big snow storm in Seattle today, but at my house, the half inch of snow that fell last night has now melted.  We'll see if we get any more tonight (originally 2-6 inches was predicted), but it looks like we should be able to take off okay at 1pm tomorrow (Thursday).  We have a 10-hour flight to Europe and then an 8-hour flight to Uganda, arriving Friday night.

I'm looking forward to getting back there and seeing everyone and starting my new life, but in some ways I still can't believe I'm embarking on this 2+ year adventure (even though I've lived there for a year already).  I think it will probably be pretty different being on staff and living in my own apartment, than being an intern who lived as a part of an inseparable group of interns.  Also, I know I'll miss my family and pets and being surrounded by the familiar.  =)

"I'm leaving on a jet plane!"

Heading Back

I plan to start blogging again now that I'm heading back to Uganda.  I've been at home for two months enjoying spending time with family and friends.  I've enjoyed indulging in things that are hard to find in Uganda, like berries, grapes, Washington apples, cheese, ice cream, TV dinners, cheap cereal, cool weather, snow, TV, and fast internet.

While in the US (I'm based in Seattle), I traveled to Colorado to visit and interview at EMI's headquarters, and I also got to see several EMI friends while I was there.  I spent a weekend with some EMI friends (the Bergs) in Oregon, and I spent over a week in snow-laden Boston, where I got to see many of my college and post-college friends.  Besides traveling, I've been spending my time keeping in touch with people, fundraising, preparing to go back (shopping/packing), and working on a presentation that summarizes my time in Uganda thus far.  Oh, and I also got a haircut...shortest it's been since I was 2!  =)

Snowshoeing in Boston with Friends!

I will be heading back to Uganda on February 24th to serve as EMI East Africa's Office Manager.  I am excited to be heading back and am looking forward to what the next 2+ years in Uganda will bring!

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.