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!
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
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. =)
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. =)
Thursday, August 12, 2010
"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.
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.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
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!
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!
Friday, July 23, 2010
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!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Final weeks of the term
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.
The interns are the little specs on the grassy hillside to the left of the top of the falls:
"What'd you do for the 4th?" "Oh, I jumped off a 300-foot cliff...."
(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!
Friday, July 2, 2010
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....)
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