Rob - Working in Uganda!

Kitgum

2007-06-30T14:10:00.000+03:00

Because the Kabale project was of a much smaller scope, and I had plenty of holiday hours up my sleeve, I was able to go to Kitgum for a week. Marianne had told me about it because she was going, but I didn't know what my work commitments would be like.

So I travelled up to Mbale on a Monday, arriving fairly late. I don't think the bus broke down, just heavy traffic in the city. Charlie (another eMi guy) came up also, and arrived half an hour after me. We stayed the night at Mbale, then traveled to Gulu the following day, quite a long bus trip. We stayed at Gulu that night before heading to Kitgum.

Gulu is a strange town because it has a lot of drifters from the war. I don't really like the atmosphere, but its hard to describe in print. For those of you who have seen the movie "invisible children", there are no night commuters currently as the LRA have been a lot quieter, but I waited for a while in the bus shelter featured in the film.

Kitgum reminded me of the Mallee in western victoria. A hot and fairly dry heat. It had more development than I thought, and a larger population.

We ran a program in several highschools concerning HIV/AIDS awareness, and sexual purity / faithfulness under the title "True love waits". The Ugandan man heading the program is from Kampala Baptist Church, but wants to be based in Gulu to do ministry for the next 5 years or so. The programs went well and the kids were allowed time to write anonymous questions, which flooded in.

The average age to start having sex can be around 10 years old, and the infection rates are quite high. We had spiritual questions, science questions and general advice. It was great to be able to discuss the topic, raising awareness and answering the kids questions
(photo below - collecting questions at one of the schools.)

I also preached at a church within the IDP camp. I didn't have much solid preparation time, and had Malaria and a stomach infection so wasn't feeling as clear as I could have been and didn't say everything I planned to say. I trust it was valuable for the people though with God's power at work. (below - the packed out church in the IDP camp)

The IDP camp we visited was saddening to see. Poor sanitation, poverty, unemployment, cramped living conditions and very limited medical and education systems.

I saw little kids going to the toilet on rubbish heaps, with obvious evidence of poor nutrition.
There are very few ways to generate income (just selling some mangoes and charcoal etc), and many children don't get primary education, while even fewer attend secondary level. The World Food Program supplies a lot of basic food, but it would be incredibly hard to live there.

While confronting to realise no one should live like that, it is hard to know how to be a long term blessing. These camps have been running for 20 years, such a devastating situation for economy, family, culture and society.

The following two pics:
1) me spending time with local kids. They were following me so I went to spend time with them. They couldn't speak english but I was clapping with them with various rythyms. They later called out in Acholi to come and clap some more, so I did some brief clapping for them and they all laughed.
2) Marianne and I, with the 5 Acholi children we have adopted from the camp.

In case you are now expecting me to return with 5 kids, they're not really mine, but it makes for good blog reading.

Marianne had heard of an Australian lady in Kitgum who had started an orphanage quite a while back. So we asked around and the ministry was quite well known, considering there was a primary school for ~3500 and a vocational school for ~1000.
She began by teaching under a tree and teaching songs to about 50 kids, but it has grown a lot since. The sponsorship mainly comes through Australia. They also feed the children breakfast and lunch, and there are a lot of mouths as shown in the following picture.

You could well ask how to feed 3500 children... the answer is: with posho and beans!

The above is of me stirring the posho (~stiff porridge made from maize flower.)

And of course you need a lot of beans!! I marked these images because they have had some trouble with exploitation of their work.

They really do an amazing job, its fantastic to see funding going to a good place, when there is so much corruption is some of the aid organizations / NGO's here, even the well known ones.
If you want to see their website or contribute to their work, visit
www.cks.org.au

So it was a great trip, I was glad I had the time to go, and it was great to spend time with Maz too, especially as we won't see each other for July.

back from Kabale, off to Kitgum.

2007-06-11T07:52:00.001+03:00

For the next week,
I'm going up to Kitgum, its about 20-30km from the Sudanese border, up in the north where the war with the LRA rebels has been ongoing. We are visiting high schools to conduct HIV/AIDS awareness sessions and to talk about purity and faithfulness. We will be visiting some IDP camps hopefully and encouraging church leaders too. Charlie, an intern who has been in the office for a few weeks now (one of the 'summer' interns), is coming with me also. Today I will travel to Mbale, then travel with Marianne tomorrow to Gulu, then Kitgum. You can be praying for a fruitful time with the youth up there. The Ugandan man who is leading the trip is named Chris. He seems like a top guy, Marianne knows him a lot better than me!

BACKTRACKING:
The Kabale project trip: Revival Tabernacle Ministries.

We went to Kabale for a week to do a short project. The ministry is revival tabernacle ministries, a growing pentecostal church in a slummy area of Kabale known as Bugongi.

Bugongi has traditionally had lots of drunkenness, theft, prostitution and child mothers / young children with little provisions or care.

The church currently has 200 people in its main congregation in Bugongi, and has planted 25 other churches in the surrounding 20 kilometers. (Usually here when it becomes too far to walk to a church, another one springs up.)

We were designing a bigger church building for them for their main congregation, as their existing structure was very temporary and already being outgrown. We also designed some classrooms and offices as they want to make their headquarters at the site.

At some point in the future they want to also build a school and orphanages.

I took plenty of photos, so here we go!! (the first photo being a picture from the bus coming into Kabale.)

This was our team with a few people from the church, standing at the existing church entrance. Because it was a small project, there weren't many volunteers from abroad. Mainly interns. Out team from left, Megan (architect), Jean (civil), Me (civil), Chad (civil) and Melody and Lewis (both architect.)

As per usual, there were many children who were interested in us. This shot shows me with them. They are excited because I was taking shots and showing them their photo. Many of them are from young child mothers and can't afford to go to school at all.

This is the senior pastor, Pastor Johnston. Its funny to me, because while he looks like a cool dude, his clothing and motorbike are the norm rather than exception. Most African pastors wear suits and the motorbike is a boda that belongs to the church, a very common way of getting places here in Uganda! He was really friendly, passionate about reaching the lost in Bugongi and a compassionate man who has adopted 8 orphans from Bugongi to live with his family.

Part of my work was to conduct percolation tests of the soil, to establish drainage rates for design of septic tanks and soak pits. We have a hand auger so I dug a few 11 feet holes. We then saturate them and test the absoption rates. This is shown above as Jean measures the depth to the water while Chad is recording the data.

This is the local river where we filled jerrycans for the percolation tests. We took almost 1000L. I didn't count the trips but there were a lot!! Needless to say the water quality tests from here came out septic!

Another job was to survey the site and transfer it to AutoCAD so that the architects could begin to do their work with the buildings. In the above photo, the guy on the right was helping me measure distances for the survey. He couldn't speak any english but was very helpful. I thought it was a really cute photo that Jean took of them.

So a few more odds and ends!!

They fed us very well, some of the nicest meals I've had in Uganda! A couple of ladies from the church were cooking for us, and we were staying in a house that the church had managed to get for our use.

During the saturday, 3 of us took time out to go and watch Nigeria VS Uganda in an African Cup soccer match. Uganda won, which resulted in much cheering and dancing. This photo is of all the people crowded in to watch a small television in the corner of the room.

Some animals to wrap up the photos. When we went to an island on Lake Bunyoni for a day after the project trip, this is a crested crane, the national bird symbol. Before I left, Alison from my church had the national symbols at my "sending service", so here it is in the flesh.

When we returned from the island, this little baby goat was near the landing dock. It had just been born the night before. Never one to resist taking photos of something really cute, I seized the opportunity.

These little piglets (and the mother) belonged to Joseph, an orphan who has been adopted by Pastor Johnston. He is now ~18, and uses these pigs to provide his school fees. He wanted to show me his pig, so we went and saw it, just living in the middle of a swamp. It went roaming before giving birth, so it was quite a while before he found it again.

This final shot is another scenery one, but has a small story. It is taken from the backyard of a house the church rents. 18 orphans from Bugongi live at the house with some carers, they call it a "house of hope". I visited there with Chad to give them advice on the location of a new rubbish pit and compost system.

Lake Bunyoni

2007-06-09T21:21:00.000+03:00

This has officially taken the top of my list for most beautiful scenery in Uganda.

After the recent project trip in Kabale, we took a full day (two nights stay) at Byoona Amagara, an island among many on the lake. At around $10 a night it was amazing, and 100% of their proceeds and more go toward the islanders, so it was great to have such a beautiful spot that also invests directly in the locals.

The above photo is the view from the toilet. It was a pit latrine with a seat on it but the door wouldn't stay closed, so this is the view I had to put up with while performing my digestive duties.

This is the dining area. They served really delicious food, the most expensive of which was around 6500/= or $4. (crayfish masala.)

These photos above and below are of children going to school. In the above photo, a girl rowing to school in a dugout canoe. In the below shots, larger dugouts taking multiple children to school. The large dugouts were really impressive as a single piece of timber from very large trees.

It was a relaxing day. Marianne joined our trip toward the end of the project and stayed for the time at Lake Bunyoni so we were able to spend some time together. It would have been nice to be longer though, as the preceeding weeks were quite draining with the high workload, so I'm still quite weary from that and needing some refreshment time.

Some Pictures

2007-06-09T07:32:00.000+03:00

I've got my camera back now so I thought I would throw up some pictures of the previous month when I went to Mbale. The first 'snap' (the word for photo here) is of myself eating grasshoppers in maz's family kitchen.

The next 2 photos is of a roadside market at Mbale, these markets are everywhere, usually selling basic foods and sometimes clothes or other basic goods, such as charcoal etc.

Marianne and I had talked about visiting Sipi Falls (3 Waterfalls close to each other) together. So we travelled up the mountain with her Ugandan family. The next shot is a scenery shot on the way up there, where we stopped to buy some matoke from the roadside.

Near the local township there is a small lookout hill which we climbed to take the following 3 shots, Maz and I, Sipi number 1 and an amazing school on the mountain top. If you took a profile of the different schools that are all over Uganda there is an incredibly diverse range of locations, quality and so on.

We only visited one of the falls, the smallest one, which is Sipi 2. It is 68 meters in height. The next photo is of Maz and some Ugandan family crossing the bridge on the way to the waterfall.

This photo is looking out from the cave behind the waterfall. It has been used for salt mining and also for cattle (that lick the mineral salts.)

That will do for the Mbale photos. well maybe just 2 panoramas, one from the lookout at Sipi, and one of Mount Wanali. (click to see bigger photos of these ones.)

May already??

2007-05-18T21:00:00.000+03:00

Time for a little update, trying to stratch my head and remember what I've been up to.

Weather wise, it has been very much the rainy season still... some parts of Uganda get 400-500mm rain just in April-May. So this morning was a good example. The first rain drops started falling, each one covering 5cm of ground and within 2 minutes the ground was covered with flowing water. Sure enough, it was soon gone and sunshine returned. The weather has been a little overcast and cooler and behaving a bit unusual according to some Ugandans. Still haven't been cole enough to want a jumper of any sort, not even close. Still sleeping on top of the bed with no sheet over me most nights.

Its been hard to find time to post here as I've either been away on weekends or working/busy. I visited Maz for her 21st birthday (May 8th) and got four days off to stay in Mbale, that was great to see Maz and have a chance for some conversation. Long distance relationship is quite challenging in many ways, I think most people would testify to that, but it makes your relationship stronger in some ways also.
I did leave my camera with her, so there will be no photos for a while til I catch up with her next (probably in June sometime.)

I would like to post photos of Sipi Falls (but can't obviously). We went there with Maz's Ugandan family, and they were really beautiful. The view from the mountain is magnificent looking over a vast amount of land and there are three waterfalls... I could be wrong but I think 90, 75 and 68 meters high. There is also a 9 meter deep natural swimming pool which we didn't get time to see. We went up there a little late, so didn't have heaps of time, but it was well worth it. One place charged us 75c each to go on to their land because we are Whites.

There were some caves / openings behind the falls that you could walk behind the water. We only saw the smallest fall up close.

The only downer was the travel time, about 8-9 hours each direction for ~300 km. The buses both broke down, there were random driver changes and the police fined us. At one point on the way home, I was getting ready to sleep the night on the broken down bus, as it was stopped for maybe 30 minutes and they were loudly hitting the engine with a hammer. The Ugandan next to me went to sleep using me as a pillow, so I couldn't even stretch my legs.

So I ended up going to do some prison work also, which was quite moving. I went to the youth remand home where 108 'criminals' are held. Some are there for getting caught kissing a girlfriend, some are there for stealing 5 million shillings (3500AUD). Sometimes the police will take them to jail without even informing their parents. Some of them wanted us to phone their parents to say where they were.
I went with a bunch of students form Makeree University and another man who I had met previously (and loved) called Eric, a Kenyan. I didn't know he would be on the trip so it was quite a nice surprise. We basically sang some songs, and handed out bananas (bagoya) and bread buns which the kids liked. The conditions there aren't very nice, but they teach them some studies while they are there which is good. I had some great chats with a few of the guys. They were really interested to hear some truth from the bible, especially one muslim guy, who was interested in hearing the claims that Jesus made about himself. Since they have to be either truth or false, lies or realities.

I enjoyed hanging with some peers too. My focus coming over here was to try to develope several friendships more deeply as opposed to getting to know many people at a more shallow depth. But it was still nice to catch up with some guys and girls and spend time finding out about them. Its hard culturally to have good gender balance in friendships here, AKA I've spent my time getting to know guys, but it was nice chatting to some sisters too for a change. The uni students seemed pretty keen in their faith and it reminded me of university work back in Australia in some points.

I'm trying to remember if I posted about Mukono. If I did you can compare the two and spot the difference as it is less fresh now.
A ministry up there is known as Reach One Touch One Ministries (ROTOM). It reaches out as a service to the elderly. Started by a Ugandan guy only a few years ago, it now involves 276 elderly folk and the 100 orphans under their care. Kenneth is the founder. He had got to know just one woman, and had gone to the USA to study and had a job there (rare). But he gave up the job and came back to focus on helping the elderly. They get together once per week to do training / life survival / coping with elderly living sessions. They also have some regular bible studies and visitation. They also get meals provided and sometimes help building huts etc if they become homeless.

It is sponsored through the US, Canada and Germany mainly I think, but I loved seeing money going to a great project and being used really well to rapidly expand into the local community. They are really well respected and everyone around can see that they really care for the oldies.

Social welfare is a very different concept here. Traditionally the economy was built for survival here... if you have any money, help someone who is in a worse spot, and they will help you when you are inevitably struggling. With the increase of western thinking, and individualism and capitalism, some of those structures are breaking down and leaving people less cared for. there are no government programs to help (as far as I know) so it is pretty hard for them, as elderly care and services just don't exist almost.

What else is news? Well the Kenya Baptist University project is winding up fast, we will hopefully publish by Wednesday next week, leaving time to complete remaining tasks after publishing with the final date set for May 29.

On May 30, I leave for another project down in the south west of Uganda, in a place called Kabale. That will go for a week and a half, and I will be doing surveying, the water system design and some sections of the report, which will keep me fairly busy until I come back to Oz in July. So you can be praying for that project.

I've also been applying for jobs back in Australia. Thats been going ok, with some phone interviews etc. I'm keeping my options open and if I can't get something lined up I'll focus more determinedly when I get home. If anyone has any good housing opportunities for me, coming up in Melbourne around July, let me know!

I'm currently an illegal immigrant, but only because I'm waiting for immigration to approve my special pass to extend my Visa. They still have my passport which I think is dodgy, but no other way around things. And to think Maz got it for free!! I had to pay $60. (which is the official price).

The peace talks have resumed in Juba a little while ago (regarding the LRA rebels in the north.) Tom is the professor from the US who I have been working on the water system design with. His wife Jill is going up next week sometime to be at the peace talks as someone who will pray, so that is exciting and I hope the peace talks can really make progress. The ICC still has Joseph Kony as the #1 wanted war criminal in the world I think, which is slowing down the talks as he and his commanders know their necks are on the chopping block. One of our guards went back to his village to rebuild, which happened in two weeks. I was so grateful and thankful that he could finally go and build again. The LRA burned down his home and lots of death occured around him (he was even shot at personally and friends running close by didn't make it). Its just a story of new beginnings, even though he lost friends, family, home and buisness.

Its crazy thinking back to my life in the last few years and realise that none of my concerns or stresses are even worth comparing to the struggles some people have had to go through. Sobering thought while you are partying away or chilling out, that somewhere, someone is going through extreme hardship and suffering, beyond our imagination.

So other random tidbits. We have no water, something has broken outside our property. The water we recieve here we boil anyway as stagnation in pipes and pollutants etc as well as the nasty growths in the tanks. When we do water quality tests around the nation it often fails human consumption quality standards.

Our landlord didn't pay his bill so they put a notice on our property that there would be a public auction in 1 month to sell the place. But he paid the bill so that drama was averted.

They also found 2 fully loaded AK-47's buried across the street. (they are fully automatic assault rifles for those who don't know their guns.) The guy made bricks during the day time, but was a black market trader. Rumor has it that the police tortured him quite severely. Just one of those things that doesn't have much impact on daily life, but an interesting story to tell.

I had a mexican party at Steve and Melinda Hoyts too. The food didn't seem too mexican to me, but its harder with limited ingredients. There some salsa's, refried beans, etc. I just made a pineapple, banana and mango fruit salad... Cheap and easy to make over here. :)

Still enjoying soccer, I make it there most weeks, sometimes I miss a few in a row though. Good friendly games.

As you can see, the news is getting shorter, primarily because I'm getting very tired. Benny Hinn (famous for his religious TV show.) is coming to town tomorrow (Saturday). I'm quite skeptical about him, but wouldn't have minded getting along to check him out for myself for free. But a friend is going along and He'll tell me all about it (I'm working instead with the project deadline so close.)

Thanks for reading, watch this space for more pictureless updates!

How does this work???

2007-04-28T20:18:00.000+03:00

Life may not have imparted technological excitement to some of my readers... so...

If you are wondering where a picture or post that you saw previously dissapeared to, or wondering how to navigate around... You can always browse posts from other months by going to the panel on the right of the page and scrolling to the archive of all the posts!!! If you get lost at any time or stuck inside a single post... simply click on the Blog title right at the top to load the home page. I have it displaying 10 posts by default I think.

Thanks for surfing in, and thanks for your support, friendship, encouragement and prayers, whatever part you have played.

I miss my established friends over here sometimes so I'm looking forward to catching up when I return in a few months time.

I really appreciate those who have sent me encouragement and news, sometimes it is exactly what you need in a strange place!!

Other events of April!

2007-04-28T18:48:00.000+03:00

MBALE
I made my second trip up to Mbale. Maz had organised a Joy Party (as seen in the photo) because of the struggles her African family up there having been going through. She had also baked some Easter goodies because she was away in Gulu over Easter. It was great to be up there again, however it was a fairly quick visit with lots of action which made it difficult to get any time together, but we caught up with some people I missed out on round one which was great, and I got to see a bit more of where she had lived for the first while.

I know a bunch of you have been praying for her and the work she is doing, so thanks so much for that on her behalf. I know she really appreciates the prayer support and God's strength and grace. It has been an amazing blessing and priveledge to be able to share our experiences over here, both directly and indirectly by sharing the same cultural experience. I can't thank God enough for that. She has been a great friend over here, and God has really used her to challenge and encourage me many times. Long distance relationship with poor communication infrastructure in country makes it hard at times. I know a bunch of you have also been praying for our relationship, so you can keep praying we will glorify God in all we do, and just continue to experience incredible growth in our love and trust for Him.

This snap is of two of my favorite ladies over here. Obviously Maz is on top of the list by a long way, but Anisha is a little cutie, both Maz and I love to play with her and she is really excited to see us, her adopted 'Muzungu' parents. (she has an African Mum and Dad of her own!)

------------------------
RIOTS.
I realized that I forgot to mention about all the riots here in Kampala. The reason is because an Indian owned sugar company wants to buy part of the Mabira Rainforest and the majority of Ugandans disagree with that. So they had demonstrations which were supposed to be peaceful but unsurprisingly turned nasty. The police/military controlled them using tear gas and bullets on a number of days but there were deaths. One innocent Indian man was grabbed by the mob and stoned to death immediately, while others were severely beaten. The burnt some vehicles and looted Indian stores. We didn't go into town on those days but our director Chad, suffered from tear gas in riots the next week. It seems to be more peaceful now, but its hard to tell when things will flare up. Riot control over here is certainly less gentle than in Australia, they don't even hesitate to give someone a thrashing. You can continue to pray for safety and stability here in the Capital and for the peace talks with the Rebels in the North that have recently resumed after a few months break.

Kangulumira

2007-04-28T18:18:00.000+03:00

I love getting out of Kampala when I can, in a very similar fashion to how I love getting out of Melbourne to hit the countryside for a break.
Kangulumira is a village that is 45 minutes north west of Jinja (where the mouth of the Nile River is, and also Uganda's second largest population centre.)
This first picture is a discreet hip-snap looking at maybe 100 kids milling around a stage. The stage is a publicity thing for MTN, one of the telecom providers in the country. This is the main street. I like the villages because the streets aren't so overcrowded and narrow.

We went to visit a lady called Ali, who works for Peace Cor in Uganda. They seem to be a reasonable organisation. She is trained in chemical engineering, but doesn't plan to go back to it anytime soon. She is working as an educator in all the local schools, about health and other topics. This picture is taken from her back doorstep, she just has a simple little place. In the background, you can just see the little naked boy playing, classic Uganda!! Little nudie's everywhere. Fair enough when they only have one set of decent clothes, keep 'em clean as long as possible. It's also classic that he is lucky to be 2 yrs old and is playing almost completely unsupervised.

So I took some snaps of the local kids I was playing and interacting with while there. This first pic is of Titus building a little house for chickens, similar to the ones in the above photo. He was using a very sharp machete about 6 inches from his bare feet. It was fun watching him build, because he was quite skillful. He originally comes from Mbale, so he knew Luguso, which I knew one greeting from Maz. But he also speaks Luganda and English. Talented 13 yr old! The other kids are his brother and two other neighbors.

The next snap is of some kids who live right next to this guy I got to know briefly. His name is Jimmy and he lives in a tiny little place and goes to school in Kangulumira. His parents are still back in the village with the rest of the kids, and his oldest brother is trying to earn money in Kampala to be able to get to university, which is a hard target.

And Marvin is my little mate. We didn't do so much talking but he seemed to like hanging around with me. Probably because I'm a white skinned anomaly, but I like to think there was also a deep bond of mateship forming!! There is so much potential for ministry to children here, they often have absolutely nothing better to do than roll a tire around or play with a stick. So plenty of room to build friendships, play football and teach them the love of Christ.

Finally, Kangulumira is one of the largest pineapple growing areas in Uganda, and they export to Kenya and Tanzania, so I thought I should include a shot of some pineapples in their natural habitat. :)

I came on Friday, left early on Sunday morning for Mbale via Jinja. The Friday night was the heaviest rain I've ever seen!!

Weekly activities outside of work.

2007-04-28T17:35:00.000+03:00

Nelson and Lucy (and their large family) live down in Bukasa, 5 minutes walk from where my church is. Nelson pastors a church that meets on their property, in a very simple hut, with bamboo screens for walls and a dirt floor. Lucy makes money for the family, working very hard to make craft and household items, whether woven baskets, bags and trays, necklaces, mats and paintings. I introduced Megan to her, this photo is Lucy and Megan in Lucy's 'shop'/room. Just mud walls and floor. Someone recently bought her a sewing machine, seen on the right.

I have spent quite a bit of time with them, I love Lucy as she is great to chat to, a godly woman and very friendly and encouraging. Nelson keeps quite busy, but he can also talk for ages and ages. He is very excited about his walk with Christ and his pastoral work. They have several children as well. I originally met them through their eldest son Dennis, who I got to know through playing soccer early on in my time here. (We just caught up this weekend but I forgot to photo him.)

Dennis is a great and sincere guy and I wish he was around more, but he attends boarding school in Mukono, so is now only back every several weeks. But I've also got to know his younger brothers a bit too. (in photo, cousin Moses, Fred, and Frank from L-R in front of their bedroom, where Dennis also sleeps when home. The western ideals of individualism and personal space aren't equally esteemed here traditionally.)
I am teaching the next youngest, Fred, how to play guitar. If there are two easy ways of meeting and forming friendships with my male African peers, playing soccer and having a guitar must be them. Its great blokey bonding.

Lucy's youngest son Austin (in picture) usually fears Muzungu, and takes a while to get used to them, some African kids are just like that, and cry whenever you come too near. But Austin has progressively got used to me, initially he wouldn't come near me, then he began to wave good bye when I was leaving, now he wants to shake my hand while I'm there, but he's still not super relaxed like some of them.

It doesn't seem to matter what time I go to their place, they always feed me. So I included a photo of a standard meal at Lucy's. Beans, rice and Matoke. Often they will bring meat for you because you are the guest. I actually really enjoy the Matoke, I wish we could have some in Australia every so often. Their culture is so generous and hospitable in general.

So here is a photo of me in front of Kairos Primary School (the construction in the background.) We meet there for church in a classroom. To the right of the photo is the very edge of a slum, and large piles of rotting food and rubbish are just off-photo to the right. If you look carefully you can see the "God is able" sign stuck to the ladies shop/homes. Signs like this are abundant in Uganda. People name their shops with 'grace', 'faith', 'Jesus loves you', 'Blessed', 'Christ the king' etc. in front of their shop name.

Ronald is a guy I meet for a 2 hour bible study each week, I thought you might like a picture.

Panoramic Photos.

2007-04-28T17:01:00.000+03:00

I downloaded a compact little open-source program that makes pretty good panoramic photos. So I've been taking a bunch of "series photos" to turn into panoramas. I uploaded these at a bigger size, which means I think you *should be able* to click on individual photos for more detail.
From Top.
1) It is now the rainy season, here you can see clear blue sky on the right, heavy rain obscuring everything on the left.
2) There are at least a few sunrises this good every week.
3) This is a shot of the Nile River, near Kangulumira village, 45 mins NW of Jinja.
4) This is called Kalagala Falls (taken a lot closer obviously.)
5) This is the view from Maz's gate as she walks out of her home each morning. Mt. Wanali is very beautiful.

EASTER!!

2007-04-11T17:51:00.000+03:00

Easter

Well I didn't eat any chocolate but I had a great Easter. I wanted to dedicate a good portion to God and spending time reading His word and in prayer. That time was really humbling as God challenged, rebuked and encouraged me as only He can. I need to spend those solid blocks devoted to Him a lot more, they were some really special times.

We went to the botanical gardens and the zoo, both in Entebbe, on Friday. The pictures from the Zoo will have to wait as I took them on Leahs camera after my battery went flat. I have provided a small sample of suitably exotic snaps so you can imagine the whole gardens were lush rainforest... but they weren't. There were however many interesting plants from countries around the world, I appreciated the cinnamon and cloves trees and the cocoa bush especially.

A Special Lunch

I wanted to tell you about this couple I visited. His name is Ronald and her name is Sharweya and their little girl is named Shanita. He had a catholic upbringing and she had a muslim upbringing. He got her pregnant (17) while at the same school, so they both dropped out, so that he could work to support them and she could look after the baby. She is 19 now. I had lunch with them, as per usual, their hospitality and sacrifice was great, providing two dishes with meat, and he doesn't earn very much at all. They just have a little one room place with a curtain in front of the bed like many Ugandans. We had a chance to chat most of the afternoon, before I left at evening. I'll go back and catch up with them again when I can, I think they can definately use the friendship and encouragement. Shanita loves to play with my white hairy legs because they are such a novelty but she is the biggest cutie. It was strange watching the dynamics of such a young family, like they had been thrust into a world of seriousness from the world of school. Ron was talking about economics and keeping the family looked after and Shaweya was a fairly standard Ugandan lady, busy with all the household tasks while we were talking. They seemed to have a really good understanding and love between them, obviously i only saw a snapshot. They had little A4 sheets on the wall about saying sorry when you make a mistake etc. I prayed with them for their little family before I left and they were really appreciative of my visit. Just one of those occaisions that will stick in my mind, every so often they happen and you think "I'll definitely remember this one for a long time". I hope to share Christ's love with them more in future visits.
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Because I can't be bothered making another separate post, I want to post a picture of a little gecko I caught and had for a while before releasing him to the wild again (to catch and eat those pesky mosquitoes.) I'll name him Gerard, our little kitten is called Gimli. He is still alive surprisingly.

Visiting Mbale.

2007-04-11T17:31:00.000+03:00

This news is a month old now, but I wanted to get pictures from Maz before I blogged about it.

I got a day off work and traveled to Mbale on the 3-5 March, which is where Maz is living and working mostly if you haven't caught up on that.

5:30am I left for the bus park. I caught a boda boda, which subsequently flew into town. He was just safe enough for me to not tell him to slow down, although we would have been in a poor condition had we come off on a pothole going 80km/h without helmets I think. There are lots of risks over here, I think you just get used to accepting them, because in many cases you don't have other options. It operates very different to Australia in terms of risk to life.

The bus trip was alright, I had to wait an hour or so before it left. When I first arrived I was gauging travel safety by how often I would get a natural adrenaline rush during travel. But you get used to it and don't get the rushes as much after a while. But there were a few times when even the Ugandans on the bus all made exclaimations when the bus swayed a bit more alarmingly. I can sleep standing up in the buses which passes the time.

So Maz was waiting for me, and we headed to Bushikori where she worked. Apparently we only just missed (thankfully) a guy getting stoned for theft. Maz had some tests at the clinic and got malaria medication because she had malaria.

In general it was great being able to connect faces and places that Maz had told me about. A couple of other things I wanted to put on my blog though.

Anisha is a little muslim girl who lives near where Maz is staying. Shes about three years old. Her parents work from what I understand and she wonders around on her own with neighbors keeping a bit of an eye out for her (but certainly a lot less than we look out for our little ones!!

I can't remember why she came to me, maybe we called her, but she indicated she wanted to sit on my lap, so I picked her up. For about the next hour? she was pretty happy to sit there, and whenever I put her down, she just wanted to go straight back up. Anyway she is a real little cutie, so I wanted to post a picture of her. We are both looking cheeky. She definitely stole my heart.

We also visited an orphanage called Salem Village. They have orphanages around the world and seemed fairly well run from first glances. They even had a minor surgery at their clinic and were constructing a major surgery which is fantastic.

I find orphans are pretty heartbreaking to actually see them and their little individual personalities/lives. Not that we don't have any in Australia, but over here, there are an awful lot more and they can just die. Like Zimbabwe, where 10% of the population are orphans. millions of parentless children trying to raise themselves and their siblings.

At this orphanage they take total orphans, orphans and abandonment cases. The pictures are of some huts at the orphanage and some of the orphans, fairly evenly divided beween HIV/Aids, Abandonment and death-while-giving-birth cases. You could spend a whole lifetime over here just trying to raise these kids and love them. And some people do.

I read George Mueller's biography just before coming over here, and I think it helps me see his compassion and heart more to know practically what the orphans he was housing might have been like, and the routine tasks of changing several hundred childrens nappies? (they grew to 2500 orphans in the end.)

I could tell you more about that weekend but I'll write another post instead, so I'll leave it at that but I'm hoping Maz and I might be able to spend some time at the orphanage together although it might not happen with such limited time. There are always many things to do. :)

Spot the Ugandan.

2007-03-29T20:43:00.000+03:00

We just recently finished one project. It was for the African Children's Choir.
A new school campus, as their old one was running out of capacity and in a rough neighborhood.

This is a photo taken from the school (it's a multistory building)
it's one of the houses near the school compound, but I thought it was fairly typical of a Ugandan hut in a poor neighborhood.
See if you can find the 10 Africans that are in the photo, although the resolution probably won't be brilliant. I thought it was cool once I started to count, how they blended in with the shadows so much. It can be nearly impossible to photograph them at night

The stains on the dirt from pouring out washing water or food preparation water are typical, and the clothes, the tubs, the water jerry cans. People sitting around with no work to do in the middle of the day.

They take great pride though in their homes however humble they are. I think its amazing to go inside a little house and step into their private space. The hospitality of Ugandan people leaves Australian hospitality for dead in most cases.

-RACKOKO-
I was browsing my photos of the north and saw my bed. I was quite happy with my improvisation. I turned a table upside down to hold the mozzie net at one end and tied it to the window's security bars at the other end. So this is where I slept for the few days at Rackoko IDP camp , had to use the table for brekky, but just set it back up at night.

It was very hot as there was zero ventilation in the room (the window was solid steel and had no mesh to keep mozzies out, so it couldn't be ventilation). Gets pretty hot with a tin roof and a hot northern sun (an hour or two from the Sudanese border.) So it was hard to get to sleep in the heat, but once i was asleep I had unreal sleeps. (I stayed up with all the locals watching the soccer and playing pool, so I didn't spend too much time in bed while up there anyway.)
I was sharing the room with a Ugandan guy called Godwin...
I've tried to post this a dozen times now, you have to be persistent.

pets and cheese

2007-03-29T19:58:00.000+03:00

So in no particular order. There was a little lost puppy near the house of one of the staff couples. So they brought him to us, we were going to look after him. However, the owners became known so we gave him back. I thought we had actually bought him, so was surprised when he was gone a day later. But he is pretty cute huh, thats Janet holding him, shes a staff member (civil engineer).
We still have this little kitten. One girl at the office, named Erica is pretty compassionate. She found this little kitten crying in the gutter so rescued it and brought it to the office. Leah is now its surrogate mother, waking up to feed it etc. I'm not taking any responsibility, but when it gets older and cuter I'll play with it.
I also thought I would let you in on my cheese making experiements. I had some milk in the fridge but we didn't have electricity for 4 days straight. I put it in the freezer, so that when the generator was on it might stay normal / keep it cool. I took it out to use it but it had started to seperate into curds and whey. So I thought it was a perfect chance to make some cheese. So this picture is of the solid little block I made. But I wasn't game to eat it, as I didn't really have any idea what I was doing. Considering what you see in my hands is only part of milk I think I was on the way. I should feed it to the kitten and see what happens next time I make some "cheese"

Pictures. (Take 2)

2007-03-29T19:25:00.000+03:00

Some of you may not realise how big Lake Victoria is?
I looked up the area because it is so massive...
turns out it is a quarter of the size of Victoria (my state in Australia)
These pics show Port Bell on Lake Victoria. (although you can't see it too much, there are often boats there.

I thought I'd treat you to 3 sunrises. They are often really nice here. They are taken from our 2nd story balcony (the top floor is mainly office, bottom floor living space, and I live alone out the back in the servant quarters [for lack of a p.c term])

The middle one is not over the lake, but over the prison just to the left of the other shots. The prisons here are terrible, like up to 40 people in 15 sq.meters apparently. I might be visiting with church people, not sure though. The sunset was nice anyway it was taken this morning. I've been getting up pretty early over here, between 5:30-6:30 usually, so I often see the sunrises. They're a lot more beautiful than a camera catches though, but still you get an idea.

Pictures.

2007-03-29T19:05:00.000+03:00

I thought I'd post up some pictures and give a little bit of story as I go. Just to give you some insights into the little things of the day.
So this is a parcel sent by ground mail to Uganda. We got the package slip last week, which indicates you have a package to pick up. The funniest part of it... As you can see on the zoomed in bit... it was sent December 2004. I thought this was hilarious, until it is my parcel of course. So all those vegemite shipments better be sent airmail, it's unlikely any package will get here before I leave :P

Out of this shipment (we emailed the guy for permission to open it), I took the following photos.
This one is a shirt that came in the package. I thought I'd throw it on and take a picture since I haven't posted any full size pics of me. It was on my half day off (after working a 65-70 hour week the week before.)
So even lollies go off if you leave them long enough. These are the American equivalent of fruit tingles. Except those spots are mould. I tried a few that didn't have any visible mould but then decided it was a bit risky. I enjoyed the 2.5 year old beef jerky though.

Well that will do it, I'll make another post with a few more pictures, as I don't want it to crash after uploading so many photos.

Church

2007-03-29T18:38:00.000+03:00

I thought you might be interested to hear about my church a bit.
I'm attending a small church plant. The mother church is local to me as well, called Life Christian Ministries Namuwongo. It has 500 members.
The little plant I go to is located also nearby, near the slums of Bukasa. It is in a half finished school building and has maybe 30 people (including kids).

It is a pentecostal church (from my experience, the largest percentage of churches are. I haven't seen a single anglican "Church of Uganda", but on the CIA factbook, Anglican is by far dominant... doesn't seem at all accurate.)

Anyway, biblical teaching seems scarce sometimes here, although there are definately some exceptions.

Pastor Robert is one of the pastors at the church. He has brought so many blessings to my heart as he shares, He is such a genuine, humble and godly man from what I know of Him so far. Hearing him speak about forgiveness, reasons for unanswered prayers, marital faithfulness, raising family, etc etc. He is a breath of fresh air always, so I praise God for him. I don't think I would have been so inclined to stay without getting to know him.

My philosophy is that in 6 months, you just need to get involved somewhere, flitting around trying to find a church won't really achieve as much. I really believe the more time you can spend in given relationships the better. So I've preached there and had a chance for some other ministry too, I really want to base my involvement through churches. I have another church based in someone's house that I want to get more involved with their youth programs. I met them 2 weeks ago, and plan to visit on this weekend / maybe help with their saturday night youth program. They go on evangelism trips and also minister at prisons, so hopefully I'll get to go with them on some of those trips coming up.

The service goes for 3 hours usually, can be tiring :) I don't understand most of the songs, they have quite a few different ones each week, but I'm starting to recognise some repeated ones now. They usually translate for me for messages, they very kind that way, although sometimes the translation is too quiet or hard to follow. I sometimes need a translator between Ugandan English --> Australian English.

Regardless, Pastor Robert usually share in english which I appreciate. Luganda and Swahili are the other main languages used.

David, who I've spoken of before, introduced me to the church, so we go there together. After church we usually head up to a local restaurant together to get a meal for a 1000 shillings (~70c).
It includes goat soup, matoke (savory cooking banana) , yam, kasava, beans, g-nut sauce, generous slabs of avocardo (cheap here) and rice. I usually manage to finish it, but its a struggle sometimes... 70c only!!

I'll try to take some pictures this week. I don't like taking the camera around much, its one less thing that can be stolen, also an obvious sign of money, I feel that can be like vinegar to a wound when you are walking through slums.

Zimbabwe

2007-03-29T18:28:00.000+03:00

I just wanted to post about Zimbabwe. I'm sure it is getting some coverage in western press, but it really is desperate there. Some estimates of the inflation there are around 1700% (the highest anywhere in the world).

Practically, this means that if you don't buy the loaf of bread in the morning... it will cost you twice as much to buy it in the evening.
That is all well and good if your wages double every day. But they don't.

This economy has been in a bad way for a while, it can only completely collapse at this rate. Many people (up to 30% of the population in some estimates) are attempting to flee the country.

In "Operation World" (2001), the book about world mission, it was estimated that 10% of the countries population were orphans. That is so hard to imagine any country dealing with that, let alone the power hungry dictator that Zimbabwe has.

It just seems to be a terrible situation, people fleeing their homes in desperation, to South Africa and surrounding countries. The outlook there is pretty bleak too, which just goes to show how desperate these millions have become are to flee there.

I definately think coming to Uganda has helped me understand more of what real poverty actually looks like and the desperation that it induces and I have to say please keep praying for this country and its struggling people. There is no point in "President Robert" dying just to let a worse leader in there either.

Blogging Drought.

2007-03-22T20:19:00.000+03:00

Well it only feels like yesterday since I wrote my last post, but time flies over here.
For the first 4 days this week we had no electricity. So during the work day we run on a generator, but that is when I'm working, which means after work, I can't write emails or blogs etc, since the generator goes off then.

So, sorry if anyone has been reading this but not finding any fresh updates. To quote a friend of mine "you have to experience the difficulties before you understand".
Also I've been investing my internet time over the past few weeks into individual emailing, but apparently a bunch of people have been reading this blog. You have to leave comments for me every so often, I didn't think it was being read very much.

A lot of my photos are on other people's cameras, so I might just post some text blog and add photos on later. So here goes for an update with a bunch of random pieces, while I'm awake enough to type it. (because the power has been off and you can only put up with candles for so long, I've been going to bed early, like between 8:30-9:30... so I'm getting tired pretty early.)

The last few weeks I've been working pretty hard on a project for the African Children's Choir. They are building a new campus. Basically they take neglected kids / street kids, train them as a choir which then tours western nations. The money they raise supports the kids through schooling and even university in some cases.
They raise a bunch of funds for orphans in various countries over here, especially aids orphans.
Anyway, the project is due for completion really soon, so we are pushing hard to get it done.

I did some surveying for Wakiso Baptist Church, they will be an upcoming project for us sometime. They started witha children's ministry but found they quickly got the parents also. So they now have 150 children of a morning and 150 adults also but want a church for 800. They currently have a shack with basic benchs, dirt floor (like many churches here).
It is next to a slaughterhouse, which in Africa, smells just like you are imagining. But they are growing by at least 2 people per week at the moment, making it hard to keep up.
They currently look after 10 orphans but want to expand to 30 by three years time.

Wih the commonwealth delegation coming to Kampala later this year, things are getting tidied up a lot here. They are trying to get all the rubbish piles out of the city and ban the street shops. They said everyone has to paint their shops etc. or face removal. There is also a bunch of roadworks going on to make things more passable. It has certainly stirred things into action.
They are trucking the street kids out to the north apparently. Many Ugandans will tell you they can see the changes. I suppose our countries do the same when something imortant happens, host the olympics --> run an anti-littering campaign. Keeping up appearances.

Kampala is a pretty grotty city. Another thing to thank the West for maybe. Bringing in super cheap plastic bags instead of the woven baskets they had beforehand. So mounds upon mounds of plastic rubbish are everywhere you go, mixed in with food scraps. We gave them the cheap plastics but they didn't have a rubbish disposal system in place. They regularly burn it all, producing excellent quality air to breath.
Who knows where all our rubbish goes though hey? We just put it out of site... a Throw Away mentality... Where is "away" though...?

If you are wondering, I'm not disgruntled or even pessismistic about the culture, just stating things as they are to my eyes. Its strange to think we all live on the same earth but there are wildly different standards here.
Animal Rights, Environmental Protection, Occupational Health and Safety. These three things are almost non existent here, to name just some of the pillars of Australian society. Over here, chickens will just be on the buses under people's feet etc. Environment- no emission controls or pollution monitoring, burn plastics. OH&S - they will have an unfenced unsupported hole 8 meters deep, or a guy climbing up a 70 meter tower, no ladder no harness.
Same Earth, but wildly different priorities and philosophies.

Weather. Don't think I've said much about it.
For each month throughout the year, the average temperature in Kampala flucuates by about 3 degrees. ie. the highest monthly max. average temperature is only a few degrees hotter than the lowest month. So I think it is about 17 at night and 30 during the day.
0.2 degrees above the equator, just in the northern hemisphere if you haven't had a chance to look at a map of Uganda yet.
The seasons have been playing up for the last few years, this part of the world is experiencing some unusual and unseen patterns. But still plenty of rain, the dry season here still looks like the greenest winter Central Victoria has ever had. We have a paw paw tree in the frontyard, mangoes, pineapples and bananas are all very cheap. proably 30c/kg for banana's. A pineapple is around 60c. I'm loving the fresh fruit when I get a chance to buy some at the market.

I do miss vegetables though. I found a shop that sells green beans pretty cheaply, so that was exciting and I'll be heading there to get beans every so often. I have potato, carrot and cabbage mainly for vegetables, and matoke too which is a banana shaped and textured vege. It is hard to describe the flavor, but they are savory anyway.
the green beans were just over a $1/kg, so it's nice to have them. Also found cheap meat, like $4 /kg rump steak. It's good for a weekend treat meal. I eat porridge most mornings, just oatmeal. With powdered milk, but that is reasonably expensive. like $4-5 for a tin, cheaper than Aus, but when you see things over here that go above maybe $5, you feel like its a luxury item.
Thats enough for one post, plus I'm going to bed. I'll attach some pictures and some more random thoughts soon. I'm pretty tired so forgive me if any of that is too rambling.

Travels in the war-torn north

2007-02-24T11:49:00.000+03:00

PICTURES:
- a truck loaded to the brim with people and goods, the picture doesn't do it justice.
- One of the only NGO's at the camp is UAF, Uganda Australian Foundation.
- Pastor Harrison and myself.
- Some of our many loyal followers while we were there. Acholi children.
- Everyone lives in these round mud huts, which take a month or two to complete.

Rackoko (pronounced "Ratch-E-Co-Co") is in Pader district, Northern Uganda. It used to be part of Kitgum district but when it became too large, they split the districts up. It is right in the heart of the land where the LRA rebels have often attacked.

It is home to an Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp. At some points in the war with the rebels, there has been up to 17000 people living at this particular IDP camp.

So I went with Janet, an eMi staff member to do some surveying for one of our ministries. Carla is an American lady, who wants to help widows. Deaths to HIV/AIDS and the LRA have left many women as widows. So Carla wants to train them to sew etc. to be able to make money to support their families. We staked out the boundaries for her land so that she can begin construction of her centre.

LRA. I realise many of my readers will know little about the LRA. The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have been fighting in Northern Uganda for over 20 years. They began when President Museveni came to power and have conducted a campaign of terror ever since. They abduct young children, forcing the girls to become 'wives' (sex slaves) to the commanders and forcing the young boys to fight, often after committing atrocities against their family members or other young children (trampling them to death or beating them to death with sticks.) There are many other horrific stories. The estimates vary a lot but some are as high as 60000 children abducted. In the last several months, it has been more peaceful while peace talks have been occuring and people have been returning to their villages, building housing and clearing land.

Some of the aftermath of such violence is: severe psychological damage in children, land disputes, extreme poverty, lots of orphans and more. So while peace has returned currently, the scars will remain for a long time. The rebels are currently believed to be in the Central African Republic. I don't know what will happen, the ceasefire agreement officially ends in a few days, so I hope and pray it will last. Jospeh Kony, the rebel leader, must know his days are numbered, as he is currently the #1 wanted war criminal in the world, by the ICC.

While there is much I will never understand, standing where rebels have killed and raped people, seeing the children and families they targeted, it gives you a little more insight into the terrible pain and suffering people here have been through. Standing in the long grass/bush where children slept in fear of the rebels , it reminds me how thankful we should be to God because of the freedom and peace we enjoy.

There still remains a lot of desperation among the people, but there is a sense of joy and hope also, and an appreciation of their current reduction in fear, although some people are still too afraid to leave the camps.

I went with African Pastor Harrison to talk to people about the good news of Jesus for a few hours, and there was a lot of genuine joy and happiness among the many christians there. We spoke to quite a few people who were not saved there also, and it was interesting to hear their journey's. God can always bring good results from seemingly desperate tragedies, so it was amazing to see such hope and joy in such bleak circumstances. The pastor himself feeds his family and an additional 6 orphans with about $8 / month, which covers medical and travel expenses also.

They were generous and very community focused. If you were nearby at meal time, people would offer their food and hospitality. They feed each other's children and the many orphans in the camp are looked after as if they are their very own kids.

I spent time hanging out at night near the one television (they watch soccer each night- a game they love) and a pool table which up to 50 people might gather around to watch a game. Being white, many of them wanted to play against me, there were many good players there, but I represented Australia well.

Definately an experience which will stay with me for a long time. I would have liked to stay for a lot longer.

The trip home
We caught the bus from Lira back to Kampala, 7 hours. I stood the whole time in the central isle, at one point I was convinced we couldn't fit any more people on. They prooved me wrong by getting another 15 or so people onto the bus. So with chickens pooing on my shoes and plenty of sweat from nearby people, we got back safely. The road was built in the 60's and hasn't been redone since, so there are many dangerous potholes and jagged edges. I was least comfortable when the bus rides one side on the asphalt and one on the lower dirt shoulder, at fairly high speed. Especially since there was one overturned bus in a gully and two trucks also overturned that we saw on the way back. I'm not sure how many people died but I would be very surprised if none did in those other accidents. Long distance travel is always a bit risky over here

A few more pictures for good measure

2007-02-17T17:01:00.000+03:00

So I've included 2 more snaps: this one is the master plan for Kenya Baptist, and shows the planned construction phases in different colors. It's 50 acres.

The other is a typical street scape from the 'CBD' in Kampala. The vehicle in front is a "taxi", a minivan. The Swahili word is 'Matatu', which isn't used in Kampala. You can travel several kilometers for only 40 cents. They operate on reasonably fixed routes, you just flag them down whenever they go past and tap the roof or say 'stage' to get out. Boda-boda's are motorcycle taxi's that are a little more expensive but go wherever you want. The equivalent to an Australian taxi is a "special hire", which are a car that goes wherever you want. Too expensive, although cheaper than Australia by far!

Valentine's Day.

2007-02-17T15:23:00.000+03:00

Always the hopeless romantic, I thought "what better way to enjoy the day than drowning together in the Nile River". Similar to many men out there, Valentine's Day doesn't have as much signifigance for me, but I appreciated the chance to spend a day with Marianne.

She came down from Mbale for a week which was great, we had a few days together to catch up after a few months apart. She's involved with some great stuff up there which was encouraging to hear about. After being seperated a while, there is always some things to discuss together, so we spent some time doing that also.
Getting back to the drowning, we went white water rafting on the Nile. For those who are informed in these matters, level 5 rapids were the highest we rafted on. We avoided the level 6 rapids. That was a trip with several eMi team members, so it was a good day. There is nothing quite like being pounded by turbulent white water and wondering when you will be able to take another breath of air.
The rafting was one of our two planned eMi activities, the other being a dinner at the end. "Nile River Explorers" was the company we went with if you are ever near Jinja in Uganda.
PHOTOS:
Maz and the kids where she stayed in Kampala.
The Taxi Park in Kampala (at a quiet time).

The first two weeks of Feb.

2007-02-17T15:22:00.000+03:00

Workwise I'm finishing another project called "Music for Life". They take children who are disadvantaged, orphaned or in poverty etc. and take them through school. Some of them, they teach into a choir and take them around the world. Apparently they are coming to Brisbane later this year. They have been a bit cramped at their current spot (a several story structure in Kampala). They are moving to a new site near Entebbe, so we are designing all the buildings/utilities etc. for them.

The weekends are a good chance to get involved with lots of things. I'm still just forming relationships. I will be playing soccer at an international school each Friday, I'm making some friends there. I also went to a baptism service for ~50 people, held on the shores of Lake Victoria. I have been to a few nearby churches, I plan to go another local church with a Ugandan friend David on Sunday. There are many ways you can be helpful over here, including little things such as tutoring someone or having a bible study. I went and played some games with kids at a local house today. They live close by and also attend the local church so I can imagine popping in there a bit.
PHOTOS:
The eMi office (where interns work).
View from the office
Baptisms at Lake Victoria.

The Project Trip

2007-02-17T15:16:00.000+03:00

PICTURES: All taken on site in Limuru, Kenya.

So the last thing I wrote about was heading to Nairobi on the bus. It was a good 12 hour trip, as we passed directly through the Rift Valley, which is very beautiful. The occaional wildlife, such as a family of baboons or some wilderbeast dotted the landscape, along with herds of goats or cattle belonging to the local tribal herdsmen. The road was surprisingly passable, obviously not a western road but still quite good. Just swerve back and forth to avoid the worst potholes.
They gave us two boiled eggs for breakfast and at the half way stopover at Kisumu, I had a bowl of cow intestines which was excellent, although quite chewy. Interestingly, to get across the Ugandan/Kenyan border was 50 USD and the entire bus fare was 25 USD. Ground travel is very cheap here.
So we got into the bus park at Nairobi at night time. I don't think I've ever seen so many shady looking characters at one time. There are lots of pickpockets and conmen. The girls stayed inside the bus company lounge together while we moved our gear in (surveying instruments, bags, field tools etc.) Then a minivan from the ministry arrived. Unfortunately he locked his keys in, but it didn't take him long to break into the van. We then drove 40km's north to Limuru.
Kenya Baptist Theological College want to expand and become registered with the government. They have 50 acres of land to develope, the hope is to allow 1500 more students.

Our eMi team had 5 architects, 2 surveyors and 2 civil engineers, and me as a civil intern. A lady called Jill is married to the Civil Engineering Professor called Tom, she was a prayer supporter.

So we had pretty long hours for the week we were there, busily surveying the site, and designing the water/wastewater systems, as well as the architectural master plan and the plans for the most important buildings. A two storey admin. building, classrooms, a library, chapel, dorms & dining room, a theatre and soccer field are some of the larger components.

I met some great people there, so that was great. The site of the college is very beautiful. A training college called Brackenhurst is also at the same site and they have some great landscaping work. But in general, the country is more developed than Uganda.

So then we went back to Nairobi and most of the team went on Safari to the Masai Mara for a few days. They saw cheetahs, zebra's, lions, giraffes, elephants, a black rhino and many other animals.
Meanwhile, I kept a low profile in Nairobi, getting to know some locals, and also spending a bit of time wandering through the city markets, bargaining and being hassled. I had some good reflection time.

Then we travelled by bus back to Kampala on Feb 1st, it rained most of the way, so with mud on the windows and lots of mist, it didn't compare to the trip over. I also had a stomach ache so it wasn't so much fun. I met another Aussie girl though, the first Australian I had chatted to since leaving Melbourne airport.

PICTURES:
A town on the way to Nairobi (Kericho?)
Boy crossing ditch in Kampala
3 Rift Valley shots and a local church in Kenya.

Tea Plantations.

2007-02-01T23:57:00.000+03:00

One thing I was thinking about before I came over here was about exploitation. How it works and why it still happens. Anyway, here are some shots of plantations, one shows eucalyptus trees for fuel, housing for the workers and tea in front. The other is "me in tea". I learnt how to pick it. They are paid around $100 AUD /month if they maintain their required production levels. Food isn't that cheap, so they struggle to get by on that. A dozen eggs would be over half that daily wage. Just thought people might be interested first hand.

Light Hearted Stories

2007-02-01T23:10:00.000+03:00

Living in another culture, you always have occaision to laugh at small things that come your way.
I thought a few brief stories would be good.
The first Sunday after I left Australia, I was in a small Kenyan church for their Sunday morning service. When I went in, I thought I would sit next to a local to mix in a bit, make the effort to get to know them etc. Well I thought a young man and his brother would be ideal and culturally safe. It wasn't til after I sat down that I realised I had sat down next to a young woman and her son, no husband in sight. She took him out of the service at one point, and looking around I realised I was sitting in a ladies gallery, so I moved discretely to the other side of the church. They later assured me there was no gender divide but I was certainly sitting in 4 rows of ladies/ girls on the day.
A guy was trying to con me into buying some socks in Nairobi. He said "they're completely free from my company. Just say thank you." Standard trick to play on white tourists, to oblige them to buy. I promptly said thank you in Swahili,and laughingly followed it up with "but I don't want the socks". He thought it was a great joke and laughed to his friends.
I've some basics in swahili now, so it disarms the sales people when you use it on them. They know you are an informed Mzungu harder to rip off. They have all sorts of tricks in the markets of trying to get you to buy at high prices. They are a bartering/bargaining culture so its fun to fight over a price. You know they won't sell below their cost price, so it's good to find how muh something is worth. They all try to attract your buisness and the moment you say something they all hear and go and tell their buddies.
The instant you start conversing in Swahili, a knowing look comes over their eyes, often a toothy grin, especially if you appear to not know much initially. I think it is great fun, and they have a cackle too.
One persistent guy was funny. He was hassling me as they do, then I said to him that I am the kind of shopper that only buys if people leave me in complete silence. He promptly zipped his lip after saying equivalent to "hey, ok whatever makes you spend money is fine by me." Or in other shops, they give you the first price... and you say "no way" and turn to walk off. Then they half it almost immediately and say "we can give you a special discount". It's great fun, at least for me. Some of the team found it harder/ more uncomfortable.

Some People I Have Met.

2007-02-01T23:07:00.000+03:00

I have met many interesting people, I could dedicate a day to writing about them and wouldn't do them all justice. I like meeting new people in Australia, I guess the difference over here is that people's experiences are so utterly different from my own in many cases. So I will pick just a few to briefly mention.

PASTOR GEORGE KARANJAR hosted our team in Kenya for a meal. They just have a humble piece of land with some huts. They have 3 cows and some coffee, maize and casava. His son Samuel has recently been married (after the dowry was settled of course) and George gave him a cow to get started. They live in a small hut that Samuel built on the same property and Samuel's dream is to have his own calf and a baby with his wife Rachel.
The hospitality they showed us was amazing and they spared no expense, sacrificing their own needs to provide us well. I think the equivalent hosting for us might be spending a few week's wages on a single evening for our guests. They love introductions and hearing what you do over in Kenya. I enjoyed chatting with Pastor George and hearing his dreams to see more people in his area know Christ. He wants to have enough money to send his children to school too.

WYCLIFFE is a guard at a guest house in Naiobi. He works there 72 hours per week. He lives in the slums 9 km's away, where he walks to and from each day. He only has a small lockable shack there, and his family of 5 children live in western Kenya, he gets to see them once every month or two, like many workers here in Nairobi. He is working so that they can all go to school and have enough food. He is a christian man so often reads the bible while guarding. He taught me a few hours of Swahili. He earns about $140 per month, which is for his family of 7 members.

STEVE & MELINDA.
I think these guys are a special story of God's grace and power to transform lives, so I asked if I could blog about them. Steve said that was fine, if God gets all the credit. Steve was an ardent atheist for many years, perhaps justified in his mind by the trumatic abuse he had suffered as a young child. Living completely for himself, it wasn't until a second marriage breakup that He came to an end of himself. 30 minutes after an attempted suicide, a christian friend whom he had known for quite a while rang him, wanting to tell him about Christ, not knowing anything about the breakup or desperation Steve was facing. Steve commited his life to following Jesus, and within the week, he didn't do drugs anymore. Some areas took longer to change though, and God is still at work. Although Steve has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, He keeps trusting God and is working here in Uganda for eMi as a staff member, already surprising doctors in his sustained health.
Melinda is married to him. They were young christians together and Melinda has her own story of drug and alcohol addiction for many years, which God changed after she followed Christ. They lived together unmarried for a while after becoming christians, but Melinda was convicted and told Steve that it couldn't continue, that obedience to God must come first. After some initial resentment and manipulation, Steve realised that this meant she could be trusted if she would put God first. They stopped living together and got married 3 months later. They have some kids now and have also adopted a small Ugandan girl from Jinja who is HIV positive, accepting the heartache it may bring sometime down the track. It's just great to see how God can work in any life, and works uniquely in each life according to our different needs. Steve adds "Remember, all glory to God."

As I meet people over here, each story is unsurprisingly different to my own. Many mzungu (white skin's) have quite interesting stories of why they have ended up here as missionaries or workers. You can never tell what someone's life-story is going to be like though, so I've enjoyed getting to know people and hearing their different experiences.

Different Food to Try.

2007-02-01T23:00:00.000+03:00

Half the time you don't really know what you are eating, but it is simply mixed beans / vegetables etc. Lots of cabbage produces a high level of gaseous excretions from within the digestive system as our team discovered.

A bowl of cow intestines were quite tasty as we stopped at Kisumu on the bus trip, mashed squash leaves were also delicious in a Kenyan hut. Pineapples and mangoes are great, as are other fresh fruits when they are locally available. On the Project trip, local food was it except for our final dinner, which was at an Italian restaurant in Nairobi. They usually go to one called the Carnivore instead which used to serve Zebra and Giraffe etc. but doesn't anymore. Anyway the Italian was about 1/3 of the price it would be in Australia and was excellent food. I also had bamboo shoots and jew's ear Pork at a chinese place, for about $4-5. It's good to be able to eat cheap when on the road. I pretty much go what the locals like or whatever sounds most interesting when I have a choice. Haven't been sick much at all yet, although the excessive cabbage for several lunches in a row did give me a bit of stomach ache. That said, some food you eat does appear to be digestively processed rather efficiently.

The Adventure of International Flights.

2007-02-01T22:34:00.000+03:00

Some of you may have wondered if I arrived safely and everything has been going alright. The answer is "Yes!"
I left on Monday afternoon and was supposed to touch down Tuesday night in Uganda ~38 hours later.
However, two cancelled flights meant I didn't actually get into Uganda until midday on Thursday. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing, but BIG thanks to Janet from eMi, who waited in vain for my flight until 4am the night of my cancelled flight from Nairobi. It was good to be able to offer any complexities straight to God's hands and know the peace of that in all my emotions.

PHILLIP
made the journey from Australia to Malaysia a great trip. We had long legs in common, so had managed to get exit row together. We chatted solidly for at least 6-7 hours of the 8 hour flight. He is a lawyer from the heart of London, over for the Ashes (to his dissapointment) and it was great to chat to him for so long, making the flight pass very quickly. It's great to meet friendly strangers on your travels, to learn a bit about them and hopefully keep in touch a bit too.
We spent some time together at the airport in Malaysia, although my stopover was an hour shorter so we eventually headed our seperate ways.
I boarded the 747 to Amsterdam, but there was a 20 minute delay forecast due to problems with the forward cargo hatch. After briefly chatting to the elderly Romanian couple beside me with their broken english, I went to sleep, according to my AntiJetLag theory. When I woke up 3 hours later, the 747 hadn't moved and shortly after we had to leave the aircraft. We lost our airspace window over Afghanistan, so I was content with the decision to avoid being shot down there.
I stayed at the airport for a few hours, it was a little chaotic figuring out what was happening, there are a lot of passengers on a full 747. Eventually, after sticking around to the last person, I got a new itinery to get to Uganda, as one of the flight legs which I had missed only flies once a week.

STAYING IN MALAYSIA
There were no KLM people at immigration by the time I got there, but they had left a general message to say we could stay at any hotel we wanted to, expense on them.
At 4:30am local time, I went through immigration, changed some money to RM and caught a taxi (mini van) to a hotel an hour from the airport which I knew some other passengers had gone to also.
After I was fairly convinced he was a legitimate guy and not going to knock me off in some dark alley, we struck up a happy chat in Malaysian (I learned Indonesian at Highschool) and finally arrived at the hotel. He only charged me a discounted rate and was very friendly, so if you are landing at Kuala Lumpur, let me know and I'll give you his mobile number, Kaye is his name. He does a cheap scenic tour of KL too, although I didn't take him up on that.
At 6:30am I had breakfast at the hotel, before going to sleep at 7am, setting the alarm for 12 noon. I woke up feeling refreshed and hearing the reverberating echos of the local mosque calling muslims to prayer. It was a giant mosque that echoed for about 5km's around. Later in the day I visited it with Judith. Judith works in Bristol, and had just visited her daughter in Australia. It was good to hear a bit of her life story and what's been happening in her life. I had just finished reading George Muellers autobiography before Leaving Oz, so I talked about it with her and she said the orphan buildins on Ashley downs are still there and heritage listed. I was encouraged to think about the lasting impact of this godly man and how God had used him so much.
We had buffe brekky, buffe lunch and buffe dinner thanks to KLM, so I tried a bunch of things that I didn't have a clue what they were or I would tell you.
Headed back to the airport and caught the new flight. By 1:30am or so, we were taking off and landed around 13 hours later, 6:30am in Amsterdam, my longest night ever. I slept 8 hours or so but forced myself to stay awake otherwise, praying and thinking, since all the lights were off. There was some rubbish on the inflight system, but my headphones were under my chair and I was too cramped to reach them anyway. I enjoyed the lights of Asia and Europe more anyway.

AMSTERDAM
has a huge airport so I cruised around for a while looking at things during my 4 hour stopover. The internet was very expensive so I gave it a miss. After deciding there wasn't too much of interest to me, I went and read the bible for an hour or two before the flight. Because of the cancellation they had upgraded my flight to Nairobi to Gold Class.

FIRST CLASS.
I doubt I would ever jutify it of my own choosing, but KLM World Buisness Class is pretty tops flying out of Amsterdam. They have a gourmet chef's menu which you pick your 3 course meals from and it was excellent food. You can make your chair a bed, but my AntiJetLag theory meant I chose to stay awake that whole flight. I watched a short video on Kenya, and an hour of Harry Potter 4, to discern whether it is morally good or bad. Otherwise I wasn't interested in any of the videos, although I toyed with watching "happy feet" or "open season". I ended up reading and journalling instead. They offer a large range of spirits and classy wines too. I stuck with ginger beer, coke and water. I was however, quite pleased to use the inflight email and text message utility in first class. It's kind of neat to send emails and texts from 40000 feet over Libya but cost a little bit, so only my girlfriend and parents benefitted from the gimmick. Sorry :).

NAIROBI
airport is quite a contrast to Schiphol International. They don't check passports much and the gates of flights change quite regularly, not that there are any signs to say where they are in the first place. To shorten a long story, several electrical faults delayed the flight for 3-4 hours, we boarded, the plane's lighting system was still working like a christmas tree, so the flight was cancelled and we had a night in downtown Nairobi. There are lots of suspicious looking characters in downtown Nairobi so at 4:30am in the morning, you just kept your eyes peeled. There are guards at every hotel anyway. Slept 3 hours, then a quick breakfast before heading back to the airport. I have some good videos of driving in a crowded Matatu (mini van taxi) in Kenya. The road rules are (in general), give way to a heavier vehicle than yours & tooting means "I'm here".
I received $100 for inconvenience which promptly got stolen, ah well, money I wasn't expecting I guess, but also a realistic introduction to Nairobi. Theft and violent crime are very common in Nairobi.
The flight to Entebbe was delayed as they tried to check all of us on (including our luggage) through one counter. They opened a few more eventually which sped things up.

HIDDEN BEAUTY
The flight to Entebbe (where Uganda's national airport is) was beautiful. Interesting to look at the terrain and agriculture below and also the clouds were stunning, fluffy and motionless. It was very spiritually uplifting too. I was meditating on the fact that certain beauty could only be witnessed after the invention of air travel. I reflected that God too has much hidden beauty, beauty that we haven't even imagined let alone glimpsed. Then I realised that although we only know a small amount of God's beauty, as He gazes upon one of His spiritual children, He sees the entire righteousness of Christ in all it's unveiled fullness. It really uplifted and humbled my heart.
Unfortunately my camera was in the lockers, as we were ascending still with seatbelts on. No shot I took of sunsets/sunrises/clouds did justice to them anyway.

These pictures are taken in the first leg & the stay in Malaysia. 1) The plane at Melbourne 2) a sunset shot over Malaysia 3) My hotel room on 10th floor, courtesy KLM. 4) buffe brekky, before hitting bed. 5) me in the dining room. 6) random fountain. 7) my hotel 8)the mosque 9) view from my window.

Introductory Thoughts.

2007-02-01T22:27:00.000+03:00

JOURNEY IS A GREAT WORD.
It captures a sense of adventure, purpose, the unknown. To live and work in East Africa for 6 months is quite a journey for me. My first time overseas, and you don't know what to expect once you leave your comfortable home environment.
Thanks to everyone who has joined me on this journey, whether you met me on a flight or some other stange place and for those who have been journeying with me from the beginning.
I join an organisation fully staffed by volunteers, supported both by their own funds and the generous gifts of others. Engineering Ministries International (eMi) have served in over 80 different countries. Any project that both helps the poor and has the growth of God's kingdom at it's heart is likely to be considered. Hospitals & clinics, schools and universities, water supply, churches etc. have all been designed and built. Engineers, Surveyors, Architects & Project Managers are the general types of professionals that eMi largely consists of.

NOBODY REALLY CARES.
Several people have said one of the hardest things about going home is that most people don't really care about what you have experienced and aren't really interested in hearing the details. While this may be the case for some, I think it's not about uncaring people as much an unshared experience, at least for many friends. I know all the people who will read this blog regularly are interested/care a lot. But it is impossible to get it all across as some things have to be experienced. So I'll do my best to paint a good picture of my experiences, with the hope that you can partake in this journey. I'd love people to email me with what is happening in their life too, so that I can share in your journeys too, especially as I will be far away from your experiences. Every one of us has a very different story and we can grow lots by listening to others stories.

BLOG STYLE.
I aim to give everything good headings so that a quick browse can take you to the information that catches your interest, I'll try to get a good assortment of photos up too. I'm going to post things very much from my perspective at the time I saw them. There should be a mix of experiences, spiritual growth and other thoughts.

Photo test!

2007-01-10T11:17:00.000+03:00

Although he has nothing to do with my Uganda time (apart from the obvious emotional support), this is my cute little nephew. I assume his parents don't mind his internet presence as he already has more online photos than me anyway. Keep learning my 'special song' little fella.

Marianne is over in Uganda working busily away at various projects. Hopefully she can fit me in every month or two for a catch up!! This post is a bit of photo experimentation. If only all online photos conformed to such high standards (apart from the inclusion of my mug obviously.)

Final stages of packing my bags now, heading back to Melbourne tomorrow to catch up with a few friends before I leave. A couple of weeks at home has proven excellent and a much needed refreshing break after finally finishing uni (and 17 years of consecutive study.)

Lets get this show on the road.

2007-01-04T13:11:00.001+03:00

Well with just over a week til I fly out, I thought I might get a headstart on my Uganda Blog.

I've bought everything I think I need and probably haven't brought the things I need but don't know about!!

Apart from that, I have around 30 hours flying time on the way there with a couple of hours changeover at Kuala Lumpur and Amsterdam. They are the only stops until arriving direct in Entebbe, Uganda. Entebbe has the national airport, but isn't too far away from Kampala the capital.

I'll be staying in Entebbe overnight on arrival. We will then pick up two other interns the following day before travelling to Kampala, where I will be based. We then go straight into an orientation program, 6 days have been squeezed into 4 so that will be pretty intense!!

I only stay in Kampala those 4 days before heading over to Kenya for my project trip for a few weeks, before coming back to Uganda in early Feb.

I'll need to taste it before I really have a good grasp of my daily work, but a few past /continuing interns have been helpful to give me some good expectations.

Anyway, enough for now, I fly out Monday 15th, and arrive the evening of the 16th, losing 8 hours somewhere in transit. I'll try to post any pictures I get,
I don't have a camera, but hopefully will be able to nab some off other interns every so often.