the compound...my apartment is the top floor of the far building
the other building is occupied by a Korean missionary family and.....you won't believe it.....a family from Winston Salem! what a blessing to walk into my compound this week and find a 6 year old playing football (soccer) and wearing....an NC State t-shirt! his dad, Charlie, graduated from State. they just arrived in July for a 4 year stay working with Africa Inland Mission (http://www.aimint.org/).
back to my day...so the idea was to keep us up all day wednesday so that we would get a normal sleep cycle that night, to help us adjust to the time change. we had been traveling for 2 days and were exhausted. but they had a busy orientation day scheduled, topped off by dinner at "eMi EA grandma" Maggie's house. (Maggie's daughter & son in law came to Uganda in '03 to start the field office and she came later to help with the kids...they moved on, but she stayed!)
orientation continued thursday and friday with general info about life in in Kampala with eMi, walking tours around our neighborhood, cultural training, and a walking scavenger hunt around downtown Kampala. each night we had dinner at a staff member's home where they shared their testimonies.
before work, eMi EA begins each day with morning prayer here:
the staff will take turns leading a devotion. then we share praises and prayer requests, pray, and make any announcements for the day.
saturday we took a day trip to Jinja to visit 3 projects currently under construction and managed by long term volunteer/construction manager Brice. Jinja is a town about 2 hours from Kampala on the Nile River.
Brice and a local worker showing us the construction of missionary housing at Good Shepard's Fold Orphanage (http://www.goodshepherdsfold.org/). eMi encourages our ministry partners to use local labor and trades and leads Bible studies for the men daily. (see my earlier post on construction management for more)
newly completed building at the mto-moyoni youth center (http://www.mto-moyoni.org/site/) on the banks of the Nile River
Reconstructed building at Mission Link International missionary training center (http://www.missionlink.org/mlischooljinja) in downtown Jinja. the heavy timber roof trusses and portions of the masonry walls of structure were taken apart piece by piece and rebuilt.
Sunday we went to Amazing Grace Christian Church with staff office administrator Brittany. the church is all Ugandan and the worship was an awesome experience. they love to sing and dance and praise the Lord! the service started about 10:15 with more than an hour of singing and prayer and went until about 12:30. from what i understand, that is a pretty typical length for a Ugandan service. also typical of a Ugandan service, since we were new to the church, they asked us to come up and introduce ourselves and tell where we are from. they have a fairly large children's program (i guess there were about 50 kids there that day) and choir who blessed us with a few songs.
later that afternoon, i took my first of many boda boda rides (see article here http://www.theeye.co.ug/bodaboda.php). a boda is a common means of public transportation in Uganda. they are everywhere. just hop on the back of a motorcycle and off you go. i had to go make an important purchase...my water filter....and the trick was balancing the big box on my lap between me and the driver on the way back! all went well and i am ready for another boda ride. i just wish i had gotten a picture, but i didn't want to look too much like a tourist!
monday and tuesday started my first full week of work at eMi EA. we had additional training and orientation at the office and even a few hours of language training by our local staff member, Semei. he speaks Luganda, the predominant language of the people of Kampala (and therefore Uganda). according to one source, there are 43 languages spoken in Uganda!
we also learned about upcoming project trips that we will be taking...it looks like i may be heading to a village on the coast of Kenya to work on a drought relief water project around the first of October.
entrance gate at the eMi EA office compound
yesterday i began my first project: RAMBIA health clinic near Fort Portal in western Uganda (http://www.emascanada.org/uganda_rambia.htm). i posted some pictures on facebook and will write a complete post on our overnight visit to the Rwenzori Mountains site soon.
overall, my first week was fabulously hectic. on many occasions throughout this week of learning about the work eMi is doing, i have been in awe that i am actually here and a part of what God is doing through eMi in East Africa. i feel so blessed to have this opportunity to work along side other like minded design professionals. this is going to be an amazing year...i know it will have it's challenges, but i look forward to them as i continue to learn more and more to rely on my Savior for every detail of my life!
This is AWESOME! I am so glad you are enjoying yourself (although we knew you would) and can't wait to hear more about the great things y'all will be doing over there! We pray for you daily!
ReplyDeleteLove and miss you!
Sara and Ian