Hello from London!
In a small change of plans, our flight plans to Uganda changed. The plan to fly through Brussels was scrapped and we were instead sent through Heathrow. The four guys going to Uganda met in Newark on Saturday and we flew out Saturday night. We arrived in London Sunday morning (here). We had about 7 hours to kill here so we spent it in London. We had the shortest tour of London ever as we took the Tube downtown, got off, walked to Trafalgar Square, and then dashed to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Parliament Buildings, and Buckingham Palace. We met an older gentleman on the train that showed us down to Trafalgar Square and we had a map of the city from the train station. I had one last delightful espresso at an Italian cafe before we took the Underground back to Heathrow.
I'm in Heathrow now and we're waiting to find out what gate our flight departs from. Unfortunately, the internet is not free like in the Pittsburgh airport and I don't have a converter for my laptop for here anyway.
It's raining here quite a bit and it was rather miserable trucking around through the rain and cold in a t-shirt since our luggage is somewhere between NWK and EBB. It may have gone to Brussels and it may be going with us through here at Heathrow. Pray that it all shows up tomorrow morning when we arrive. We're getting to Entebbe around 6 AM Uganda time (which is +3 if you were wondering).
Stay tuned, more to come. Things are going well although the four of us are exhausted and tired of airports and airplanes. Keep us all in your prayers. And good morning. You should all be in church right now because it's Sunday morning back in the good ol' USA.
James
Uganda #1
I made it to Uganda. I don't have luggage yet, but it might be coming today. I bought a few shirts yesterday and a pair of flip-flops. Here's a new one: buy a used shirt at an outdoor African market and wear it without washing it. Yesssssssssss.
I spent yesterday in meetings and today is more things that will orient me to the office and city. I'm really looking forward to getting to work though. The CAD standards here are very, very similar to Burt Hill and AutoCAD doesn't look that different from Microstation. I don't think it will take me more than a day or two to get up to speed.
Speaking of speed, I'm sharing a dial-up connection with the office right now so please don't send me pictures, music, or any other files. Period.
The housing arrangements are nice. I'm in a house and out my bedroom window I can see the sun rise over Lake Victoria. It's kind of obscured by the mosquito net, but you'll have that.
As I mentioned, it will be great to get my luggage today. I possess two pairs of underwear right now, one pair of socks, a pair of jeans that has remnants of every meal I've eaten since Saturday on them, and a t-shirt. I did buy three shirts at the market, so I can probably survive. I still need to get shampoo for my shower...which I took in candlelight last night. Without hot water. Because the power goes off whenever it feels like it. Like all the time. And not on any real schedule.
Things are great though and if I ever get to a pre-1962 internet connection I'll try to send a picture or two. No promises though. The fruit is good and so is the food.
james
Uganda #2
I've finished my first week here in Uganda. I'll quickly give you a run down of what we did. If you're bored or want off the email list, just let me know. I promise not to be offended.
I spent several days of the past week in orientation type meetings. This included things like CAD standards, time keeping, office standards, and other work related things. All of the new people also spent a day on a sort of scavenger hunt through Kampala. We were told to take a matatu around town and find a whole bunch of important places like the post office, American type restaurants, and the money exchange. It was a good chance to get a view of the city and find our way around. Traffic is crazy. The primary forms of transportation are the matatu (a cast off Toyota taxi from Japan), the boda (a motorcycle that you ride on the back of), and the special hire (what you think of when I say taxi). The traffic goes the other way here, but people don't stay in their lanes as they dodge potholes, piles of trash, and goats.
The other exciting thing I did this week was whitewater rafting on the Nile River. It was pretty exciting to be on the Nile River. It was even more exciting to whitewater raft on the Nile River. Drinking the Nile River when we flipped our raft was slightly less exciting, but I can now say that I have drunk from the longest river in the world. To cap off the day, we got into a wee bit of an accident on the way home. Our matatu got slightly sandwiched in between two lorries, but there wasn't really any damage and no one was hurt. Traffic worsens at night and we were really in the middle of it.
The last part of orientation week was visiting a successful project site. We traveled out to Africa Renewal Ministries which is on a peninsula in Lake Victoria. We took a boat to the site so I've now been on the second largest lake in the world as well as the longest river in the world. The site was amazing. eMi did the site plan and also designed most of the buildings. The ministry is very big and supports about 4000 orphans right now through sponsors in the USA.
Saturday was spent moving the office around. The office is in a huge house and several of the staff members live here. The house is over 4000 sq ft and we worked to lay out the offices and living quarters to people have privacy and we also can maximize our productivity.
I went to church this morning at Amazing Grace Christian Assembly. It's a totally Ugandan church that meets a short distance away from here. It was very similar to some of the churches that I had been to in Guatemala.
Some other interesting things:
-- I saw army ants for the first time this morning. I was walking to church and almost put my foot down right in the path of these little buggers. If you don't know anything about them, there was Discovery Channel special on them last summer that I watched when I was bored out of my mind in Butler. Let's just say it's a good thing I didn't put my foot down.
-- I survived eating from a street vendor. Contrary to popular belieft, it won't kill you and I don't even feel ill. Since I'm going to be living here for an entire summer, we pretty much have to assimilate and do things the way everyone else does. Thus, I ate mystery meat off a stick for dinner last night. They said it was beef.
-- We share a dial-up connection here at the office that we know have a wireless router for. We now have the slowest wireless connection in the world.
-- You can't get blueberries here. You can occasionally get strawberries that come from Kenya, but you can't get blueberries at all.
-- Apples are the most expensive fruit here.
-- Sweet corn is one of the most expensive vegetables to buy here. I brought quite a bit of sweet corn seed with me that was donated by some of my supporters and I'm going to be planting it with the gardener this week.
It's hard to believe that a week ago I was in Heathrow on my way here. It feels like I've been here a lot longer than I actually have, but it's fantastic. If you want to hear about something specific, email me and I'll address it in an upcoming addition of this little update email.
I get to do work tomorrow and I'm excited about that. I'm looking forward to actually doing something productive. This first week was good and it provided a time to get used to a new continent, but I'm itching to get something done. Keep praying for me and the rest of the staff here at eMi.
Uganda #3
Greetings, people. Greetings. Greetings and salutations. What a beautiful day for a ball game. Let's play two!
Things in Uganda are good, but interesting. We have had a little too much excitement here in the last week or so.
I went out on my first survey this week. It was an enjoyable day spent walking around 20 acres near Entebbe. We were there for an organization called "Music For Life". They are the people in charge of the African Children's Choir that tours the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia. MFL wants to build a school on this land that they have acquired and also provide some agricultural opportunities to help the kids that come back from tour before they are sent back to their villages and immersed back into that culture. It's a big shock coming from Western culture back to village life. The area near Entebbe is very beautiful. It's right on Lake Victoria and there are many birds and everything is very green. Last Saturday, I went to visit the Entebbe Botanical Gardens. They were magnificent.
When we returned home from the survey, there was a bad surprise. One of the houses that we are staying at was broken into and robbed. This house belongs to Chad and Shanti, the director and his wife of eMi EA. They had left for the States last Friday, but were still in Paris on holiday. Two of the other interns and one of the eMi staff were staying at that house. The house has been trashed. Drawers had been flipped and the thieves had taken many expensive things. We (the four interns and Josh Hoornbeek) had come back from the survey and stopped at the house for just a few minutes. I got out of the car and so did Josh because he needed something from the house and I wanted to get changed because I was meeting a pastor from Hoima, Uganda that night. When we opened the man door on the gate, we saw a ladder leaning up against the gate. Josh and I walked into the compound and we saw a piece of rebar sticking out of the front door. Although the front door had been attempted to be forced open, they had failed at that. Josh and I thought at that point that the thieves had been thwarted. Josh opened the front door and went into the house and I walked around the house to see if anyone was hiding in the bushes or if I could see any other points of forced entry. Everything looked fine on the outside, except that I noticed that one window was open. This seemed out of place, but there are bars on all window openings and I assumed that this wasn't too out of the ordinary. When I returned to the front of the house, Josh called me inside and when I walked in the place was a mess. I looked at the window that was open and you could tell someone had slid through the bars, probably a kid. From my engineering intuition, it looks like they sent a small kid through the bars in the window and then into the garage and opened that door. It appears to me that the thieves only took what they could fit into the duffel bag they stole from Mark, one of the other interns. We contacted the police, but they're pretty much worthless in this case. What we really needed was Gil Grissom to show up...
The police system here is very corrupt, but they do fear the muzungu (the term here for white person). The next day, they randomly had some of us give statements and then wanted two of our black staff members to come back to the police station. What usually happens is that they'll arrest one of the people that are somehow connected to the house and throw them into jail for awhile. They wanted John, the night guard from Chad and Shanti's, and Stephen, our day guard here at the office, to come make statements. Stephen had gone up to Chad's house with Janet, one of the eMi staff members, after the robbery to help coordinate with the LC1 and with the police. However, since he was up there, he was told to come to the police station to make a statement. Both of these guys, John and Stephen, were quite worried about going down to do this. Steve, our architect here, went down with them to make sure that they didn't get thrown in jail. I know that it sounds absolutely retarded that these guys could get thrown in jail, but that is the messed up situation we have here. John and Stephen were grilled by the police for awhile and the police couldn't believe that a muzungu had driven them to the police station. Stephen, who has trained as a security guard and knows a thing or two about the legal process, got through okay, but if it wasn't for Steve being there, John would be in jail right now. Thankfully, we're all safe and sound here. There's no way we're going to have anything returned to us or that the criminals are going to be caught unless God does it, because the police here sure aren't going to be doing it.
Thievery here is a big deal. If someone is caught stealing, there are harsh, harsh consequences. If you steal, you are either very desperate or you are very certain you will not be caught. Last night, I was talking to Peter, the night guard at my house. He told me that if you are caught stealing, you will be beaten to death unless the police show up. If the police show up, you'll be hauled off to some rat infested prison. Prison here doesn't mean cable t.v. and weight benches. Prison here means malaria, starvation, rats, and darkness. If you are accused of being a thief by three people, the same thing happens to you. Peter told me that he once saw a man who had just stolen a television. This man was beaten to death in the street and then petrol was poured on his body and he was burned. In the street. In broad daylight. Mob law is very prevalent and effective and police law is lax and corrupt. Laws here are very different. There's only traffic law when it is convenient and things like abusing your wife and children is acceptable. You can beat your wife, but you just can't beat her bad enough to send her to the hospital. And that's the law. Yesterday, an architect from here saw a woman who was being beaten. The police ran over but didn't do anything because it was his wife and he's allowed to beat her. So this guy just beat his wife while his kids just sat there on the porch.
The work that I have been doing has varied. I have spent much of the last week working on a report for Mto Moyoni, a Christian retreat center in Njeru, Uganda. It's very near Jinja and sits on the Nile River. This is from the report that Steve Hoyt and I have been writing:
The spiritual journey of a Christian leader in East Africa can be turbulent to say the very least. Setbacks and profoundly discouraging personal experiences abound. Though some battles are lost and the temptation for many believers is to walk away and hide within themselves, 2000 years ago the war was won at the defeat of death three days after the complete destruction of our God the Son, Jesus Christ. It was upon the physical and spiritual back of His very own Son that our own judgment was cast down. But the empty tomb gives eternal hope to those that throw their souls at His beautiful feet.
Mto Moyoni is a restoration ministry for the broken hearted located on a beautiful and picturesque property near Jinja, Uganda, where the River Nile flows out of Lake Victoria. Mto Moyoni is Swahili for ‘River in the Heart’. The very location of this ministry seems prophetic. This is the very place where the River Nile begins its long journey north through Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea. Along the way the waters of the Nile irrigate some of the most arid lands in Africa giving life, sustenance and an abundance of food to millions. Just as the river gives life to the nations through which it passes, Mto Moyoni will rejuvenate those who pass through its tranquil property.
Mto Moyoni is led by two women who feel the call of God to minister to the Christian leaders of East Africa. Ingrid Wilts is a single woman, a missionary from Holland, who came to Uganda in 1981 to serve Jesus. Since then she has been robbed at gunpoint, shot, maligned, and accused of being a rebel leader and a political agitator. Having passed through valleys of pain, loneliness, and doubt, Ingrid has emerged as an inspirational testimony of enduring faith. Ingrid has developed the vision for Mto Moyoni and is responsible for the programs Mto Moyoni offers as well as the expansion program. Winette Hubregtse is also a missionary from Holland who came to Uganda in 2001. She has previously ministered in a youth hostel in Amsterdam and now joins Ingrid in the ministry of Mto Moyoni. Winette is a missionary with AIM and has been seconded to Mto Moyoni and is responsible for the running of the centre. Ingrid and Winette’s vision is that Mto Moyoni will be a place that a tired Christian leader can find rest.
Why would God the Father send His one and only Son to die? It is only because God the Father chooses to greatly love each of us. Mto Moyoni stands ready to remind the battle hardened Christian warriors of this eternal fact and promise.
The very center of the proposed Mto Moyoni Christian Retreat Center will be nestled atop the steep banks of the winding, mighty River Nile. The lush, thick, green, thorny vines, bushes, and trees seem intricately interwoven as a beautiful Masaai wedding gown. This one is being utilized as a drop cloth to soak in its share of the sky before her awesome array of colors bleed into this massive flowing river of water.
Perhaps it even appears as a painting applied to a blue canvas. One might think that the Painter used His finger to smudge abrupt and random tan rock outcroppings then flicked an old paint-saturated oil brush, spraying streaks and smatterings of red clay. There are places where the woven vines submit to the will of the Painter. Banana, papaya, majestically large jackfruit trees and more look on from above such as the marble-carved, seemingly immortal saints found surrounding and peering down upon the altar of the nave of any medieval cathedral. At the heart of this painting, a powerful continual gush of water harshly separates the infinite sky of blue then twinkling stars from the coarse rocks, dirt, and thorny vines of a world in disarray.
Though powerful beyond our deepest comprehension, this body of water lovingly invites a world whose rugged paths seem only to offer unforeseen thickets, sharp, piercing stones, and energy depleting dead ends. There is a chaotic maze of traps clamping down and producing deep wounds and then calluses, thus hardening the body to the sensitivity that is found only in the Father’s love. He offers a river that once found, promises to swiftly guide a traveler to the Holy Land itself.
From atop the steep banks at this tiny, tranquil nest called Mto Moyoni, one might want to believe that Ingrid and Winette will enhance God’s creation, if only by a tiny bit. But they would be the first to tell you that this retreat center merely honors God the Father by recognizing His amazing grace and incomprehensible love for East Africans as is undeniably demonstrated in the Sacrifice of his one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
Unlike Lake Victoria, which seems to tip and spill over, forging a life supporting artery to the North, Mto Moyoni delicately sets at the top of her resulting river banks. It has been developed in such a way that its dwellings barely begin to trickle down her small staked claim among the thousands of kilometers of grand banks extending along each side of the River Nile. It is then completed by small, stone stairs, footpaths, and benches that bring you to rest at the mighty White Nile where a harsh land attempts to prevent the river from broadening her horizons. These trails invite the battle-hardened spirits of men and women to come take a deep breath then climb into the safe arms of their Daddy. A place where Jesus can comfort, bless, and remind each of His forgetful children that He loves them dearly, a place where a scarred heart can heal, a place where Jesus can remind His children of just how proud He is that they are His own: His very own beloved sons and daughters.
Most of the work I am doing right now is preparing me for my "big" project of the summer. Believe it or not, I'll playing architect in about a week for an entire project. Steve, Janet, and the four interns are going to try and pull of a project. The Tabitha Project is going to provide widows who care for orphans ways to improve themselves and help them provide for themselves by teaching them to tailor and helping them get their own sewing machines. We're going to be surveying a large piece of land by ourselves (which is why we learned to survey this week) and then design the whole project. My responsibilities are the master plan, the architectural design, site renderings, and the electrical plan. The other three interns are doing the survey, the structural design, and the civil work (water supply and wastewater). It's going to be a stretch for each one of us.
I've had the opportunity to meet some great people in the past few days. This week I met George Hope, a pastor with the Church of Uganda from Hoima. George is studying at Uganda Christian University. I am planning to travel with him to Hoima next month to see the work that is going on there. Much collaboration has been made with that diocese and with Christ Church at Grove Farm in Sewickley, PA (near Pittsburgh). I will travel with him to see the schools there, to see the coffee farm that has been started, and to again meet with Bishop Nathan Kyamanywa, who I met at Christ Church earlier this year.
I also met this week with Andrew Ssekayita. Andrews is involved with a church at Makerere University. MU is the school in Uganda with about 40,000 students. The pastor of Makerere Community Church is Martin Ssempa, who I met earlier this year in Grove City. He put me into contact with Andrew who his one of his assistant pastors and who runs things here in Uganda while Martin is in the States. I received a wonderful tour of their ministry facilities and also of Makerere University.
I've been receiving some questions about what things are like here in Uganda so I thought I'd do a little Q&A with the questions that I have received thus far:
Have you eaten any bugs?
Yes, I ate some grasshoppers last week. They were fried and were very greasy. I’m not recommending you try them and I don’t think I will ever do it again if I have the choice.
What is the weather like?
The weather here is mild. On the equator, it’s temperate. When you go north or south of here, it gets hot. Right now (beginning of June), we’re at the tail end of one of the two rainy seasons. It’s been raining almost every day, but not for very long. Right now, the high temperatures are in the mid 70s. Today it is very nice. We have a nice breeze coming off Lake Victoria, it’s sunny, and there are mixed clouds.
Do you get tornadoes or the like?
There aren’t tornadoes here. From a design standpoint, eMi has been using sustained winds of 60 mph and gusts of up to 100 mph, which is generous. There aren’t really earthquakes where we are either. To the west of here, towards the Ruwenzori Mountains, there is a fault and earthquakes are a concern there. However, we design one story buildings, so earthquakes don’t really control the design.
What kind of plants are there?
The vegetation here is mixed. About a kilometer from here, there is a swamp and behind us is a sort of rocky hill. There are quite a few trees and the varieties that I see the most are umbrella, mango, papaya, palm, and jackfruit.
Is my corn GM?
No, I brought heirloom seeds with me. They grow maize here, so I assume they can grow sweet corn. I also don’t think that sweet corn is going to become an invasive species like the water hyacinth. Sweet corn is grown here, it's just uncommon and very expensive. You'll pay almost a dollar for a couple ears of corn here.
What is the status of the native vegetable crops?
The indigenous here eat a few main crops: bananas, cassava, maize, and beans. The bananas they use are called matooke and they skin them green and make them into a starchy, dense mush. With the cassava, they make into flour and make that into a starchy, dense mush. With the maize, you guessed it, they make it into a starchy, dense mush. The beans they cook and eat whole, usually over one of the starchy, dense mushes or rice.
Things like carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, passion fruit, mangoes, pumpkins, watermelon, cantaloupe, eggplant, papaya, coffee, tea, bananas, pineapple, and cucumbers are all grown here. Other crops, like apples and strawberries, are available from Kenya. It gets cold enough there for those types of crops. Apples are about the most expensive fruit you can buy here. You will pay almost $0.30 an apple. On the other hand, mangoes and bananas are very cheap here. Last night, I paid less than $1 for two bunches of bananas and two mangoes. And let me also let you know that they are far superior to any mango or banana you are going to get from the grocery store in the US.
What are typical building materials?
You have three choices: bricks, steel, and concrete. You can’t use wood here because of termites. If you build a wood house, you have built a temporary structure. Steel and concrete are pricier, so we mostly try to use those as structural elements and use the native block for the walls. Sometimes you can use pressed dirt bricks and sometimes you can get pre-made block. It depends on what country you are in here in East Africa and your proximity to a supply location within that country.
What are you using as alternatives to the building materials you are used to?
Pine here costs what mahogany costs there. I could get a mahogany plank here for what you would pay for pine at home. The woods here are very different and to be honest, I’m not really up to speed with them yet.
As for steel, rebar here is made from square steel that is twisted to form. The quality of the steel here sucks.
Are there progressive ideas or solutions being implemented here?
One of the things that is gaining ground is solar power. The power here sucks. It’s not reliable and you aren’t guaranteed 220 V. Sometimes we don’t have enough voltage to run fluorescent lights. We have been working with solar pumps, solar water heaters, and possibly looking at some solar refrigerators.
The other thing that is new to me and new to us here at eMi is small scale hydro. We are actually working with on a project in Tanzania where we are going to try to put two turbines in to supply power to a project there.
What religions do you find there?
The most prevalent here is Christian and Catholic. Christians are separated into Protestants and “born-agains”. Although we in the West wouldn’t make that distinction, even knowing the beliefs of those here, they do make that distinction. There are Muslims are here but they are not as strong as a force as they are in other African countries. It’s nothing like Morocco, for example. I do get woken up almost every morning at 5:30 AM by the mosque in Kabalagala blaring the call to prayer. It's over a mile away and it's like someone has the radio on in my bedroom.
Is English spoken outside of your immediate working group?
Yes. Almost everyone that I have run into, whether in the market or on the streets, speaks enough English to carry on a conversation. People here are taught English from a very young age. Most people in this area of Uganda speak at least two languages. Here in the region of Buganda, the primary language is Luganda, followed by English, and then other Bantu dialects.
Are there many expats?
Yes, there are tons of them. There are so many NGO’s here and there are lots of Americans and Europeans. There are several locations here in Kampala that cater to Western tastes and although I prefer to avoid them, if you wish to have a taste of home, these places are available.
Are the girls cute?
Some are, some aren’t. I don’t find the Africans to be particularly attractive, but there are some cute Europeans running around here. Plus, you have got to love those European English accents.
Do the natives run around naked?
No, not here in Kampala and not throughout Uganda. Most people are dressed in Western castoffs that can be bought for a few cents in the market. Some women still dress traditionally and so do some men, but here in Kampala that is not prevalent.
What do you wear?
I wear pretty standard clothing. To work, I wear linen dress pants, a collared short sleeve shirt, and sandals. We do have a dress code here at the office, because Africans like to dress up a lot and it is not uncommon for someone to stop by wearing “churchy” type clothes.
Wearing shorts here isn’t really acceptable a lot of times, so we only wear those on the weekend or at places where other Westerners are. You’re given quite a bit of grace being white though.
Have you seen any wildlife?
Not really. There are snakes, cockroaches, toads, and spiders that are common, but I haven’t seen anything cool like lions or cheetahs. Remember, I live in the city, so it’s not like I have the Rift Valley outside my window.
I did go out to the Entebbe Botanical Gardens last Saturday and saw some really neat things. There are monkeys out there in their natural habitat so that was really cool. Take a look at the pictures I posted online to see them.
Speaking of wildlife, I saw monkey road kill. That’s all I have to say about that. It was kind of a “Welcome to Africa” moment. No white tailed deer here.
What are the native animals?
Think back to watching “The Lion King”. That gives you a pretty good idea. Obviously some parts of the country have different animals than others, but if you add the whole place up, that should give you an idea.
Where do you live?
I live in a suburb of Kampala named Kansanga. The office is in Muyenga which is over Tank Hill (Tank Hill is named for the large water tanks on the top of it, not military tanks…sorry to disappoint). It takes about 25 minutes to walk from the house to the office and although it isn’t uphill both ways, you have to walk over the hill. We take a shortcut that shaves off a few minutes, but you have to walk on this dirt path that is full of gullies and cow pies. It isn’t a good idea to go that way at night, especially by yourself.
How do you get around?
I walk. However, if I’m going farther than my legs can take me in under a half an hour, there are several options.
The cheapest way to get around is a matatu. These are 15 passenger Toyota vans. They are all used vehicles from Japan. It costs 500 USX to get from the office to the taxi park in downtown Kampala and 700 USX to get back home. These taxis run very frequently all day long (5 AMish to 11 PMish). They each have specified routes and will let you off almost anywhere along that route. You are usually kind of cramped as they pack in more than the 14 allowed passengers, so just hold your breath and hold on tight. Every one of these you see has scrapes down the side of it and all four corners are slightly dinged. Or smashed.
The boda is a motorcycle with a seat on the back, including a seatback. This is the fastest way to get around and also the most dangerous. It’s about 3 to 4 times the price of a matatu, but they will also take you exactly where you want to go, right up to the front gate.
Special hires are typical “American” taxis. They’re four door sedans that take you where you want to go. They’re more expensive, unless you have enough people to fill it up and split the cost.
Africa is full of ups and downs. You are forced to callous yourself against the pain, starvation, and the suffering you see everyday. People begging are everywhere and they are only outnumbered by the people just barely existing. You cannot help but to go through the day having your heart broken again and again. It's difficult to explain, but there is so much that you can do nothing about yet sometimes God allows your heart to break and allows you to do something to help someone's situation. Sometimes, you just chafe at the people who are asking you for money, but sometimes you know you are called to give. Frank Duda, one of the electrical engineering professors at Grove City, has been to Uganda several times and sent some Beanie babies with me. I've been carrying some around with me and every now and then I'll hand one out. I gave one to this little girl named Gloria last week. Gloria is three years old and her mother has a fruit stand on my walk to work. Every time I see Gloria now, she breaks out into this huge grin and waves. Her mother always nudges her and she kneels (it's an African form of respect) and extends her hand. It doesn't take much to make the day or the year of a little kid here and that Beanie baby from 1999 sure did it. Plus, I get a good deal on mangos now.
I have been able to upload a few pictures so you can see a little of what I see here in Uganda. You can check them out here: http://gcc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004084&l=95213&id=69100021. If you're too old to be in college, you can't enjoy all that Facebook has to offer, but you can still view all the pictures.
As always, feel free to send this on to anyone who would care to receive it. If anyone wants to start receiving these updates, just send me an email. I guess this email is kind of long. Maybe you didn't even make it this far. If you did, shoot me an email and say hello. Our internet isn't the most reliable, but I promise to reply when I can. If you have questions, I'll answer them in an upcoming update.
Keep everyone here at eMi EA in your prayers. Chad Gamble and his family are now traveling in the US until August, so pray that they would remain safe while they are there.
James
