Uganda #4

Good morning from Uganda,

It is very busy here and many people are in and out of the office, traveling to various project sites around the country. I was out of the office last week and will be out for a week starting Friday. Traveling here is not exactly luxurious, so it takes some time to recover from a trip.

The World Cup is upon us. For all the Americans reading this, the World Cup is a major sporting event that takes place every four years. And you never even knew it existed... Anyhow, it's been great watching some football here with people that are really excited about it. Hup Holland!

Last week, Josh Hoornbeek and I traveled to Yei. We were going to inspect some construction for YWAM Yei. They are in the process of building a nursery school so they can move the nursery school out of its current location in their office building. We traveled from Kampala to Arua on a bus, taking almost 8 hours to travel 530 km. We spent the night at the YWAM Arua base and then traveled by LandCruiser to YWAM Yei. The distance from Arua to Yei is not that far, but the roads were awful. We made the journey safely and accomplished what we needed to. Josh did a lot of construction management and I learned a lot about how construction works here. I also was able to design and draft a small house for Pastor Sam, one of the leaders of YWAM Arua. We also inspected the YWAM construction sites in Arua. We traveled to Arua on Monday, to Yei on Tuesday, worked in Yei on Wednesday, traveled to Arua on Thursday, and traveled to Kampala on Friday.

On Saturday, I had the chance to meet with someone from a ministry at Makerere University. I was able to walk over a plot of land that they own here in Muyenga. It may be possibly that eMi will team up with them in the near future.

In two days, I will leave for Rackoko. There will be six of us from the office traveling there to work with Lamplighter Ministries on the Tabitha Project. This project intends to provide tailoring classes for widows who care for orphans. The Tabitha Project will help these widows get sewing machines, provide land so they can grow food, and provide a place for them to live. We'll be doing a master plan of 23 acres, construction documents for phase 1, and a master site utility plan.

Late last week, the budget for Uganda was announced. Uganda is planning to raise the cost of a work permit here from $77 to $1000. This is going to wreak havoc on the economy as NGO's relocate to cheaper countries like Rwanda and Kenya. Pray that this increase will not occur and that the government will see the impact that this decision will have.

I have continued to post pictures. Album #1 is now full and is here. Album #2 has been started and is here.

Also, I have been receiving email addresses to add to this list. If anyone else wants added, let me know. I'm trying to post the old updates at http://redboxuganda.blogspot.com/ for those of you who did not receive those.

Several people have asked about contact information for me here. My cell phone number here is 077-406-7521. My mailing address is Box 3251, Kampala, Uganda.

Keep the emails coming, it's good to hear from everyone.

James