pictures of Africa!

Sorry it has taken me so long to post these, but I have uploaded pictures of my time in Uganda and Rwanda and I wanted to share them with you.

Colorado, London and Uganda

Rwanda

Uganda part 2

Safari

Uganda part 3

Uganda part 4 (the Babies Home)

I have been home now a little over a month and while it has been good to see friends and family, I am missing my friends in Uganda. Today my little brother Nathan, who is 5, started signing "Old McDonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-o", and it reminded me of all the little kids at the Babies Home, they loved signing that song with me. I am hoping that someday I will be able to go back, but I know for now God has me here.

Saying Goodbye

Today is my last full day as an eMi intern in Uganda. I did most of my goodbye's yesterday and I still have a few left today. It has been hard to say goodbye to my Ugandans friends, and I have mixed feelings about leaving. But I am so thankful to God for allowing me to have this experience and to have been able to serve Him here.

"And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."
Colossians 3:14

This is my return flight itinerary:
Entebbe to London: depart 9:10 am arrive 4:00 pm
London to Chicago: depart 5:15 pm arrive 8:10 pm
Chicago to Detroit: depart 9:40 pm arrive 11:59 pm

When I am back in the States (and have fast internet!) I will be sure to post a lot more pictures for you all to see!

Pictures of the Babies Home

Stella

Muchevi

Rosey

Michael

Giftie

Two pictures of the yard that the children play in.

Adam and Phyllis

Audrey

John Paul

Julian

Ahuma and Adam

Collage of Photos

Below are some photos of Amazing Grace, Mama Eunice and my house and roommates.

The front of Amazing Grace, the Ugandan church where I worship at.

Me with some of the girls at church.

Mama Eunice and her youngest son Joseph.

Mama Eunice with her four children. Richard is the oldest (holding the bear), then Andrew (on the left), then Eunice (holding the umbrella) and then Joseph.

This is how we do movie nights at our house. We don't have a tv, and laptop screens are too small, so we use a projector and turn the furniture.

These are the amazing women I live with. Starting on the left it's me then Anna, Suellen, Jennifer and Laura.

Stella and Janet

Sorry it has been so long since I've written anything. I've meant to put up some more posts, but I have just been too busy. Hopefully I will be able to put up another one later this week.

Last weekend I was able to go with another intern, Anna, to visit Stella and Janet's houses. Stella and Janet are two Ugandan women who work with us at the eMi office.

We first visited Stella. Unfortunately, we caught her at a bad time and she wasn't there. But we were able to see her husband and children. Stella has 5 daughters. Her husband is an amazing father. It seems like most Ugandan men run away from doing any parenting and most children are brought up by mothers, aunts and grandmas. But Stella's husband loves Jesus and he said that every child is a blessing from God, even though he has all daughters and no son. These are a couple pictures of Stella's children.

Four of Stella's daughters

The next day we visited Janet. Janet also has a big family, she has five children, three daughters and two sons. When you go to visit Ugandans, they expect you to stay a while and to eat a meal with them. We were in a hurry so we told Janet that we could only stay a short while, but she said no and politely demanded that we let her cook for us and that we eat with her and her family. So we did, and it was great. Janet is a very good cook! Below are pictures of Janet's family.

Janet and her baby Faith

Baby Faith sleeping

Janet's husband and some of her children

Me and Anna with Janet's daughter Peace

Both Stella and Janet live in two room houses, a bedroom/living room and another bedroom. It seems so impossible for a family of 7 to live in a two room house, but it is pretty typical of how people live here in Uganda. I told Stella and Janet how I come from a family of 11, and they were so amazed to learn that Mzungus (white people) could have that many children. Now they both want a copy of my family picture as proof. :)

Cross of Christ

This past weekend the other interns and I did a skit and gave a message for Easter at Heritage International School. The skit we did was to the Third Day song "Thief", where we acted out the song and nailed Jesus and the two thieves to the cross. If you get a chance, I encourage you to listen to the song on youtube or something. The following are the lyrics.

"I am a thief, I am a murderer
Walking up this lonely hill
What have I done? I don't remember
No one knows just how I feel
and I know that my time is coming soon.
It's been so long. Oh, such a long time
Since I've lived with peace and rest
Now I am here, my destination
guess things work for the best
and I know that my time is coming soon

Who is this man? This man beside me
They call the King of the Jews
They don't believe that He's the Messiah
But, somehow I know it's true.
And they laugh at Him in mockery,
and beat Him till he bleeds
They nail Him to the rugged cross,
and raise Him, they raise Him up next to me
My time has come, I'm slowly fading
I deserve what I receive

Jesus when You are in Your kingdom
Could You please remember me
and He looks at me still holding on
the tears fall from His eyes
He says I tell the truth
Today, you will live with Me in paradise
and I know that my time is coming soon
and I know paradise is coming soon."

In the Bible story (Luke 23:32-43), there are two thieves crucified beside Jesus. One of them rebukes Jesus, while the other repents. This really impacted me because it reminded me of the choice we all have to either accept or not accept Jesus into our lives as our Lord and Savior. This gift of salvation and to be with Jesus in paradise is a free gift that He offers to everyone, yet some choose to not accept it. We are like the thief and deserve death for our sins, yet Christ came to earth to die for us so that we could be with Him forever. His death was not an accident but God's plan from the beginning to restore a relationship with Him. And not only did Christ die for us on the cross, but He even defeated death by rising from the dead.

In eMi morning prayer and devotions on Monday, we read "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. In there it stated: "The heart of salvation is the Cross of Christ. The reason salvation is so easy to obtain is that it cost God so much. The Cross was the place where God and sinful man merged with a tremendous collision and where the way to life was opened. But all the cost and pain of the collision was absorbed by the heart of God."

As Good Friday and Easter are approaching, remember the Cross of Christ, the death that Jesus paid and now the relationship we can freely have with God.

Faces of Hope

These are pictures of some of the children I play with at the Babies home.

The Reality of Poverty...

This past weekend, the interns and long term volunteers took a trip to Lake Bunyonyi in Kibale, Uganda. The purpose of the trip was to have some rest and be able to reflect and process on our time here so far. Lake Bunyonyi was beautiful. When we got to Kibale, we took a taxi to the lake and then a dug out canoe to the retreat. The retreat place was very rustic. The domes we slept in had no doors, just a circular hut with beds and chairs and an open end onto a porch. They also had pit latrines and bucket showers. It felt like camping.

The temperature there was so cold! It was around 60 F most nights and mornings. We had all our warm clothes on and blankets wrapped around us. The days warmed up to 80s, which was nice. We were so used to Kampala weather, were it is 90s during the day and maybe low 80s during the night. I realized if I was back in Michigan, 60 degree weather would probably be pretty nice this time of year, I guess it's all about perspective. :)

The lake was beautiful. It is surrounded by green mountains and with all the trees and birds, the place felt very peaceful. We had a great weekend, with swimming, playing games and having worship on a dock. It really helped to give me some rest and peace (and fresh air!) from the busy life in Kampala.

The real reason I wanted to write this post was to tell you about the poverty I saw when I came back. When we arrived back in Kampala, it was dark, around 9 or 9:30 pm. We were walking to the taxi park to get a Mutatu back home, and to get there we walked through a narrow corridor/alley. The sight we saw in there broke my heart. The first thing I noticed about the corridor was that the ground was broken up concrete. Not the smooth sidewalks we have in the States, but literally uneven and broken up so much that it was jagged and rocks from the concrete were poking out. A few feet into it, I noticed a family was asleep inside. There was a mother, with a little baby sleeping next to her. The baby looked around 6 months old. And then there was another small child sleeping nearby, probably around 4 or 5. They had nothing with them, only the ragged clothes on their backs. The were all sleeping on the jagged gound which was hard just to even walk on, let alone lay on. It was really sad to see. One of the people I was with had some bananas they bought on the trip home, so they left all of them with the mother. It was really hard to see such poverty and desperation that such little children must live with. That image is burned into my mind and I just keep praying for them.

"He will rescue the poor when they cry to Him; He will help the oppressed, who have no one to defend them. He feels pity for the weak and the needy, and He will rescue them. He will redeem them from oppression and violence, for their lives are precious to Him." Psalm 72:12-14

Unfailing Love

My time here in Uganda is about halfway over. This has caused me to do a lot of reflection lately on what it has meant to be here and what I want the rest of my time to look like. I think that I have become used to and comfortable with life here. The cultural differences don't really surprise me anymore. And even though I stick out really badly, part of me feels like I belong too. I have friends here, both expats and Ugandans, and it makes me sad to think of leaving them in a couple months.

While I've been here, the overarching theme God has been teaching me and showing me is love. In being here, it is easier to see that God created us for relationships. Most importantly with Himself and also with other people. Ugandans have a slower way of life here, where relationships are what matter most and you stop whatever it is you're doing to spend time with family and friends. Back in America it is so easy to get caught up with the busy lifestyle, and not think so much about spending quality time with people and with God.

It has been hard for me to kick the busy lifestyle out of me while I've been here. I always think there is something more I should be doing, and I forget to just be here: to spend time with Ugandans here and build quality relationships through God's love.

I have been going to the Nsambya babies home for a couple weeks now, and it has been great to build relationships with the children. They recognize me now and even though it is hard to communicate with them, you can show God's love to a child by just being there with them, playing with them and holding them.

I also went back to see Mama Eunice last night. It was great to spend time with her and to just be with her: to help her take care of her sick child and pray for her. I met some other women that live in the slums near her, Mama Michael and Alice. All three of them are great women of God and are such a blessing to get to know. They have obvious hardships but they continue to praise God and trust in Him for their everything.

Today I went to Tigers Club, a street children's ministry. They provide these children shelter, food, medical care, counseling, bible studies and interaction through sports. We watched their soccer game and helped with lunch. There were probably close to 200 children who came to get lunch. It was hard to see some children that were no more than 6 or 7 years old, coming off the streets for a meal. But, it was encouraging to know that the people at Tiger's club are able to provide these children somewhere safe to be and to just love them.

For the rest of my time in Africa, I want to pursue real relationships with Ugandans and to just be here, not getting tangled up into a busy lifestyle. This life is not my own and I pray for God to use me for His will and to bring Him glory. God's unfailing love is something that continues to amaze me and I know that I will continue to share that love with everyone God puts into my path.

"And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Colossians 3:17

The following are some lyrics from Chris Tomlin's song "Unfailing Love":

You have my heart
And I am Yours forever
You are my strength
God of grace and power

And everything You hold in Your hand
Still You make time for me
I can't understand
Praise You God of Earth and sky
How beautiful is Your unfailing love

Nsambya Babies Home

As a part of working with eMi, we are supposed to volunteer at least 4 hours a week with another ministry. With all the orientation and traveling I was doing in Jan and Feb, I wasn't able to go and volunteer. But this week, I was finally able to do so!

I love working with children, so I chose to go and help out a local orphanage. The one I went to is called Nsambya Babies Home. It is called a babies home because it is for children 0-6 years. I went this Monday to ask about volunteering, then they told me to come back in the morning to talk to the pastor. So Tuesday morning I went back and talked to the pastor. The orphanage is run completely by Ugandans and functions through donations. The pastor put me down as a volunteer and then asked what I did in Kampala. I told him I worked with eMi as an engineer focusing in water and wastewater. Then he mentioned how the home wanted to start doing rain water harvesting to save on the cost of water, so he wants me to look into offering them some advice on that too. I told him I would do what I could to help, so we'll see where that leads.

My volunteering schedule for the babies home is Mondays and Thursdays in the afternoon. I went to the Babies Home yesterday for my first volunteering day... there were so many young children! There were probably close to 10 small children per care giver. When I first got there the children were taking naps, so I helped fold laundry. Then 15 minutes later the children woke up and I played with them outside.

Most of the children were around 1 to 2 years old. They were so cute, and very desperate for attention and love. I saw some children just crying and there was no one to comfort them. I went over to one little boy who was upset and just rubbed his back, them some of the other kids came over to me and all wanted to be held. I was sitting on the ground and had about 6 children on my lap and legs. One of the little boys kept saying what sounded like "no" and holding up one finger. Then the other children did the same. I wasn't sure if they were saying the number one in Luganda or if they were telling me no for something. But I just repeated them and said nose and touched one of the little boys noses. He liked that. So then it turned into tickling them. Then one of the mamas there handed me a little new born to hold, the baby was no more than a couple months old, it was so precious! I held it for a few minutes while the mama prepared a bottle for it. After that, I noticed one little girl (about 18 months old) who was really upset and crying. She looked like she was tired. I took her into my arms and held her. She felt warm and I think she was sick and had a temperature. It seemed like a lot of the children were coughing and the mamas keep taking babies to a room to get some medicine.

At first I was really confused why the children were all calling me mama. But then I found out that the care givers are all called mama [name], so I folded laundry with Mama Maria. Most of the children do not have diapers to wear, so when they soil their clothes, they have to go get washed and put new clothes on. There are also very few bottles or sippy cups for them to use, so when they had a drink break from playing, they all had to drink out of adult cups. The child who was sick, that I was holding earlier, couldn't even lift the cup up to drink, so I helped her get the liquid down.

They also don't seem to have enough toys for all the children, so the few ones they do have the children fight over who gets to play with it. I was trying to tell them to share, but the children are so young they only know a little Luganda and definitely not any English! Most of them were playing with dirt and rocks. One little boy was teething and putting everything in his mouth, so I kept pulling out rocks and other bad things from his mouth. There was a little teddy bear that about four of them wanted to play with, so I took it and gave each of them teddy bear kisses with it and tickled them. They were all laughing and smiling.

It was hard to leave, some of the children cried when I did, it seems like they need a lot more people working there just to provide enough love and comfort to these children. When I come back on Monday there is supposed to be a group from Chicago there also volunteering. It will be nice to be able to communicate with someone (i.e. talk in English!) while I am playing with the children. I really enjoyed helping and wished I could have stayed longer. I am thinking it will be hard on me emotionally to volunteer there with so many children that need love. But I am praying for God to use me for His will and glory, to reach out to these children and love them with the love in me that comes from Jesus.

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God." 1 John 4:7

For Him,
Michelle

Mto Moyoni

I went for a couple of days out to Jinja to do some testing for water/wastewater designs that we will be doing for a project that will be constructed out there starting in June. Jinja is a town 2 hours away from Kampala and also where the Nile begins. The project was for this Christian group called Mto Moyoni. It is run by two Dutch women who have a retreat center that they use to minister to Ugandans. The main teachings of the retreats is that God's love is greater than all evil. Since Uganda has around 2 million orphans, it is a very fatherless country, and these women use Mto Moyoni to teach Ugandans about Father God's love. They minister to youth and adults and have special sessions for trauma victims (they have had sessions for Rwandans and are looking into opening another retreat center in Rwanda). It was very powerful to hear their testimonies of how God transformed their lives by His love and how now they use this retreat center to allow God to work in the lives of fatherless Ugandans.

Mto Moyoni Retreat Center

The Nile River in Jinja

While we were there, one of the Ugandan staff with Mto Moyoni took us to the project site and helped us with our testing. His name was Peter. The first thing I noticed when I met Peter was that he had huge scars on his chest, I could only see three, but there were likely more that his shirt was covering. Peter's home was on the way to the project site from Mto Moyoni and since Ugandans are very relational and hospitable people, every time Peter walked us to the project site, he would have us sit down at his house and serve us food. The first time we went to his house, his wife and youngest son came out to meet us and she served us g-nuts (similar to peanuts). Then we went to the project site and on the way back to Mto Moyoni, we stopped again at Peter's house and he played his instrument that he made himself and his wife sang a song about how God is good (in her native language).

Peter's House: Peter walking with Denis to the left, and Peter's wife
and youngest son to the right

The next day, Peter again took us to the project site and we stopped at his house in the morning and his wife served us tea. It was probably the best tea I've ever had. Then we went to the project site and did some more testing. For lunch we were supposed to go back to Mto Moyoni, but Peter took us to his house and his wife had already prepared food for us. It was a bean stew with a mashed vegetable (similar to a potato but different). Then Peter told us his story. Peter and his wife are from northern Uganda. Peter has four children now, used to have five, but one has passed away. In June 2003, Peter and his wife were in their home in northern Uganda, with three of their children and his wife was 9 months pregnant. In the middle of the night, the LRA rebel army came and chased them from their home. They ran into the bush and his wife started to go into labor. She gave birth and for four days they were stuck there with no where to go and nothing to eat. Then they were able to make there way to Peter's aunt's house. However, they were there only a little while when they heard the LRA was coming that way as well. So they traveled a long way and were able to make it to Jinja (southeast Uganda). Peter did odd jobs for a couple years in Jinja, just trying to make money to provide for his family, he said he would work for food, money or whatever they would give him. Then God brought Peter to Mto Moyoni and Peter is so thankful. Peter just kept saying that God is good and there is no way he would be where is he is today without Jesus. He said that even though life has been hard and it has been hard to survive, God is still good and will always get him through. Peter and his wife were just amazing testimonies of God's faithfulness and love towards his children. It was so powerful just to see that even though Peter and his wife have been through really hard times, they still are able to smile and know God's love.

Peter playing the instrument that he made (a common african
instrument)

Peter never mentioned it, but the huge scars on his chest were probably wounds from the LRA. Peter also never mentioned how one of his children passed away, but his youngest son is a year old and the next child is 9 years old, so the one that passed away was the one that his wife gave birth to in the bush being chased from the LRA.

Peter's two youngest children, Lawrence on the left and Abraham on the
right

We were only there for two days, but it was amazing to hear the testimonies of the two dutch women and Peter's story. God's love truly is bigger than all things and it was very encouraging to see it reflected in so many ways.

Children in the village next to the project site that "helped" us with
our work :)

Rwanda

I have been really busy the last two weeks in Rwanda, and there is a lot to tell, so this will probably be a really long post, just to warn you. :)

Some background: the project trip was for 8 different mission groups who own land in Rwanda where they have mission conferences and retreats. The government is threatening to take away their land since they think it is not being used properly, so we went to help them design a christian retreat center that can be used for tourism (something the government would approve of).

I left for my project trip in Rwanda on Feb 5th and I got back to Uganda on Feb 18th. The team traveling from Uganda was 5 EMIers and one Ugandan (Chad - our director and project leader, Denis - long term volunteer in Uganda, Suellen - architect intern, Megan - long term volunteer in Uganda, Brian - eco tourism specialist from Uganda, and myself). We took a public bus (very common mode of transportation here) from Kampala, Uganda to Kigali, Rwanda. The bus was similar in size to a greyhound bus and they played weird African soap operas almost the entire way. The trip took us about 12 hours, and our bus ended up breaking down half way there, which caused us to wait 1.5 hours until it was fixed. They took very little bathroom breaks (only 2!) and the bathrooms were just holes in the ground (not even toilet seats!) with no privacy. So it was quite a different experience. At the border, we had to get out of the bus, get exit stamps from Uganda then walk about a football field distance across the border and get stamps into Rwanda. Then Rwandan guards made us open all our luggage to check for plastic bags (they are illegal in Rwanda). After that we were on our way to Kigali. A pleasant surprise was that in Rwanda they drive on the right side of the road, so that felt good again. The drive was beautiful at the western end of Uganda into Rwanda. It was green mountains, with trees and very picturesque.

The project team in Kumbya

Once we got off the bus in Kigali, it was dark and everyone was speaking French to me (that is Rwanda's national language along with Kinyarwanda). One of the missionaries, Gary Bennett, who we are doing the project trip for, picked us up at the bus park and we stayed the night at his house. We met his family and they were all very welcoming and hospitable to us. Gary has been a missionary in Rwanda for almost 30 years and was here during the genocide. He told us his story on one of the last days we were there.

The next day we met the team that arrived from North America. There was Grace (an industrial and graphic designer, Tony an architect and Willie an engineer and surveyor). From Kigali we drove with 4 missionary families to the project site. It was in southwest Rwanda on the shores of Lake Kivu. The drive was about 6 hours and we drove through Nyungwe National Forest. It was a beautiful drive! The forest was a jungle with lots of monkeys that we saw as we drove through. We stopped to eat lunch in the forest and two Rwandan boys and a girl who were walking through with firewood on their heads stopped near us and watched. One of the boys started walking closer to us, while the other two where more timid. We knew that they were probably hungry, so we gave them all a sandwich, chips and cookies.

When we arrived to Kibogora (the town the project site is in) the missionaries drove us to the hospital. This is where we stayed while we were down there. The hospital is run by British missionaries and it was a really nice place to stay. The next day we went to the project site. It is a peninsula on Lake Kivu and is called Kumbya. Kumbya is beautiful. It has all natual vegiatation, a jungle, while there is a lot of deforestation around it. On Kumbya you can even see accross the lake to Congo (DRC). There were also lots of monkeys on Kumbya and they would climb on top of the roofs and cars (there were so many of them that it was like seeing squirrels in the US). The first day we were at Kumbya, the missionaries we are doing the projet for spoke to us of their vision. Kumbya is a place on unity and rest for these missionaries in east Africa. They are able to connect and encouage one another. It was very powerful to see God working in this way.

View of Kumbya looking out towards Lake Kivu

The next day we went to a local church and we arrived a little late so we could sneak in the back unnoticed. However, when we arrived they ushered us right to the front and everyone was starting at us. The church congregation was about 300 people and we were the only mzungus. We had to go up and introduce ourselves in French (which meant someone translated for me).

The rest of the week at Kumbya I did surveying, perc tests, water quality tests and did designs for water and wastewater systems.

The engineers surveying

Some of the best moments at Kumbya were one day while Denis, Grace and I were out doing perc tests, we were boring a hole and there were a group of village children watching us. Once we finished boring the hole, we took the wet clay we dug out and rolled it into balls, took a stick and played catch and baseball with the children. It was a lot of fun. Grace knew some French and we were able to find out the children's names and they found out our names. The boys we played with were: Gabon, Vedaste, Vien, Jean and Samwey. It was a lot of fun and we were able to see the boys a lot during the rest of the week and play with them some more. That same day we also were checking out another area on site and some school children were walking by. They stopped and said "Bonjour" and they taught us how to count to five in Kinyarwanda. All I remember is that number one is neim. But is was fun to learn from them.

The children we played baseball with

Another day we walked from the hospital to Kumbya, before we started work for the day. It was great to walk through the villages and see the people. One old woman stopped us along the way and hugged each of us, kissed us on the checks and said a lot of things (none of which we understood since it was in Kinyarwanda). But she pointed up and we think she was blessing us. It was really cool.

Walking with some children to Kumbya

After the week at Kumbya was over, we drove with the missionary families back to Kigali. There we presented to them our final presentation. It consisted of a logo and fundraising material, the architectural master plan along with floor plans and the water and wastewater systems. The group of missionaries were really thankful and finally felt that they were able to move on with constructing. When our team looked back on all that we had done, we knew that without God there was no way we could have gotten done all that we were able to do. God was definitely present and moving within us.

After the presentation, the team went to the genocide memorial. It was very sobering and informative. They had many mass graves there, that they are still filling. The genocide memorial talked about Rwanda before colonization and then up to when the war started. I did not realize all that had gone on, but during the genocide in 1994, between 800,000 to over a million people were killed in 100 days. The genocide memorial we went to was only for Kigali, but there are memorials in every town and village throughout Rwanda. It was very sad. The hardest part to see in the memorial was the section devoted to children who were killed. They had lots of pictures with children and listed were their names, ages, favorite things and how they died. The whole memorial was hard to go through. We were also able to see Hotel des Mille Collines (Hotel Rwanda) where thousands of people were saved during the genocide. If you haven't seen the movie "Hotel Rwanda", I highly recommend it.

Later Gary Bennett told us his story of the genocide. It was very impactful and made it very real to us. There is too much to retell, but Gary was able to save some people by taking them to Hotel Rwanda and he fled the country after 5 days. He said once he got back to his home, three months after the genocide ended, that he found bullets, hand grenades and land mines all around his house.

On the last day we were in Rwanda, we went to a Twa village. Twa are like the U.S.'s Native Americans and they make up 1% of the population. Other Rwandan people look down on the Twa and the Twa are very poor. We met one Twa man, Gilbert, he is 18 years old and is the first from his village to go to school. Gilbert took us to his village and the Twa people did one of their native dances for us and then we got up and danced with them. It was really fun. :)

Those are the best stories from Rwanda. If you got this far, thanks for reading!

Today I was able to go back to Amazing Grace and see Patricia and Mamma Unis. Both are doing well. Thank you all for your concern and prayer for Mamma Unis. She is doing ok, but one of her children has been sick, please pray for him.

Mama Eunice

Yesterday I experienced what third world poverty is really like. I went with Anna (another intern with emi) to visit a lady who also attends church at Amazing Grace. She goes by Mama Eunice because her daughter is named Eunice. Anna had been there before and invited me to come and visit. We stopped by a local store to pick up some flour, rice and cookies to give to Mama Eunice and her children. As we were walking towards her house, we turned onto this steep muddy road and at the bottom of the hill were slums. The houses were very close together, right next to a marshy area, there were a lot of children around, some of them naked, the others half dressed. We walked towards Mama Eunice's house and her house was like all the others around it, a 10 ft by 10 ft concrete slab and walls with a aluminum covering. Mama Eunice lives in this home with her four children. Her husband only comes around a few times a year, he works in Sudan. Inside the home was a single bed, a curtain, a small shelf for food and a few clothes hanging around. We sat on the concrete floor with Mama Eunice as she took care of her new baby. We gave her the food we brought. Immediately I wanted to go back and get more, it didn't seem nearly sufficient anymore. However, she was so grateful for the food. We chatted for a while with Mama Eunice. Her four children are Richard, Andrew, Eunice and Joseph. The oldest, Richard, is about 5 and Joseph is almost 4 months. Mama Eunice told us how she can only afford to send Richard to school, she doesn't have enough money to send Andrew. We asked her how much school fees are and she said 40,000 shillings, which is about $20. Mama Eunice makes her living by selling a donut like food at a street vendor. She said she wakes up at 3am every day to start making the food. As we were talking to Mama Eunice, we asked her how old she is, and she is only 26 years old. She is originally from Kenya, but moved with her husband because there were no jobs in their Kenyan village. She said she would like to go back to Kenya, because she has no family around to help her with the children, but her husband won't let her. Spending time with Mama Eunice was really eye opening to see what poverty is truly like. As we were on our way out of the slums, the children came up to us and started touching our hands and arms and one little boy wrapped my arm around himself. I kept hugging the children and giving them high fives, not knowing how many of them would go to bed hungry. We saw a few other people in the slums who I recognized that also go to Amazing Grace. I am definitely planning on going back as often as I can to visit those people.

Super Bowl Sunday... in Uganda

Yesterday, the other interns and I went back to Amazing Grace for church. As we were all worshipping, I looked around the church and was filled with such an amazing joy realizing God's heart for the nations and people all over the world lifting up praises to His name. It truly showed me how God desires for people of every tribe, tongue and nation to know Him. And I was really touched to just picture Heaven with all my brothers and sisters in Uganda and all over the world praising Jesus together.

After the service, Suellen and I were playing with some of the children and taking pictures. The children loved seeing the pictures of themselves on my digital camera screen. It seemed the more pictures we took, the more children that emerged, also wanting their picture taken. There are so many children that come to the church. Some of them are so young themselves, but yet they are taking care of younger siblings during the service. The children's ministry director told us yesterday that a lot of the children come and go to the church on their own (without their parents - if they have them). This was so unbelievable to me because most of the children range in age from 4 to 8. It reminded me of Matt 19:14-15 where Jesus calls the little children to Him.

Some of the church children with me and Suellen

One of the little girls, probably about 3, was playing with me and holding my hand. She kept swinging around on my hand and wanting to play with my Bible. She was so precious. I tried to ask her what her name was, but I don't think she understood English.

The little 3 year old holding my hand

Another girl I met was Patricia. Patricia is 15 and is so sweet. She also comes to church on her own and told me how her mother died and now she lives in an orphanage. She wanted so much to have friends so we took pictures together and I told her that we were friends. I am planning on printing out the pictures for her and giving them to her when I see her again. My heart broke for Patricia, and I pray for God to use me in her life.

Me with Patricia

Sunday evening, or perhaps I should say Monday morning we watched the Super Bowl... live. One of Chad's friends (Chad is the director of the emi east africa office) had a satellite tv. So at 2am we went to his house and we were up until 7am watching the game and traveling home. I definitely feel asleep at some points, but it was fun to hang out with everyone. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see the cool commercials, only repetitive espn commercials came on the tv, so one of the girls kept downloading youtube videos of the commercials on her laptop to watch during the breaks. I never thought I would be watching football in Uganda, especially the Super Bowl!

Ciao, Ciao

Yesterday, Suellen (one of the intern girls I'm living with) and I went to the Italian market, also known as Ciao Ciao to go grocery shopping. The walk to Ciao was about 30 minutes, almost entirely up hill (Uganda is very hilly and at an elevation of about 4000 ft). The walk was beautiful though, and we were able to overlook Kansanga (the town we are living in) from on top of a hill. Walking in Uganda is interesting though, there are no sidewalks outside of Kampala, everyone just walks on the shoulders of the roads. In Kansanga, however, there are just small dirt roads and not too many cars, so it isn't a big deal. At the grocery store, I was amazed to see that there were several American products for sale, such as Pringles, Lays chips, and Heinz Ketchup. Suellen and I bought some pasta and other dry foods and then we chatted while we ate some ice cream at the Italian market. On the way home, we stopped at a little vegetable stand to buy some fresh tomatoes and onions.

On Monday, we went on a scavenger hunt in downtown Kampala. We started at Owino market, which is one of the craziest most busiest places I've ever been. There is probably about 3 ft wide walking space among all the vendors selling anything from clothing, to toiletries to food. It felt like a maze, and all the while you have men carrying heavy loads asking to pass you with very little walking room. We then explored the rest of the city and I am starting to get a feel for how to get around. I am grateful though that we are not living in the city and we have a quiet town to come home to.

I am starting to enjoy cooking more as well. Here you have to make everything you eat mostly by scratch, which is definitely very different than what I'm used to. But my roommates and I cook together and it is a good bonding time.

It's hard to believe I've been here over a week, time is really flying by! Right now I am preparing for the project trip to Rwanda that I will be leaving for on Feb 6. There are 5 of us from the emi office going and then 3 volunteers (one from the U.S., one from Canada and one from Uganda). We are busy getting last minute preparations ready and doing research for the design work. I am really excited to go and see the Lord at work.

Amazing Grace

Today I went to a Ugandan church called Amazing Grace. The service was 3 hours long, which I hear is pretty typical of Ugandan churches. When we got there they did praise and worship songs for about and 1.5 hours to 2 hours. The songs were mostly Ugandan songs, but there were a few American songs that they sang in english and then translated like Step by Step, This is the Day and It Is Well With My Soul. Everyone was really into the songs and there was a lot of dancing. The childrens' choir even came up and did some songs. Then the pastor called visitors to come up and introduce themselves. So the other interns and I went up and we had to say our name, where we are from and if we are born again. Then the whole congregation, even little children came around and shook everyone's hand. It was very inviting and welcoming. Then the pastor preached from Joshua 7 and 8 and told how God's plans are different from our own. The sermon was sometimes in english, sometimes in Ugandan, but whatever language it was in, there was someone translating it to the other language. The curch was in a little building, made of some sort of plywood and had dirt floors. The pastor mentioned how they were going to begin building a new church. And it was really cool because he said emi helped with the design work. They even had the new building plans posted on the wall. Also on the wall were pictures of mission trips the church had taken to western Uganda near the DRC border to help refugees. It was amazing to see this congregation's faith and trust in the Lord. After the service, everyone again came and talked to us. Following church, we walked to Megan's apartment for lunch (she works on staff with emi). We walked though a little town with a lot of children. They kept smiling and waving at us, saying, "Hi Mzungu, bye". Then one little girl ran up and held my hand almost the whole way as we walked to Megan's house. It was so cute! :)

Colorado, London and Uganda

Sorry this has taken so long to post. I meant to do it a lot earlier, but doing anything on the internet here takes a while because the connection goes out a lot and is so much slower than the States.

The last week and half has flown by and has been really busy! Thankfully, I have safely made it to Uganda and I haven't gotten sick. I'll start with Colorado and then tell you about London and Uganda.

Colorado was beautiful. I was in Colorado Springs and it was nice weather and very picturesque. The week long orientation was busy. We usually started our days around 7:30 and didn't end until 9:30 or later. We did everything from culture training, to sharing our testimonies, to learning emi design standards. We went on a couple hikes and those were a lot of fun. It was great to meet all the interns that would be serving with emi. There ended up being 4 interns in Costa Rica, 4 interns in India, 8 or 9 interns in Colorado Springs, 2 interns in Canada and then 4 interns that went to Uganda (including me).

On the way to Uganda, we had a 12 hour lay over in London. The lay over was from 9am to 9pm, so we were able to go and explore the city. One of the interns traveling with me had a friend who lived in London. His friend met us at the airport and then gave us a tour of the city. We saw just about everything there is to see in London: Big Ben, Tower of London, the Girken, Buckingham Palace, London bridge, and much more. It felt like a 5 day tour compressed into about 7 hours. London was great and I loved trying out an english accent. :)

From London, we went straight to Uganda. We arrived in Uganda on Wednesday morning. We had been traveling for 2 days and the only sleep we had gotten were little naps on the plane, so needless to say, we were pretty wiped out. I tried to make it the whole day before going to sleep, but I failed. A staff member from emi, Brad, picked us up at the airport in a matatu. A matatu is a taxi/bus type of transport. They are more like buses since they have planned routes, but they have taxi signs on top of them.

The drive from Entebbe (the city where the airport is) to Kansanga (a suburb of Kampala where I'm living at) was very interesting. Uganda is very beautiful and different from what I imagined. I sort of imagined Uganda as the typical African savannah that you see in a lot of pictures, but is very green and more tropical. Driving is crazy here and doesn't make much sense to me, especially at intersections, it seems people just go and hope the other person will stop. The matatu driver was a friend of Brad's so he took us straight to our apartments. The girls apartment is connected to the office and is gated. I am living with three other women, two of which are also interning with emi and the other works at a nearby missionary school. When we first arrived at the office, one of the other women told me it was a cold day for Uganda. I was quite surprised because I thought it was very hot and humid. But once I showered and changed into some lighter clothing, it felt much better out.

The next day we took a matatu into Kampala. Kampala can be described in two words: crowded and chaos. There are very few pedestrian walk ways because here it seems cars have the right of way. As the other interns and I were walking through the city, people shouted to us Mzungu and Obama. Mzungu means white person and people here LOVE Obama.

On Friday, we went south of Kampala to a little village where emi is helping to build a youth center and school for the organization Music for Life. The contruction is almost complete and ther are hoping to have children there in the next couple months. The trip was really helpful to us in seeing how local construction practices are carried out for when we start doing our designs. It was really eye opening to me, the Ugandan workers were digging a trench for a septic tank drain field that they had been working on for over a week, where in the States a trench of that size could be finished in less than a day.

Later that day, we were able to hear the testimonies of the Ugandan staff at emi. They were very powerful, one of the Ugandan gaurds at emi, Stephen, told how when he was a boy he went to school and then rebel fighting broke out near the congo border (where he lived), he said several of his classmates where killed, and then he ran over 50 km and was seperated from his family for a long time. It was very touching to see how God used that to bring Stephen to Him. The Ugandan staff are great, and I can't wait to learn more about all of them.

Today, we took a trip south of the equator to a little village where an organization called Building Tomorrow is building a school. We were going to help do construction for the day, but unfortunately it was raining too hard, so we couldn't get any work done. The children in the village were so precious though and kept waving at us and shouting Mzungu, I hope we get to go back soon.

The food here in Uganda is great. A lot of potatos, rice and beans, and a ton of fresh fruit. Bananas and pinnapple are probably the most common.

Anyways, it has been a great first few days here in Uganda, and I can't wait to tell you more. My project trip with emi will be to Rwanda in a couple of weeks. We are going to be going to design a youth camp for a local missionary organization. I am really looking forward to that. I am also hoping to start helping out with a local orphanage here in Uganda in the next week or so. I'll let you all know more very soon!

Preparing to Leave

I just wanted to welcome you all here and let you know that I will try to keep this blog updated weekly or every other week to let you know everything that is going on with me in Uganda.

I am almost all set to depart this Sunday. I have a few more things to pack and organize, but other than that, I am pretty ready to go. I am really excited, but I am also starting to get a little nervous, mostly for the traveling part.

I leave Sunday morning for a week long orientation in Colorado where I will get to meet the other interns I will be traveling with and the EMI team that works in Colorado. We will be doing everything from team building activities to learning the design standards to growing and preparing our faith. Then on January 19th I will travel from Colorado to Uganda.

Well, I can not wait to let you all know more when I am there! Look for another post in the next week or so!