A Long Time Coming

Okay, so I know a few of you thought I have been kidnapped or something like that and I guess it is something like that as I have been to faraway places and near places and sometimes I feel like my time has been kidnapped from me. The last months have gone by so quickly it is hard to believe that it is the middle of May already. That brings me to what I have been doing for the last three months. In February I went the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to work on a nursing school at the Vanga hospital and I started to write a blog post but it was just so negative and a lot of it was just about the hopelessness of that is still in the DRC, so I never finished it. Even now I am contemplating whether to finish it or write about the hope of where I am right now at the African Children’s Choir Primary School managing the construction of a football pitch.

Okay I have decided to write about my time in the DRC so here it goes. At the end of January I went to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was a very impactful project trip in my life and I am still trying to work out all I saw and experienced there. First I am first going to give a few quick facts about the DRC.

• ·         Holds 70% of the world’s Coltan and 30% of the world’s diamonds
• ·         Has 30% of the world’s hydropower potential
• ·         2/3 the size of Western Europe
• ·         Average annual income of $320
• ·         Ranks last on the UN human development index

The DRC may be one of the most mineral rich countries but since colonization it has been raped and pillaged by greedy and corrupt people. There seems to be a great tolerance for the corruption in the DRC. Okay I am going to try to keep this from becoming a rant but I am going to talk about the bad first and then the good.

How many people can you fit into a van? Life in Kinshasa

You see corruption and bribes as a part of life in Africa but it came to a new level when in the DRC. People government officials would directly ask for money everywhere from the start of the trip going through customs at the airport to the end leaving the airport. When we were driving downtown Kinshasa with one of the ministry representatives and a police officer walked into the middle of the road waving for us to pull over. The driver calmly drove into the other lane around the cop and continued on. She told us that you never give a cop your license you just put it against the window or you will have to wait for hours as they wait for a bribe. Okay that was just one example of the rampant corruption we saw but I will get onto the good stuff.

Vanga from the air

My time in Kinshasa, the capital with 10 million people, was not inspiring but luckily our project was 500km east of the city. Because of the state of the roads we took a Mission Aviation Fellowship plane to Vanga it was super cool I got to sit co-pilot and enjoy the view as we passed over small villages. We even stopped in a small village to pick someone up it was super cool as we buzzed the trees coming in to land.

Once we arrived in Vanga things changed we got away from the corruption to actually meeting people that are doing things to change lives because the DRC government is doing little. Vanga hospital is a 400 bed hospital that serves 250 000 people and attached to it is a nursing school. For 10 days we worked on the site performing preliminary designs for the nursing school expansion. That was neat but the best part was talking to the people there and hearing their stories. Stories of lives being changed, people healed, rebels trying attack. Since this is very long already I will leave it here, open-ended. Lots of stories to tell so feel free to message me if you want to hear more.

Being introduced to the class

View from where we stayed of the river I swam in everyday

A little break from work

In the meantime please pray for the people of the DRC they really need it more than anywhere else I have been. Please keep me in your prayers as I finish up at the African Children’s Choir Primary School and head to western Uganda to manage a project for 6 weeks. Also please pray for my support raising as it is still lacking and if you feel inclined please donate.

Kampala Christmas and Coastal Adventure

Christmas in Kampala didn’t feel like Christmas until Christmas Eve. I am not sure whether it was the warm temperature, being away from friends and family, and/or not doing any shopping for presents. It wasn’t until Christmas Eve when I went to a Christmas Eve service that it felt like Christmas. It got me thinking about what Christmas is supposed to feel like. Christmas is about Jesus and Jesus is the same to everyone everywhere. It does not matter where you are or who you are with; it is about being thankful that God came to earth to forgive my sins and bring me back into relationship with him.

After Christmas I made the long trek to the Kenyan coast. I took the bus there and if you think roller coasters are scary guess again. The first lag of the trip took me from Kampala to Nairobi (655 km). It took 13hrs to complete and we passed three buses from the same company that were broken down. The scenery was very nice we even got to do a 30km detour along a narrow gravel road that wound through a hilly region with many tea plantations. Our bus arrived two hours late at 9:45pm but the connecting bus was supposed to leave at 9:00pm so I was expecting to sleep in the bus company’s lounge but they actually waited for us. There were a number of us transferring so they just kept the bus there for an extra hour. Well right off one bus and back on another was not the best but it looked like a nice bus until I saw the shattered windshield. Being a night bus I took comfort in being able to sleep but at one point in the night I woke up as the bus was pulling a uturn. It then went back off the main road to some small town. The bus driver pulls a tread from a large tire, lying in the aisle, out the door and sells it to some guy. I don’t remember the bus stopping to pick up a tire tread I really don’t know where it came from I think it actually maybe from one of bus’ tires. Well the next morning I wake up to a great sunrise and now the cracked glass in the window is falling out. After another 650 km and 13hrs on the road we arrived in Mombasa with a basketball size hole in the windshield.

Mombasa is a shipping port and where almost all overseas goods go through to get to Uganda. It is on the Indian Ocean home of white sand beaches, palm trees, warm water, and resorts. I do not know why I decided on Mombasa but I was there and was not sure what to do. I had booked a hostel and that is all I planned so I started walking it was weird to walk around probably the biggest tourist area of Kenya and not see another white person. After a few hours of walking I start to head to the hostel I had a vague idea where it was but after another hour or so and being tired I picked a boda to the hostel. Apparently it was actually quite far from town but I got in a great walk. The hostel was nice after lunch and a quick jump in the pool and fell asleep on the hammock.

Over the next few days there I met lots of very interesting people with great stories. People I met included a man who fled from Poland on foot finally making it to the US and now he is a CNC programmer for machining of parts for the space shuttle thrusters. Another one was an Iraqi man who owns a Safari company in Nairobi. There was a guy who imports cars to South Sudan and a South African tourism professor that was on a trip from Alexandria to Cape Town done on public transportation. I also met two women had just taken a Permaculture (designing food systems not crops) course in Nairobi. They were meeting with a local farmer one day and I tagged along it was quite interesting what they said and I got to add my two bits about the proximity of the well to the septic tank and a few other water issues. The same women were going to a “resort” down the coast an hour and I joined them. It was amazing right on the beach and quite rustic which was perfect for me. I spent three days there just hanging out, snorkeling, and reading. New Year’s was spent on the beach around a bonfire talking about how to save Africa.

 



The next day I was back on the move. I got to town earlier than expected so I walked around and bought a Tottenham Jersey (Everyone has to have an English Premier team here), had a soda a little stand on the side of the road and walked to the train station. The train takes longer to get back to Nairobi but I have been told that it is well worth it. It was worth it, the train is old and sways side to side a lot. The train is much more comfortable we had dinner and breakfast and I even got my own cabin. It was a night train so much of the journey was a night but allowed me to watch the stars as the train chugged through the darkness. The sun rose as we were seated for breakfast. I have never travelled by train but I loved it I got to see so much from many villages to animals like zebras and antelope. There was a couple hour delay as our locomotive went to move a broken down train. The train goes right through a huge slum before arriving in Nairobi which is always sad. To me there is a big difference between poverty in villages and cities. I see much more hope in villages maybe it is because people often go to the city in hope of a prosperous life and it is not that way for many people. From Nairobi I caught an uneventful night bus with a different bus company back to Kampala. Back in Kampala I am glad I did the trip but it would be better to share the long journey with close friends.

Entering Nairobi

 

That is it for now, sorry for it being long winded. Next time I plan to write about a day in my Ugandan life.

Blessings,

Aaron

Out and about

I promised to post again soon since I have been not posted very much in the last while but I started writing this about two weeks ago and then just left it. So sorry for that. Of the interns I have definitely been the spoiled one because I have done a bunch of things the others haven’t. Most recently I have gone on two small project trips and done a few days of shadowing an eMi construction manager in Jinja.

The COTN Site (Thrilling I know)

A well COTN built for the surrounding community

One small project I mention briefly in my last post  but now I will tell you about what happened on the trip. The organization had recently bought some more land and they needed to revise their master plan so Robert, a long-term architecture volunteer, and I went up to Lira which is a 5 hr drive north of Kampala. Lira is much drier than Kampala but still green because it is the rainy season. They have experienced a little of the drought that has been affecting the horn of Africa but the affects have really been minimal when you compare it to places like Somalia. Children of the Nations run a primary school, children homes, and child sponsorship in Lira. I went to survey the newly purchased land which seems pretty simple as it was not very large and was very open. Of course it was not simple because the GPS survey unit would not work and after 3 hrs in the sun trying to get it to work we gave up. I was able to use the handheld GPS unit to roughly get the new boundaries and then we called it a day as the afternoon rain was coming. The ministry urged us to stay another night and attend their church the following morning. We stayed and experienced a church service that makes the western Pentecostal church look like an Anglican church. At one point some people pick up their chairs and were dancing with them over their heads. The whole trip was a great time that I got to meet some great people doing great work.

We did another small day project that was much more successful with the GPS survey equipment. The project was located in Mbale in the Mount Elgon foothills. It was a small medical centre and school that recently purchased some more land. Within 3hrs we were back on the road and the long drive back to Kampala. It was a long day with over 14hrs of driving.

A few weeks back I was able to follow around an eMi project manager for three days. Project management is something that I have interest in and the three days gave a great glimpse into what it would be like. I definitely saw the great differences between western and Ugandan management styles such as direct vs. indirect communication. Many of the principles are the same though and I look forward to possibly do some construction management work next semester.

Driving back from market

In the past week all the other fall interns have left, two will return in mid-January, but it is sad to see them all go. It has definitely changed quite a bit over here as I am now the only person in a room with six desks. The other interns were awesome and it was great to get to know them and I can say for sure that they have been changed through their time here. We decided that we needed to create a legacy before we left so we commissioned a local welder to build a BBQ for us. It was made out of an oil drum and uses charcoal. In the picture it is not quite finish but I will show you a picture of the grill when it is finished because that will be the most amazing part. We used the grill for the interns’ farewell dinner even though it was not quite finished. We bought a goat few days prior and one for the guards killed it and we butchered it into tasty shish kebabs that were marinated in a rosemary pineapple marinate. Now before anyone can say that I am not a man for taking part in killing the goat I was not there I had to go to the market to get food for dinner and when I got back it was already skinned. All the Ugandans were astonished that none of had killed a goat before then they became even more astonished when one of the long-term volunteers said when she was younger she had one as a pet and didn’t eat it. Honestly I like the taste of goat and think that I might get a couple when I come back home. I will probably keep them at my village (mom’s house) until they are ready to eat.

Our BBQ!!

Erland with Dinner the goat

With Christmas coming in just a few days the office closes today for two weeks. During the two weeks I will be traveling out to the Kenya coast and back. During the journey I will go by bus and train; it will take me from the tropical rainforest of Uganda through the eastern Rift Valley and to the hot and dry coast along the Indian Ocean. Not sure what I will do there maybe learn windsurfing do some swimming in a warm ocean, relax and read. It will definitely be weird being somewhere so hot for Christmas and away from my family for the first time.

Please pray for me and other eMi staff that are traveling during Christmas. Also keep the Democratic Republic of Congo in your prayers as there is great tension from the recent election results and eMi has two project trips planned there in February.

Blessings,

Aaron

Uganda the Beautiful

The view of the western rift valley from the lodge

It has been a while since my last update partially because of the reason outlined in my last email update and because I have been quite busy. During the past two weeks I have gone on a safari and seen many amazing animals, visited the village of one of our local staff, and helped a ministry that runs a school and homes for orphaned children some of which are victims of the war called Children of the Nations

We went out to Queen Elizabeth National Park to which is a 6hr drive through this beautiful country. After a quick check in at the lodge we went out for an evening game drive and our awesome driver was able to find a lion with a kill in the little light left. The following morning we woke up early to the amazing view of the western rift valley from our lodge an went on another game drive and saw a pride of lions, cob, impalas, cape buffalo, elephants, hippos and many amazing birds. God creation is absolutely stunning! I put a bunch of photos on facebook if you want to see what we got to see.

 

Crater Lake in Queen Elizabeth Park, Uganda

The goat we bought for Stephen's dad

 That evening after leaving the park and searching a couple of towns for fuel we made our way to the village of an EMI Uganda staff member, Stephen. The directions to where he lives were “drive to the Congo border and take a right.” It was literally the last road before the Congo border crossing. I am not sure when the last car actually made it up to his house but I would be surprised if it wasn’t years ago. A little background here, in Uganda almost everyone has a home in their village and many wives will stay in the village while their husband goes and works in a larger city. It is a little difficult to understand from our western views but it is very common here. On the six acres Stephen’s grandfather owned there now lives his dad, mom, uncle, brothers, cousins, children, and many people I don’t know their exact relation to him. Another thing is anyone that is related is called brother, sister, or dad so it was difficult to figure out what the relation was between everyone. We had an amazing time and one day we went for a short drive from Stephen’s village through the park and we saw a leopard it was awesome but it was too quick to get any pictures. We rode the bus back to Kampala which in itself was an experience of the crazy driving and buying meat on a stick from the bus window.

Stephen and his family in his village

Well I need to head to bed because I am off again tomorrow to Sipi Falls. They are some water falls that come down the side of Mt Elgon near the Nile river. I will be in Jinga for most of next week seeing what is happening there on the construction management front and doing a short little project trip for a day from there. Next time I will write about Children of the Nations. I have lots to write about and plan to write more often so check back soon.

Bye, Aaron

Culture Shock, a Land of Paradoxes and Beauty

 

At Kijabe waiting to be shown the site

Before I came to Uganda I was warned about the culture shock and I felt quite prepared as I got to Kampala. The thing that I had forgotten is that even in Africa there are large differences between cities. I arrived in Nairobi on Friday and I almost forgot that I was in Africa the person picking us up drove a very new, power everything, van and the highway was wide and had streetlights and then we had to stop because there were some goats standing in the middle of the highway. My view of Nairobi is definitely not complete as I am staying at the African International University(AIU) which is located in outskirts of the city in one of the most affluent areas of the city.

Our work for AIU was to a work with a Kenyan Architecture firm, that had already done some preliminary design, to design the campus master plan and campus center building. This was my first full project as we had a group of 10 that included structural, civil, electrical engineers and architects. It is not too often that sort of group of professionals would work alongside each other for more than just a meeting. We stuck it out and no architects were hurt during the making of the master plan. Jason it this part is for you, one of the challenges during this trip is the fact that the skills I used most on this project were the ones I learned through summer work that was not related to mechanical engineering. It was pretty easy to get over that because all the awesome people there, people from all over Africa that are working towards masters and doctorates in biblical studies and theology, but were not too busy to stop and talk.

Stephen(healthy again!) and I with the EMI CMs(The Taubitz)

Late in the week myself and another intern, Stephen, headed to Kijabe Hospital to do some surveying for a new wastewater treatment system. The old one was not doing it job partially because it was undersized and partially because the thin sewer pipes had broke and farmers were diverting the wastewater to water their crops. The survey went poor straight from the start with the data collector battery being dead because it had not been charging properly, then lately the day I turned something I shouldn’t have and ruined part of the survey overall a frustrating day. The good always seems to come with the bad because we had a great dinner at the home of the EMI Construction Managers’(CM) and then I had the best shower since I had come to Africa. It is weird that I, a person of mediocre hygiene, would love a nice hot shower with good pressure so much. The next morning we were up before dawn so we could ensure we finished the survey. As we were getting ready I asked Stephen how his sleep was and he replied “not good” and went into some details that I will not mention here. He was a real trooper and stuck it out until about half an hour before we had planned to leave when he couldn’t continue. One of the CMs stepped in and we decided to stay a second night there and allow Stephen to get better. It is interesting how God works because we would have not finished the survey if Stephen had not been sick and for some reason the place we were staying had us booked for 2 nights. Also it worked out that the team would come past Kijabe on way out to where we would debrief.

Baby Hippo on mom's back

The debrief was amazing we went on a boat ride saw hippos and on a walking safari (Pictures will be posted on Facebook) I did not expect to get to do all that but a little relaxation was required after the long hours of the week of work. It was sad to see everyone go but we all left know that we had used the gifts that God had given us to bless others and bring glory to him.


"Oh, Hi there!"

There are lots things that can be prayed about so I will make a list:

-A team member David who has been sick since last week and is now on high dose penicillin.
-The EMI disaster relief teams that are and will be working in Kenya doing drought relief work.
-Good communication and relationship between EMI and the Kenyan Architecture firm.
-The other project trip that I will be going on (more details to come, maybe).
-God’s leading for what I am to do in December.
-That I get to know more Ugandans and learn more of the language.
Aaron

Seeing the countryside

The project team with the staff and locals



Moms wait for their baby's checkup



Setting up to discuss the project

It feels like I have been here for a long time already but it has only been 2 weeks. Last week I had the privilege of going on two trips to small villages. The first one was for a medical clinic approx 5hrs west of Kampala near Fort Portal. It was my second experience going to a small Ugandan village but this time it was to do work there instead of seeing the work already done. This small clinic has three full time staff but they are not enough to serve the people from the village and the ones that come from the nearby Rwenzori Mountains. Right now they have a small day clinic and a three room maternity ward both of which are not large enough. We were called to complete a master plan for the site so they could plan for future buildings. It took about 45mins for the introductions and greetings at the site. Is always a difficult thing on project trips where Ugandan culture is more concerned about relationships and we are more concerned about finishing in the time we have. With all the greetings done and a group following us we set up the RTK unit which looks like something they would put on the moon. I got to use the GPS Survey equipment for the first time and after being there for 4hrs we had completed the topographic survey for the property. The next morning we met with the local medical staff and some Canadian doctors(who are helping there for 2 weeks) to show them the site plan and we discussed where future buildings will go and services they will provide. It will be very exciting to see what this site looks like five years from now, I feel like I will say that about everywhere I go.




Erland surveying with the local wilflife




On the drive

After arriving home on Thursday night we were off once again on Friday to rough in and take grades for some school buildings and a chapel. Getting to this small village was awesome we drove on rutted dirt roads for about an hour passing through little villages, coffee and matooke farms until we finally arrive at a large clearing. The background of this area is that it saw very heavy fighting and the rebels did awful things to the local people during the civil war. The closest school is about 7km and that is pretty far to walk everyday. It is a very cool site and I know that God will use it to teach and heal the people from the surrounding area.

I leave for Kenya tomorrow we are flying instead of driving because it will be a tenth of the time. I will be doing more surveying; it seems that my many summers of surveying are going to good use over here. It is one of the interesting ways that God works, how he prepares use for things even when they aren’t even thoughts in our heads. This trip should be great we will be working with a Kenyan Architecture firm and there will also be a Kenyan civil engineer on the EMI team. The main project will be at the Africa International University but I will going to do some surveying for the Kijabe Hospital. More details to come on both those projects. Please prayer for safe travel for all the people coming on this project trip especially the volunteers coming from North America. And as always that God is given the glory.

Blessing, Aaron

Getting Settled in Kampala

This blog post is a little late in coming but here it goes. 

We left Colorado at 8:40pm on Monday (Aug 29) and Arrived in Kampala at 7:45am on Wednesday(Aug 31). It was a long journey but we were able to go to central London during our 9 hr layover in London. As I stepped off the plane the warm most air Ugandan hit my face and it became real I am in Uganda. My first two experiences in Uganda were seeing Jeremy Clarkson in front of me in the customs line and then seeing a bird control officer shoot a monkey in the parking lot. From that time we went straight to the EMI office where we met some of the staff and we shown where we will be living for the next 3.5 months. The guys are staying in the same compound that the office is in. It is quite different compared to Victoria where we don’t lock our doors to here in Uganda where we have a compound surrounded with topped with razor wire and a guard 24 hrs a day. During the day safety is not an issue but after dark it is not advisable to go places by yourself.

Well let me get on a happier note because if I continue on that stream you may never want to come to Uganda and you would miss out meeting these amazing people and seeing a beautiful country. Ugandans are super friendly and will spend the time to make sure you feel welcome. The food is delicious with so many fresh local fruits and vegetables incorporated into it. We have not had too much of a chance to explore the area on our own but through the orientation from Wednesday to Sunday we have got to see little snippets of the Ugandan way of life. Whoot, the power just came back on in time to go to bed(One of the things you get adjusted to here). We have been to downtown Kampala which is the busiest place I have ever been and is just awesome there are taxis and motorbikes (called bodas) everywhere. The taxis are ‘14’ passenger vans that often have 18 people in them and on the bodas there can be 3 people plus cargo like rebar or clumps of bananas. Wow this is getting long so I will end it here for now. But before I end could you keep a few things in prayer- the local people we meet everyday that we can connect well with them and develop good friendships; the people and ministries that we are designing buildings and systems for.

Blessings,

Aaron