Holla From Kampala (I borrowed that from Zach)

Good golly, I thought I had a lot to write about last week. I'll try to keep this manageable...

Last Monday, we (the Uganda interns - Zach, Heather, Jill, and myself pictured below) departed from Denver. We had an overnight flight to London. There, we met up with Christoph - a long term volunteer from Canada. After arriving in the morning, we had about 10 hours to tour London before we got on another plane headed for Entebee, Uganda. The five of us walked around downtown London taking lots of pictures of Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbe, House of Parliament, Tower bridge, and much more. All the antique buildings were spectacular, but nothing compared to my experience at St. Paul's Cathedral. After stepping inside, the only way I can describe the reverberating harmonies of the choir is breath-taking. The overwhelming splendor of the whole scene just gave me the urge to worship the Lord in prayer. It was quite a unique experience - I guess you had to be there to understand. Zach, Heather, Jill, Jeremy in front of House of Parliament Thames River in front of House of Parliament

When we boarded the plane headed for Uganda, I was pretty tired, but God had my first major challenge of the trip in store for me. I had a lengthy conversation with a very friendly man from Uganda whom I sat next to. We talked about all sorts of things, but I soon found out that he was a committed Muslim. What surprised me more was that his beliefs were what I would consider very post-modern and universalistic. He was very well-read and even knew a good deal about the Bible. I feel like we had some good dialog, but after some polite disagreements, it seemed like I had reached a dead end. After reflecting on our conversation, I felt really compelled to just pray for Him. I would ask that you join me in praying for Amin, especially that God would show him dreams and visions of Jesus Chirst, the only way of salvation.

When we stepped off the plane on Wednesday morning, the humidity was there to greet us. The climate and topography reminds me a lot of Jamaica (which is simply beautiful in my opinion), for those of you who have been there. Fortunately, all of our luggage survived the journey as well. Praise the Lord for safe arrival!

The rest of the week was mostly comprised of meeting people and the city of Kampala and adjusting to jet lag and the culture. We exchanged testimonies with the staff here (like we did in Colorado), and we got our work stations set up in the office. The office looks nice (pictured below). On Friday, we had a scavenger hunt in the city to help us learn how to find our way around. The most common mode of transportation is a matatu – a 14 passenger (plus children and chickens) taxi and a boda boda – any two wheeled motor vehicle capable of porting 1 (plus children and chickens) passenger. Having known earlier how dangerous transportation in Kampala can be, I would have reserved my travel prayer requests until after I arrived.

Zach, Christoph, and I got settled into our apartment. It’s actually a newly constructed duplex, which after repairing a few things (like the toilet – yes, we do have indoor plumbing PTL), it’s working out quite well.

Saturday we went white water rafting on the Nile river as sort of an intern initiation event or something. I don’t think it’s biased to say that it’s the best rafting in the world. Our raft managed to spill 3 times over the course of something like 4 class 5 and 5 class 4 rapids. Needless to say, it was a wild ride, and I had an awesome time – not to mention that the scenery was absolutely stunning.

Jeremy, Heather, Liz (Architect long term volunteer), Zach, Jill, Christoph (Const. Mgmt long term volunteer), Stephanie (school teacher and wife of Greg), Greg (CE intern). Overlooking the Nile after a hard fought battle - we lost.

I’m so thankful to have made it to Africa, and I’m excited to meet the new adventures and challenges that are ahead. Thanks for making this possible!

EMI East Africa office

Sun setting over the hills of Kansanga, an area of Kampala where I live

Sorry for the late post. The internet hasn't been working the past few days.