Displaced Enginerds

More Bukaleba Splendor


I'm posting early this week because I'll be gone for the weekend. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday I'm supposed to be some what of a councilor (from what I gather, but I'm still not exactly sure what my role is) at a primary and secondary school camp/retreat type thing. I'll let you know all about it next week.

For now, this past week has been good. While in the office, I've been doing some real engineering-type stuff, which I find fun. It's rewarding to find out that stuff you learned in school actually has some practical utility. Ya just can't beat crunching numbers and putting to use the good ol' Navier-Stokes equations from Fluid Mechanics class (ok, so for you fellow engi-nerds, I didn't actually apply the Navier-Stokes equation directly, but I did use a modified Colebrook to calculate friction head losses for pipe flow). I was delighted to resurrect two completely different principles I learned from two different classes back at U of I. The other application had to do with soil density and stabilization calculations, but I'm sure most of you don't care at all and are getting really bored, so I'll quit talking about it.

On Wednesday, we planned on getting an early start to head out to Bukaleba again. We had a lot of things on the agenda. This, of course, is Africa, so it was not at all surprising that we didn't actually leave Jinja till after 11am. Over here, there aren't so many stones, so you usually try to take out as many birds as possible with each one. Our vehicle quickly (or easily rather, because it took all morning) filled up with people and supplies who needed to be transported. When we finally got there, we began our visual and GPS survey of the orphanage site, which meant bushwhacking through an overgrown wasteland. Our trek through the weeds was a good reminder to me why I decided not to be a farmer (my allergic reaction to wading through the bush was about like wading through a corn or bean field back home - not good.) We managed to get our survey, take a look at a few other areas for potential livestock habitation, and collect some lake sand samples before we ran out of daylight - not quite everything on the list, but pretty good for only half a day.

Jinja

It’s kind of been a hectic week, so was nice to have some time this weekend to unravel. Zach and I got moved into our new dwelling for the next phase of our internship. We’re in Jinja now, working on an assortment of projects for a ministry called Arise Africa International (AAI). I’ll do my best to explain AAI, but let me tell ya, it’s not an easy ministry to figure out.

AAI was started as a church planting ministry back in the 1950s by an American missionary. It is now managed and operated by a national board and staff. AAI consists of 198 village churches, mostly in the Busoga area (which is east of the Nile) but several are scattered all over Uganda. AAI is about equipping the local churches to minister in their communities. They accomplish this by both generating financial support and providing ministry opportunities for local churches. That’s kind of where we come in. John and Paula Sauder, eMi EA staff, (Just when I thought the Sauder domination was confined to central Illinois... Their presence is global and inescapable.) have been working for AAI for the past couple of years. Their position (and ours now) is sort of embedded within AAI. Anyway, initially, eMi was recruited to help design a hospital, but John has since stayed involved full time, helping to develop some of the other aspects of their ministry. Among them are a Bible college in Jinja, an international guest house (where we’re currently staying), an office headquarters, a Primary and Secondary school, an orphanage, a hospital, a coffee shop, and a craft shop. Some of these projects have been finished but most are currently being developed. The orphanage, hospital, and schools are all part of a long term development plan for a site which we call Bukaleba (another word you can say just for fun). Bukaleba is roughly a 10-square mile hunk of land which borders Lake Victory on the west. It’s vast and beautiful, but completely undeveloped so far. Services provided in Bukaleba include all of the following: 1 dry weather road. The other AAI ministry facets (Bible school, office, guest house, coffee/craft shop) are here (or will be here) in Jinja.

On Wednesday, the three of us set out in John’s Land Rover for Bukaleba. Getting there is easy – if you aren’t driving by scores of children yelling, “Jambo, Musungo,” then you’ve probably taken a wrong turn. (I guess the founding missionary spoke Swahili, so evidently that’s what the kids have since associated with white people). We spent the day collecting soil samples (from which we plan to make compressed earth block to use for some of the buildings) and getting a rough GPS survey of a section of the land which they plan to turn into commercial sugar cane production. I’m not sure if the rainy season has finally kicked in, or if it rains more over here, or both, but either way, I seem to be getting wet often. It rained on our entire parade around the proposed sugar cane plot.

Romantic Bukaleba

Periodically, Ugandan farmers will experiment with the 1-wheeled wagon concept. If successful, it's sure to save them a lot of money. To date, unfortunately the concept has failed every time.

Thursday Zach and I had a “break” from the action for an Intern Cultural Day. The other interns who are remaining in Kampala met us in Jinja before we boarded a boat which took us to an island called Buvuma, about a 1.5-hour voyage away (that is if the boat’s built out of solid 2x8s, equipped with a 60-horse outboard, and loaded with cargo). After landing on Buvuma Island, we spent a few hours entertaining a bunch of primary school kids who all live on the island (it’s a really big island with a sizable population). It wasn’t all that different from my experience as the Kansanga Hills Primary School PE teacher, so I felt like a veteran. Once again, supplies were limited but we found a way to make due. One game they seemed to be particularly fond of was, “What time is it, Mr. Lion?” After running out of entertainment, we decided to call it a day and return to the mainland.

Taxi service was provide for boarding the boat.

Destiny had other plans. On our way back, our vessel was battered by a mighty tempest. The crew struggled for hours to maintain our course but it was all they could handle to remain afloat. After a long fierce struggle, the seas overpowered us and the boat capsized. I managed to rescue two of the crewmates and pull them to safety on the overturned hull of the boat. After several more exhausting hours of clinging to the belly, we finally washed up on the shore of another tropical island. Fatigued from the fight, all of us collapsed on the beach for the night. The good news is, we were graciously received by a family of gorillas, who gladly shared their stash of bananas with us. (Ok, so there was no storm, but you can imagine what it’d be like if there was, if ya know what I mean. Hey, now I did hear something about an earthquake in Illinois – how bizarre.)

Friday pretty much consisted of playing with the soil samples that we collected on Wednesday. We basically took each sample through a series of field tests to try to determine the composition. The tests seemed really subjective (which my engineering nature hates) but hopefully they will lead us in the right direction with regards to how we decide to stabilize it when making the compressed blocks.

After almost a week here in Jinja, I’m really looking forward to this next leg of the adventure. I continue to thank God for your wonderful support. May you all experience His blessings.

The Animal Kingdom

Mighty Murchison Falls (don't let the rainbow fool you, they're not nice)

Much to write about this week...

Last Saturday, I payed a visit to Tex, a guy who makes and distributes molds for household style biosand filters. It was good to be able to pick his brain about water treatment and community development. Very simple and effective technologies such as this sand filter, I can get really enthused about.

In the afternoon, I met up with Amin (that one guy I met way back in January on the plane). He was extremely generous and hospitable - he showed me around his business, took me out to eat, and took me to his house. We had a decent chance to talk over dinner, at which point I gave him a copy of "Jesus, Among Other Gods" which I thought might be appropriate for him. Anyway, just want to encourage you to keep praying for him all those who need Jesus as their savior.

When I returned home around 11pm (after a stop at the office), I was greeted by our guard and his baton as he tried to kill me. Whew, that'll get your adrenaline pumping. So, I casually pushed the walk gate open, like I've been doing almost every other night for the last three months. This particular time, the walk gate was locked, but the main gate was not. So, rather than the little gate opening, as I pushed, the whole gate swung open. The guard, who seems to work part time (I haven't been able to figure out his schedule), was probably resting behind the gate when he heard (or saw) it swinging open. Immediately, he sprung to action, assuming I was an intruder. With his baton, he smote the side of the steel gate as hard as possible, which fortunately protected my fingers from being crushed. "Thanks for watching out for me," I was tempted to say but didn't...

Sunday afternoon, Zach and I had our neighbors Anthony and Christine over for lunch. We made burritos which they seemed to enjoy. Our conversation was a bit sparse, but everything seemed to go fine. I went to play ultimate again, but as the game wore on, I started feeling sick. By the time I made it home, I felt terrible. I went straight to bed and slept for like 10 hours. The next morning, I thought I thought I felt better, but as the day progressed, so did my illness. By the time I quit work, I was nauseous, had a fever, chills, headache, and every joint and muscle in my body ached. So, I decided to go to the clinic to get tested for malaria. It seems like they could have chosen a more welcoming flier to hang on the wall of the check up room than one that read, "This could be the last five minutes you're alive." (I think it was a gospel tract.) If that wasn't enough to scare me off, perhaps then the impression I got that the cotton used to sterilize my finger looked like it came from the nurse's pant leg was enough to push me over the top. Whatever the case, after a blood sample and short wait, I was told that I didn't have malaria. That was good news, but it didn't improve the way my body felt. I paid my bill, which was a whopping 2000 Shillings (less than $1.20) and went strait home and straight to bed. I had a few nighttime interruptions, but in the morning I woke up feeling a quite a bit better. I was really thankful to recover so quickly from whatever I got, because on Wednesday I had a safari scheduled for Murchison Falls.


Wednesday morning, Zach, his buddy Jim who's visiting from the States, and I headed to Murchison Falls, a national game park. The place was so beautiful. And the animals were totally awesome. We saw giraffes, elephants, water buffalo, cobs, antelope, hippos, crocodiles, wart hogs, and best of all, lions. So at this particular park, lion sightings can be a little rare. Sometimes you see em, sometimes you don't. This time, there happened to be a whole pride just hanging out in the road. Needless to say, we just parked for a while and watched them as they did what lions do (which isn't much when they're not killing anything). I was hoping to see something violent, but the most action I got to see was the cubs wrestling. Either way, it was totally cool.Just another day... A lioness and her cubs.

Male elephant (as if I had to tell you)

Doesn't every giraffe look exactly like this?

Crocodile awaiting any unsuspecting prey to wander into its jaw.

After our land trek, in the afternoon we took a boat ride up the Nile River about 17k to Murchison Falls. Along the way, we saw an abundance of hippos. Not far from our campsite, we saw this hippo emerge from the water and begin pressing the audience back. Several folks seemed to be a little too casual about the situation and were getting awfully close. (I wasn't aware of this until our safari, but hippos are one of the most deadly animals, accounting for more human deaths than any other animal). I was hoping for a little action, but fortunately (for those involved) the situation did not escalate into anything more exciting than watching a hippo wander around. Crocodiles were also plentiful in and around the waters of the Nile.

He's not as friendly as he looks

The next morning, our group drove up to the falls in our safari vehicle. We spent about 2 hours walking around, soaking up the splendor (and some of the water too). What makes this place so spectacular is not that it's a giant cascading waterfall. Actually the vertical drop is only 45 meters. This fall is amazing because it funnels almost the entire Nile River (with its flow rate of over 1000 cubic meters per second!) through a narrow cleft of a rock. You wouldn't want to fall in upstream, or downstream for that matter because it takes a while for the turbulence to settle down. It's truly marvelous.


Our safari buddies. As it turns out, all eight of us were from the States. Go Team America!

Incidentally, while at the game park, I met two girls (pictured above in the bottom row) who are working at an orphanage in Jinja (which is where Zach and I are headed on Monday). Even crazier, I met a couple who are volunteering at New Hope Uganda, that place Brad and I visited a few weeks ago to investigate some of the new construction. As it turns out, this guy John has been the one responsible for making the trusses that Brad designed (no, not the really sketchy ones but some new trusses which will be used to reinforce a sub ceiling). You never know who you're going to run into here...

Coming back into Kampala Friday evening, we noticed that the roads seemed mysteriously empty. Something was wrong. Soon, we found out that the matatus (Uganda's primary source of public transportation = 14-passenger minivans) had called a strike (I think our drive heard from the radio, but I don't know because I was sitting in the back seat). I guess the drivers were upset because the police actually started enforcing some legislation which they hadn't been previously. Seriously, if you want to bring an entire city to a screeching halt, this is probably the easiest way to do it. Basically your average Ugandan has three options for transportation: Matatu, Boda-boda, or foot. Boda-bodas are those little mopeds that every country (with a few exceptions like the U.S.) has embraced whole heartedly for getting around quickly. Obviously, there aren't enough of these to go around, so when the Matatu drivers strike, we've got a problem. Fortunately, it was just a one day deal - any longer and the entire Ugandan economy may have collapsed.

Midterm reflections

Broken barriers...

Before I get into the meaty stuff, I just realize that I neglected to inform you all of a surprising discovery that I made on Tuesday morning. Half asleep, I stepped out the back door to dispose of some organic waste in our compost pile. I was greeted by the sight of our neighbors backyard - a view which had formerly been hidden behind a brick wall, but was now uncovered because the wall had collapsed. We were getting used to the concept of being the center of attention in the neighborhood, but this took things to a whole new level. Just to prevent any false conclusions, the wall (or anything in our complex for that matter) was not designed by eMi. From the looks of it, the failure was due to an inaptly routed canal, which evidently had been eroding away at the foundation of the wall. We had been getting a lot of heavy rain over the past week or so, which undoubtedly contributed to the catastrophe.

The activities which I discovered had been going on behind the wall without prior notice were startling. From the looks of it, this canal serves as a water source for some of our neighbors. I don't suspect they drink from it (at least not before treating it) but all the same, that water can't be good.

To be honest, I'm not all that disappointed at the calamity. Shoot, now we have one less barrier to interacting with our neighbors. It's a shame Zach and I only have a little over a week here in Kampala left to take advantage of it.

Speaking of running out of time, can you believe it? My time here in Uganda is nearly half over. Wow. So, this week, I've been trying to reflect a little over the past three months and come to terms with how things have gone so far. A few observations...

Flesh –
I’m not sure what I actually thought Africa would be like. I don’t think I consciously thought that I could leave my flesh in America when I came here, but I’m pretty sure the idea was at least there. You know, it’s like, “Africa – if I can just go to Africa, things will be different. I’ll be so much closer to God, I’ll be able to listen to him, I’ll be able to focus on ministry, I’ll be able to figure out my life. If I can just cross the ocean, then I won’t have to deal with my sinful heart.” Wrong. Dead wrong. And although I knew this at the outset, I think I was still hoping for it. Turns out, I can be just as selfish, self-centered, proud, heartless, and complacent on this side of the Atlantic.

A little while ago, I made a prayer request to some other eMi folks that I would step out of my comfort zone. Afterwards, I was asked by a fellow intern, “Wasn’t coming to Africa stepping out of your comfort zone?” “Sure,” I responded, “but since I’ve come here (which no doubt was a big stir in my life) I’ve found out how quickly I tend to settle. Coming to Africa was not an end in and of itself.” Hopefully, it will be the means to accomplishing what God wants to do through me, but merely spending six months in a third world country does little more than enhance my resume.

I remember back in December looking ahead to my time here, getting excited about the adventure. I was really stoked about the opportunity to come to such a place as this, and experience the different culture and everything. One thing that really concerned me, however, was that I would allow my time here to be nothing more than a glorified vacation. Was I only going so that I could postpone the date that I actually had to enter the “real world”? Was it just a craving to try something different? Was it so that I could appear to be more spiritual? (“Hey, look at me, I’m a missionary. Aren’t I something else?”) Or was it so that I could really follow God and allow him to mold my life?

I’m reminded of a message I heard a bit over a year ago which was aimed at addressing the issue of our complacent tendencies. The message dealt with the story at the end of Genesis 11 which tells of how Terah set out for Canaan, but only made it to Haran, and was content to settle there instead. It goes like this:

Gen 11:31 Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there.

Then, later God had to mobilize Abram to accomplish what his father had initially intended to do, reach Canaan. Had God also told Terah to go to Canaan, but he just didn’t follow through? We don’t really know, but the moral of the story is that he didn’t get the job done. Why? He got comfortable in Haran and decided to stay there instead. How often do we have big dreams, visions, passions, and ambition but then get burned out or lazy and just settle for something less, something more comfortable, something that’s “good enough.” That’s what I don’t want to happen here. I’m not interested in a six month vacation in a tropical paradise. That would be “good enough,” but there’s a higher calling.

If you’re on my mailing list, hopefully you had the chance to read the intro to my March Newsletter, which included an excerpt from John 21 and a quote from Erwin McManus. Last week, I read this book of his called The Barbarian Way, which really provoked a lot of thought and internal evaluation. If you’re happy with status quo, you probably shouldn’t read this book. I was really challenged by some of the points he made. The call of Jesus in John 21 was radical, it really was. He basically told Peter, “Dude, you’re gonna die for this cause. You’d better be ready to accept that.” Jesus never watered down the gospel so that people would accept it. From the looks of it, he even made it a point to emphasize how costly discipleship really was going to be.

So that’s where I’m at and what I’ve been thinking about. It’s not my intension to preach. This is about my personal evaluation; it’s about accountability. No, I don’t see my time here so far as a failure, but I think I need to do a better job of resisting the current of complacency. It’s really a daily effort. I also realize that it’s easy to make myself feel better about it just by talking about it (or writing in this case). I’ve been studying James with some guys from the church I’ve been going to (Amazing Grace), and James makes nothing is more clear than how useless and empty words can be. It’s not about what you have to say; it’s about what you do. Talk is cheap. “Anyone can say they have faith, but let me see it. Prove it to me, don’t just talk about it.” So yeah, this has been really challenging too. Do I just sit around and talk about living for God, or am I a doer of the word?

Vision –
One of my goals for this eMi internship was to scope out what might be down the road in my life. I’ve had the opportunity to meet folks who work in various ministries, and get a feel for what needs are out there, and how I can continue to be involved. I’m hoping to continue the quest, because I don’t think I’ve nailed anything down yet. There's no lack of need, but finding the appropriate way to address the problems is not as simple as it seems. Furthermore, I need to keep a focus on spiritual needs, not merely the more obvious physical ones. Africa's got a lot of problems and a lot of potential, but brute force is probably not a sustainable solution as appealing as it may be.

Technical -
I've definitely learned a ton through my technical involvement here. This has been fantastic. Through the project which I've been working on, I think I've gained a whole lot of experience with water related engineering, especially as it pertains to development. This is exactly what I was hoping to get involved in, so I'm really thankful. I'm also excited about the next phase of the internship - relocating to Jinja where I'll be serving a ministry called Arise Africa. I'll try to give you a better idea of what exactly this means as soon as I find out myself. I'm kind of just along for the ride at this po

We meet again...

If it wasn't sweet enough for me to go see Brett in Rwanda last weekend, he had the privilege to return the favor and come visit me in Kampala. I don't think I explained it very well last time, but he's been in Rwanda for about the same time I've been in Uganda. He's teaching at a primary school in Kigali. This weekend was the beginning of his Spring break, so he decided to bounce over to Kampala and soak up some of its grandeur. We spent Saturday, Sunday, and Monday together. While he was here, I managed to explore a few new attractions in the area.

On Saturday, we went to a nearby rainforest called Mbira National Forest, which is only about an hour out of town. I've never experienced a rainforest before, so it was really cool. The trees were magnificent. Many of them were unlike anything I had ever seen. Several species were engineered so brilliantly. To accommodate for their tremendous height, the bases were strategically designed with webs or "gussets" which I'm sure reduces the stress concentration near the ground considerably. Genius. Another one of God's creative marvels. We also saw some monkeys doing their thing way up in a tree. I'm not sure which species they were, but they were fun to watch none the less.Kt = smax/snom

Brett, Christoph, Zach, et Moi in front of a big tree

A tall tree

On Monday, I took a day off to hang out with Brett. We went down to Ggaba (a nearby "suburb" of Kampala on Lake Victory), flagged down a local fisherman, and went out on Lake Vicky armed with a bamboo stick, which was equipped with a hook dangling by a piece of string attached to the end of the stick. We were told that we could try our hand at catching some tilapia, but, not all that surprisingly, our makeshift "guide" failed to bring any bait. Oh well, it was still a fun to get out on the water and troll around a bit.

Spectacular Port Gaba


Catch...
Bail...
Catch...
Bail...
Catch...
Bail... Oh, way haul away, we'll haul away Joe

After looping around a nearby island and stopping to watch another fisherman at work, our captain returned us safely to port Ggaba. Afterward, we walked to an adjacent "suburb" called Munyongyo. Here, we visited the super-ritzy Munyongyo Commonwealth Resort. At this place, we quickly discovered the utility of our white skin. We casually walked through the security gate as if we owned the place. Once inside, the place looked nothing like the rest of Kampala - it was extravagant. Waterfalls, gardens, ballrooms, swimming pools, restaurants - pretty much anything you'd expect to find at a really fancy resort. I guess they hosted some heads of state retreat there recently. As you can imagine, we didn't really belong there so after a quick stroll around, we left the little haven and returned to Africa, as we know it.

I think I'm gonna add another post in a few days to talk about some other stuff, but I thought I'd fill y'all in about my weekend.