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.