Coming and Going

I figured y'all would like a break from reading my blog, so I went a head and gave one to you last week. You're most welcome. Back at it again though, so here we go...

The past two weeks have been frantic, between three trips to Kampala, three trips to Bukaleba, one weekend visitor, one funeral, and filling in the gaps at the office. Most of what took place at the office was boring, so I'll just skip that part.

I love Bukaleba. It's really refreshing. I've spent a total eight days and three nights out there so far, and I'm planning on spending all of the next three weeks (minus the weekends) out there too, but who knows, those plans could easily change. In case you forgot, Bukaleba is the site where practically all of our development plans are taking place. It's a large piece of property, which was granted to Arise Africa International a number of years ago. It’s about 50 km from Jinja and 15 km from the nearest power supply, but there are quite a few little nearby villages.

Sunrises are probably my favorite subjects of photography, in case you haven’t noticed yet.

Periodically, I encounter cultural differences that I just have to chuckle at. For example, I’ve been working with a Ugandan civil engineer, Herman, who’s been helping us plan the roads for Bukaleba. He stayed a couple of nights out there with John and me. As a guy from the West, I’ve got thoughts going through my mind like, “Great! This is gonna be awesome. I get to spend a few nights out in the bush, away from all the noise and busyness of civilization. Going back to my primitive roots…I can’t wait!” Meanwhile, Herman was evidently thinking something entirely different. When he busted out his portable radio which either wasn’t dialed in properly, had low batteries, or was badly lacking adequate signal strength, I wanted to shove it in his mouth. No, I wasn’t really that annoyed, but I did find it comical. For Ugandans, who most likely grew up in the village without modern conveniences, it seems they haven’t yet developed a need to escape from modernity.

My time out there has been pretty productive, I think. The bulk of it has been spend staking out the roads and the proposed building locations. It took the better part of a day for me to get acquainted with the Total Station. This is a fantastic piece of equipment which makes surveying and staking a whole lot more efficient; that is, when it’s working properly. However, this particular model has a few quirks and definitely an attitude problem. More than once, I had to resist the urge to lay into it with the hammer we were using to drive in stakes.

Not more than once did I make the terrible mistake of standing over the top of an army ant path. It took hardly any time at all for hundreds of them to make their way up my pant legs biting as they went. Youch! Those suckers are vicious. Incidentally, two of the AAI pastors were with me at the time, and they encouraged me to quickly remove my trousers, before the ants reached the contents of my underpants. I was in no mood to refuse their advise, so the whole experience served as means to get to know the pastors on a deeper, more personal level. There’s no longer any question in my mind about the origin of the expression, “ants in your pants.”

Kampala is always interesting, every time go there. The crowdedness never ceases to amaze me. I went along with John and Zach for my first of the three recent trips to the city. Each of us had independent business agendas to take care of while we were there. My second trip to the big K was last weekend to bid farewell to Christoph, who just returned to Germany. Together, he, Zach, and I made up the gangsta trio while we lived together in Kampala. My most recent trip to Kampala was a spontaneous run to retrieve a piece of equipment that we needed in order to do the survey work.

Taxi Park Kampala – truly a modern marvel. Let’s see you top that one, History Channel.

Dirty Jobs, Uganda – I’d like to see Mike Rowe stoop to this level.

I mentioned a funeral in the intro. I attended one for an AAI staff member on Tuesday, who passed away because of an illness after spending sometime in the hospital. The ceremony was interesting. Many people were in attendance, and I don’t think it was just because Joshua was an outstanding guy, which from what I hear, he was outstanding indeed. I gather burials are really important to attend here. It’s a way of honoring the family and the dead, probably to a far greater extent than back home. The service took place at Joshua’s home, in a village near Jinja. They simply propped up a tarp to shade the speaker, casket, and close relatives and friends (which I guess included me merely because of my flesh pigment, even though I had never met Joshua or his family while he was alive). So yeah, it was a bit uncomfortable to be in what felt like the center of attention, when there were literally hundreds of people who were so much closer to him than I. Hopefully, my presence, even though it was a bit awkward, was honoring to his family.

The service consisted of several speakers, songs, and prayers all mixed together. Folks were gathered all around, sitting in the grass, or standing under the shade of a tree. Many people (including us) trickled in after the ceremony had already begun. (Another one of those cultural differences – punctuality is not as important as presence.) After some time, we followed the casket into a freshly cut opening in a sugarcane field behind the house. More talking and prayers (both in Lusoga, so I didn’t really know what was going on) were followed by close friends and family each throwing a handful of soil on top of the casket, which was already in the ground.