Super Pine Cove 64

I am on a date with someone I don't know. But I seem to know her in the dream. We are eating dinner at a hotel restaurant, but the hotel is the castle from Mario 64, and run by Pine Cove (A Christian Camp in Tyler, Texas). A lot of friends are working there, but they all have strange hair and beards. A friend from school has long wild hair and is taking care of the two kids of the missionaries I work for here in Jinja. For some reason we keep having to switch tables.

Hopefully these pictures will Load. The first is the team in London. Lindsey is standing to my left, he and I are staying in Jinja together. The rest are working in Kampala. Next is me at Bukaleba. Lastly, the building I am working on. I will keep posting pictures so you can see progress.

Work out at the site has been moving along. We are bringing on more laborers next week and it should speed things up and help with morale. Right now the three guys we have are being run ragged. There has been plenty of work for me to do, I help with the layout and setting windows, and when there is nothing technical to do I put my hand in moving stone and bricks, mixing mortar, or fetching water. The house I stay in is nice, but no plumbing or electricity. I caught a bat on Thursday, but decided to let him go. I spend most of Thursday thinking that if I only had one of those round straw Chinese hats, I would be perfectly happy. I started trying to make one but the grass out here is no good for weaving.

The Ugandans tell me that I look like Peter Crouch. A football player for Portsmouth. Football (soccer) is a really big deal here. Apparently it is very important that i pick a team to support.

Benson, one of the Kenyan masons, made a Chuck Norris joke on Tuesday. We were trying to move a 10,000 Liter water tank and he said that Chuck Norris could do it by himself. God taught me how to say “Do your work, with energy!” in Swahili. “Fanya Kazi, Nabidi!”

Money and skin color are two things I struggle with. I have lots of money, I am white. Ugandans know I have money because I am white. I have been told at least 4 or 5 times by someone that they are looking for an American sponsor to help them, and asked if I knew anyone who could help. I don't know how to respond.

Lindsey and I are going to go watch Lost at a friends house. The Mzungu missionary community is pretty tight knit here. Even after being here for years, these folks need at least a little “normal” time.

Japanese Football at Kyle Field

For some reason, the Japanese National Football Team is coming to play the Aggies at Kyle Field. Some friends and I are excited to go see them, but when we arrive, it turns out that the Japanese team plays “soccer” and not American football. Also, the Japanese team has arranged itself on the field like a foosball table, all in rows. Each player is wearing a yellow trucker hat and broad silk tie. Somehow they are playing a combined version of American football and soccer, but everyone is staying in one place. The result is a lot of people standing around and frenzied activity surrounding the ball.

I just got back in from the bush. Construction on the children’s home is going very well, but there is still a lot to learn about Ugandan construction. I am getting to know the workers a little better and finding the best way to help out around the site. Mostly my job is to helping to lay out the floor plan and keeping the stonework level with the transit. John has me doing some other small projects in my downtime, and I am able to pitch in with the workers some as well. I am hoping to get to know the staff that is working out there with me because it is pretty lonely after all the workers go home.

The house I am staying in is fairly spacious for one person, with a gas stove and tin roof. So far the rats have been active, but well behaved. The food and dishes stay locked up and I sleep on a top bunk. I haven’t seen the bats yet, but I can hear them in the rafters. Bukaleba has a pretty mild climate and not many mosquitoes so far. The rainy seasons just started and it gets fairly cool after the rains. I have seen 5 new different types of birds every day here. It is pretty incredible. To summarize, I was enjoying myself a lot by the end of the week, but was also very relieved to have John come fetch me back to Jinja for the weekend. There is a team of 28 short term missionaries from Virginia staying at the guest house, and it is a big change from Lindsey, a Welsh woman named Anne, and myself being the only residents.

I am able to get in the word a lot, and have been reading in Joshua and Mark since coming here. I am learning a lot in Mark about service, and servant leadership. I think living out at Bukaleba will force me to do a lot of adjusting, quickly. Culturally speaking, I mean. Language is coming along well though. Soon will come the time when I have to focus on either Luganda, Lusoga, or Swahili, because people here switch fluently between the three.

Oh yeah, one of the construction worker’s name is “God”. It makes for really funny journal entries. “Talked to God today about setting door frames” and “God and Julius got in an argument today”.

The Great White Elephant Pony

I am trying to feed a giant white horse, the size of an elephant. But it is rearing and kicking. Bystanders are warning me to stop, telling me that it is dangerous, but i just keep trying to pet the thing. All the while a hyena-horse (like from Lord of the Rings) is running around in circles. It has a white Texas Tech logo on its forehead. We are in some sort of corral.

They have been stranger, but that one was pretty vivid. Thankfully they are not frightening, just entertaining.

We have been to Bukaleba for the past three days, John taught me a lot about my job out there. It is going to be half construction management and half owners representative. The building will be beautiful. The misistry brought in four Kenyan masons to do the stonework, the whole building is cut stone, and it is all cut by hand. I will take pictures next week.

Arise Africa is pretty incredible, the more I see of the minsitry the more impressed I am. It is a Uganda based minsitry that plants churches, schools, and orphanages. The land out at bukaleba is very fertile but largley undeveloped, so in addition to a babies home and pastors school, they are putting in sugar cane fields and goat herds to help fund the ministry. The goal is to be self sustainging. Their main office is in Jinja and I have been spending most of the day helping out with some renovations they are doing to an adjacent building. Jerome is teaching me some Lusoga slang.

God is teaching me here. A lot about missions and service. John Sauder is a pretty incredible example of humility and a servants heart. I will have to explain more about his work later.

Mukama wafo yebisibwe

Andrew

Zombies and Yardsticks

They told me that mefloquine gives you weird dreams. They were right. So Lindsey and I were riding a bus and suddenly realized that all of the passengers were zombies. They were not very aggressive, but we still felt threatened. The only weapons we had to defend ourselves were yardsticks. I feel like what happened next is fairly self-explanitory.

Actually the weird dreams were all in Colorado Springs. So far, no weird Africa dreams. This is probably a blessing from the Lord, because things are strange and different enough as is. One of the Ugandan staff here explained to me why roosters crow three times in the morning. Once at 2, just in case you are making a long journey, once at 3:30 to remind you, and once at sunrise to wake everyone else up for the day.

Thus far we have ventured out into the city, gone to a Ugandan construction site, and visited a school in a rural community. Everything is very different. Ugandan construction practices are really different, but very very clever. Labor costs less than machinery here so everything is done by hand, from the brick making to digging a septic tank. Being a mzungu (white person) means you attract a lot of attention to yourself. In the back of my head I think that my plan was to just adjust right away and skip culture shock. Words to the wise: that is a bad plan. Things are different and uncomfortable. And they might be for a while. I read in a book that the best way to deal with it is to keep trying new things and understand why it is hard.

Church tomorrow, heading to Jinja on Tuesday. I will try to post some pictures soon. I have been taking them.

Colorado Springs

It has been one full week in Colorado Springs.  There are about 35 interns and long term volunteers going to the various eMi offices.  It has been so great to be around so many like minded people.  In that same vein, so many experienced minister/engineers are here.  My goal has been to keep my mouth shut and listen as much as possible.

The culture training was eye opening, and really prepared us I think for the countries we will be traveling to.  Also, a big part of the week has been a strengths test, personality test, spiritual gifts test, and testimony preparation.  For anyone that is curious I am an extrovert who cares about peoples feelings with vague engineering tendencies.  Also I naturally gifted in the areas of Developing, Connectedness, Belief, Communication, and Positivity, according to Strengths Finder 2.0.  it was such a blessing to talk about gifts and personality in the context of missions.  However, the biggest blessing was hearing my team's testimonies.  God has been so good in our lives.

Colorado is beautiful.  Hiking is wonderful.  People are awesome.

We leave for Uganda on monday.  Pray for safe travel, freedom from fear, and a smooth transition to the Culture.  I will be working out on a construction site about an hour from Jinja, one of the major cities.  I couldn't be more nervous or excited.

Long December

It really has been a long December. Graduation was a hoot. We heard President George W. Bush speak. More exciting than that, My parents and grandparents came in for the ceremony. It was a good if somewhat anti-climactic way to wrap up the last four and a half years of my life.

Fundraising went extremely well. If the Lord wanted to tell me that it is not his will for me to go to Uganda, he did not do it by withholding monetary blessings. So, thank you so so so much to everyone who prayed for the fundraising process and to those of you who were able to donate!

I got my yellow fever shot, and bought a plane ticket to Colorado. It would appear that everything is ready to be set in motion. Until the 11th I will be writing to people, pulling some things together for the trip, and enjoying the family!

Almost forgot, my phone turns off in early January, but I will have the same number when I get back.

Purpose

I plan to attend grad school for environmental engineering (essentially water treatment) after I get back from Uganda. This is the statement of purpose that I am sending to the department of admissions. Don't worry, I am asking other people to proofread it, so don't let the grammar turn you off.

During my sophomore year, I almost switched majors to History. Teaching history seemed like the right thing to do, so why suffer through engineering? To be honest, I was a bagel away from switching. Let me explain. I was on my way to the history building with my official form to switch, and I got really hungry. In that moment, all I could think about was the delicious blueberry bagels at Poor Yorick’s. The line for bagels was really long, and I had to run straight to class afterwards, and from there I went home for the Thanksgiving break. There was still plenty of time to talk to the history advisors. While at home I was talking to my uncle, a wise and learned man, about my decision to change majors. He asked me an excellent question. He said “Andrew, has the Lord gifted you to be an Engineer?” I was dumbfounded. The Lord has wired me in such a way that the math and science of engineering comes easily. It is just the way my mind works. His second question was even more insightful. “If you got an engineering degree, could you teach if you still wanted to?” Once again, the answer was yes. I could teach with an engineering degree, but I could never engineer with a teaching degree. So I decided to stick it out.

A few weeks later I was having lunch with a friend in the department. He was very excited about a group called Engineering Ministries International. EMI has an intern program where juniors, seniors, and recently graduated engineers move to a developing country for a summer or semester and do free design work. It sounded good, but graduation was still a long ways away. It wasn’t until my junior year that I really discovered my purpose. In the Bible, Jesus says that more will be expected from people that have received much. When I read that verse I immediately thought of my engineering career. I have been blessed with so much ability and the privilege of attending college. How could I use those gifts for myself? I decided then and there that I wanted to use my engineering degree to serve people. The second thing that popped into my mind was EMI. There are people out there doing the kind of work that I wanted to do! I applied for one of EMI’s six month internships and was accepted. In January I will travel to Uganda to work with Engineering Ministries International. EMI interns help design things like schools, churches, and clean water systems in the developing world. Eventually, I hope to do this kind of work full time.

Since finding a purpose for my life, civil engineering classes have come alive! I envision myself using the skills that I learn to help people. It isn’t enough anymore to simply make the grade. The developing world needs competent and experienced engineers to find solutions to very serious problems. I have the heart to serve, but I need the skills. By earning a Masters of Engineering from Texas A&M, I hope to become an expert in the field of Environmental Engineering. Once I have earned the degree, I will find a job in the Industry and gain experience in the field of water treatment. Equipped with knowledge and experience, I will be more effective in my efforts to serve the third world.

I also wrote a poem. I was origionally going to send it along with the SOP, but have recently thought better of it.

I would rather tell you face to face.
So you could look into my eyes,
And know that I am serious.
If you could listen, I can talk
We could sit for an hour
And I could ask you the same questions
That I have asked myself
Is all that money worth it?
How many dollars will you make?
Could you live another twenty years,
Never wondering what’s been lost?
And after eating all your money
And drinking all your health,
What will you have?
What will we have?