In Africa!

So it’s been a while since I’ve updated. Sorry about that! The past few weeks have been busy. Since I last updated, I’ve made it to Uganda! This place is amazing, and it’s really hard to explain in words. But I’ll try…

Anyways, so after a great (but long) orientation in Colorado Springs, me and the team flew out to Uganda. We left around 8:30 last Monday night, and got to Uganda at 7 AM Wednesday morning. That’s a lot of travelling. It was fun, though. We got to travel through London (a place I’ve always wanted to visit) and spend about 8 hours there. We saw the basics of the city and then flew out to Uganda. Once we arrived and made it through customs, we were picked up and got a ride on a mutatu (a bus/taxi thing that is supposed to hold around 14 people, but usually holds a lot more). We met our intern director Jill, and got to visit a youth camp being built right outside of where the airport is in Entebbe. It was a really cool place that will be for a African children’s choir that pulls kids of out of the slums. Cool ministry. After that we began the many meetings and more orientation. Jet lag was pretty rough and I literally almost fell asleep walking down a street at one point.

Over the past few days since we’ve arrived, we’ve gone through plenty more orientation about how things go here, and we’ve also got some more training. The full time staff here are great. Hearing the stories of how God has called them here to serve the poor using their engineering/architecture skills was great. The full time staff consists of Brad Crawford and his family and Janet Strike (my project leader). Some long term volunteers (they stay for around a year or so) consist of the Burgs and Jill. Just thought I would throw those out there so you know who I’m talking about in later posts.

I’ve had plenty of interesting experiences since being here, and it would take forever to list them all….even already. But some big point were going into the city for the first time and seeing how crazy it is. There’s a taxi park where these small buses get so packed together you could literally walk across the tops of them and not have to jump. The city itself is also crazy busy with people. Lots of people. It’s a great place, though, with some cool markets and other various things. It’s really fascinating. It’s also really easy to see the needs (both spiritual and physical) in the city from just walking around. Hopefully I’ll get some chances to minister to people around there at some point.

Another high point was church! We went to Amazing Grace Christian Assembly, which was a great experience. The worship was really celebratory, which I loved. They danced as they sang, and I just loved to freedom and expressiveness. Overall, I really enjoyed the service, and I’m looking forward to checking out some other churches around town. I think next Sunday I’m going to go visit Calvary Chapel, which is in town. We’ll see how that is.

On Saturday, we went to Jinja to drop off the construction management interns and have a service day. We helped dig some foundations for a building and bend some rebar. We got rained out near the end, which was actually fun since I ran through the rain putting stuff up. Got chased by some kids. Fun times. That was a great day really.

Today is Monday, which means it was the first day of work! Today we spent a lot of time learning how the office works (computers, etc.). Then we got to work. I spent most of today getting some info to use to get a map of the area we’ll be working at on the trip. It’s a secondary (high) school for girls AIDS orphans. I also spent a little time looking at some stuff for fish ponds that we may be designing for it. That’s new stuff to me, but it seems interesting. We’ll see how that comes. Tomorrow through Thursday me and a few other interns are probably doing some surveying of a site near here. Should be cool. I get to refresh all that surveying knowledge I got in school/work. Overall I’m looking forward to the work.

Anyways, that’s a very quick recap of my time so far. If you’re curious the food is great. Pretty simple. Lots of beans, rice, and bread. But I’ve loved almost all of it so far.

Thanks for all your prayer and support, again! I couldn’t be here without you guys. If you would continued to pray for God to guide me during this time and give me boldness in strange new situations. Also, please pray that I’ll be flexible and seek to glorify Him through work and every other situation I find myself in. I want to make the most of this time (I know I’ve said that a lot, sorry). Well, until next time, see you guys!

Covered By Christ’s Mercy.
Kyle