Hello All!
So you may have read the title of this blog and wonder what in the world I'm talking about? Well let me explain. This past weekend we had our intern weekend here at the eMi office, which usually involves the interns going off to a resort-ish kind of place for fun and relaxation. For our intern weekend we decided to go to a place call Sipi Falls. It's a beautiful place in eastern Uganda near Kenya right near Mt. Elgon (a mountain in Uganda). It's a really fertile place with waterfalls and and mountains. Absolutely beautiful. Oddly enough one of the volunteers here commented that it looked like the Land Before Time (an old dinosaur cartoon movie). It really did. Thus the name of this blog.
But anyways for the past week or so I've been doing the usual of working around the office on the secondary school design. I have deadlines that are quickly approaching, so I've been putting in plenty of hours around there. But like I mentioned in my last update, I know this is a service to the ministry we're designing for, and ultimately to God. So because of that, the amount of hours (and nights working) I have to put in is no big deal, because it's for the Kingdom. But the work is tough on the brain sometimes, so I definitely have to space out my work. Got to conserve what sanity I have left, right? : )
Aside from work in the office, things have been pretty calm here. Most nights are spent hanging out with the other interns and people that live around here. We cook dinner together (which has been quite a learning experience for me) and sometimes watch movies or TV shows we managed to download offline. Life during the week is very relaxed, which is has been nice, since it gives plenty of time to get work done if needed, and it also has lead to plenty of time for reflection on life. It's been really good for me, since I have a lot of things ahead of me as a recent college grad. God has really been using this time to point me toward the things that really matter in life, and also just to really work in my heart about a lot of things. Even though I know life back in the US will probably be more hectic than here, I really want to carry back some of the elements life here with me. We're so busy in America, sometimes I wonder what God could do in our hearts if we just took more time to slow down. Just spend time actually getting to know the people that we live right next to? Just a thought.
So a few more details on our trip this past weekend. We left on Friday morning to go to the Falls, around 10 in the morning. Transportation in Africa takes a lot longer than the US, so it took about 8 hours to get somewhere that should take about 3-4. The majority of that was sitting in the bus for 3 hours before leaving, since they won't leave until the bus has filled up. But we got there Friday night and got to enjoy a great dinner and some hang out time with all the interns (the Jinja interns joined us for the weekend). We stayed at (in my opinion) a super nice place. There was a waterfall that you could only access from the property our camp was on, so you could see it as you walked around and you went to sleep to the sound of a waterfall. Pretty cool. Saturday we went hiking to see the four waterfalls that are around the area, which was great. The place was almost surreal, like a dream. We got to get behind the waterfalls and got pretty wet in the process. Tons of fun. The hike was probably the most intense I've ever been on, since we hiked (what felt like) miles and then down and up a valley. But it was worth it. The next day we headed back to Kampala, which took a much less intense 5 hours. Overall it was a great weekend.
So I've found out that in the beginning of December I'll be going to some villages in north-east Uganda to check out some water issues. It's a pe-project trip, which mean we'll just scope out the situation and makes some contacts for when a full team comes next year. The trip will involve taking a 5-passenger plane there, and then camping in the bush for two nights. I feel like it will be a trip of a lifetime. More info to come later.
This coming weekend is our time to go rafting on the Nile, so I'll definitely let you all know how that goes. Know that things are great here, and I wish I could do a better job of explaining things and taking pictures. I guess you'll just have to come and see it for yourself : )
Until next time,
Kyle
Great update !
ReplyDelete