Hi.
I’m going to put a disclaimer out there, I don’t have any
idea what I’m about to write about. I’ve started writing this out of obligation
since I haven’t done one in a couple months, but I don’t have a topic in mind
or anything. So, I apologize if I just ramble on (like that’s any different
from what I normally do), but I thought a warning before you waste your time is
in order.
I guess for just a general update, things are going pretty
well overall. Life here is definitely marked by peaks and valleys, and I would
say on average over the last two months there’s been more ups than downs. I
live in a house with 5 other great guys and we have some great times together.
I love getting creative in the kitchen and figuring out what we can make from
ingredients in Gulu, which definitely has a rather limited selection. We’re
definitely at the point where we can make some pretty bomb meals all from
scratch. I’ve come close to perfecting my pasta sauce, so I’ll post the recipe
at some point. There’s a really awesome community in Gulu right now which has
probably been the highlight of being back. We started a house church since a
lot of us felt that we we’re missing something like that from last year. It’s
been pretty awesome to see how it’s grown, transformed, and how bringing in
people from all over the world brings new lights on our faiths. Last week when
we split into our prayer groups, we just rolled our bodas into the shade and
enjoyed some motorcycle-top prayer time. House church is definitely one of the
highlights every week.
It’s a pretty active life over here, so between walking in
the sun all day for work, playing volleyball, Frisbee, spikeball or soccer,
we’re always finding ways to keep in shape. Dry season has officially ended, so
the 4 months of rain being replaced with dust from the sky has ended. The
temperature has dropped about 10 degrees within a matter of a week. It’s
glorious.
The school got their results last week and we did really
well! It’s hard to describe the full school system, but basically the students
take end of year SAT-type tests which determine if and where they can continue
their education at. They rank students based on combine scores in different
categories based on different tiers rather than exact scores. All that to say,
of the 43 students taking the tests, 7 got the first tier and 20 got second.
Percentage-wise, we nearly doubled the national average in these two tiers
which was pretty sweet! We really do have some awesome teachers and
administration running the school.
Construction stuff is going well. We’re trying to crank out
this Guest House project so people can stay there in the upcoming season of
visitors. Stuff has been going really smoothly for the most part. We put a new
foreman in charge and he’s been killing it. I wanted to make an update video to
show everyone, but I’ll put that together soon and post a link. Here is a video
from January when we just started. And here is a picture of where we’re at now. I’m not sure if you can tell, but
there is a building on the left hand side now.
A few snapshots from the past two months: Restore has some
new people around which is awesome. Quinn and his wife Brittany are here from
Portland, Hunter’s friend Dave is here, and the newest addition is Andrew from
Georgia. Quinn is going to make us a sweet soccer field, Dave’s been helping
Hunter out and is helping with computer lab stuff, and Andrew has only been
here a few weeks but he’s going to be helping with construction and directing
the tractor to make our campus gorgeous. They’re a bunch of studs.
I got punched in the face by a drunk and crazy guy. That was
interesting. Just came out of nowhere from behind and got me right in the
cheek. Instinctively I turned around, a bit confused, a bit pissed about just
being punched, and saw the guy was drunk and holding a packet of alcohol so I
slapped the gin out of his hand, stepped at him to intimidate him and walked
away. I was always hoping when I got punched or got in a fight it would be for
some valiant reason, like protecting a girl I was taking on a date or
something, but this time it was more just because I was white and this guy was
crazy. As I always say, you win some, you lose some.
It’s pretty nuts to think that one year ago today I landed
here and was completely lost, without any phone number, contacts, names, or
anything besides a town’s name. There were times I didn’t think I’d make it to
this point, but here we are. Pretty nuts. Since I don’t like celebrating my
birthday, I think I’ll celebrate this day as my one-year Gulu anniversary! The
only issue is that I’m in Kampala and I don’t have friends down here, so looks
like I’ll be enjoying good food all by myself.
We just had a vision trip through Restore come through and
they just took off yesterday, so I’m getting a really relaxing morning and time
to journal and decompress. I came down to Kampala with them to get Guest House
stuff (I never thought I’d be shopping for curtains in Africa) but having some
time away from the construction for a couple days is a much needed break. The
crew’s been working their butts off so we could have a ton of progress once the
visitors came, which they definitely made happen. We’re going to keep working
on other buildings really soon which is going to be so sweet! The trip was
extremely beneficial because pretty much all of Restore’s U.S. side came,
including our accountant Jody, Deborah (who basically runs everything) and her
husband, another staff member Becky, who I had only seen copied on emails and
never talked to, and Bob. We all had so much time to talk about all the work
stuff necessary but also time to hang out, get to know each other, talk about
dreams, visions, and where we’re taking the school. I feel beyond fortunate to
get to be a part of this team. Also, Mike McDonald from Solid Rock came too and
it was great spending some good time with him because for the most part I had
just seen him up on stage back in Oregon, but here we are in Uganda getting to
hang. Crazy stuff.
That’s kinda it. I’m sure I’m leaving out some stuff but
you’re welcome to ask for more details or whatever. One thing I’ve been
thinking about recently due to the story coming up on 3 different occasions
within a 24-hour span is when Jesus says that if we have faith as small as a
mustard seed we can tell a mountain to go from one place to another. If I’m
completely honest, I’ve always heard this and pictured the mountain growing
legs, taking a few steps, then sitting back down again. But I think that it’s
more likely that our faith brings us to action and we’re the ones who get to
start making that mountain move. Yeah, maybe it is just with a shovel, one
wheel barrow at a time, or maybe God’s equipped us with a bulldozer, or maybe
we’re the water boy for the crew doing the work. But if we believe something is
going to happen, it draws us to action towards that thing to make it happen.
It’s about using whatever tool or talent we have to be a part of the mountain
moving crew. We’re not called to move the whole mountain by ourselves, we’re
just called to have faith and be the part of the team we’re best equipped for
and loving our teammates as much as the doubters standing by telling us we’re stupid
for trying to move a mountain. Just take a step forward. Plunge the shovel into
the dirt, break a sweat. You may not feel like your doing a single thing, or the rain may pour mud back into your hole ruining your progress, but
that’s ok. God is looking for our faith, not scolding us for failing to change
the whole world. He’s our loving father and is full of grace, which is pretty
sweet cause I know I need a ton of that. Ok, well that’s all I got for you.
Love you all, hopefully the next blog post won’t be 2 months removed from now,
but who knows.