Uganda Trip - April 2017

Uganda Trip April 2017

Hey everyone,

If you landed here it's because you're for some reason interested in my absence from San Diego life. Here's the reader digest version. I'll try and do a longer explanation with photos and such in the future:

I worked in Uganda for a few years from March 2013 until October 2015 managing construction of a school amongst other organizational responsibilities. I then started a construction company on the tail-end of my being there and continue to manage it in my spare time from the U.S. We recently completed a school and are looking to start two other schools in the upcoming calendar year, along with some other projects, so I'm heading over to be with the team, check on the work, and hire some new people.  That's about it! If you're ever interested in hearing more, I'd love to tell you about it, or you can read my past blog posts for more of a backstory, but those posts don't really talk about our current work. 

I'll try and do some more updates in the next couple weeks and will get back on Instagram for this trip. Instagram handle: @beaumilliken

One Year Anniversary!

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.

Home

“Where is your final destination today?” the TSA agent asks me. I respond “Entebbe, Uganda”. She looks curious, “And is that home for you?” and after a hesitation, “Yeah, I guess it is right now”.

That conversation would have gone differently one month ago before coming back to Oregon for Christmas. At that time, I was boarding the plane, ready for a break from Uganda and looking forward to the comforts that Oregon, provides. Delicious food, consistent power, fast internet, warm water – it was a going to be a good break. And it was good, but it was also exhausting. It was so good seeing friends, and family and those first couple weeks of feasting were pretty awesome, but through a wide range of things, it didn’t really feel like home. When I was leaving for Uganda last year, I wasn’t going to miss a lot about Portland, and going back I would say it has pushed me even further away from the Portland area. I’m not trying to say that I’m going to live in Uganda the rest of my life, but I don’t think when I come back that I’ll be settling back in the Portland area. Weird. And who knows what the future is going to bring, but I don’t know if Portland is going to be more than the area that all my friends live in. I’ve been wrong before, and heck, if God can lead me to Uganda he can sure bring me back to Portland. Man, I have some awesome friends though and I’m way blessed with all those friends that I got to reconnect with over the break. That was why this break was so exhausting, it was because I wanted to see everyone and catch up on life, which led to a whole lot of very similar conversations, which were awesome, but emotionally draining at the same time. As an introvert, I was seriously looking forward to whenever I got to have a night alone and do accounting work for my dad. Probably not a lot of people’s idea of a relaxing Friday night, but after a week filled with coffee-dates, that seemed to be a really necessary time for me.

So here I am in the London airport with my headphones in, watching the sunrise and reflecting on the last month. Some of you out there can relate and appreciate some good alone time after a very social stretch. Goodbyes seemed to come easier this time with a few exceptions. It was a little unreal saying goodbye to both Collin and Brett, both of whom I won’t see until days before their weddings. I couldn’t be happier for them, but it’s hard not to feel like I’m missing out on being a bigger part of their lives during this exciting time. It feels like a lot of people are a step or two further in life than I am right now, which I know isn’t necessarily the case because I have other things going on that I’m stoked about. But I got to stay with a few young married couples along the way and I was a little jealous seeing their houses, hearing about the furniture they’re building, what their visions are with the home and how their décor be able create welcoming, hospitable environments for guest. Whenever that time comes around for me, I’m going to be stoked to have a little workshop that I get to attempt to be creative and build an organizer out of old pallets.

But God’s got other plans for right now and I’m stoked he’s letting me be a part of them. I got a feeling it’s going to be a sweet year at Restore. Our American team size in Uganda will have doubled by February, from 3 to 6! Hopefully we’ll get our school’s Guest House operating, build some more classrooms, work on the main hall, build a legit soccer pitch, and make the place even cooler with other things that will be fun surprises along the way. I forget what update I gave last time, but I’m going to be there for another year continuing to help direct construction. It’s going to be a good time! I feel like I have most the job stuff down and can hit the ground running and hopefully without running myself into the ground. We’ll see how that works out.

It’s been a fun break America. Thanks for the good times, delicious food, and reminder of the great friends I have. Back to Gulu. Back to my “Home”, at least for now.

Rhythms of Gulu

Man, it’s been a minute since I’ve written a blog. Sorry about that, I’m going to blame it on not having power and being busy and the traffic jam of cows on my way to work. Also my dog ate my homework. In all reality, it gets harder to write as time goes on because everything becomes normal and you get into a rhythm, so when I almost get in an accident, or get stuck in between a herd of cattle, I don't even think about saying anything about it because it's just life. Lots has happened since my last update, but don’t worry, this isn’t going to be a 20 page novel like normal. Or maybe it will. Yeah it probably will be. I think I’m going to aim to do shorter updates more often so I actually do them. We’ll see how that plays out. Where did we leave off? This is actually a legitimate question, I can’t get on the internet to reread my last blog… OK cool it loaded. Safari adventures with Brucie!

August was a pretty good month here, but sad at the same time.  A handful of good friends left Gulu, which sadly has become a trend. My three housemates left, one of them to go be a complete badass in the middle of a war-zone in Congo. Seriously, I wish I had balls like she did. The other two Rousseau sisters went back to the Northwest to move onto the next chapters of life. It was tough saying bye to them all, but I’m stoked for what God is doing through each of them. Restore lost another awesome member when Jenna got a sweet job running a hair stylist school, so that was also real tough. But we got a new volunteer that moved into the house, Hunter, who is here to do farming, but enjoys fishing. Hunter Farmer is a legit guy from Nashville who is really good at guitar and singing (very similar to my own talents). He's got crazy long hair, which if Jenna was still here, I would have convinced her to cut off. Along with Hunter, there’s some new interns for an organization called Krochet Kids, who you should check out if you haven’t heard of them. They employ women (not kids) who make beanies while going through a program that gives them life skills. It’s been fun making those new friends and going on adventures, making meals, or having Christmas in July together. One thing that is awesome about Gulu is how much time people spend with one another. When you don’t have TV, or power half of the time, your options become read by yourself (which I’m guilty of very often), or hang with people, make a meal together and have a candlelit game of Charades, Bananagrams, or some Mafia.  Plus, having everyone live one quick boda ride from each other helps too. Except when it rains, then you just stay home. It’s actually funny how the rain creates pretty legitimate excuses for a lot of things. “Ah, I didn’t make it to school today because of the rains” and people totally understand. Riding a street bike without good treads on the rain is like trying to line dance on an ice rink. Which I’ve never tried, it just seems pretty difficult. That can be pretty frustrating when it comes to getting construction work done, but it’s part of life and you just gotta deal with it. 

September was pretty freaking awesome. Brett came to visit for 3 weeks, and Evan Luchaco came for a couple weeks also. Brett got to come up to Gulu for a few days, meet the people, meet a crew of our workers and throw some bricks around at the school, and see the town. Unfortunately, my visa needed to be renewed a few days into him being here, so that meant going to Kampala. On the bus down, two windows were broken, one was shattered and tiny pieces of glass were falling out on the passengers, and the other one was cracked, so they were more of shards than small pieces of glass. This was the start to our pretty poor-luck of Ugandan public transportation. Half-way to Kampala a rather large shard of glass falls on the nearby passengers, luckily no one was hurt. Half an hour later, the bus conductor went and punched out the rest of the window so that no glass pieces were falling. Seems like a good idea, except then really fine pieces of glass were flying several seats back, so I had to wear a sweatshirt and pull the hoodie over my head. Good thing there was a lot of airflow on the bus that day or else I would have been extremely hot. So it was a pretty normal bus ride and then we get to Kampala.  Well I got denied for a tourist visa extension at the office, which was a bummer because that meant having to go to another country. Well, we decided on Kenya. I wasn’t feeling too great at this point, but had to get out of the country or else I’d be in trouble.

We hopped on a night bus taking off at 7, and the ride is supposed to be 4 hours. It started out pretty uneventfully, so Brett and I get some restless sleeping in. At about 10 at night, the bus breaks down. Sweet. They’re not able to fix it, so they have to send another one, which means waiting 3 hours for the next bus to come, then moving on from there. It’s about 3:30 in the morning by the time we get to Kenya. We cross over then look for a place to stay since we’re just going back to Uganda the next day. We’re walking towards what looks like the city center and some guy (he seemed friendly) talks to us and starts leading us to a hotel to crash in. We follow him into the “city center”, which isn’t much of anything, and is totally dark at this point because there aren’t streetlights over here for the most part. It starts to feel a little sketchy, but we keep going. We enter through a couple storefronts into sorta an alleyway, and it opens up into a courtyard. I notice that some guy had started to follow us as we crossed through this passageway, and on the other side of the courtyard the guy tries to direct us through an unmarked gate claiming that there is a hotel in there. Even though it was 4 am after a long day of traveling, Brett and I both knew better and decided to go off by ourselves and not go through this sketchy gate into a dark area with the empty promise that there is a hotel through there. I’m not totally sure, but I think we might have been mugged if we had gone in. Once we turned away from here, the guy stopped following us and we went to the nearest building with lights on. We get a room, and after entering into it and our nostrils being filled with the stench of some rotting animal, we request a new one. Second one seemed decent enough, so we crash there.

The next day we go back to Uganda and decide to spend a night at Sipi falls, which is this beautiful retreat place where the weather was cooler (like, maybe even in the 60’s at night) and there is some beautiful waterfalls to hike around, and also freshly roasted coffee available to buy. It was pretty crazy realizing how refreshing it was just to be around mountains of some sort and not the flat landscape of Gulu. Back to Kampala the next day and we have Evan picked up from the airport and taken to the house we were crashing at (which was on top of a hill overlooking Kampala, maybe the coolest view in the city). Ev gets in around 2, so we all get some good sleep, get some breakfast the next day, then head on to Fort Portal, which is the city where we’re doing a triathlon the next weekend. The week was an awesome mixture of some outdoor adventures, randomly meeting a guy I’d been corresponding to over email about renting bikes, then biking to some caves, seeing lots of smaller crater lakes (nothing compared to ours in Oregon), a safari, and also just relaxing and enjoying having some time together.

The safari was pretty sick. We went to a different park from the last time I safari’d with my Dad. We got to go on a boat tour and also drove around the park searching for the elusive lion. Unfortunately, no such luck. But, on the way back to Fort Portal, we saw a group of elephants. I think it’s technically called a herd, but I prefer the term hellaphants. Over ten of them crossed within 20 meters of our car, including one straggler, who was smart enough to look both ways before he crossed. Impressive, especially considering a ton of people in this country don’t even do that. We stopped at the equator point, took some touristy photos and then went back.

Our country director John came down for the triathlon, which was one of the more fun days I’ve had yet. The swim was in this crater lake with clean, perfect temperature water, then the bike ride was around the surrounding villages (more of a BMX race than a road race, which made it extra fun and extra sketchy at the same time, considering the quality of bikes). The race finished with a run around the rim of the crater lake where the swimming leg of the race was. John got 2^nd behind the guy who coordinated the whole thing, and I was pretty average. At least I beat that 9-year old. The rest of the day was spent hanging with all the other contestants, then heading back to Kampala so we could get up to Gulu the next day.

The plan was to grab some breakfast then go to Gulu as early as possible, except we didn’t account for the biggest storm I’d seen in Kampala hitting. Luckily we were stuck in a café with a group of Gulu friends, but there was some serious lightning happening within a kilometer of where we were.  That delayed our departure until 2:00 where we went to the bus park and prepared for another bus adventure. Well 2:00 turned into 4:30 by the time we left, then we got stuck in traffic and didn’t end up getting out of the city until 6:00. Not the best start. The rest of the drive was extremely slow, so it was 2:00 am before we got back. Oh the joy of a crammed 12 hour bus ride.

Well something hit Evan pretty bad and he felt like crap the whole time he was in Gulu, which was a bummer. He was a trooper and made the half-hour boda ride to the school but I could tell he wasn’t feeling too great. Unfortunately, sickness is just part of life here but it sucked that it had to hit him during his short stay here. We got to celebrate his birthday together, probably not one of his best, but a memorable one none-the-less. He took off the next day but luckily some of my friends were heading to Kampala and were able to accompany him during his ride. Brett and I had a handful more days to julk around in Gulu before he went back to Switzerland. One day we decided to go to the abandoned railcars. We left Epona a couple miles away and started walking on the tracks. We meet Michael, a friendly teacher who turned out to be a primary school teacher. Mid-conversation, an old lady comes up and speaks Lwo to Michael and says hi to us, then walks off. A couple minutes later we’re still talking with Michael and this old lady comes back screaming bloody murder and swinging her arms above her head wildly. I wasn’t immediately sure what was going on, maybe she was trying to put a curse on us, or it was some new Acholi dance. When she got closer, we realized she had a swarm of bees attacking her. Brett and I looked at each other and realized we couldn’t really do anything to help her and started to run away like little school girls. I’ve heard that bees can sense fear, which is probably why they went after Brett and not myself, he was fearing seriously, I was just fearing somehow. Torn between trying to help this lady and not wanting to get killed by a swarm of African bees, we’re asking people around to try to help this lady, but we seemed to be the only ones concerned and most people were just laughing about it. Sometimes I just don’t get this culture, although I did receive an email a week later from Michael saying the lady survived so that’s good.

Well Brett and I take yet another Post Bus ride back to Kampala which just happened to be on his birthday. We went out for a nice dinner where we ate different type of game meat, mostly types of Kob (deer looking things) but also had some crocodile and stuff. Pretty delicious. As the car pulls up to take Brett to the airport, we’re bracing for a goodbye, which may have been sad if the driver wasn’t playing backstreet boys in the background. It was hard not to laugh at the situation. That is one positive of Uganda music, they still play those hits from the 90’s and 2000’s. There’s been a handful of nights where I drive home singing backstreet boys  out loud because it’s stuck in my head, and I’m not even ashamed at it. Everyone things we mzungus are crazy anyways, so might as well reinforce the stereotype!

The next month was pretty uneventful besides moving houses and playing spikeball. I am now living with 4 other guys (Don't call it a frat house) in another part of town than before. Two of the guys work with Krochet Kids, one with Restore, and one with another company called Remnant. We have our own compound, which is pretty sweet. We have room to play spikeball, and are also in the middle of making a sand volleyball/spikeball court. It’s going to be sick. I’ll put up pictures once it’s done. Spikeball has become a favorite pastime here and everyone is getting pretty good at it. It’s a nice stress reliever at the end of a long day.

At the end of October we had a group of people comKK, 31 Bits, and an Invisible Children project called Mend. You should all buy Christmas presents from them, it’s a great way to give great products that also contribute to helping not only fund the work here, but also teach the workers life skills like saving, budgeting and planning for their futures. Ouch. Just sprained my ankle jumping off of that soap box. Anyways, the group was in Uganda for over a week, and 4 of those days were in Gulu. The graduation at the school was pretty awesome, and also a bit sad. I knew quite a few of the graduating students, and although it was awesome to see their faces as they got their diplomas, the thought that I may not see some of them again wasn’t easy to think about. After a long day of picture-taking on corny backdrops, we all head back into town for a dinner with the group. The next day was going to be our traditional healer graduation.

e with Bob for our school’s graduation. We got to spend some quality time with some really great people, showing them around Gulu, checking out other organizations like

Small backstory: traditional healers, or witch doctors, are pretty common over here and they often resort to things like animal sacrifices, or in extreme cases human sacrifices as a means to receive “powers” from evil spirits. Bob has been working with traditional healers, running sting operations, convicting them of murders, and holding regional meetings to let all the witch doctors know that Uganda now has a law in place and they’re not afraid to put them in prison for life for any illegal activities for their practices. But this practice is shunned in the majority of Uganda, and therefore these traditional healers are seen as outcasts of society and not accepted into the community. They don’t go to schools, and don’t allow their children to go to schools so they’re not educated and can’t speak English. This is where some former Restore students got involved. They held bi-weekly classes to not only teach them English, but also share God’s love with them and show that they’re not stuck in their practices and can continue to learn in order to rejoin society as a contributing member, not someone who is feared by the local village people. All that to say, we had a graduation for this group who had gone through our program. The graduation was great, even some local news came to do a story but we turned them away. They put on graduation gowns, got certificates (Ugandans LOVE certificates), and even presented a drama for us (they love those too). Although it was long and drawn out (much like my blogs), it was interesting to see. The story basically was showing what their life had been like when participating in child sacrifices and when they were involved in their former practices. The group of visitors took off after this, and I then had about 5 hours to make a Halloween costume for the party we were hosting at our house. Luckily I had the easiest costume of the group and went as the Yellow Brick Road from Wizard of Oz. I thought it was funny, but people took advantage of the situation and made fun of me. I really got walked all over. We ended up having like 50 people over and had a really fun night.

And that brings us to the present. I’m sure I missed some fun stories, but you got the highlights. The Sportscenter Top 10, if you will. I’ve decided to commit to another year over here continuing construction projects, doing some accounting, and whatever else I find time to do! I’m really excited to come back and keep the work going. Oh yeah, I’m coming back to Oregon mid-December for a month to visit, so I hope to see you all around! I don’t think I’ll have a cell phone, so Facebook message might be the best way to get ahold of me. I’ll update you all if that changes. Anyways, thanks for spending time reading this, sorry I took so long between updates, I’ll try and be better in the future! Here's a couple bonus pictures that I think are kinda cool.

Safari Adventures with Brucie

Seems like it’s that time of the month. Yeah, blog time. I don’t know what you were thinking, sick-o. Dang, it’s July and I’ve been here about 4 months. I can’t tell if feels like it’s been longer or shorter than that. I look back and it feels like I just got off that plane feeling completely lost and trying to figure out why the heck God wanted me in Uganda, arriving to Gulu and walking around not knowing a soul, showing up to Restore and not knowing what I would even be doing. On the other hand, I look back at all the friendships I’ve made, people I’ve gotten to be good friends with and have to say bye to, and all the time I’ve spent at the school working and it feels like 4 months isn’t enough time to fit that much life into. So averaging those two out, four months feels about right.

This last month has been packed! First of all, my dad came to visit which was a blast. This idea for him to come visit started when Emma mentioned her family was coming on June 9^th, my Dad’s birthday. Brucie is adventurous, but sometimes need a little prodding, so I temped him by the question, “How would you like to spend your next birthday in Uganda?!” which was the catalyst that got his gears turning, which turned into him going to see Brett in Austria for a handful of days before he made it down to East Africa! So, on June 9^th, Brucie landed in Entebbe on his birthday! We spent a relaxing day by a pool, eating some delicious food, trying local beers, and just catching up.

It was so great seeing him, and almost unbelievable at the same time. The fact that we were hanging out, talking about normal stuff about things back home, yet being halfway across the globe, was great to experience. It was fun hearing about his Sportclips shops, about how the step-siblings are doing, about old SNL skits, Arrested Development season 4, or how the Broncos are going to win the Superbowl. Even these casual conversations helped feel like I was back home for a bit. Emma’s Dad and Sister also got in that day. Brucie’s first full day here was pretty awesome. We got picked up by a private hire company in a super legit old land cruiser with 9 seats, a roof that pops up, and bars on the top that allow us to sit on top and feel the fresh African air flow by us as we pass baboons, giraf…sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. You’ll have to wait until that part of the story.  We drive to Murchison falls, and get to stand next to this amazingly powerful waterfall.

The waterfalls here are much less vertical than those in the northwest, but nonetheless it was a pretty amazing piece of nature to behold. After that we continue on and reach the Nile river and wait for a ferry to take us  across and get to see hippos swimming around and see some elephants upstream. We arrive to Paraa Safari Lodge, which is a super beautiful lodge on the Nile river and we all put on our bathing suits and hop into the pool complete with a swim-up bar where we of course order Nile beers, because you have to have a Nile on the Nile. A delicious dinner and some quality time later, we all head to bed and prepare for our morning safari. 

So yeah, that was a pretty awesome day. We then make it to Gulu. Over the next few days I show Brucie around my new home, the school, Sankofa (our favorite restaurant) and a little bit of everything that is part of the Gulu Life. We go Geocaching one afternoon and almost found our treasure, except that there was a nest of bees guarding it. Since hospital care is, well, not that great here, we decide that getting stung by a swarm of bees with a possible allergic reaction isn’t worth signing our name in a little book. Defeated, we climb back down the hill and ride back to Gulu and get home just a few minutes before a big storm hits us. Unfortunately, Hoke’s timing wasn’t as good as ours and he had to activate Jetski mode on his boda to get home. 

A few short days later, it’s time to take the dreaded bus back to Kampala and say bye to Dad. As terrible as taking the bus it, it’s sorta something you gotta experience while you’re in Uganda. It really makes you appreciate having your own car, being on paved roads without potholes, and not being in near-death experiences on the regular.  But, the redeeming factor of it all is that Kampala has good food, so we get a meal and then say goodbye. It was sad saying bye, but I felt so blessed that he even had the opportunity to come and see me and see what my life is like now. After the 6-hour ride back up to Gulu the next day, I decide that I’m going to avoid that bus ride whenever possible.

A few days later, Emma has a group of 4 guy friends from back home come and visit for 10 days. These guys were a blast. Hanging with them felt close to hanging with my bubs back home, and even had senses of humor like them. I’d say we got along pretty well, and hopefully they would say the same. Their time was filled with some fun adventures, riding 3-deep on Epona (my boda), some secret oaths, and plenty of children’s gifts for the boy-king. Don’t worry about it. They got to go to Ft. Patiko (it’s the location that they filmed the Lion King at) and even got to meet Rafiki. He’s aged quite a bit since the movie was filmed. I think Hoke’s favorite part of them being here was that they brought baseball gloves and a ball, so he got to toss the ol’ pigskin around with them. Wait, I mean, pass the rock. Or whatever sports analogy fits with baseball. Hoke was a happy camper after that though. After a few more days of Good Neighbor Stuff quotes, hanging out in Hammocks, and playing a few card games, it was time for them to return to America and back to their lives as they knew them. And on our side of things, it was back to focusing  on the projects we have going on at the school and keep things progressing. Well, for Hoke it was his last week before he went back home and got to surprise his Dad for his birthday. A group of us wanted to make it a special going away, so we planned a fun dinner night at Sankofa which consisted of his favorite meal here, Sam’s Pesto Pasta and some garlic bread. We made him a custom Menu from Sankofa which included the pizza he invented along with some other inside jokes scattered throughout. For his second gift, a group of us decided to put together a little calendar for him. I don’t think there’s a way to describe this without it sounding really awkward, because that’s what it was, but basically I did a few modeling shots for him and we added “Hey Girl” captions to each one. They’re basically bad pick-up lines (I would know, I’ve tried all of them and yet I’m still single.) for example, “Hey Girl, If I walked around you seven times would you fall for me?” If you want to have the full calendar, I’m thinking I’ll be doing a fundraiser sometime later this year. For all those special people in your lives, just save a little cash for the perfect Christmas present.

We had a little going-away deal for Hoke at the school with the construction workers where they got to share a bit and say goodbye. I think I’m learning about the culture because I knew that I should probably stop the speeches after the first handful or else all 50 of them would have said something. I’m glad I didn’t stop it before then because there were a few guys who really had some awesome, Godly wisdom and encouragement to share. After swearing to avoid Kampala just a couple weeks back, I find myself in the car with Hoke and the two John’s going back but first stopping at a guest house run by one of our partner organizations, Cornerstone. We shared one last night of debriefing, playing cards with some new friends, and some pillow talk after an amazing meal. One thing I’ve learned is to appreciate a good meal, because they don’t come around too often here. That next night we all got dinner at Hoke’s favorite spot in Kampala along with some fruity cocktails. We’re just getting back into the car and buckling up when Sarah looks over an says “Oh, look at that girl!” in a rather surprised voice. So I turn that way but before I see the girl she is talking about, I see a massive spider on the window, like probably 2-inch diameter including the legs. So I straight up mom-bar Hoke and Sarah into the seat and I look at the spider and try to see if it’s on the inside or the outside. John Niemeyer, who is in the passenger seat, doesn’t see the spider so he’s picturing some scene from The Exorcist of this girl having something terribly wrong with her. John Pfeil sees the spider and thinks it’s on the inside, so he rolls down the window to let it out. Turns out that the spider was on the outside, but starts moving really quickly once the window gets rolled down. I yell at John for him to roll it back up and by the time he does this the spider had crawled to the top of the car. John Niemeyer goes to turn on the light on the inside of the car and accidentally hits the moon-roof which starts to open. Niemeyer screams a little bit (but a super manly scream, more like a war cry) and then smashes the button the other way. A pretty hilarious series of events. We get back to the house and Niemeyer opens the door and runs away from the car as fast as possible to avoid any chance of a spider attack. Hoke, although not a fan of spiders, joins the crew of us surveying the vehicle to see if it lasted the car ride back. As we get to the back of the car, we see him, standing there all smugly on the back, taunting us with his large legs and venomous fangs.

 

But, despite his intimidation, he’s no match for the sole of my shoe. After that whole debacle, it’s time to say farewell to Hoke. Gulu and Uganda won’t be the same without him, what an awesome guy and follower of Christ. I could say a lot of other great things about him, but just take my word, he’s solid. It was sad saying bye, but at the same time I know we’ll continue to be friends as life goes on. As I’ve said before, it’s not goodbye, it’s a see-ya-in-a-bit.

We have a meeting while in Kampala with an engineering company about their design for a running water system at Restore, which the idea of that itself is a dream come true for so many! So I put on my engineering hat and get to be a part of this meeting with some amazing people about their vision to bring us running water. It reminded me a bit of my work with CH2M Hill, but on a much smaller scale. It’s honestly a bit hard thinking in the small scale of a school versus a chemical factory and trying to reduce my thinking to tens of gallons per minute rather than thousands. The prices would actually be comparable if you took away the conversion factors, like a valve here would cost 15,000 shillings rather than 60,000 dollars. Small differences. After feeling like an engineer again, it’s time to head back to Gulu. Home, sweet home. This last Friday the engineering contractors began their work at the school, so I’ve been doing some engineering with them and trying to direct some of the work and make a few decisions. It’s actually been a lot of fun being back involved in engineering stuff and being with the project from the beginning and hoping that I can help make it as awesome as possible!

July has been a bit uneventful for the most part, but good. I’ve been spending more time being an introvert and getting refreshed than I had the past few months which has been a healthy change. It’s been fun though, plenty of small things happening but I don’t want to bore you with them. We’ve been raising some kittens, playing some football, having Christmas in July parties, and other cool things with the community around here. Still, it doesn’t compare with my Oregon family and friends. Don’t think I’m replacing you all. I certainly feel like I’m in the groove of things here, now more than ever, and I’m so excited about what God is doing here in northern Uganda. I do miss you all and appreciate all the prayers, support, and encouragement! I’m pretty confident that I would have been in a handful of accidents if I didn’t have your prayers protecting me over here. Keep enjoying the beautiful Northwest summer, eat some delicious meals, drink a few microbrews, and enjoy the small things in life for me. Also, congrats to all my friends who are getting married, have already gotten married, or are celebrating their anniversaries this summer! I’ll be praying that God continues to be with you all. Love you all.