Kiwi Land - 24/07

Leaving everything to the last minuet did not pay dividends. Monday saw a whole day set aside to address reverse culture shock through a comprehensive debriefing session. Tuesday through Thursday were the final days of work at the office, but in the evenings we set aside time to encourage one another, share meals together, and just lay out in the hammocks. Friday I cleaned up my office desk and returned the work laptop, took some last minuet photos, failed to download 75Gb of photos from the server, failed to finish the chicken coop, and failed to spend sufficient time with everyone before my Saturday morning departure. The 23hr flight back home were anything but pleasant because of the combination of intermittent diarrhoea with a window seat. The photograph below shows one of the nights set aside to encourage the ladies.

Kampala Slums, a Life Apart - 17/07

There are only two days to deadline. Last week saw another 80 hours at the office, finishing with an all nighter on Sunday night. Friday night was Brittany's birthday. She is a long term volunteer at EMI and her grandma shouted us huge American piazzas, ten pin bowling, and desert at a revolving restaurant. Saturday night was the last night of singing song's to honor God with the street boys, so everyone prayed for the two of us that are leaving. In the afternoon of Sunday, my local friend Mark, took me around the slums. What struck me most was how much he cared, there were no street girls because they get trafficked, and the drugs made the boys act like they were on morphine. The photograph below is of all of us celebrating Brittany's birthday.

Just the boys - 08/07

After spending some time in prayer I was ecstatic with the idea of returning for a two week visit in August next year. Equipped with this new insight I realized that the relationship I had with the street boys and those that run the show was on the light and fluffy side, so I shared a bunk bed at the house for a week. We were sleeping with four to a room and had shared a lot of good times. On Friday we took a half day off work to celebrate Americas independence with a party at my house, then on Saturday we took all the street boys swimming at the lake. One of the boys broke his leg playing on my bike so I spent a significant portion of my Sunday looking after him at the hospital. The engineering design has been frustratingly slow and tedious, now I am unsure whether I can meet my responsibilities at the office. The photograph below shows auntie Katie with Edwin right before he went into surgery.

Deathly Ill - 02/07

Deathly Ill - 02/07

Two weeks ago I managed to turn out 80 hours at the office, by pulling together the report and doing basic editing. To make 80 the work days spilled over into the weekend. Last week however, I fell ill with Malaria. This involved violent shivers, aching joints, vomiting, diarrhea, head ache and dehydration. The malaria seems to have moved on but I find myself left with diarrhea, headache, cough and sore throat. These new ailments could be consequences of the malaria medication, dust from the dry season, or a head cold passed on to me by Daniel (fellow intern). Unfortunately I had to pass up the opportunity to visit a local fishing village with the other interns. Our local friend Rmadan organized for us to preach on Saturday and Sunday at his village, and he was going to give me the opportunity to come out fishing on Monday (yesterday). Alas I was deathly ill and opted for rest. The photograph below captures a special moment for the interns while they were at the fishing village.

Sailing with the Interns - 19/06

The week days have been consumed by AutoCad as I persistently persuade the 13 technical drawings into submission. Friday night I delivered a lecture on sailing to 10 grossly incompetent students, 1 part highly technical, 1 part movie (failure to Launch) and 1 part friends t.v. episode. Saturday saw fair winds, quality time, and exceptional sailing performance from my formerly incompetent peers. Tricking lessons on Sunday was most encouraging, because for the first time my four boys managed to follow instructions without getting distracted. Tweaking my ankle again was not on the agenda, but I should expect as much doing backwards flips on concrete-hard ground. On Sunday night,  after two melted ice-cream cakes and a night of African merrymaking, we said our goodbye's to another fallen comrade as she makes her way to the U.S. The photograph below shows me teaching the recently departed Jessie Mittelman.

"We go, We go, Ugandan cranes we go!" - 11/06

Monday to Friday has seen me swamped with emails and meetings, it has felt like I didn't get any technical drawings or report sections finished. Friday night was Aunty Mallory's Birthday, the street boys call her Aunty but she's my age, so we 'grilled out' American style. Saturday was game day and the Ugandan cranes won by 1-0. "We go, we go, Ugandan cranes we go!". Tickets were $6.00 and the whole country is crazy about football but the stadium was still only half full. Silly sailing Sunday was nothing short of epic, we had to sail backwards, blow up a balloon, pass balls between each other, and even capsize to tie flags onto the top of the mast. The photograph below shows all of us that went to the cranes game. 

Green Luscious Africa - 03/06

On Friday morning 4 interns and myself made way to Jinja and then Sippi. The tourist towns of Africa. The view from our $5/night bunk room was outstanding, the hiking to a 100 m water fall exciting, and the swimming at the base of the water fall was refreshing. Leading up to Friday I spent much time at the office, the engineering work threatened to overwhelm me. A holdup on the Kibuye project at the master planner forced me into a structural engineering and drafting role for a project in Kenya has been pushed off to me. In the Photograph below I am dwarfed by a 68 m height waterfall.