ramblings

I've been thinking alot about the things that i miss back home and i think i'll list a few here:

1. Peanut butter (we have it, but it's just not the same w/o all the preservatives and partially hydrogenated soybean oil)

2. cheesecake

3. chips of any kind, i mean they are here too, but just rare

4. my own car

5. real roads (if this country was more developed you could drive across it in about 8 hours, whereas now it woudl take about 30 i woudl guess)

6. street signs (no joke)

7. clean air (apparently kampala is home to what is called, "the kampala headache" there is so much pollution here whether it be from cars spewing out black smoke or burning trashpiles which inevitably have plastic in them. I miss the north for that reason first, the air was amazing. I mean if i take a picture at night here i'll probably get some specks of dirt in them because of the flash, that's how much stuff i am breathing in)

8. Not sticking out in a crowd (at least not because of my skin color), it's a little different having the tables turned and becoming hte minority

9. my friends, you guys have no idea how much i look forward to reuniting with all of you! mom, byron, dad, laura, john <---all my parents really

ok that was enough negativity, here are things i will miss when i'm gone:

1. the people (College Station is supposed to be known for it's hospitality, and people ther are definitely more friendly than in Austin, but neither have anything on this place, the people here love more and better, and talk and listen, it's grand)

2. the kids (there is no better place to be a college aged guy cuz these kids need some love bad, and they love so well, like little joshua who would just come up and hug my leg till i picked him up)

3. the undeveloped-ness (i'm sure this will stick out more if/when i go to langira island and get to see a place completely untouched by technology, but in the country side it's just nice to drive down the raod and not see anything metal or any poles sticking up besides the occasional cell tower)

4. the oppennes and honesty with the lord that is made easier by having the rug pulled out from under you.

...i dont think i want to make this too long, because really it's gonna be the people that i'll miss, so many beautiful faces. I read in sociology and i thought this was true for a long time that it's harder for people of different races to distinguish features of other races. But man, it's how i've gotten used to seeing so many different ugandans from so many different places who all look completely different.

i guess one last one

5. my new friends, Mark, Alan, James, Josh, Janet, Steve, Melinda, Sofia, Madeline, Kizito, Paddy, Steven, etc etc, they have touched my life in a huge way and were the exact right people that were supposed to be here at the exact right time.

6. Well crap i'm still listing, this one isn't that serious, but i'm gonna miss all the ridiculous signs i've seen, all the clay roof tiles, all the tin roofs, all the palm trees, all the well dressed people, all the barefoot people, the exchange rate!! well i coudl go on forever and so stop my list here.

"more than fine, more than bent on getting by, more than just ok"





Here are the plans for the rest of my stay in Uganda:

from now until i leave during the week work on tabitha project stuff, from CAD drawings to data calculation, to writing the report. The hope is that we'll get done a week before i leave so i can have a few days just to relax and do random stuff.

On monday Alan is going out to Kasese for about four weeks to manage some construction at West Uganda Baptist Theological College, or what we affectionately call wub-t.c. So Mark and I will go visit him next weekend, Kasese is amazing from the pictures i've seen and i'm excited to get to see some mountains before i leave.

The following weekend is open and this is tentative, but Mark and I woudl really like to go to Langira island which is about an hour south of Jinja on lake victoria. This island has a YWAM (youth with a mission) base on it and that is where we woudl stay, the thing im excited about is that there is absolutely nothing on this island technologically speaking, so i'm pretty pumped to hike up to the top and see miles of lake and trees

The last weekend (which will be my last weekend in Uganda) is going to be our safari at Murchison falls, because how can you go to africa and not go on a safari? So expect lots of awesome pictures, and then i leave on the following friday night for the states.

So for those of you wondering how is life over here, it is good, it is real, and it is beautiful, and here's why...







...takes you back doesn't it?