college station normalcy...sort of

I'm not sure how much i'll write on this thing now that i'm back in civilization and can just talk to most of the people that read it, but i thought i'd give you guys a few quick updates on life right now.

Firstly, Impact was absolutely incredible. If there's one thing i've learned it's that no matter how much we pray for things contrary to the Lord's will He never answers those prayers because that just wouldn't make sense. So with that in mind I went ahead before we went to Impact and prayed with my guys that it wouldn't go smoothly, that there would be complications and frustrations and that altogether our plans would fall apart becuase ultimately He is glorified when our plans dont happen and his do, and when he breaks plans to show us His better way. For example we have Lazarus. His sisters and the disciples urged Jesus to quickly get to him so He could heal Lazarus. What did Jesus do? He waited till Lazarus died and then glorified God even more by raising him from the dead, not just healing his ailment.

With all that in mind Impact didn't "go off without a hitch" and it was awesome. On the evening of the third night the power went out right about when we were ready to have the basically climactic speaking/worship awesomeness that was planned for the third night. The band didn't want us to go ahead and have an acoustic concert and so some of the guys on exec got really busy hooking an amp up to a car stereo to make the whoel thing happen in the basketball court outside. At first I was really frustrated becuase we don't really need a band to worship the Lord, we can do it anyway anyhow, that's when i realized exactly what we needed to do.

I led our camp in the direction back toward our camp room and veered off into a clearing in the midst of alot of trees. I emplored them all that we give God the glory in this, that we pray over the freshmen's years, over their time here, over really how awesome God is, and just whatever people felt led to pray about. I really expected our counselors to pray, but after i opened it up only our freshmen were to be heard. It was really quite amazing to sit there with my eyes closed in the middle of the woods listening to the cries of the hearts we'd been praying for for so long.

So after that we went back and joined the worship session and the spirit was absolutely alive and moving in that place I could feel Him there amongst us and it was breathtaking, i wish you could have been there to see and feel and hear Him make himself known to so many hearts that needed exactly that. I know in my heart He released people from bondage that night, he freed people, and he redeemed people that thought they'd been previously saved but didn't know Jesus in spirit and in truth.

Ultimately, "His ways are higher than our ways..." and always always better than our own.

An amazingly huge blessing upon returning is the fact that our camp still wants to be a camp. I mean last year our camp didn't make as much of an effort and might not have been as close as this time, add to that the fact that my heart was totally elsewhere last year when i was at impact, but i mean tonight we had dinner and played games at my house and i had about 30 people in my living room and i absolutely loved every second of it.

School starts in less than a week and the job i thought i'd have when i came back ended up not being available. Turns out the bike shop i worked at for about 10 months before i left to go to africa hired up everyone they needed over the summer because they got slammed with business. I just love the apparent change in my heart though. To see Rod feel really bad that he coudln't offer me a job, and then for me to just smile at him knowing that i am not supposed to have a job right now, at least not there.

Then today here's something to get excited about. I ate lunch with a friend of mine who has been accepted into IMB (international missions board)'s Journeyman program. So for hte next two years she'll be a missionary in southern China reaching some unreached people group, the details of exactly what she is doing were kinda fuzzy, or i just cant remember. But the point is I got really pumped hearing about what I'm going to get to do in africa when i get done with school. Then also in the past few days i've really felt a conviction about how much I dislike my major especially now that i know it's not where my life will take me, and that while i may dislike it, I am here right now, because I amo supposed to be here right now, and it's as simple as that.

So i'm excited to find the purpose of my time here for the next 1.5 to 2 years, to see what i need to see, do what i need to do, meet who i need to meet, and move in the way i need to move.

Life's never been more exciting, and i've never felt so alive...

james dudt is a doody head

ok that title was just for james, enjoy you butthole.

So here's my last day in Africa, my last day in Uganda....at least for quite some time. What can i say? it's definitely been an adventure. I've met some amazing men and women of God, I've seen amazing things and it's changed the path of my life quite profoundly.

I don't have much more to share with you guys, all i can say is thanks for reading and thanks for your prayers. It's 820AM here right now and i have approx 12 hours before we head to the airport and i board the plane at 11pm africa time, 3pm central time. Today i'll spend in the city, sucking in the sights (and the smog/burning trash smoke) for the last time. The walk to work this morning was definitely bittersweet. I think it's finally hit me just how much i am going to miss this place, how thankful i am for the time and experience that was spent here, and how much of an impression it's made on my heart, and for that matter my soul.

Again thank you so much for your prayers, they've been felt, in the midst of being in africa and coping with a different culture, poverty, starvation, death and dying i've also dealt with alot of personal stuff, like who i am, why i am the way i am, how i relate to people, how people relate to me, etc etc. It's been good, it's been tough, i've been broken beat up and lifted up again a few times. It's all definitely been worth it, and now i am sad that i have to go.

Thank you so much for your support, thank you so much for your love, it's done wonders! thank you so much for everything you people are absolutely amazing!!!

Well, it's time for friday mroning worship, and i'm definitely ready to go play guitar and lift up the Almighty God of the Universe! Get excited, for He is worthy of all our praise.




See you kids back in the first world...

wow is the end in sight!

this will prboably be my last or my second to last post whilst still in africa. This summer has definitely been a life changing experience that i cannot easily forget, and i pray i am forever changed by all that the Lord has done and shown me about his character, and his heart for his people.

I guess my last big prayer request is that God really makes whatever change, whatever revelation, whatever it was that i was supposed to ocme here this summer and find out or see or whatever, stick. I want it to stick hard, i don't want to forget this place, and HIS heart for it. I dont want to go back to the states and fall back into my cushy lifestyle and forget how different it is over here. How people live daily on such meager means. People live on less than a dollar a day here, and that's life. And this could be an argument in itself, but so many people in this position are happy with their lives, they are happy with their God, they are happy that they can eat at each meal. Thanksgiving over meals is much more real because they know they can't rely on their own power to eat, it's up to the Lord. Let me remember that, when i am wanting more more more, remember that people here with nothing nothing nothing are and can be content with all they do not have.

I'm thinking as well i'll need a bit of help from him not to be cynical when i go back home. I mean it's going to be really easy to look at lifestyles and judge people instantly as wrong because they have money, when in reality there's nothing wrong with money itself, just the love of money. And i'm sure you guys can understand why there would and will be cynycism there, i just pray that i wouldn't let it hinder relationships or give me a lofty attitude that's paradoxical in thinking, "i'm so much better than yo ubecause i'm so humble."

So today marks the last work day while i'm here, the last 14+ hour day spent at the office doing red-lines, fixing correctoins to CAD drawings, and otherwise staring at a computer screen for long enough for my eyes to fall out of my face. The end is in sight and i'm very excited about it.

One thing i absolutely cannot wait for: to stand in an HEB (which i learned this summer dont exist outside of texas, or at leaset not in other parts of the country) and just drool in awe like a kid in a candy store.Wow, how appropriate is, "the eyes of texas are upon you" ? Even here, they can see me!!

and yet still more murchison shots

As is typical Ugandan fashion, we were directed to completely ignore the sign













This is a picture of a guy named Kenny who was in our group. I thought this picture offered amazing perspective of how massive this waterfall is. There was somethign incredible about sitting down below the water line and not getting wet.








This is a fish eagle, which looks incredibly similar to our bald eagles back home. The only difference is we saw these things everywhere.














Ok sadly this picture didnt come out very well or even very sharp, but i was in a moving car and roughly knew when to take the picture.

Needless to say though, this is definitely the picture of the summer.

Now what I wonder, is what do they think an aggie even is, cuz i'm not totally sure myself...

some more murchison shots

Insert aggie joke here:

"How many aggies does it take to fix an engine...."














Ahh...the savannah...


















some of my photo skills on display...














And lastly here's our elephant friend, if you look very closely you can see he did really give us a very "masculine" show... 

Murchison Falls 2

My thoughts on the actual falls, "...wow, breathtaking, no words, can describe the absolutely perfect magnifience of it all...amazing, spectacular, wonderful!!" I mean i could just word vomit on a page every superlative i could think of and it still wouldn't do it justice, just as these photos never could either. I have some video of hte falls which is pretty amazing and ill show some of you when i get back, but for now here's a taste of the absolute fierceness of the Lord's creation. You take the Nile, (at the risk of being wrong here) the longest river in teh world and shove it through a seven meter opening then you're bound to get something powerful and spectacular. So check it out...


This first one is me not really sure why im making that face but, I am, trust me i really was happy to be there (also i apologize about the size of the pictures on the last post hopefully these will make up for it). Actually im not really sure what's up with my faces, apparently it was, make stupid faces day for me. Anyways, enjoy:








 

Murchison Falls 1

Why hello there my beautiful friends and family. Including today there are exactly 5 days left for me in the wonderful, yet odd country of Uganda. This past weekend I finally went on safari and all i can really say is, "wow", the absolute majesty of the Lord is so manifest in all of these fierce and lethal, yet beautiful and gentle creatures.

Before the pics though i think my words would be best shown if i just copy my journal entry from the night before our game drive, enjoy:

In the midst of your creation (well that statement is not really a suprise at
all since i can't go anywhere to escape your presence) here I am in Murchison
falls national park in Uganda w/ no real outside ocntact since my phone doesn't
work here, and in the midst of so many wild animal's homes.

Just on the
way to camp tonight i saw a lot of wild picgs grazing in the camp area
itself.

I am so incredibly excited to see more, even the crocodile I
managed to be about 30-40feet from today on accident really inspired alot of awe
in me as well as fear. I think of William Blake's poem, "Tigre tigre burning
bright, in the darkness of the night..." And it goes on to ask how God could
make something so horrific and dangerous as a tiger.

It's really
beautiful to be reminded of that aspect of our Lord. That fierceness about Him,
that He's definitely not tame or domesticated, He's wild (like He's made me to
be) and He's free, and along w/ His love, His danger and awe inspiring fear is
also to be embraced.

I think that can better describe the fear we think
of when fearing God. It's notthe fear of punishment that guilts us into feeling
bad, but to see His beauty and His danger and His utter unpredictability, and
yet to trust him, to see that and be afraid not because we are scared, but
because we are absolutely overwhelmed w/awe and inspiration and thus fear of
something so incredibly mighty, that is what I think we should feel
instead.

I love how N.T. Wright points out that so many people, and sadly
even so many Christians, think that the Christian God is a "spy in the sky"
waiting for you to screw up, and they really don't nkow the God of Israel who
loves, who forgives, who willingly dies for our sakes.

That is why we
find ourselves so unsuccessful hwen we seek to serve God and we find we cannot
grow, that's because that is a false God. That doesn't match w/ the character of
the God I know. I worship the God of love and awe inspiring fear, and no other.

This picture is of a baby crocodile that i arguably got too close to. But man the amazing feeling I got of placing myself in God's hands like that, I know it's wreckless and stupid, but again that awe inspiring fear and danger is absolutely incredible.


Here's some water buffalo



Here's an elephant that definitely chased our safari van, and put on a "masculine show" of sorts that I don't have pictures of but will definitely get from the other guys



Lastly, here is a massive group of giraffes. I can't possibly describe to you what it felt like to see such majestic creatures. Mark was able to get a video of one running and it was nothing short of breathtaking seeing such a massive animal gallop

 

random around town shots

All these pictures were taken on saturday when Mark and I ended up walking probably 3 or 4 miles (note the second one, it's my favorite)

walk to work

I thought you guys'd enjoy some pics from the normal path i take to work every day...

retrospect

Besides letting you guys know how the safari goes this weekend and showing you some pictures of that, I think the next few entries will be me looking back on this summer and summarizing what i've thought about/done for the past two or so months.

I've been so busy here with work for the past two weeks that i've really not been doing alot of thinking about anything. And it was in the past few days that i realized how normal i feel here now. I still cannot believe that i have 9 days after today before i am on my way home, it's so surreal, and i dont even nkow what to expect.

So i look back at the spiritual state i was in in May and am completely floored by the work the Lord has done. I went back and read alot of journal entries and looked at all the prayers that were answered in me in just the past two months. How much has the Lord restored me to Him and grown my faith in Him by simply showing me His love.

I look at my character, and see how the Lord has slowed me down. I mean just at my tactfulness and sensitivity to not say certain things around locals. Or i can see someone say something and think, "wow that was really untactful" and it sucks to be reminded that I am like that as well, but it's good to see how He's moving me beyond that. I knew i cared about people, but the Lord has relaly taught me alot about loving people for who they are and where they are at, not where i want them to be or where they are not. Just like Jesus loving people regardless of who they are what they've done and where they are at. I mean love won't change anything if it's conditional.

Love for the simpler things. Like a walk to work, or a boda ride in the rain with my rain jacket on. All these simple easy to miss things are gifts, and gosh i've enjoyed all of them.

Then I look at all the sad things I've seen, all the pot-bellied kids, all the governmental non-action, and i've definitely come to realize that all these big problems cannot and never will be solved by big governments with lots of money and power, and ultimately these problems are in God's hands. Honestly if you had a billion dollars you couldn't fix one country over here, you just couldn't it wouldn't work the way we think it would. I've definitely seen that good intentions really dont do squat over here, it's only Him that allows anything to happen at all.

I am almost positive engineering is not hte direction my life will take me in, and you guys have no idea how excited i am to finally say that for real, rather than half joke about it. I really want to learn more about the world, about people, and somehow do something that will allow me to be back over here someday for a very long time. If not here then somewhere else besides teh states. It's a big world, and the future is bright, and i cannot wait to see what God has in store for me.

One thing that's definitely been drilled home is how amazingly blessed I am by Texas A&M. Nowhere else, and at no other university could I find this many amazingly god fearing men and women, nowhere! I look at the amazing people this university attracts, and i realize how incredibly awesome my friends are there. Jared, Wes, Andy, Jspence, i seriously miss praying with you guys, i mean that could be the reason for a get together because i feel so energized after doing so, i love you all and ill see you very soon! Amby, Kristin, Yaks, and whatever girls i know will frequent our house in the fall, you are so welcome and i can't wait to see your amazing faces!!

well this was ramble after ramble so im gonna stop and get back to work....10 days left...

this is it

i cant believe it took me this long to figure out something so simple, but maybe it's so amazing that's why it took me so long ot figure it out.

Every day, every single day, we have the opportunity to make a choice. All of us, in our walks with Christ have struggles, have ruts we get into, have downtime where God just doesn't feel intimate or close, and even when we know He is there but we just dont feel it as well as the times when he's so presently there we can't contain ourselves we have a choice.

We have a choice every morning to say, God you created me to enjoy you and so today I choose to, I choose today to lay down my cares, my worries, my sin, my pride, my selfishness, my righteousness, my holiness, my talents, my skills, my hurts, my pains, my guiltiness, my shame, my self-loathing, my depression, my etc... Thanks to His choosing us we now have the ability no, opportunity to choose Him back! The spiritual ruts or dry times i woudl assume almost if not always are our own creation, or at the very least our succumbing to lies of our own flesh or of the enemy, both of which have been defeated.

So I challenge you as well as myself daily, to dedicate and declare yourself to God, not for salvation because you can't receive something you already have, but just for personal dedication, for quality of life, for joy and for peace.

This is so beautiful in it's simplicity and i love it, but that's what i've found here, no matter what, no matter what hte situation or problem we can always choose to glorify and exalt Him and that in turn gets our hearts right. How funny that all is seemingly right in the world when our hearts and minds completely exalt Him in all that they do, it's probably because that means everything is right. The problems will be fixed as He sees fit, so this is me looking back at an entry from last week where i was talking to Mark about how i should be having a crappy day. Thus the power of God to transcend the temporary and put our hearts on something bigger, something more.

If something is not eternal, it is eternally worthless -- C.S. Lewis (horrible paraphrase)

something to look forward to...

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so ;
For those, whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy picture[s] be,
Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou'rt slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke ; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And Death shall be no more ; Death, thou shalt die.

-- John Donne (Holy Sonnet X)

There is always more, and He is always beautiful...

From my journal this morning:

Ahh...Saturday, here at last, this has been the slowest week of the trip so far but apparently even it turned out to be a good thing.

"He works all things to the good of those who love Him."

I was sitting w/ Mark yesterday in teh Namuwongo market drinking a soda and was sayking to him how much the Lord has changed my heart, that I'm still slightly sick (from what we now think to have been contaminated water), it's been a crappy day outdoors all day, i'm tired from working so much and i've ridden in a taxi way too much. as of two or three days prior i woudl have been having a crappy day, but yesterday I was so excited about the Lord that none of those other things mattered, it was amazing, how all circumstances, annoyances and hindrances literally pale in comparison to His brightness and His greatness.

I am so excited about how good Jesus is, how much He loves me, how much He cares for me, and how much He watches over me. Truly to hide ones heart from pains, irritations, and altogether hurts from things uneternal, all one has to do is hide ones heart in THE MOST HIGH GOD!!, and all previous cares will seem to drift away.

...

But i've finaly hit the down hill here...I actually would be ok right now if (sorry guys i want to be both places but this hasnt been true till recently) Impact got canceled and i could cancel my lease and stay here all fall. That woudl be ok b/c I know I willmiss this place so much...So anyways, life is good and I have the lord breaking me to thank for that...

Thus i want to encourage you guys that it can always be better than it seems, that there are unconscienable (wow butchered that word) depths in Him that we will never be able to understand, and we really ought to never be satisfied with what we think we know about Him, because no matter how far we've gone we've just skimmed the surface of who He is. In fact I've found the further one goes that much bigger God seems to have become. As we become more and more aware of our depravity and more and more aware of His goodness He seems that much less attainable, and that's ok because he accepts us where we are at but seeks to constantly change us as He makes us more holy. So seek Him hard and deep, press in to the heart of God, and while i can't explain how to do that becuase that looks different for everyone, I encourage you to ask Him to help you if you dont know what to do.

There is always more, and He is always beautiful...

more random pics from today

The rails seem to be a preferred method of travel/commerce/whatever...




















Afro tech!!















And naturally the Florida Restaurant...














This is scaffolding, but holy crap would that be fun to take a mountian bike down that! 

Littering and...

As promised here is a picture of a trashpile/dirtpile, there is a really bad one near there but i forgot to get a pic of it today since we were in a hurry...













and here is a fire presumably burning trash not a block from the office...















this is a public transit sign, Ugandans love their speedbumps!














Bid daddy Property Agents, gosh am i gonna miss the signs here...

Littering? No...well yes

Yesterday I realized I have yet to talk to you guys about this, and i wish i had a good picture to portray my thoughts but anyways here goes:

Well, here in Kampala, and in other parts I'm sure you can pay a weekly fee for someone to pick up your trash. You just set it right on the curb and they come and pick it up no problem right? well not exactly. First of all, every kid in the neighbourhood will go through it for any scrap of food, any reciepts that might say how much money goes through here etc, basically creating a mess most of which im sure the garbage man doesnt bother to pick up.

So I've lived my entire life in Texas under the "Don't Mess With Texas" campaign, and really i don't litter and I'm sure that's a reason why. I leave trash in my car and make sure it all gets in teh dumpster/trashcan/etc. and i can trust that it all goes to a landfill somewhere far away from where anyone lives right? Yea for the most part, or maybe it's an "out of sight, out of mind" thing. Either way, here I don't actually know if real landfills exist perse, and I KNOW they don't dispose of certain trash items the way we would at home. This realization really hit me when Mark and I were cleaning out the refrigerator where we have been living back in early June. We filled up our trashcan and had no idea what to do from there. So we asked the guard, he came in and grabbed it, poured it in a pile behind the guardshack, and lo and behold the next morning the pile was burning, plastic and all.

This is completely normal here, as can be evidinced by the smog and smell all over (which is why i loved being out in the country at the end of June so much, i guess in the IDP camps they can't afford things that create trash to burn). So I'm thinking, well, i could throw this trash in the trash can at the office which supposedly goes to a landfill, which is more than likely just a poorer neighbourhood....So this house of white people is throwing away garbage sending it to a poor black neighbourhood (soudn a little racist? I think so). Or perhaps there is a landfill, or the more likely word to describe it woudl be a "dump" but i can garauntee people live on or near it and probably aren't benefitting from the trash coming from every direction. Also when i was on a taxi coming back from Mabera forest back in June i was drinking from a water bottle and put it in my backpack, because experience tells me to saveit and put it in the trashcan so i don't litter...But when i get home i'llput it in a trashcan that will get poured in a pile outside and burned...

All this to say, I guess i have justified littering here. Everyone does it, I mean one time i was on a taxi and had a bananapeel (bad example but hte same thing would happen with any sort of trash) and was holding it and hte lady next to me said, "you throw away" and opened the window.

The Ugandans are equally unmodest about throwing trash out of cars as they are about public urination, which i saw alot of last weekend. [Sidenote: I love what the Ugandans say (probably an english thing really) to describe where they are going, either a "short call" or a "long call" ill let you use your imagination to figure out what that means. But when you're on a bus for 8 hours inevitably you have to stop and take a "short call." So imagine a bus of 200 people all filing out women/men/children to pee on the side of the road, it's definitely a sight to be seen!]

So yesterday as I was walking with Mark to the bank, i realized i needed airtime for my cell (which had about 10 shillings on it, i.e. half a cent or absolutely no ability to make a call). So i stopped to buy some airtime cards and after i took them out of the plastic wrappers and dialed in my time to my phone i gasp!! threw them on the ground. I was thinking, that's definitely an aspect of life here i have not shared with you guys, so there you go!


oh here's a really bad example of a trashpile, or what is left of one, but it will suffice I guess, ill do my best to get a picture of a big one next time i see it.










i love you all so incredibly much, have a wonderful day!

PR's and just to ramble

part of a journal from this morning:

I'm not sure if this is jsut me focusing on my physical state and thus being very negative w/my outlook on the rest of my time here...maybe it's also the fact that I've been cooped up in this office for two days this week and I'm starting to dislike being in doors. Regardless of the reason, I am cranky and whiny and thus it affects my outlook.

I am worried that i'll get back and love all the time i spent here except the last three weeks and see those as a complete waste of time.

Those were my musings last night and it's possible I'm completely wrong.

Well since this morning i feel alot better actually, I felt like vomiting on the car ride from the house to the office, and even today i dont feel like shooting myself in the face after having spent the entire day in teh office. But my PR is in there as well, guys please pray for me that I woudln't waste the time I have here dwelling on home and things i miss, and rather my vision would be for the here and now (in an eternal sense). I mean afterall if i wanted a vacation it cost an awful lot to come here, thankfully you guys provided the means to get me here, i realize I havent thanked all of you yet!!

Wow, how selfish have I been! Thank you so much for your help in getting me where I am at right now. You have helped fulfill the Lord's will in my life because He truly has changed alot of things and broken alot of thigns down in my heart and really grown me and shown me different parts of Him, and all of that is realyl very exciting, but none of it woudl have been possible w/o your help! You have been a blessing and through your blessings have come countless more!

all i can say is thank you thank you thank you!!

So here are a few more:

I'll have to explain this one a little bit, but Impact is an organization I'm involved in back at A&M, it "seeks to glorify the Lord in every aspect of it's existence by giving incoming freshmen [christian (or not)] their first glimpse of the body of christ at texas a&m" (there Laura do i win a tshirt? haha). Anyways the structure is like so, there are two sessions and alpha and an omega session, the alpha and omega sessions host 10 and 9 camps respectively at a retreat center somewhere in east texas called pineywoods. Each camp has two cochairs who lead 12 counselors and 2 prayer teamers (all of whom are current students and have been cultivating a family sort of back at a&m since around february), also at impact we will get another 40 someodd freshmen per camp 4-6 of which will be assigned to each counselor partner ship (a boy and a girl) called a BASIC group (brothers and sisters in christ). It is also led by an exec body (also students). all that to say is that I am a cochair, and in august impact will happen when i get back. So i was hoping you could pray for impact as a whole and for the incoming freshmen in my camp specifically. Each camp is named after a tribe of Israel and combined with teh session, so my camp is called "Omega Gad." Sorry for such a long winded explanation, anyways that's my life back at a&m in case any of you were interested.

Next I really want to begin to hear and see and perceive God and His Spirit and all that goes on in the spiritual realms outside of this time space dimension whatever better. I know He desires this too so please pray for that in my time left here as well...


Ok the power died so we'll see if there's enough juice left in the batteries to let me post!!

Much love from Kampala!

update on my health

This is just to quell some worried minds (mostly mom's) and just inform you guys on yet another part of my experience whilst here.

This afternoon Mark started feeling ill as well, and i guessi haven't felt horrible all day, but really really gassy, ha. So steve was taking him to the clinic and i opted to go as well (there you go mom, probably the first time i've gone to the doctor at a sign of illness in a long time). Well after some tests we foudn out i didnt have malaria or worms (although i thought as long as it wasn't going to be any worse since it's very curable if foudn in time, that it woudl be cool to go back and say i got malaria, i suppose the mothers among you would be to differ, but im sure others of you can understand perfectly). The doctors we talked to were a man and woman from Israel who were both Jewish working at a Christian clinic (they thought it odd as well) but they were very friendly people, and they agreed with my initial diagnosis that it was food poisoning of some kind, perhaps viral or bacterial, but they gave me antibiotics to be safe. I want to say the pills are called something like "flagella" or soemthign like that, not really sure, but they're supposed to have an analgesic effect which is never a bad thing.

Here's to hoping i get a little less gassy since i opted to eat dinner tonight after not eating anything but bread or fanta (i've fallen in love with orange soda!) in the past 48 hours. and for that matter feeling alot better tomorrow morning after another good night's sleep.


i'll leave you with whatever random goofy pictures i can find on the harddrive...







This is me right as i walked into the office after having been rained on alot, i also have my backpack under my jacket, anyways i felt i looked wholly ridiculous and i figured so would you guys, so enjoy...

some more low-res shots of Kibarara

So here is the road that the bus dropped us off on, as you can see it is literally in the middle of nowhere...











This is the other direction and is equally depressing...

















These are about the coolest animal i've seen yet. Blue tail, yellow body, green head, not really sure how that helps them in the wilde but it sure looks neat...








another pic from the top of the "mountain" we climbed... 

Definitely a different sort of weekend...

I wrote before of my plans for this weekend, and unusually enough (for africa) they stayed the same. Mark and I boarded a bus that we thought was the 6 oclock bus in the bus park at 5:45 am. I was loving the amount of people on the bus right around six cuz it would mean i'd get a whole row to myself, at least for awhile. Sadly the bus didn't leave till 8:30 and we were left sitting on it till it completely filled, or for that matter overfilled. One thing i became painfully aware of this weekend, is the American idea of "personal space" has no meaning here. People pack into painfully close quarters in the effort to make more money, so needless to say the next charter bus i take anywhere i will be hardpressed to find a reason to complain about comfort. Because at lesat there won't be a guy in the aisle sitting next to me taking all my leg space, or some guy standing up in the aisle with his elbow in my face.

So we finally got to a small village outside Kasese called Kibarara. this place is about as "middle of nowhere" as you could possibly get. There is absolutely nothing there except for fields of dead maize stalks, matoke trees, and a house with a tin roof every few miles or so. We arrived there about 4 in the afternoon, or three hours late, and went to see Alan on the worksite. He is the construction manager for an irrigation project that eMi designed for Western Uganda Baptist Theological College, or as we affectionately call it, Wub-t-c. He'll be out there till the day before i leave and so it was good to see him once more before then. There isn't much to do out there besides read and talk, so we all did our fair share of both. Meals there were interesting to say the least. We paid 5,000 shillings a day for a big lunch and dinner. Each meal though, only men were at the table. For example, the first night we ate dinner at Foston's house (the director of teh college) with he and his son Padwin, His wife and daughters were in the kitchen the entire time and only came out to refill the water jug. Then i think they ate whatever it was that we did not eat.

On Saturday Mark and I were determined to climb one of the foothills in front of the mountains, which looked to be very close due to the sheer massiveness. It turned out to be a little further than we thought just to the foothills, and i have no idea how much further it was to the mountains. We started out at 10:00 and got back at 1:00.

Saturday night i was in for a surprise, my stomach started feeling a little weird right before we ate dinner, and then i coudlnt eat very much at all. Afterwards we were about to go to bed and i had to make a few trips to the toilet, i.e. a hole in the ground you squat over. Then eventually I had what looked like food poisoning. Let me tell you, nothing is more depressing than food poisoning (or at least the symptoms) with a squat toilet, it's not fun at all. [forgive me if this is too graphic but i thought it was awesome] So after trying to throw up for about half an hour i think our neighbours heard me and went to get Foston, the head pastor for the college. I was laying down fruitlessly as i had been most of the night because sleep was impossible, and he knocked on the door and asked if he could do anything. I told him all i could think of was to pray, so he came in i stood up and he put his hand on me and began to pray. Probably the instant he put his hand on me i could feel my stomach about to empty and promptly did so when he finished. I just thought that was an awesome blessing from the Lord because i needed to vomit badly. So, Foston, Ngungu, Storiko, and our neighbour Eric brought me medicine, Promethazine to stop vomiting, and Flegella which is apparently for worms. Still not really sure what i have, and i'm not totally well yet, but i'm getting better, and needless to say it was an interesting night.

We woke up at 4:30am to catch the bus to Kampala at 5:30. Man the bus was amazing, we get on and there was practically nobody there. So i ended up with a whole row to myself and sucessfully slept for about 5 hours there and didn't have any GI problems the entire way. Although i definitely wasn't and still am not feeling up to par physically. About two hours before we got back (the bus ride lasted about 8 hours) the bus stopped for a "short call", so naturally after being on the bus so long i had to go. I traversed aroudn a trashpile to do my business and on the way back was accosted by several men who wanted me to pay them for peeing in a no-urination area. One pointed to a sign that was not written in english except for "urineting" yea it wasn't even spelled right and wanted me to pay him since i did something wrong. I refused and kept walking but they tried to block my way. Finally at the entrance to the bus i told him, "look, i'm sorry forgive me!" and pushe dhim aside and boarded the bus, thankfully that was the end of that.

We reached Kampala at about 1 and walked to the taxi park then reached home around 130. I slept till 5 came to the office for dinner, didnt really eat and went home. Last night i slept from 8:30PM to 7:00AM needless to say i needed rest.

I guess this is me asking you guys to pray for health, and also saying, "mom dont' worry, if this persists i will go to the clinic, and if it's really bad the best hospital in Uganda is a five minute drive away."






Here was my view from the shower stall on saturday night before the sun went down.
















This is a shot from the top of the "foothill" which was more like a mountain itself, it was probably another 5 or 10 miles to the mountains themselves.












Here is me, dead on the bus...















Pic from the cornfields of the sunset over the mountains...













UT, eat your heart out...









check this out, this article was found on http://www.newvision.co.ug

Night trekkers fewer
Sunday, 16th July, 2006	E-mail article Print article
By Chris Ocowun NUMBERS of night commuting children in Kitgum district have reduced, according to a head count report by UNICEF and other agencies. The report says as a result, six night commuters’ centres have been closed. Kitgum RDC Nahaman Ojwee on Thursday said the number of night commuters reduced from over 20,000 in 2002-2003 when there were regular attacks by the LRA rebels in the suburbs of Kitgum town to only 5,164 because the rebels have not attacked the town in three month. The RDC and the LC5 chairman, John Komakech, said by August, all night commuter centres shall be closed. “We want to sensitise the parents and the rest of the community around Kitgum town so that they can be prepared to receive their children home, instead of moving every evening to town and yet there is no major security problem now. “However, partners will continue to give whatever assistance they want to give the children at their homes,” Komakech said. He said there were cases of prostitution at the night commuters’ cenres, including rape and defilement. He said parents were not even bothered to follow their children to the centres. “Dismantling of the centres shall be part of the return of IDPs to their homes,” he said. Ojwee said some of the partners were against the idea of closing down the centres because they were reaping from them. He said such violated the children’s right to parental care.

Thus sad to say, and i can't articulate this as well as James can, but the invisible children campaign is alot of wasted energy. I mean don't get me wrong, they are all well meaning, but I get an email this morning talking about the invisible children global tour 2007, and i'm thinking, "why are they still focusing their efforts toward a problem that is/is being taken care of?" Right now there are 30 IC college student staffers in Uganda and about 30 more on the way, and James points out, "for about $2,000 round trip times 60 people, that's about $60,000 and couldn't that go to accomplishing something more than 60 well meaning, albeit ignorant college students can accomplish?" So, all i'm saying is, and i am guilty this too, before a bunch of college students, or anyone for that matter jumps head long into a cause like this, it woudl do well if they researched it a bit. Couldn't these kids willing to spend all that money work on problems at home? or at the very least on problems in places where they actually exist and where the government isn't actively trying to fix it? If you don't believe me check it out : www.newvision.co.ug

Ok now i'm looking at the IC website and wondering what the people that are over here or are coming will be doing, turns out IC has no idea either:

Volunteer in Uganda
Timeline: Future.
Unpaid.

Although all of our programs are, and need to be run by Ugandans, we are going to need more and more volunteers to go to Uganda and help implement many of our future programs on the ground. These volunteers must be there for a minimum of 14 days. A basic description of your work on the ground is not available yet, because we are still developing these programs and creating partnerships to be able to most effectively use people’s time and talent once they are in Uganda.

So basically they want you to come, spend way too much money on a plane ticket and be there for fourteen days to accomplish what, absolutely nothing, not to mention they are taking volunteers for programs which either don't exist or they haven't figured out what to let the people do while they are here.

Or maybe really what needs to happen to inspire the millions of cause-less 18+ kids in america, is for someone else to come along with a well edited, entertaining, documentary that is readily available and in dvd format...

(sorry for they cynicism, some frustrations needed to be vented)