Safari Photos

Following up on my pictures from yesterday, here are some long-overdue pictures from the Safari we took in Murchison Falls in February :)

Baboon! We stayed one night in an unfenced camp in the park, and there was a baboon causing all kinds of trouble the next morning. This one is sitting in recently burned parkland - during the dry season, the savannah burns (either naturally or intentionally - this might have been a controlled burn inside the park). People will burn their lands to clear away the brush and prepare it for cropland - though doing so isn't necessarily the best thing for the soil.

 

This is a Ugandan Cob - only found in Uganda!

I don't remember the name of this bird, but isn't it interesting?

A watering hole! You can see warthogs (look at their tails!) and cobs in this picture. It was the dry season, so there were quite a lot of animals around these.

Somehow I managed to take this awesome picture of a giraffe.

I decided that I want to live just about here. What you can't see is the lake in the distance (is it Lake Albert? We weren't sure). And this picture doesn't quite capture the way the sunlight caught the grass at this moment. It was pretty nice.

We made it to the lake! Those bumps in the water are hippos. We played frisbee for a while, until it started getting dark and the hippos started moving closer to shore. Then we decided it was time to go.

In summary - I was sorely tempted to break out into songs from The Lion King several times.

I'll end with a picture of Murchison Falls - though a picture doesn't really do it justice. 

Some pictures!

Hi, friends!

I'm feeling better than I was last week - though I still needed a nap after work today. Anyway, I figured I'd share some pictures with you, because I've been pretty stingy up till now.

Here's a shot of inside our compound, standing from my front door. On the right is our avocado tree (no fruit yet, though there are some small ones); in the center and to the left you can see some banana trees (I think some of these are matooke, a cooking banana, and some are ndizi, a small sweet eating banana). Behind the bananas in the center is a mango tree which has no fruit whatsoever. But right now all the mango trees are producing and our friends in the village have loaded us down with more mangoes than we know what to do with.

There's this really nice path that leads from our door out across a ridge. It's become one of the places I go when I want to decompress and just enjoy being outside.

This path is really nice, because it's peaceful, and I get some solid nature time in. But there are also people along it, and I can have conversations with them if I want. Sometimes they'll wave me over, but I've never felt trapped, like I feared when I first got here. Usually we don't know enough to say to each other, and the conversation is pretty short. Once I ran into a group of kids who started teaching me random words in Luganda, which was pretty fun.

This walk also has fantastic views of Lake Victoria:

And to finish us off today, I offer this picture of a herd of cows that I encountered while walking around with Tyler, the other US intern. No way but to go through them, which we did.

I hope this made up some for my lack of pictures...more to come!

-David Wit

Sickness

The doctor sat me down with my test results in his hands. “Looks like you’ve got a big one,” he told me, checking my eyes. What this turned out to mean was a flu – but presumably not a garden-variety flu, but a flu that deserves numbers and letters. I was kind of relieved – I was sure I had malaria, after my persistent fever and strange weakness, and the flu is a little more familiar. But, on the other hand, it’s pretty easy to treat malaria. Flu, on the other hand, just gets ibouprofin and rest. So that’s what I’m up to right now – ibouprofin and rest.

That has turned out to be a surprisingly good combination. I haven’t been out of bed today for more than 2 hours at a time, and I feel a lot better than any of the other days I’ve been sick. And the people here at EMI have been so kind to me. This weekend Maggie, our EMI grandma, cooked me fish chowder, and yesterday she drove me to and from the doctor’s. I was worried about what I was going to eat this weekend, and then, starting today, what I was going to drink: we have no running water right now. But the office sent me lunch, and one of the survey practicum leaders sent me down a huge bottle of water, and we got our regular boda guy to get me another 5L jug, and Maggie cooked us dinner, so I’m pretty set. Also, as I’m coming to realize, there is still plenty of water stored in the small cisterns around our property and accessible by jerrycan.

So at first being (very) sick in Africa was a frightening prospect – I’m so far from home, I don’t have all the usual routines and comforts, I don’t know if they have the right medicines, etc., etc. But it turns out that right here with EMI is a pretty good place to be sick, after all. Besides, the weather is still beautiful. It rained this morning, which made it perfect for sleeping in, and then it cleared up by the afternoon; and if I ever need more than two blankets I know it’s because of the fever and maybe I should take more ibouprofin. Like they told us during orientation, I would have likely gotten sick at home, too (true - I get at least one bad cold per semester). And here they are taking very good care of me - better than I would have taken care of myself at home.*

So there you have it. I’m sorry – I have more exciting things to write about, like the church I’m going to or the 5-day trip we took to Western Uganda, but those will have to wait. It’s almost time for bed :)

Here's a picture I just took to assure you I'm alright. Keep in mind it's on my low-res webcam, so don't go inferring a lot from my skin tone.

-David Wit

*Actually, it's interesting to notice this: here I absolutely have to rely on people to take care of me. There are no pre-packaged meals (except maybe cup noodles), no easily accessible pizza joints, no CVS down the block where they stock all the medicines I know. And like I said above, the water's out. In Columbus**, I pretty much assume that I have to take care of myself, and by and large I do. But seeing how impossible that is here (at least for me) has forced me to rely on - and appreciate more - the kindness of the people around me. 

**Boy, I'm not quite sure the last time I was sick in New Hampshire, but I'm sure Mom and Dad took care of me. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for doing that for like all of my life!

Seing God at Work

I think I shared with many of you that I've wanted for some time to go on a missions trip overseas, but I felt that I couldn't justify the expense. I don't mean to denigrate short term missions trips, and I'm sure they do serve the local church well (when they're done properly), but for a pretty long time they just haven't really grabbed me.  As much as I'd like to be changed by the experience, and as much as I want to encourage the community of believers, I've also wanted very strongly to serve, and to serve in a way that a local national could not.  And my impression has been that - at least in my case - it would probably do more good for the money it would cost to send me on a short-term trip to end up in the hands of people who are already on the ground, rather than to get me there for such a short time.  With such a mindset, I couldn't ask people to support me.

Well, when I was considering going with eMi, the thought occurred to me that here was a trip for which I could probably justify the expense.  This was not only because it just seemed to fit so well with what God has been doing in my life, but also because I would be using some pretty unique skills, that could maybe justify my $1,500 plane ticket from the States.  In some sense, I've been worried that this is a dangerous way to feel.  It's like..."Here I am and God is going to use me to do awesome things!"  Who am I to say that?

But over the past few weeks, I've actually seen God using my skills in very specific ways to meet needs in the eMi Uganda office - and not necessarily the skills that I expected to be using.  Sure, I've been using my training as an engineer to think about water and wastewater systems, but a lot of that has been stuff that I'm learning on the job (there's been a ton of learning, and I love it).  But I've also been using a lot of the skills that I picked up from graduate school, of all places!  For one, I've been put in charge of editing the report for my project, which includes putting together sections from all of the volunteers on the team.  I think a couple years ago this would have sounded dullsville, but it comes pretty naturally after writing my Masters thesis - and I actually kind of enjoy it (especially when I'm editing other peoples' writing rather than my own.  This is going to be a super impressive document, and I only have to write 1/10th of it!) At one point, I asked the project leader whether or not we were using the Oxford Comma, and he said "Wow, just the fact that you asked that question means that you're the right person for this job."

But also, some weeks ago I was talking with my supervisor, and he told me that because this project was so large, and at such an early stage, it was very research-intensive, and that it was very well-suited to my skillset.  That was really cool to hear!  I've even been able to use some of my chemical engineering background while researching possibilities for iron treatment on-site.

Finally, I've had extra time, so recently I was given a new assignment: to work on the draft of the civil engineering design guide.  We have one professional civil engineer on staff, and this has been on her plate for almost five years, and she's leaving at the end of the term.  So she really wants to get it done, but she's also swamped with work.  And most of the outstanding things are straight up research assignments - again, my forte after three and a half years in graduate school.  I spent a couple of hours looking for rainfall data one Thursday, and found a pretty neat dataset that might make finding precipitation data easier for anywhere in the world - she was really excited when she saw it.

So.  Once again, it seems like God is taking my questionable career choices (in this case, going straight through graduate school instead of stopping to get some experience, until now) and using them to fine-tune me for a role He wants me to play.  And all I can say to that is...well, it certainly wasn't my idea for this to happen.  God set this up, not me.  So I can be grateful that He is using me, even when it feels like I'm just kind of stumbling along.

But that's not all, because this goes both ways.  Being at eMi has really blessed me - both professionally and personally.  Seeing the examples of the North American staff here - whether they're here long-term or just for a year - has given me new insight into what it means to be a missionary.  Seeing the examples of the project trip volunteers, who were only here for two weeks, has given me new insight into what it means to be a professing Christian while also a Stateside professional engineer (when I go back through our project archives, I keep finding some of these people!).  Seeing the examples of our local staff has given me hope for diverse partnerships in the Body of Christ.  And all of them are wonderful role models for Christian living.  Also, I've by and large enjoyed the work I've been doing - while still getting distracted by interesting research problems - and still recognizing that it's work, and it can't save me.  So I'm learning about my own temperament and inclinations in different areas of work as well.

I don't know what's going to happen after this term, but right now it feels like God has brought eMi and me together very purposely at this time, in this place, and given us very complementary needs and gifts.  And that's a really cool thing to see.



Some pictures to make this post more visually appealing:

A candid view of my desk.  I took this one spontaneously because I was looking at some building details when my mentor asked me to look up electricity prices in Burundi, and I just felt like an engineer, you know?

This is the view out of my office window.  Actually, it's out of my window - my mentor, with whom I share an office, has his own window, too.  I am living the dream!

A Slice of Work

Hi, friends!

I've gotten some requests to talk about the engineering work I'm doing while I'm here - which sounds perfectly reasonable to me.  I've been trying to distil all my responsibilities, and to be honest with you, it just doesn't make for exciting reading.  So instead, I will take you through some of the stuff I did today.

Our workday starts at 8.  After turning on my computer, and talking with Phil (my officemate and mentor) while my computer starts up, I check my e-mail and organize my to-do list.

At 8:30 we have an office devotion. Everyone in the office gathers in our central meeting room, and depending on the day, it might be a Bible study (we're about to embark on the book of Ezra), a description from three staff members of what they do, a discussion that the leadership wants to have with everyone (today, we reviewed the last quarterly update to come out of the global office) or, on Fridays, a worship service with MAF,* with whom we share our office. Wednesdays we pair up and pray with each other.

Today, I spent a good part of my morning finishing up the second draft of the report for my project. All of our volunteers have written sections relating to their areas of expertise, and to what they did on the project trip two months ago, and I have been compiling them into one document, editing, asking questions, and adding appendices.  My graduate education is actually very useful for this part of my work!  So I think I was adding sections about well siting and turfgrass this morning.

One of the most critical things to come out of the report is a land-use plan for the campus:

This is how we are envisioning the 332 acres of land that Hope Alive! owns.  (Actually, it's one option - we have another one in the works, which has more concentrated development).  For scale, the property is probably about 1.5km from the top-left to the bottom-right (or, it's more than three times the size of the UR River Campus).  All credit to this goes to the architects and the agricultural team :)

One of my primary roles as regards this plan has been siting the boreholes that will provide water to the campus.  This is an important thing to consider early on, because they cannot be very close to each other, or to the property boundary, or to any wastewater sources. I made a picture with a 50m buffer around the property boundary and any buildings I thought might generate wastewater, and used it to site the five boreholes we estimate that we will need. However, I got the scale wrong, and my picture ended up being very restrictive.  Today, I finally fixed the scale and was able to re-site my boreholes.

This was actually super exciting for me, because I got to move one of the boreholes to a much higher location.  We want to put storage at each well location, for security reasons, and we also want to tie all of the storage tanks together so that the entire site is serviced by one connected water main.  There are some good reasons to do this, such as better water quality (the water is less likely to sit stagnant in the pipes) and more redundancy if one pump fails.  However, it means that all of the tanks have to be at the same elevation.  Therefore, boreholes at low elevations require super-tall tank stands, which are expensive.  Today's exercise allowed me to reduce the tallest stand from 11 meters to 8.5 meters (I asked Phil, a structural engineer, if an 11 meter stand was okay, and he laughed at me).

To actually figure out how tall the stands need to be, though, you have to model the distribution system.  We have a neat program called EPAnet 2 that lets you sketch out the proposed system, with tanks, pumps, pipes, junctions, and demand nodes.  You can then simulate the flow of water through the system.  Since we have a gravity-fed system (no pressurizing pumps), we are particularly concerned that each building has sufficient pressure to operate at peak demand.  Therefore, I had to change the elevation of my tanks until they were high enough to provide good pressure everywhere in the system under the worst-case scenario.  That's what's displayed in the picture below:

Here the blue rectangles are reservoirs that represent my boreholes and tanks, and the multicolored dots are demand nodes at different pressures.  The pipe colors depend on the velocity of water going through them.

One of the other people from the project team wanted to look at the model and make some suggestions (she has much more experience with this than I do), so I spent some time this evening wading through my models and making sure I had given her the right ones.

Also today, I spent some mentoring time with Phil. We're allowed to count up to 2 hours per week of this toward our work requirement - eMi holds discipleship as one of its core goals, and this is one very tangible way they back it up.  Afterwards, I met with our staff civil engineer to talk about the eMi East Africa Civil Engineering Design Guide, which I am doing some work on.  We talked about precipitation data, wetlands, and water law, among other things.  Finally, I went back through the architectural program (read: the list of all the rooms in all the buildings that we're planning for on the site) and updated my water demand calculations.  This was primarily because I allocated water for building cleaning based on floor space, but hadn't updated it to the most recent numbers.  (No picture for this - it was all excel spreadsheets).

There you have it!  To be honest, this was a kind of exciting day for me - I spent yesterday entirely on the report.  But that's the way work is, even here at eMi - there are some exciting days and some less-exciting ones.  But by and large I am very happy with the work that I get to participate in here - both in terms of what I do, and in terms of what it's for.  God has certainly blessed me in my professional life here.


*http://www.mafint.org/

Excuses

So...I apologize that it's been so long since I've posted! Live has been wonderfully busy here - but that's no reason to neglect you, friends. There's a ton to say - and you're certainly not going to get all of it - but I figured I would catch you up by giving excuses for why I haven't been able to put together a post for the last two weeks.

...however, I'm realizing now just how long this post is getting, so you're going to get one week of excuses, and maybe you'll get another one later - if I decide it's not too boring.  Let me know your thoughts.

Also, I realized that I never introduced the other interns to you.  Because it's gonna be awkward if I don't refer to people by name, here's a picture of us:

 From left to right: Me (you know me, probably), Shivan (Uganda), Andrea (Ontario, Canada), Siima (Uganda), Tyler (Oregon), and Pesh (short for Patience; Uganda)

Got it?  Okay, so, starting on Saturday, March 5th, I couldn't write a blog post because...

Saturday - I went to the beach with Tyler, Shivan, Andrea, and Joel - I know I'm immediately introducing a person you don't know, but Joel was part of a visiting Canadian survey duo that stopped by for two weeks after working in Kenya for a month.  He and Ben (who will show up later) were both here with eMi last year, and they had decided to take 6 weeks off of their respective jobs and do a bunch of survey work for us.  Pretty cool that they got to take 6 weeks off, though they agreed that working largely fieldwork-related positions in Canada during the winter probably helped make that possible.  Also pretty cool that they spent those 6 weeks doing more work.

We didn't swim in the lake (I looked, and the water was waaay too green for this algal bloom researcher to consider), but they had a pool, and there were some pretty picturesque palm trees nearby.  I brought a copy of Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology because I was asked to lead one of our morning devotionals at work.  We've been going through the eMi* statement of faith, which is based off of the Lausanne Covenant, and the section they gave me was:

"We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood. We believe in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His imminent and personal return in power and glory. (John 3:16; I Corinthians 15:3-4; I Peter 2:18-24)"

So I don't know about you, but I counted at least eight statements of belief in those two sentences.  Fortunately, Phil had done the previous statement about the Trinity, so I didn't need to handle "the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ," and I was free to focus on the other seven.  So I sat next to the pool and read about the Atonement.  Preparing for this took up pretty much all of the next day, too.

I don't have pictures of the beach because, unknown to us, they had a no camera policy - we narrowly avoided having our cameras confiscated when we entered.  However, here's a nice picture of Lake Victoria from the week before:

No lie, this lake is a significant part of why I chose to apply for this office.

Sunday - after going to a local church, I worked on the next day's devotion (see above).  Other than a brief walk and an even briefer run shortly before dark, that is all.

Monday - Mondays are Intern Bible Study days!  This term, we basically come up with difficult questions that we wanted to talk about.  The idea is that a person takes one related set of questions, and spends a week on them.  The next week, we discuss a Bible character related to the questions.  The result is that every single one of our studies is challenging - and wonderful.  This week was the character study associated with the question "What is Hell?"  So we talked about Satan.  And demons.  You know, normal Bible study stuff.  We actually had a really good discussion about our different cultural viewpoints of demons. As I come from a Pentecostal background but currently attend a fairly Reformed church, I'm already straddling cultures with this topic, and it was great to see it with another few pairs of eyes.

Tuesday - This Tuesday was International Women's Day, which is a national holiday in Uganda.  All of us interns still reported to work, but afterward I figured I'd cook something for the lady interns, so the day was occupied by shopping and by cooking.  They requested soup, so I made one of the two soups I've ever made by myself - a version of Zuppa Toscana from the BudgetBytes website that Suzy put me on to last semester.  It went pretty well, even though there were some pretty serious delays that resulted in a 9:30 PM dinner.  I got to use collard greens that were growing right in our compound - freshest greens I've ever had!

Wednesday - So there's a cultural institution in Uganda known as the "Pork Joint."  I had observed instances of this institution before, but the previous week Ben and Joel mentioned that Hope, a Ugandan national who works HR in the office, is a huge fan.  Apparently they convinced her to seek out a local pork joint (the office moved in August, so even the long-timers are still getting their bearings).  Anyway, today Tyler, Joel, Ben, Hope, Hattie (another Ugandan who works with eMi as an architect) and I tried out a pork joint in Entebbe.  It was basically an awning under which a couple of guys were roasting skewers of pork over an open fire, and it was delicious.  We had some great conversation.  I got a little lost on my way there, and on the way back I found myself in the fullest matatu I've ever been in.  Matatus are minibuses with the maximum possible number of seats, given the Pauli Exclusion Principal, and they constantly ply the main roads for customers.  I would venture a guess that this one was carrying 19 people, which is a stretch even for them, but it was late and we didn't want to separate on our way home.  Overall, it was a wonderful adventure.

Thursday:  All I know about this evening is that my journal entry cuts off before I was finished.  I think I was probably working a little late, trying to finish a paper based off of my Masters Thesis, and then I got called over for our Intern Safari Meeting, which happens on Thursdays.  We get one day off per month, and we can bank them, so the tradition is to take several of them and go on a long trip somewhere in Uganda.  We're planning on visiting the Western and Southern parts of the country at the beginning of May.  There's lots to plan for, and we're being kept to task.  This meeting went pretty late, actually - I think it started around 7 and finished around 9:30 - but we got most of our itinerary planned out, so it was very productive.  You'll hear more about this later, I'm sure.

Friday: Friday is officially movie night at the intern compound, but we haven't held to this schedule in about a month.  This Friday, we were invited to dinner with staff family from North America (most recently from Colorado, I believe; also, I tried to spell their name and then gave up.  Sorry.)  John works in HR - for us and for the eMi global office - and his wife Janelle does many things, among which are homeschooling their four children and volunteering with local ministries.  First off, I want to say that their house has a spectacular view - I wanted to spend all my time there on their porch:

Second, they were awesome.  It's been really cool to visit the missionary families here and see how they live, how they raise their kids, what kinds of books they read (their libraries have been so impressive!), and how they ended up where they are (namely, in Uganda).  Stories about this last one have varied considerably: this particular family has been in missions for a long time, just not always with eMi in Uganda; by contrast, the Vanderfords seemed quite happy living in Flordia where Scot was a residential architect until God called them here - they arrived this past summer and are leaving shortly after we are, and are no less interesting or hospitable (in fact, our last true movie night happened at their place).

We rounded out the evening by playing games - I took notes on how to raise kids to be board game geeks.  The finale was an 8-person game of Dominion, which I would have anticipated being a disaster but ended up being very engaging.  All in all, a super fun night, but not one conducive to writing on blogs.

So.  There you have it.  You'll have to take my word for it that similar things happened last week.  Life here is very full, in very good ways - I feel very blessed to be here.  Thank you for your prayers and your support!

Speaking of life being full, it's past time for bed, so I'll close out now.  Hopefully, it won't be another month before you hear from me again!

-David Wit




*This is the proper capitalization. I'll use it when I feel like it.

Hi, friends!

I'm sorry - I realized that I left you hanging somewhat after the last post.  In short, things were quiet here, and other than some cabin fever from staying inside the compound for three days straight, everything was fine (at least we have a substantial yard - it could have been a lot worse).  I would summarize the elections for you, but Trevor Noah has already done such a good job...

Joking aside, though, the most significant thing about the elections is that they were peaceful.  There were some disturbances and some teargas, but very few people died and everything was calm out here.  Thank you for your prayers - please keep them coming as Uganda moves forward from here.

I'll have some more posts soon, I promise!

-David Wit

Uganda is having elections right now.

It's a little scary, actually.  Uganda hasn't yet had a peaceful transfer of power, and the current president has been in power for 30 years.  I've been told that people are a little more unsettled this election than the during the last ones.  We're stuck in our compound for a couple of days for safety, until we better understand what will happen following the announcement of who won.  We spent the past few days stockpiling food and making sure that we had emergency protocols in place.

It's easy to be scared.  But I've been remembering that God is in control.  We had a mini worship session today, and several songs spoke powerfully to this.

"I called, You answered, and You came to my rescue..."
"My one defense, my righteousness..."
"You hold the universe, You hold everyone on earth..."

And last night I found Psalm 62:

"One thing God has spoken,
    two things have I heard:
that you, O God, are strong,
    and that you, O God, are loving.
Surely you will reward each person
    according to what he has done."
(verses 11-12, NIV 1984)

As I think every time I get on a plane: my life is always in God's hands.  It's just that sometimes it's more obvious than others.  And this is one of those times.  But God does not change, so I will not be concerned.

If you can't get in touch with me over the weekend, don't worry: sometimes the government cuts communications during times of unrest (social media is already down).  You're going to have to trust God for me, too :)

Please be praying for Uganda during this time.  Pray that the elections would be fair, pray that people would be peaceful, pray that God would be glorified by what happens here during the next few days.

-David Wit

A week ago Saturday, we arrived at the site around 11:00.  A ministry, called "Hope Alive!", wanted to build several schools on the site, equivalent to K-12 with a vocational school as well.  We were there to give some preliminary plans: where would things be?  Where could they get water and power, and how much would they need?  Where was a good place to grow things to sustain the school, and what kind of agriculture should they pursue? Though we knew that we could not walk through all 350 acres in one day, the first step was to look at the land they had purchased.

There were people living on the land - their clan had sold it to the ministry.  We waited for them to gather reed mats for us to sit on outside their huts; they also produced several chairs.  They welcomed us, and the staff with Hope Alive who accompanied us explained who we were and what we had come to do.  we were introduced to the elder of the homestead, and to several of his family.  One of his sons - Geoffery - had a middle-school education, and he served as translator.

 

Some of our team on the first walk.  The guy in front is the country director for Hope Alive!

After the meeting, we were off - first to look at their water supplies.  It's the dry season, and they draw water from an unprotected spring near the swamp.  "When we drink this water, we get stomach cramps" our guide almost cheerfully explained.  He also explained that they neither filtered nor boiled the water.  The next spring we came to looked like it was sometimes running - but not during the dry season.  Nearby a cow grazed in an unfenced pasture.

Community Water Supply

Along the way, we saw tomatos, cassava, maize, and papaya.  Further on, there were wide stretches of grassland, with sparse but majestic trees scattered throughout.  It is an African savannah.  On later days, we would return and Geoffery would lead us through the impenetrable bush with a machete.  Thorny trees, tiny chili peppers (we took them back to our guest house, and Hattie put them on everything), fuzzy pods ("if you touch these, you itch so much"), brilliant butterflies, and once, in the distance, a group of monkeys.

Every so often we passed a homestead.

We were instructed by one of the architects to look for beautiful trees.  There were plenty.

Wild peppers!  Hot!

It is a beautiful land.  And Hope Alive! has a beautiful plan for it: to provide a place where local children can come to receive a good education.  This is a rarity in the north, where more than 20 years of war have devastated local families and infrastructure.  Classrooms can reach up to 300 students, and second-graders frequently drop out because of lack of interest.  Uganda has 38 million people; half of them are younger than 15.  In this nation, education is critically important.  In this nation, 25% of children finish primary school (7th grade). (1)

In our week there, EMI was able to sketch out what that school might look like, eventually.  We also did less exciting-sounding things like water and wastewater and electricity demand, and agricultural analysis.  But it was important work, and it was good work.  During the final presentation, as we were going over questions and concerns about the plan, I was imagining what it would be like to be a student there: to start in nursery school, and advance first to primary, then to secondary school; how the student's relationship to the place would grow and develop; how they would pass by their old nursery school on the way to secondary school, and be able to join in caring for the fields that they saw on the walk to primary school.  I was reminded of my time at Berwick Academy (K-12), and how that school still feels like a safe place, like home.  If this project can accomplish any of that for some of these disenfranchised students, I will be so happy to have played such a small part in it.



(1) UNICEF, 2008 - 2012 data (percentage relayed to us by Hope Alive! was slightly lower).  http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/uganda_statistics.html; accessed February 9, 2016.

Quick update

Hi, folks!  I'm in Uganda!  I've had limited internet access, because the wireless in our apartments hasn't been set up yet, so I've had little opportunity to post.  But orientation in Colorado was really great, and gave me a great perspective going into this trip.  The flight to Uganda was long, but considering that I ended up halfway around the world, very bearable.

The transition has been really good - everyone here is really nice, and I've been going through another orientation at the EMI East Africa office this past week.  There are 6 interns total - three from North America and three from Uganda, so it's been really fun getting to know each other.

Tomorrow, I'm going on a project trip to Gulu, in the northern part of Uganda.  We'll be working on this project: Hope Alive!
I'll be out of the loop for the next week or so, but hopefully I'll have lots of stories and pictures when I get back!

Also, I wanted to let you know that I'm at full support!  Thank you to everyone who gave to support my internship, and thank you to everyone who's been praying.  If you still want to give, the money will support EMI's work around the world, or possibly a future project trip for me.  If you're praying, don't stop!  This trip is still at it's beginning, and there are lots of challenges ahead, starting with this project trip.  Please pray:

• That our team of volunteers coming in from Uganda and North America will work well in the one week we have together
• For good communication with the local ministry (our client), Lugobo Baptist Church
• For energy, creativity, and perseverence as we try to plan out 350 acres in one week
• For protection, physical and spiritual

Thanks, everyone!

-David Wit

Preparation

So last week, I realized that I should probably have started sending these updates long ago - after all, people have been partnering with me since October, and my preparation is certainly a part of this trip.  So I wanted to give you a belated update on what preparation has looked like for me.  However, that post turned into a little essay on the importance of partnership - which is fine.  But here's the actual update: that is, what my preparation over the past few months has looked like:


Support Raising
You probably know about this one already, because this is when I contacted lots of people I know and asked them if they wanted to partner with me in this trip (and I hope the previous post convinces you that I take this partnership seriously).  I was both excited and terrified about this, because I got a great excuse to contact a bunch of people I hadn't heard from in years ... and part of that excuse was a request for money.  Interestingly, my trust in God oscillated during this process - it started out pretty strong, and then as I delayed sending out these letters I became more and more nervous.  But God works so wonderfully in our weakness, and I have found that He provides, even when I feel like I did a bunch of things wrong.  Anyway, I got to hear from a bunch of people, and hopefully encourage some more, which has been really cool - and hopefully some of you are reading this now :)

Classes
I'm part of a wonderful church in Columbus, OH called Veritas Community Church.  In October, I got an e-mail from them that said they've set up a missions training program, and that any missionary who wanted to be "sent" by the church should apply.  "Great!" I think, "I really want Veritas involved in this - I should get in on that!"  Then I found out that the program was designed to last a year.  And that the classes I could take would take up ALL of my available Wednesday nights (save the one before Thanksgiving).  I signed up for classes anyway, and along the way got a crash-course in missions, practically and theologically; met and was inspired by a bunch of people considering missions full-time; had some good conversations with our new director of missions; and started thinking about my life in the context of missions.  Before I left Columbus, this was a major way that I was thinking about and preparing for this trip.  Highlights include:

• Useful models for cross-cultural ministry (the five "F"s of culture) and for church-planting
• A presentation about how to decide where to go, in which the speaker told us he hated hot climates.  This was the first time I thought about the fact that Uganda is on the equator, and I'm from New Hampshire.   Hm.  Fortunately, the internet tells me the weather doesn't get much hotter than 95 (F)...I think I can deal with that...
• Reading a letter by Adoniram Judson and noting that the life expectancy for missionaries in the tropics was 5 years.  I am so very grateful for vaccines and anti-malaria medications, and humbled by the dedication of those who have gone before me.

Books
EMI sent me books!  I love it when people do that.  They are:

Mack and Leeann's Guide to Short-Term Missions
Strengths Finder 2.0 (a diagnostic that is supposed to help us identify areas of strength that we can cultivate in our work and our lives)
Tips on Ugandan Culture: A Visitor's Guide

This has been more a feature of my time in New Hampshire, and they are giving me perspective and making me think about the trip in new ways.  I'm very grateful for them.

AutoCAD
So...when I had my interview with the folks at EMI, I admitted that though I had seen AutoCAD before, I didn't really know how to use it.  Then I promised to learn it.  This finally happened while I was back home in NH, thanks to The Hitchhiker's Guide to AutoCAD basics (part of the Autodesk help site) - while I'm a long ways from proficiency, I feel comfortable with the basic commands, and ready to learn how to apply them!  This was a lot of fun, and a skill that I've wanted to acquire since I was an undergrad.  This is an internship, after all, so there's going to be technical learning as well as spiritual growth.  This is wonderful :)

Prayer
This is such an important part of spiritual preparation - and I wish I did more of it.  Still, I have had some really good opportunities to seek God while I've been home, and EMI has given us some scriptures to pray through in preparation.

Running
While in New Hampshire, I don't bike everywhere (I thought about biking to visit some friends about 2 miles away, but my parents insisted that it was a bad idea because it was after dark).  So I'm trying to stay fit by running.  It's not every day, and it's pretty painful, mostly because it's so cold.


Being outside
I wanted to experience winter this winter, and after some initial fears the season has delivered.  (I was worried this afternoon because I couldn't find my sandals; turns out I had unpacked and used them, because at one point in late December they were appropriate for the weather).  Also, being outside in New Hampshire is always good for me, mentally and spiritually - whether listening to the ice freeze or watching the stars (so many more than we get in Columbus!)

Yup, I live near this.

 

The swamp during winter is wonderfully barren and maybe almost accessible...

 Last Wednesday, J.T. and I went on a spontaneous road-trip to the White Mountains.  Amazing.

My preparation hasn't been perfect: there are a lot of ways in which I wish I had been better about prioritizing my time.  But I can still see the above ways in which God has been preparing me (and there's no such thing as being completely prepared, right?).  As of today, I'm in orientation with EMI, so preparation is much more structured.  But please keep praying for me - for all of the interns and staff members starting with EMI right now - that God would bring us to a place of humility and trust, and prepare us for whatever He has for us.

-David Wit

1st Transition

Hi, folks!

At 5:15 this morning, I left home in order to travel to Colorado for our 1-week orientation.  I'm there now, and it's been great.  We're at a retreat center near Colorado Springs, and the view is gorgeous:

 
I haven't explored much outside yet - that requires more sleep on my part.

There are 25-ish people here: many of them interns, but a good number of new staff and long-term volunteers as well. It's really exciting: the orientation schedule is packed full of wonderful-sounding stuff.  Please be praying for all of us as we learn about EMI and missions, are challenged to have God's heart for the nations, and are comissioned to serve Him with EMI.  Pray also that we would form good relationships, especially among our mission teams.  And please pray that we'd be able to get as much rest as necessary :) - the schedule is really full.

Also, you should be aware that this happened:

                           (Before)                                                                    (After)

And with that, I'm off!

-David Wit

Partnership

One of the books that EMI sent me talks about the importance of partnership.  It was a good reminder of something that - I'm ashamed to admit - I often forget: that this trip is as much mine as it is yours.  Even though I get to actually travel to Uganda and work in ministry there, your prayers and your financial support are essential components of this mission.

A favorite missionary passage is Romans 10:13 - 15:
    
..., for "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."  How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?  And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?  And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?  And how can they preach unless they are sent?  As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"  (NIV 1984)

I've usually heard that verse to encourage people to go (actually, I've usually heard it to encourage people to preach...there's maybe another post to come about that).  But notice the last rhetorical question there: "how can they preach unless they are sent?"  This passage is as much about sending as it is about any of the other actions.  To Paul, sending is essential - it is the first in a chain of necessary (well, maybe not necessary, but at least normative) actions that result in saving faith. [1]

And that's what you, good supporters of mine, are doing.  Without you, I don't go.  Even if I could have financed this trip myself, going on my own would be pretty ineffective. Because with your support, this isn't just David Wit going to Africa to Help People - this is David Wit being sent by the Church to do God's work. Now, both of those scenarios might result in some good engineering work getting done, but let me be honest here: on this trip, as always, the work of engineering is secondary to the work of spiritual transformation.  Structures fall down, roads grow over, wells dry up.  But when God moves, the results are eternal.  And believe me, in this aspect of the work your prayers will accomplish much more than I could do on my own.  (Perhaps in all aspects of the work, too.) [2]

So It would be foolish and ungrateful of me to not give you all equal standing in this endeavor.  And I hope that, whether you follow this blog regularly or just check in every so often or even find it years from now, you will think of it as your project, too.

So, let's go do this together!

-David Wit



Notes:

(1) normative is one of those words I struggle with, so I'm trying to use it correctly whenever I can.  Here's what it means:

"of or relating to a norm, especially an assumed norm regarded as the standard of correctness in behavior, speech, writing, etc." (Dictionary.com)

By this I mean Paul regards this chain of events as normal.  Which I suppose I could have said, but like I said, I'm trying to learn this word... 

(2) This is not to say that the engineering work is irrelevant on its own, or that evangelism is the only project with eternal impact.  But I mean to imply that any and every work receives its eternal significance from God.  Maybe the worker doesn't need to acknowledge this, but I certainly think it helps.

An Update about Updates

Hi, everyone!  Looks like I have a blog now.  Yup, this is it.  Don't mind me, I'm just looking around here...nice and roomy, actually.

I've toyed with the idea of starting a blog for a long time, but I didn't trust myself to post things with any regularity.  However, the upcoming trip to Uganda will give me a great reason to do so (learn more about it on the "Details" page!).  I'll make no hard and fast promises about the frequency of updates, but I will tell you I'd like it to be weekly, and I'll try very hard for it to be at least monthly.

So...right, update.  Being home has given me great opportunities to see friends and family, and I've been trying to balance this with preparing for the trip (and with finishing up some things for school).  Right now, I'm four (!) days away from leaving for orientation in Colorado, and trying to pull together everything that needs to be done by then.  I'd appreciate your prayers for things to come together!

Also, I'm very close to my support goal of $8,000, but not yet at it, so feel free to swing by the "Support" page over there :)

Let's keep the first update short - maybe then there will be more soon.

Thanks for reading!

-David Wit