ABIDE Week 2 - Student Arrive

     That was really the highlight of the week. The arrival of the students made for a very busy week for the staff at ABIDE. Through all the craziness though God kept us all by His grace.

 

     Monday proved to be one of the more laid back days for the week. The main thing happening was the arrival of the students, this was good because it meant there was time for a quick run into town.

 

Tuesday and Wednesday prove to be rather crazy days. First thing we do at ABIDE with the new students is to take them on a camping trip. We left Tuesday morning to start the hike to the mountain (which is about an hour from the ABIDE house). Our campsite was a lovely mountain top (that also happens to get a good amount of wind), which was rather steep to hike up. One of the most interesting parts was we were staying in a field that had a bunch of Ankole cattle. The main purpose of the trip is to break the ice between all the students and the staff. (the students are from all over the country and from different tribes)

 

Thursday through Saturday was orientation and training for the students. Since the students were in that it meant a very weird schedule for the staff. We had to be there for some classes, and not for others. Made things rather tiring for the most part cause you are either on the go doing stuff with the students, having to do stuff in town, or working on stuff in my room. 

 

Sunday had to be one of the busiest days of all. Went to a church service around 8am, then back to ABIDE for a late breakfast, then to another service around 11pm, then back to ABIDE for lunch, relax a little, then in the afternoon off to a worship service at another church.

 

    

     Despite all the busyness and everything going on though the Lord was faithful through it all. He kept all of us through the week and gave us the energy to accomplish the tasks set before us.

Converting From Dollars to Shillings

     I figured that it would be helpful to put a post together explaining  the difference value wise between the US dollar and the Ugandan Shilling. This is mostly to help make things easier to understand when I throw money amounts out there in the Ugandan Shilling. It can seem a bit complicated but atleast for those here we get used to thinking in terms of shillings, but grow used to converting it.

 

     With this I will start at the basics of the money here. The currency here is the Ugandan Shilling (UGX), and it comes in a number of different amounts. For the coins you have a 100, 200, and 500 shilling coins. In paper bills you have a 1000, 2000, 5000, 10000, 20000, and 50000 shilling bills. Really the most commonly used on a day to day bases (unless in a larger store) are 5,000 UGX (and smaller) then all the coin values. 

 

     Now that a framework as the denominations of currency available it is time to move into talking and currency conversion. I will say right up front until you get used to converting between the two currencies it can be a little intimidating. So with this we will start again with basics, one USD (United States Dollar) is currently worth 2,670 UGX. So with this as a building block it makes things easy, $10 is worth 26,700 UGX and $100 is worth 267,000 UGX. 

 

     Well here comes the harder part for many converting  from the shilling to the dollar. I know for me this has been the hardest part. When you grow up on one money system, having to go through the process of thinking in terms of another currency isn't easy. Here is a crash course on how I do it most of the time. I usually think in terms of two bills here, the 2,000 and the 20,000. Right now the 2,000 bill is worth .75 USD while the 20,000 is worth $7.49 USD. That is sorta the baseline that I start with when figuring out the cost of different items.

 

 Here are the prices for a few of the common things we pay for:

 Item                                                UGX Price                                               USD Price

Boda                                                                 1,000-2,000                                                               .37-.75

Soda (300ml)                                                     1,000                                                                          .37

Soda (500ml)                                                   1,800-2,000                                                               .67-.75

Average meal at Ark Cafe                             12,000-15,000                                                         $4.49- $5.61

250 G bag of coffee                                        7,500-9,600                                                             $2.80- $3.59

1 liter of Juice                                                  4,900                                                                         $1.83

Small loaf of Wheat bread                             2,000                                                                            .75

Pack of ramen noodles                                   1000-1500                                                               .37-.56

 

 

     I could add a lot more to the list, but this is just to give a glimpse into something I do every day. Hopefully this will help in future when I put prices in Ugandan shillings.

Abide- Week One

     Well it has taken longer getting this ready then I would have liked, but such is life. There were several setbacks in getting it done, including losing much of what I had previously written. This past week in a nut shell can be defined by meetings and training. Something that is need to help get everyone on  the same page though never  the most enjoyable of things.

 

     Wednesday through Friday was filled with training. During this time we had a couple of guest speakers come and do different training sessions. On Friday I also received my official job description and list of responsibilities. I have known for a while the position I was coming to fill but now have more info about it. I am serving here in the capacity of an international intern (there is another intern here, from Chicago, who will be serving in the Kabale). I will be teaching one of the discipleship classes, a basic computer class, and will be helping with some of the activities. Other things  I will be doing includes mentoring students, and also helping keep an eye on things around campus.  That pretty much will be my job for the next six months (except for a break that we have about half way through).

 

     A few fun things have gone on this week, one of the best has been getting to learn a new town. It has been quite an interesting time just because there is so much to see. So far though I have food pretty much my three favorite places overall. Nakumatt, Golf Course Supermarket, and Ark Cafe (which is above Golf Course). I think in some ways though I am going to Nakumatt a little too much though because I am getting to know one of the guards there. (A very friendly Ugandan guy that I met the very first time I went there) It really is a great place though to get most anything thing, the ground floor has all your grocery items and the second has most household items. Golf course is a little bit similar though a fair bit smaller. Ark cafe is great though if you want a good meal for cheap, You can get food and a soda for around 12,000-15,000 UGX (That is about $4.50-$5.60 USD) So far I have discovered that Ark has a very tasty Philly Baguette, and cheeseburger.

 

 That is just a bit of a recap of the week, spiritually some of the week has been rather hard. There is a great temptation to become proud here because of what I know. Theologically I am ahead of many Ugandans including a lot of pastors, and there is a bait to be proud because of it. It is good though this week God has been showing me more of my need for Him here. With many little cultural things to deal with it makes it hard sometimes. (Like how their understanding of personal property is much different from an Americans, and often expect to use most anything you have whenever they want.) There has been a great need for dependence on Christ, and patience. There are so many things that can get under the skin of any american. The internet is based off USB modems, which can be very frustrating at times to work with. As well as the African sense of time, this is something much different from the USA. For Example if someone said" we are getting ready to go". Back home this would mean that you are leaving in about five minutes, but in this culture it could mean anywhere from about 10minutes to well over an hour. This isn't a bad thing, but it takes patience and a lot of getting used to. Through it all though I can see the Lord working, and I am blessed with a great AIM team here.  They have proven to be a blessing in so many ways, and I am looking forward to getting to know (most) of them in the months ahead.   

The First Few Days

Well I figured it was about time that I put a blog post up that actually had something to do with the time since leaving Ga. There has been a lot of things and I just have to see if I can remember it all correctly. Here is sorta a overview of things since last friday.

Friday morning- got dropped off in the terminal that was listed on my paperwork. Only to find out a short time later I needed to be in the other terminal. (Paperwork said at the international, but I actually needed to be at the domestic. They are two seperate terminals and it requires taking a special bus to get between them)(it has to drive around to the other side of the airport)

Friday afternoon- This was when the real fun started, first off for some odd reason I was on a puddle jumper for the flight from Atlanta to Newark. (Seat configuration was 1 and 2, which normally you would see either a 2-3 or a 3-3) The landing was a bit interesting cause of a 30 MPH cross wind. After that nothing eventful happened tial about thrity minutes before boarding my flight to Brussels. I called home just to let them know that I was about to fly out. This is when I first became of a annoying situation, because of a change of short term facilitators having happened between the friday before christmas and then when I left. The new person wasn't aware that I had an ASB account (a bank that AIM uses for all their people)(it totally wasn't her fault). This still caused a bit of an issue because it meant that some costs I would have to cover immediately.

Saturday morning (early)- Land in Brussels, and get to enjoy nap during my lay over there. Then around 10am (brussels time) board a plane bound for Entebbe. (with one side stop in Rwanda)

Saturday Night- Had a "brief" stop in the capital of rwanda to let some people off and board some others. Of course this did not go as planned, and an hour long stop turned into a two and a half hour plus stop. Which means instead of getting into Entebbe at 11pm I got the afte 12:30 am. Which after a 45 minute to an hour long drive meant I wasn't in bed till nearly two.

Sunday- met other guests at Matoke Inn (four Canadians, three Brits, and two Americans). Went to church at a local church in the area, and then went to lunch with some of the other people from the Inn.

Monday- Had Orientation in the morning, and then a visit into Kampala. Got to walk around the city for a while with James( A Brit short-termer in the southwest team that is working at a hospital for the next seven weeks) and rhone? (a ugandan that works in the AIM office). Got some things we needed, and got to see some of the different shops.

Tuesday - Catch the post bus with James and Laura (An AIM Short term Physiotheripist working up near Kampala but visiting the southwest team. (Also working for a few days with Zillah, a British Physio on our team). Had a team meeting over the the Skinners house (they are the south west team leaders, and a great family to get to know.) (Got to enjoy a chocolate two layer cake, iced and with oreos on the outside and in the middle) Also got to meet Seb, a Brit who has been an intern with Abide in the past. (yes there are a lot of brits out here).

Well that pretty much catches yall up to speed. Sorry to cut some things short but it has been a rather busy few days, there are more coming, and I really could use the sleep. Be looking for more updates to come.

The Journey- Part 1

There are some that have heard this story but many might not have or atleast not all of it. The Journey refers to the set of events that lead to my becoming part of AIM and going to Uganda. It is in a way both a short and long story to tell. It is short because it was entirely God, it is long becuase there have been a number of things that have happened along the way.

  While this story is some ways goes a bit farther back, I will began at really a key point that got the whole thing rolling. I was in my second semester at college, I had started classes only a few weeks prior. It was around the end of January, up until this point in time I thought I knew what I would be doing. I was preparing to get a degree in something along the lines of Freshwater Biology, get a good job, and maybe occasionally do a little missions work. Well God had other ideas though, and by the end of that week much had changed. The two biggest being I knew that atleast for the time being (possibly for good) I was to leave off studying at college, and I was to began prepare to go into the ministry.

  During the summer of 2011 I was able to go on two missions trip. Both of them where to places that I had not expected to go. The first was to hot, humid south mississippi definitely not a place a had thought I would end up going. The second trip ended up being to Haiti, yet another place I had not planned on going.  (yes this sorta becoming a theme) These two trips definitely in a way cemented the call of my going into ministry.

 Well that is sorta the first part of the story. I know that I didn't even mention how AIM comes into play with all of this but that will have to wait. So until Part 2, yall must patiently wait.