Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Kibale Greeting



The project team I was on this past week worked with an organization called Pacific Academy Outreach Society (PAOS) who has a school mainly for AIDS orphans in Kibale, Uganda. It is called the Kibale Community Center and they have a school for primary and secondary students. The project we worked and what I am currently working on and what I will work on for pretty much the rest of the time I am here, is a girl's college and teacher training center outside of Masaka. So to get a better understanding of what Kibale is like, we got to visit it and we recieved a very warm welcome from the primary school as you can tell in the video. Enjoy!

Monday, September 28, 2009

Getting a Haircut in Uganda




Well a few weeks ago I needed a haircut and lucky me one of the girls who lives in the eMi house has her professional hair cutting license. Pretty nice, huh! She did a pretty good job too.

Blessings
david a dill

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Funny Ugandan Signs

So it is my 2 week anniversary being here in Uganda!!! Pause for celebration........................... So during these 2 weeks I have come to notice signage here in Uganda. It can be quite funny, and while we are in a indirect culture, signs can be very direct. So I decided I would keep up with the ones I see and share a few with you from time to time. So here are a few I have seen so far:


Princess Diana High School

GOD IS ABLE Shop

Sophie's Classic Video Library

God's Flowers Nursery School

Give and Take Restaurant

Best FRIENDS Pub - with 'best' being really really small and 'FRIENDS' looks like the t.v. show Friends

I Feel Like Chicken Tonight

Salon Obama

Obama Salon

Obama's Kabalagala

International Gospel Healing Church Centre

Yes, these are actual signs in Uganda for real businesses. I hope you got a good laugh. I will be on the look out for more.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Tree of Life

Sign pointing the way to the eMi office cause you couldn't find it without 'em!

Kyle surveying with brad looking on.

Peter looking good holding the rod.

Cherish Uganda

Tree of life! The tree is huge. You might be able to see Peter at the base of it. Interesting story about this tree that the staff of Cherish told us. The tree's sap is used for incense a lot of the time. So this particular tree was used by a witch doctor and people said weird and strange things would happen at night like seeing things and hearing strange noises. Creepy stuff to say the least. So anyway the staff of Cherish had communion around the tree one evening and the next day the tree was dead! So the locals said that the tree was posessed by an evil spirit that went into the lake after communion! Hmm, anyway you can take what you will from that.


Blessings,

david a dill

Friday, September 4, 2009

Cherish Uganda

Hey all!!!!

Well I have been in Uganda for little more than a week! Which sounds crazy cause it feels like I have been here for so much longer. It has really been a blur so far especially the first few days that I was here. Jet lag was pretty bad and we had orientation for the first five days that I was here. So things were definitely hazy. But I am doing well starting to get adjusted to life in Uganda.
The month of September is pretty crazy here at eMi. All of our main project trips are about to begin. One team actually leaves tomorrow for Kenya and my team leaves in about a week and a half for Masaka, Uganda which is about 2 hours south of Kampala.
So this week started work with eMi and I jumped right into things. Monday was office orientation and getting to know how the office operates and also talking about our different project trips. Tuesday I went with two other interns and the directer of eMi EA to Entebbe to a place called Cherish Uganda. Cherish was founded 3 years ago by a church in London and is a place for orphans that are HIV positive. They have an orphanage, school, and farm all on 21 acres near Lake Victoria. It is very pretty. Anyway they are in the process of developing the land and so they wanted us to come out and survey it. So we the interns got a quick crash course on how to survey with a total station and then got to it. So we surveyed for 3 days cause that is how much time we had for this week, but the land is huge and had a ton of trees and bush which made the surveying slow going. So we got about a third of it done and plan on going back in late October or November. But we got the crucial part done for them which is good. I wish I could show you what the property looked like cause it was pretty crazy. It has like at least 20 property corners if you can imagine that! So me and the 2 other interns, Kyle and Peter, got to experience taking public transportation by oursleves. So yesterday we left Kansanga at 7:30 walked a few kilometers (no miles or feet here) and picked up a matatu (taxi) and took it into Kampala where we got on another matatu and took it to Entebbe where we got off and then took a boda (motorcycle - which you ride on the back of a guy driving a motorcycle) to Cherish. So it was definitely an adventure! Also met a really neat guy named Fin who works for Cherish and he told me how about how he and his family got to Uganda. It amazes me to see how God works around the world and to see him not only work through Americans which can be an easy bias and also through Ugandans which I sort of expected but also through people like Fin who is British which took me off guard in a good way. God is good and it is awesome to see His international church body!
Anyway, today I am back in the office helping the other team get ready.

I will post some pictures of us surveying soon.

Prayer Requests:
Safe travel for the teams this month
The work that the teams do would be fruitful
Adjusting to Ugandan life
Flexibility
Allowing God to move through me
Patience - especially with the internet cause it is slow!

Thank you for all the prayers and support! Love you all