It is hard to say Goodbye

These last two weeks have been a whirlwind and have gone by really fast!

Last wednesday we had an intern farewell dinner.  This is a dinner where the whole emi family get together and hangout before we leave.  Then at the end they say nice things about us.  It was extremely humbling, especially because these people deserved praise not me!  I was an intern who did work slow and probably not very well.  They were the ones doing all the important work and are the amazing people of God! 

So the intern farewell dinner is what you make it, and we decided to make it a goat roast!!  At the beginning of the internship we decided all chip in (the interns) and make a grill, as our legacy as interns.  The grill was ready the day of the farewell dinner!!  It was made from an oil drum and we had a local welder put it all together!  It had legs, the drum was sliced in half with 2 grill racks inside.  It was neat! ask me and i will show you a picture of it!  We call it the legacy! Haha.  We also purchased a goat the day before and had it walking around the office compound.  The night before the roast we slaughtered the goat behind the office!  I was babysitting so luckily i did not have to witness this scene.  I think the boys thoroughly enjoyed it though.  Some of the local staff helped the boys do it. We then put the meat on skewers with onions and peppers and grilled them at the farewell dinner.  It was delicious!

This trip has been absolutely amazing and life changing!  God has taught me so much!  I have fallen more in love with him!  He drew himself closer to me so i could feel his love like never before! He showed his love through worship, prayer people and circumstances! God is in all things!

I am so thankful that God used me to help missions in Uganda.  I feel extremely blessed and unworthy.

The hardest part of this last week is knowing i would have to say goodbye.  I came to this internship thinking it would be mostly about the brain(engineering and discipline) and it was more about the heart (relationships, people, and Gods love).  This makes it a lot harder to say goodbye.  God used these people to change my life, and to change my heart, and for that i am forever indebted to them. 

I hope to do one more post about everything i learned here in Uganda once i return.  My flight leaves in less than 8 hours.  I cannot beieve it!  Thank you all for your support and prayers, it made a huge difference in my life.

Sipi Falls

Last weekend we went to a place called Sipi Falls.  It is a series of waterfalls over a series of three ridges.  It was absolutely goregous!!  I felt like I was in the garden of eden, or some sort of movie paradise.  The second waterfall had a cave underneath it so we were able to stand behind the waterfall then walk down and take a shower underneath part of the fall!! absoluetly beautiful.  It was so lush, I could not believe that it was Africa!  I always thought of Africa as a dry and plain place.  I was wrong.

The trails were...interesting, if you could call them trails.  We hired a guide and he weaved us through peoples yards to get to each waterfall, trekking through tons of mud!  We saw lots of maize, cabbage and coffee plants, and many other local farming plants. (also a chameleon hidden in a tree!!)  There was no way we would be able to get around without a guide, one wrong turn and you were dead ending into someones home. 

God again just showed me his beauty.  It was amazing.  We woke up early and our lodge stood on the side of a hill facing the falls and we watched the sunrise over them.  It was gorgeous.

The hardest thing about the whole trip was the travel. It took about 8 hours to get there by taxi.  On the way we took three different taxis, the last taxi being a small white car with 2 people crammed in the front seat, 5 people in the middle and three people (erland, aaron and a lady) in the trunk!  It was crazy, but a fun experience.  Then on the way home we took two taxis.  The second one I was crammed on a bench for 3 people with 4 people.   I had a baby sleeping on my right arm a man sleeping on my left and I just plopped my head straight down on my backpack and fell asleep.  Ugandans do not care much for personal space. So I slept in a taxi uganda style!

I cannot believe my time here is coming to an end. It all went so fast.  I am excited to go home and see all the people i miss and love, but i am seriously going to miss all the amazing friends i met here.  God has taught me so much, and our relationship has become so much more intimate and real through this experience.  I am sad this chapter is closing, but excited to see what else God has in store!!!

The Daily Grind

So we were all sitting around yesterday and we realized we tend to talk more about the weekends than what we do at work!  And the whole reason we are here are for the week not the weekend.  So i figured i would dedicate this blogpost to the 9 to 5 the daily grind.  Update you guys on what engineering i have done and the ministries i have helped, and in turn, you have helped in three short months. 

What I have worked on so far:
Structural Design
     Wooden and Steel Trusses
      Columns, Beams, Footings, Shear Walls
      Rainwater Tank Tower
AutoCAD Detailing
     Structural Templates
     Rainwater Reservior
     Survey plotting
Excel Worksheets
     Square Footing Design
     Continuous Footing Design
     Rainwater Reservoir Slab Design
     Allowable Rebar in a Reinf Concrete Beam/Column

Ministries

   **Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF)
           -They serve missionaries who travel the the unreached peoples of Uganda by flying them to remote    areas of Africa.
           -EMI is creating a masterplan of their airfield and surrounding property
    **Child and World Agape Outreach
             -There mission is to house and educate orphans and destitue children and show them the love of Christ, to help them become responsible adults
             - EMI is providing a masterplan, and design of several multipurpose buildings for the Agape Education Center
    **African International University
            -A univeristy that educates Christian centerd leaders in Africa so they can go out and tranform God's people and the world
           - EMI is creating a masterplan, the school is looking to grow immensely.
    **Calvery Chapel Entebbe
             -On a plot of land located on the shore of Lake Victoria where they hope to help the children and peoples of entebbe, by having schooling and a market for people to sell things at. 
              -EMI designed the masterplan several years ago.  Now were are coming back and designing a building that will serve as classrooms for schooling of children and adults.

I have worked on something for each of these ministries.  EMI East Africa has probably about a dozen more projects going on right now also. 

These mission statements and what EMI is doing are not exact, but hopefully it will give you a better idea of what i have been working on all semester. 

Sabbath

So today i decided to take a Sabbath.  It is definitely one of the commandments i tend to over look. What is so important about a day of rest?  Seems like they were just being lazy to me.  But my day of rest has been amazing and rejuvenating.  It has been great, however my intentions were not completely pure.  What led me to make today a Sabbath was because I am sick, I had no plans and the power was out so I could not waste the whole day watching TV.  But God totally put me in that position on purpose.  I have really been able to rest my body, which it really needed. and I have learned so much about him!  It is amazing how much closer i feel to God after just spending a little time with him.   By setting aside this day i have been able to better appreciate what God has given me, to really spend time in his word (more then 10 minutes) and enjoy things he has created (a good book, two actually The Mountain of God, and Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire).  He keeps showing me time and time again the importance of prayer and i think i am finally getting through my thick skull that "do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God" (phil 4:6) and "be joyful always, pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is Gods will for you in Christ Jesus" (1 thess 5:16) and "call to me and i will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you did not know." (jer 33:3).  It is unbelievable that God cares about what we think, but i am so thankful that he does.  He is a God who cares, and loves, and forgives, and sacrificed it all so that i could be saved.

So last night we watched the first lord of the rings movie, tonight we are going to watch the second and probably tomorrow night the third.  It is nice having this time to rest and enjoy a good long movie :)

Queen elizabeth (part 2!)

The second half of the trip involved traveling around Western Uganda with Steven and his family.  Saturday morning we got up and ate breakfast at a local restaurant, we definitely stuck out as the only white people, and it does not seem that many are around there often.  Then steven took us to different parts of Queen Elizabeth park.  9 of us squished into a car that can really handle 7 and started driving to a local fishing dock.  We stopped at the fishing area and looked at the boats and fishermen.  All the kids just started running up to us and holding our hands, i do not think Ugandans use the motto "do not talk to strangers".  We left the fishing village and started traveling to another lake, lake edward.  On the way we saw baboons, and a leopard!! Leopards are very rarely seen.  Our safari guide from the day before said he has only seen 6 total in the 15 years he has been doing safaris. It was amazing, a magnificent creature.  Unfortunately i only saw it for a split second before it dashed into the bushes.

When we arrived at the other lake, we were planning on swimming but quickly realized it was not really a swimming shore, and no one was swimming.  So we hired some local fishermen to take us across the lake to an island where we could go swimming with more privacy.  The place where we swam was really sketch, it was a swampy area surrounding us and not very deep.  But it was fun, I just let Phil go in first to make sure it was safe! haha I did not want to swim next to a snake, or hippo for that matter.

We then returned to stevens house in the village for lunch.  Steven's dads property was amazing.  He had a lot of land covered in plants, beans, ginuts(there version of peanuts), coffee, bananas and so much more! He also had about 5 pigs, 8 goats and various other small livestock.  they are almost completely self sufficent when it comes to food.  Everything we ate was from their farm.

Stevens home was beautiful.  His familys land was situated on the side of a mountain and you could see the Congo from their land.  The congo is located across the river that is at the edge of the village.

It was difficult at times to communicate and understand the cultural differences, but it was a great experience!  We stayed at Stevens until dinner just hanging out with their family.  During dinner it rained so the car was unable to pick us up, so we walked down the dirt road to the place where the car could reach.  We looked very silly, me in flipflops and a dress and phil with his high socks, and everyone sliding everywhere, but it was fun. 

The next morning we walked to the congo border, just to say we have been there and then we had an 8 hour bus ride back to kampala!! The bus was impressively uncomfortable.  the seats were just wide enough that you were squished next to the person next to you. then your knees were crammed into the seat in front of you.  The taller boys could not fit their knees in the leg space, they ended up sitting in seats that had no other seats in front of it so they could fit.  I am very easy when it comes to travel, and i was impressed how difficult it was to get comfortable on that bus!  But it was a cheap ride back.  When we returned to Kampala i rode a boda boda back to my apartment (about 30 min drive) with my duffel bag backpack and purse! a boda boda is a motorcycle.  they are a type of taxi, someone drives and you just hop on the back and tell them where you want to go!  It was not my first boda ride, but my first one from downtown. 

This week has been relatively uneventful.  I have been working on various different projects, getting experience in both AutoCAD and design. 

God has been teaching me so much.  I think I am getting better at keeping him involved in my everyday activity, hopefully that can continue when i return home.  It is harder because America has so many more distractions, but i am so excited to see my friends and family again!  miss you all and love you!

still trying to memorize Micah 7:7 :)

Queen Elizabeth! (part one)

So this weekend the interns took a 4 day trip out to Queen Elizabeth National Park.  It is about an 8 hour drive out of Kampala and on the border of the Congo.  We left at 6 in the morning. The drive was very relaxing, we drove out in a poptop van, and i had a whole seat to myself.  On the way to Queen Elizabeth, we stopped at the equator.  I stood in the North and South Hemisphere at the same time!  Then we drove through another smaller national park where we saw Zebras(did not hae those at queen), and Uganda cranes (really beautiful birds).  We arrived at our lodge, it was absolutely goregous and had a breathtaking view!  We left shortly after we arrived to go on a game drive.  We drove around the park and saw, cob, impala, warthogs, water buck, buffalos, and many birds.  Then as we were leaving we saw a group of cobb just staring at this one bush, we drove over there and there was a female lion eating her prey! we were only about 20 feet away, it was crazy!  That definetly made our day. 

The next morning we had a delicious breakfast and then went on another game drive.  This time we saw a whole herd of lions! (8, 5 females and 3 cubs).  They were further away in the grass but still amazing.  Then we got stuck for over an hour in a traffic jam on a muddy road where everyone was going to see the herd of lions.  Then we went to another goregous lodge for lunch (and nap time).  It also had an amazing view of the lake.

Then we went on a boat ride and saw lots of hippos and buffalos!

However after all that we still did not see a Elephant, and selfishly i was disappointed.  How can i come back from Africa and not be able to tell Joe i saw a Elephant.  We drove around looking for them with no luck.  Then as we were leaving we came to an overlook and sawa 30 elephants in the valley below! it was amazing! and as we kept driving and we spotted elephants closer and closer to the road until we saw four only about 50 feet off the road.

Once we left the park and got gas we met Phil (our boss) and Steven (head of security and HR of EMI).  In a town about 15 minutes away.  Steven's family is from here and he owns a house in the village.  In their culture, he tradition is that when you get married you also build a house in the village, that way if you ever go to visit, you have a place to stay.  We stayed in a local hotel that night. 

Being in the park was just overwhelming!  Gods majesty was just bursting out from everywhere, each overlook was more beautiful then the next.  It is truly amazing that God created all this, he is worthy of all our praise. 

More to come soon, i did not want to overwhelm in one post!

No Exit?

This weekend was a nice relaxing weekend, actually we have had three of those in a row!  I am ready to go somewhere outside kampala again! (we are leaving for safari on thursday!). 

Saturday we went to Monicas new shop!  Monica is a local employee of emi who just quit her job as a house cleaner so she could further the development of her shop.  We went to help her paint the shop; sea foam green.  The shop is no more then 5 ft wide and 10 ft deep, we had trouble fitting all five interns in there to paint.  It was a lot of fun though! We went into a new area of town we have never been before, and we do not think many Mzungu's go here on a regular basis.  Sunday I went to a church just down the road, and the worship was really great!  I was overwhelmed with the joy of christ in my heart!  I was neat becuase it was a youth lead service that day too.  Later in the day we went and played football, i had a one handed catch and a diving catch! unfortunetly my team lost :( and that was probably because of me and my lack of catching all the other times haha. 

Sunday evening we went to a play called "No Exit".  It was interesting... It was about three people in hell, and how they dealt with it.  The twist was, there was no torture or anything, you were just stuck in a room with the same two people for eternity, a little twisted, but interesting at the same time.  


Work has been going well i am learning so many things about engineering.  I am so glad i am here with these amazingly patient bosses, otherwise i think i would be in trouble.  Mentor time has also been incredible! I have learned so much about God and myself through her!  Also I am learning a lot about the book of Ruth (that is what we are studying together). 

Memory Verse of the Week: Micah 7:7

I am more than halfway

So i believe sometime last week was the halfway mark for my internship.  I cannot believe it, it has gone by so fast! This week has been very interesting.  Last week i had a huge deadline and so up until then i had been working on one project.  This week i have been able to get out of the office twice and visit two different project sites.  the first one was an hour and a half away in Entebbe.  It is another major city in Uganda on the shores of Lake Victoria.  The ministry we were visiting has worked with us before, they have already built some of the buildings we designed and now they are wanting to build more of the buildings.  So we are coming in to re-evaluate the site.  to make sure what we initially recommended still makes sense. I went out there to essentially take measurements.  But it was really great to go to a site were EMI designed buildings were actually built!  It gave me a great sense of purpose being here.  They were classroom buildings, that now children can safely go to school. 

Today we went to one of the slums in Kampala.  It is up on the side of a hill.  the hill is covered in mud huts with tin roofs, with only about two people width between each hut.  We were visiting a church in the slum.  it was a very humbling experience, to see how these people live.  How they cannot afford to pay a fee of 200 shillings (about 7 cents) for a jerry can of clean water.  the kids were adorable (as they always are).  And we met some really cool people.  It is amazing listening to all the things God has done in that area since the pastor has been there.  One of the projects the church does is help women make paper bead necklaces and then they sell the beads.  The pastors wife gave me a set of beads for free!! i felt very honored. 

God has shown me a lot this week.  he has really humbled me.  He has also kept encouraging me to pray more everyday.  I hope to have a much better prayer life once i leave Uganda.  God is such a beautiful God.  This past weekend we woke up early to see the sunrise and it was amazing.  Part of it was blocked but it was still really neat to see Gods peace and beauty in it.   It is just so amazing that God would give me this opportunity to come to Uganda and help people.  I am really not worthy to be here.

I rafted the Nile!

Last weekend we traveled two hours to Jinga to go white water rafting on the Nile River!  It was amazing!!  We left our place at 630 in the morning.  They provided transportation from Kampala to Jinga (2 hour bus ride).  So we had to be in downtown Kampala at 715, unfortunately we are still new to public transportation, so we did not arrive until 745! Luckily they waited for us!! They do not take a deposit and we did not have to prepay, so I think they waited because otherwise they would have be out 6 peoples worth of money! Praise God for no deposit! Haha.

The bus was nice, and i sat next to a girl from Finland who was really cool.  When we got there they rushed us onto the next bus (because we were so late).  They gave us a bowl of fruit and a rolex for breakfast! (more then what i typically eat for breakfast!)  It was about a 20 minute bus ride to the drop in site.  Once we got there they went over the rules, then we walked around the guides saying we wanted to go crazy!  2 guides told us to get out of their boats, becuase they did not want the crazy group, and pointed us to Geofrey.  We got on the water and we practiced flipping!! (that was not a good sign).  First rapid we concurred, no problem.  It was only a Class 3.  We then did a Class 4 and flipped,it was crazy! but so fun!!  The next rapid was a class 6, so we got out the boat and walked around it to the Class 5.  The class 5 was called the bad place, and we lasted about 8 seconds before we flipped. That one was pretty ferocious, we all ended at different places on the river (usually when you flip you can remain holding onto the raft, but on this one you were supposed to let go).  Then the rest of the rapids, there were 4 (the same one twice) we flipped 3 times!!  No one else flipped that much!  They weren't kidding when they said we had the craziest guide!!!

Then we arrived at a picnic area where we could change into dry clothes and then they had a BBQ. it was delicious!! 

It was definetly the most intense rafting i have ever done, but it was sweet!!

That night we stayed at the house of the EMI construction manager (he is located out of Jinga).  He was actually in the states, but a Long term volunteer was staying at his house and we stayed with the volunteer.  He had a bunch of friends over for a campfire, unfortunately i was sooo exhausted i did not last very long, haha. 

The next morning we went to church with him.  I was in a guys backyard.  He was a preacher from Virginia, so i felt right at home!!  He talked about the suffering of Christ, how he was beaten and bruised and mocked and how he took it all for us.  It was incredible, my soul started hurting, i just fell to my knees during worship because i could not handle it.  After that we went out to lunch and then took the Rafting Company's bus back to Kampala.  We bought groceries, and i realllly did not want to cook this week, so i bought macaroni and cheese ( an knock off Kraft version).  And let me say it was delicious!! Ironically it was more expensive then if i bought ingredients and made spaghetti sauce and spaghetti.

This weekend we just hung out, really our first weekend off since we got here.  It was nice to have a restful weekend.  We had a game night at the Greene's house on Saturday and on Sunday we went to a pool. 

We Gooooo Uganda Cranes We Go!

So Saturday we went to a Uganda Cranes Vs Kenya soccer match, it was crazy! people we dressed up in yellow, black red and white and wearing crazy things!  The craziest part was we got there at 1130, and the game did not start till 5! The stadium was full by about 130.  So we waited for the game for 5 hours and watched the game which was 2 hours.  Everyone was going crazy when they first arrived, but by the game started it seemed as though everyone was tired (including myself).  The game ended in a 0-0 tie, so we did not get to cheer for a goal.  Also, they did not allow water bottles into the stadium, so we did not have water for 7 hours and were sitting in the African sun all that time.  Definitely a great experience but i do not think i could do it again.  Only if we could show up at like an hour or 2 before the game, then i would be all ready to cheer for the game. 

We are doing an Intern bible study on 2 timothy.  This week I lead and we talked about characteristics for a teacher of the truth should have.  It was 2 Tim 2:14-26.  It really challenged me to pursue holiness.  Paul mentions to Timothy to be "an instrument for noble purposes, mad holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work."   A lot of times i feel like God is calling me to do something however since i am not pursuing holiness i am not prepared to do his work.  I could miss out on something truly awesome.  But pursuing holiness is no easy task, i will be pursuing it for the rest of my life. 

Sorry for the infrequent blogs. I need to be better.  This weekend we are going white water rifting on the Nile River!! i am super excited!!!

weekend in the bush

so they call the bush, the areas in Africa that are in the "country".  The place we went was definetley in the middle of nowhere, but not quite as in the middle of nowehere as Ti Peligre (Haiti).  We went to an orphanage called New Hope.  They have a unique set up.  They have 8 families of about 25 kids. Each family lives in a cluster of huts on the new hope property.  There is also a school, fields, admin buildings, and staff housing.  It was nice to get out of the city for a weekend. We were visiting friends of  Jake(one of the interns).  Jake had been to this orphanage before and his friends are a part of the staff. We hung out them and played catch phrase! i love that game!   On Saturday we played volleyball with some of the kids, and then went to the local market where i bought a Uganda football jersey!  Sunday they had a great church service.  The preacher did a skit about Galatians, and the freedom from the law that we have.  I do not know how to describe it in writing but it was awesome! Jesus showed me that he has freed me from the burden of my sin, and if i walk with him, day by day, he will be me through everything.

Then we got a special hire to drive us back, however he could only take 7 of us (there were 8 of us including Jakes friends) .  So Aaron and i took public taxis back, we got a little lost, but made it back, with groceries, and had fun!

We will see where tomorrow will take us !

back to emi

This week has been getting us back into a routine, wake up at 600 do p90x, shower,devotional, breakfast, emi group devotional, work, lunch, work, dinner, hangout, sleep, wake up.  It has been nice, harder to do p90x than when we first started, but i am still determined to do all 90 days!! and more! this weekend we are going to an orphanage that Jake(one of the interns) stayed at last time he came to Uganda.  I am excited to go to the orphanage and play with the kids! i am sure it will be a great experience. 

Rose, my roommate leaves today for Kenya! and she will be gone for 6 weeks! i am upset that she is leaving me, but i am really excited for her.  She is going to Kenya to help with disaster relief.  there is a large drought in kenya right now that have effected over 10 million people in the east africa region.  She is going to work with other engineers to try and find a way to get people water.  Please pray for her and the drought in kenya!

Day of Rest

Today we came back to the emi office and we are all exhausted!! We laid around all day and watched modern family until we got enough energy to go buy groceries.  We had to walk about 20 minutes, then we took a taxi to the grocery store.  The taxi is really a beat down van that they try to cram as many people in as possible.  I will try to take a picture and post it soon. Then we came back and vegged some more, ate dinner and did devotional.  I made spaghetti and sauce and kevin helped me make my own sauce with tomato paste and spices! so hopefully ill make one on my own sometime!

What a Busy Week!

So this past week has been crazy! We have been working on completing our masterplan so we could present it today.  I was in charge of putting the presentation together so i was nonstop yesterday and today.  I literally got three hours of sleep last night.  I was so rewarding to do the presentation today.  After all the hardwork we put into it, it was nice to see the client be so appreciative!  Now we will work on it for another 4 months in our office until we submit the completed project.

Lets see, what happened this week.  Well i did a percolation test on the site.  I got to do some more practical engineering experience.   Sunday we went to a great church in downtown Kampala and then hung out downtown until dinner where we went to a nice Indian restaurant.  The restaurant was really nice! but i must say i am not a fan of Indian food.

The rest of this week is really a blur, involving lots of powerpoint.  But it was really great to go aon a project trip and see more what emi is all about.  I am ready to go back to the office, i was just getting comfortable there, then we left.  Also, Rose is leaving for kenya for 6 weeks, so i got hang out her before she leaves.

I am tired, and we are watching Aladdin, and want to watch it! talk to you all later! 

We have to do work?

So the last few days have been very  busy.  We have been out on the site taking a lot of pictures, and back at the guesthouse we are helping the architects anyway we can.  My official job is the picture compiler, not the most glamorous job, but necessary.  I feel very inadequate.  All of these people are very talented.  But i am very happy that God has placed me here.  I am learning a lot and seeing what masterplanning is like in the real world.

I can fly!

sooo today i went in a 15 passenger cessna 208b!! It was amazing, one of the best experiences i have ever had!  I was amazing we flew all over Uganda, picking up missionaries  from rural areas.   It was crazy to look out the window and see all the remote villages in the middle of the plains.  It is the unreached peoples of the world and it is humbling to see.  The flight was about 4 hours long and we stopped at four places.  It is a dirt airstrip in the middle of nowhere, often with not a building in site.  One of the stops there were little kids that there only clothing was a tablecloth or just a shirt.  I was very sobering.

The flight was incredible! Uganda was absolutely gorgeous, hopefully i will be able to upload pictures sometime.   We met with the clients (MAF) yesterday and today was started the Master planning (architects).  Tomorrow we will start number crunching and AutoCAD.

MAF!

MAF stands for Mission Aviation Fellowship.  They are a christian group of pilots around the world that turned flying into a ministry.  In Uganda they own an airstrip and are hoping to expand and has asked EMI to help in the design.  We are on site for two weeks drafting up a proposal.  There are nine people on our team, 2 architects from england, an electrical engineer from egypt, architect from arizona, civil engineer from the uganda office, and 4 out of us 5 interns (we left Aaron behind).  It is very exciting to be on site and doing engineering.  Tomorrow we will meet with the clients and learn about what specifics they want.

Thank you all for your continual prayer and support!

Its Friday night!

I started reading Blue like Jazz last night and I have already read to page 87! I really like it.  It really challenges me on a lot of things.  One thing that i discovered was that I am too prideful to truely accept God's grace.  I need to really know and believe what complete grace is.  Another thing was I realized how shallow my relationship with God really is.  I keep working on the tasks(doing and saying the right things) instead of the relationship.

Every morning we start off the day with a devotion and prayer, which i love.  Then on Fridays we do worship as well.  Today we talked about being still.  And how it would seem coming to Africa would cause you to be "more still in Him", however you find stuff to busy yourself with. That is how i feel my first week has been, hopefully as i adjust to the culture i will find more time to be still.

Today at work we finished up the design of the trusses and worked on design spreadsheets.  Jake, Kevin, and I went to Cafe Rosa, an Italian place.  We got pizza and it was good! ironically i have been in Africa for 9 days and have had pizza 3 times. ( I didnt think there was pizza places in africa!).  Phil said that the best chocolate Ice  cream he had ever had was there, i had it, it was good, but definitely not the best chocolate icecream ever.  It is more like gelato. 

Still learning the lingo of a blog post, so sorry if this seems confusing and scatterbrained!

Katie

Catch up

Hello all.  So internet is off and on here, but it should be pretty consistent now.  We are only on our 4th day of work and i have already been staying late!  We have been given lots to do and it is awesome! i love how were now doing engineering.  We are doing a lot of AutoCAD but I have also been given the assignment to design a truss! Is it dorky that i am excited to do that?  I also realized how little i know about engineering, and i am really learning alot in these first few days.  I met with my mentor today.  Her name is Emily, she is the wife of the head structural engineer, Phil, and they are the intern advisers. We will be meeting weekly to do discipleship and study, and hangout. Last night the power went out and we ended up playing hearts and  settlers in the dark with flashlights.
The only negative thing is that i have been so busy i have not had much time to read!  i would like to be reading my bible more, that is definitely a prayer request.




I tried to upload pictures, but i do not think it worked.  The internet has trouble supporting that.  Also, i haven't taken very many pictures because anytime we go anywhere where its worth taking pictures they tell us to hide our cameras because they could get stolen. Hopefully we will be able to take more pictures soon!    

Welcome to Africa!

So I have been in Africa for a week and I have not had internet! We also have experienced times of no electricity and no running water.  But it has been great! Last week we had an orientation in Uganda.  We walked around the neighborhood and took a taxi into town.  Town was crazy! there were people and cars everywhere! it was a little overwhelming at first, but it was great to see the culture. We've been asked to not take pictures when there are locals because they may be offended, so i do not really have any pictures, but hopefully there will be soon.  We went about 2 hours away on Saturday to the construction management office.  They showed us three projects they were working on. It was really neat to see projects in action.

more to come soon thank you for being patient!

Last night in Colorado

Tonight is my last night in the states.  It is somewhat uneventful, full of packing and more packing.  However, earlier today I had the most amazing prayer session with 3 other lovely ladies.  Jesus totally rejuvenated me!  I am excited for this next chapter in Uganda, but I am also really going to miss the girls and people I have gotten to know here.   Orientation has been very challenging and amazing!  Good bye America!

Living Quarters and more!

I have received pictures of my apartment and thought I would share it with you guys!

Yesterday was a fun day we went rock climbing at a gym. Today I am very sore, but its worth it!! Today all of the interns shared their testimony.  It was really amazing to see how God has taken us from all these different places and brought us all to this internships at eMi.  I also have never really shared my testimony in front of people like that before so it was a vulnerable place to be in, but it was an incredible experience and I learned a lot through it.  I am getting a little anxious but also very excited to leave for Uganda on Monday!!

Orientation Day 3

Today we met a lot more with our mission teams.  We had team building outdoor activities and then we took a spiritual gifts assessment and discussed the results with each other.  My top five gifts were serving, helps, administration, craftsmanship and music. I am not so sure that craftsmanship is a spiritual gift but they all seem to compliment what I had already thought my spiritual gifts were. 

There are other people staying at "The Hideaway" with us.  It is a group of older ladies and today it was one of their birthdays! She turned 93! It was crazy to think she was born in the 1910's, there was so much history in her face, it was really neat.  She also made sure to go to each table and say thank you to everyone of us.  She was so polite.

Tomorrow we are going rock climbing and I am really excited!!

Orientation Day 2

Today has been really great i have gotten to know the interns a lot better.  There are 6 different offices that the 30 interns will be split into: Uganda, Colorado Springs, Costa Rico, India, Canada, and Egypt.  It is neat to hear the stories on how people ended upmat EMI and their passion for the country they are going too. The people going to the Uganda office are Aaron, Erland, Jake and Kevin. 

We did a lot of engineering training today.  The most interesting thing i learned were the two basic structure construction practices in the developing world, confined masonry and concrete frame with infill.  The confined masonry method is when you build the concrete blocks up first and pour the beams and columns second.  The frame method is when the frame system is built first followed by the block walls.  The reason this is important is because a design needs to be altered depending on which method is used. The second part of the day we learned about personality types.  We took the Biblical Personality System (DISC).  I am a I.D.s.  Which is a persuader or reformer.

Yesterday God really challenged me in intercession.  Intercession is when you pray or intercede on someones behalf.  I knew what intercession was but i do not think that until yesterday I truly believed in the amazing power prayer has in our lives or really what intercession does.  So today I tried to pray more like 1 timothy 2:1, which includes intercession.  I know that God is going to do great things through these prayers.  I also know that as I go into Uganda having a more active prayer life will help me to stay connected to Jesus.

I hope everyone received the link to my blog, obviously if you are reading this you did.  Thank you in advance on walking with me through this amazing journey.

Thank you for support

I am currently in Colorado Springs for orientation. After all this preparation I cannot believe that the time is finally here!  I am a little anxious and very excited for this adventure.  Thank you to all those that supported me financially and who continue to support me through prayers.  I will be constantly updating this blog during my time abroad to everyone will be able to see what I have been working on!

Yesterday when I arrived we must have played about 5 name games, a lot of games but i helped to learn names.  Then we hung out the rest of the night.  Today we had 730 bfast (mountain standard time) followed by a meeting where we talked about Gods heart for the nations through Creation, Covenant and Commission.  It was very need to see God heart all throughout the bible. Then we played Ultimate Frisbee, all of the Faith Pres people would be proud of me! My team won all of our games. 

Not sure how often i will be blogging but hopefully daily to keep everyone update on what has been going on in my life!