Greetings from Africa!

Amanda and I have been in Uganda for almost a week now and are excited to share an update now that life is becoming a bit more consistent. This post is rather long since there have been so many new experiences since we arrived. In the future we hope to provide more regular, shorter posts.

Our journey to Africa began on Wednesday, August 2, when we left St. Louis at 12:30 PM. We flew to New York (JFK), through London (Heathrow), and arrived at Entebbe about 6 AM local time. The only major problem with the trip occurred when we were checking in at the American Airlines counter in St. Louis. We were supposed to have a baggage waiver for Amanda to take an extra piece of luggage filled with school supplies, but the waiver did not show up in the computer system. Neither the check-in guy nor his boss was willing to budge after 25 minutes of discussions that eventually included the travel agent. So, if anyone wants to borrow my acoustic guitar for the next 10 months and you’re in the St. Louis area, go ahead, because it's still there. After that fiasco, we spent the second and third legs of our trip aboard the luxurious British Airways. These people were awesome. The flight attendants had cool British accents, we got to fly in a huge 747-400, and there were individual TV screens where I could constantly monitor our altitude, location, speed, and outside temperature or watch a movie. They served dinner, breakfast, and even had complimentary beer for others who may not have signed their “no-drinking” clause yet. During our 12 hour layover in London, Amanda and I met up with Justin and Jenny (Elliott) Alexander and took a whirlwind tour of the city, taking in Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Street, Big Ben, and the Thames river.

In Entebbe, we stepped off the plane and walked across the tarmac into the airport. Amanda commented on how weird it was to fly into a mostly dark airport and her disappointment that no giraffes were on the premise. (This is related to the awful movie “Out of Africa” where Robert Redford flies around and sees various forms of wildlife from his bi-plane.) We passed through immigration very quickly because we already obtained our visas from the Ugandan Embassy in Washington, DC. We were also very thankful all of our luggage arrived because other EMI people’s luggage has been lost for days. Josh, the intern coordinator, arrived minutes after we walked to the pick-up area and helped us get loaded up into a Mitsubishi Pajero. (In the future, I hope to describe the transportation system in Uganda in more detail.)

The trip from Entebbe to Kampala only took an hour but provided a more informative experience than everything else I read on the internet or saw in a book prior to landing. Leaving the airport, the road was well paved and nearly vacant, except for a sporadic guard walking with their shotgun or rifle over their shoulder on the way home from their night shift. Ugandan retail buildings, or what Americans would call shacks, became more prevalent just kilometers (metric!) from the airport. Amanda and I enjoyed the fresh air and lush scenery until we neared Kampala.

Kampala was mayhem. Potholes are so large and frequent that it may be more accurate to think of the remaining asphalt as islands in the middle of a red clay/sand sea. The smog and pollution emitted from the tailpipes of the taxis (vans here) made me laugh at the red air quality warnings in St. Louis. Bodas (50-90 cc motorcycle taxis) dart in and out of traffic. I think the drivers view larger vehicles as objects to bump off of, like when little kids go bowling, not fear. People are walking everywhere. Others ride 70’s-era Schwinn style bicycles with skinny tires, despite conditions that are similar to a mountain bike trail. Some people use their bike as a wheelbarrow or cart. So far, we’ve seen bikes loaded down with twenty 1” x 8” x 14’ boards (Ugandans still use the standard system for lumber), an eighty pound bag of charcoal, cases of Coke, and trays of eggs. Now imagine all of these people and vehicles traveling on these roads and competing for position without any traffic signals, lanes, or rules. It's crazy.
We eventually made it to the EMI office in the “suburbs” of Kampala. The outskirts of Kampala aren't like Ladue or Chesterfield or the country club in Rolla. Our neighborhood, Muyenga, is a maze of twisted, rutted roads lined with some homes made of scrap lumber, cardboard, tarps, and corrugated metal and others made of concrete, glass, and clay-tile roofs. There’s not much in between. We arrived at the office early enough to see the sun coming up. After a quick tour of the office, we met some of the staff and summer interns before having a time of worship at 8:30 AM. One of the four summer interns was departing that day, so the group prayed for him.

Since then we’ve done many other things that will probably comprise entire blog posts later, but hopefully this short list will suffice until then: we took a 14-passenger van/taxi to the city of Kampala, we’ve eaten by candlelight once and lost power many times (5?), we worshipped at a local church with Ugandans 8 hours before our church services in the central time zone, we met a former PCA pastor teaching at the Westminster Theological College (EMI will be doing a master plan for them this fall!), we ate using our hands at an Ethiopian restaurant, Amanda has prepared her “Grade 5” classroom, we played soccer with local kids, I’ve begun to acquaint myself with the office and past projects, Amanda rode her first boda (much to the pleasure of the other male interns and myself), and I drove my first boda (Seriously! The driver, Tony, stopped the bike after 100 meters, got off, and said, “Mzungu, you drive?!” So helmet-less, license-less, insurance-less, and protective clothing-less, I drove myself home with Tony on the back).

Amanda wrote a paragraph in an email that I want to include so you can “hear” her voice on Uganda…“Getting to church was no easy thing however. James, an intern who just left, took David and me on our first ‘taxi’ experience. We had to walk a half-mile in the rain to catch the taxi. I was wearing a long skirt and flip flops, walking on the hilly, muddy red dirt road, trying not to step in one of the gazillion ‘craters’ filled with water. It was slippery and I had to hold David's arm to prevent myself from falling. (We're not supposed to hold hands here--it means you’re sleeping together.) We finally caught a taxi, which was an old, beat up, Toyta Hiacz with about 4 rows of beat up seats, with rust and mud all over the floor. Driving here is NUTS; most of the roads are awful! Drivers are very aggressive and boda-boda (motorcycle) drivers whiz all around. You are constantly bouncing up and down from the huge potholes in the road. It's rather unnerving but I guess you get used to it!”

As a quick note, some people have had problems calling us here in the office using calling cards. I will work to figure out the procedure you can use to call us and post or email the information as soon as possible. We love and miss you!

Love,
David and Amanda

*Since I can't figure out how to insert a photo caption, EMI intern James Dudt took the picture of Amanda eating the Ethiopian food (redboxuganda.blogspot.com)