Westminster Theological College

At last, the project trip is here!

I’m excited to share with everyone that my fall eMi project trip begins today. I’ve been looking forward to this trip since May or June or whenever I saw that eMi was partnering with a Reformed college in Uganda. As soon as I saw the project listed on the eMi USA homepage, I did a Google search for the local pastor to learn as much about the ministry as possible. If you’re interested, you can read what I did here.

A major problem in Uganda is the lack of qualified pastors for the local churches. “Operation World” reports this, along with the anecdotal evidence I’ve heard and seen. For instance, one of our local staff members was told in her church that if a Christian commits a sin and then dies, they’ll go to hell. Straight, simple, and wrong. Last week sometime I met with an evangelist named David (incidentally, we were introduced to each other solely because his brother, Wilberforce, thought that two people with the same name should meet ). Anyway, I met David at his house and the few books I saw were those written by some folks generally considered to be theologically misleading (Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland). I hope to meet with him again and discuss the Bible, find out more about what he believes, and share with him some of the problems I see with his books.

I think that it would be helpful to describe the larger Ugandan Presbyterian context that Westminster will serve. And I know that Trevor, Tyler and several other PCA/CPCers are reading this and leap with excitement over the very word “Presbyterian.” So a quick background, which I’m taking from the application eMi received from Westminster:

The Presbyterian Church in Uganda started in 1979 after the Tanzanian army succeeded in dislodging Amin’s reign of terror. It started as a small congregation aiming to fulfill Christ’s message of going to the whole world and preaching the Gospel. The founder of the PCU was Rev. Dr. Kefa Sempangi, who carefully studied the Reformed faith. The PCU has established more than 40 organized churches and more than 15,000 members.

A quick note about the Ugandan school system before going on…this little chart was described to me by Semei, our office manager who is Ugandan. It’s the best approximation I’ve been able to come up with:

Uganda America
Nursery School ~ Day Care
Primary School ~ Elementary School
Secondary School ~ Middle School/Junior High
College (O level) ~ High School Underclassmen
College (A level) ~ High School Upperclassmen
University ~ 4 Year College/University

Westminster is currently called Westminster Theological College, meaning that it is somewhat comparable to an American high school. They are fully operational and have ~40 students currently enrolled (this number is a guess). They desire that their students become both pastors in local churches as well as Christian leaders in society. Part of their vision for accomplishing this work is by developing Bachelor and Master level programs for approximately 300 students. Westminster currently owns ten acre and six acre plots of land and desires to develop these properties for their campus. And this is where eMi comes in…

Our team of volunteers will meet with the Westminster folks this week to discuss the vision and master plan for the campus. Here’s a quick breakdown of those involved:

Emma-Dean of WTC and pastor at Zana Community Presbyterian Church
Fred-A local pastor
Dave-An American faculty member at WTC
Bruce-An American faculty member at WTC

Kevin-A volunteer civil engineer from the US
Gene-A volunteer architect from the US
Kathryn-A volunteer architect from the US

Chad- The eMi East Africa director, civil engineer, and Project Leader
John-An eMi construction management intern
Me-An eMi architectural engineering intern

The volunteers will arrive in Uganda later tonight, and then we’ll all meet with the ministry tomorrow after visiting Zana Church. The rest of the week will be spent surveying the plots, developing drawings, and praying for much wisdom. I know that my responsibilities will be to participate in the master planning/building design meetings and helping out with structural issues (no worries here folks, it’s all single story…I think).

I actually hoped to write a bit more but I need to do a couple of other things before I leave in a few hours, namely, pack my bag. Look for a follow-up report in a couple of weeks with more pictures and an update of how the trip went. For those praying for us, please keep this trip in mind, particularly:
1) That our team would be able to provide Westminster with the design help they need
2) That the grace and love of Christ may be furthered in Uganda as a result of our work

And you may be wondering…Amanda will be spending the week with Shanthi (Chad’s wife). They just adopted two children (ages 2 and 4) in addition to their two biological children (ages 6 and 8). She’s excited to help out over there after school.

An Update from David

I’m aware I haven’t described at all what my work with Engineering Ministries has consisted of yet. Before I describe some of my work, I want to explain a little about why I haven’t and what I’ve learned in the process.

It would be easy to dismiss my lack posting because it seems to take at least a couple of hours, if not more, but that’s not the real reason. The real reason is a bit more personal.

For a while, I’ve felt the things I’ve been doing here aren’t really what our supporters thought I would be doing. In fact, some of the things I’ve done so far aren’t really what I thought I would be doing. These two ideas made it easy for me to not want to describe my work. I haven’t created glamorous renderings of a new school. I haven’t designed a structural system to protect children at an orphanage. I haven’t engineered a water system to provide drinking water to an unreached tribe. I don’t even have a touching, sentimental, National Geographic-quality picture of me with African children.

A couple of weeks ago I was telling Chad, the eMi EA director, that I got jealous of my friend John (see link to the left). John has been able to visit a project sites in western Uganda and in Kenya, see the locally-famous Rwenzori Mountains, stay in the Rift Valley, and even interact with the Massai. Now that’s adventurous. That’s what I want to do. And then I realized I was thinking, “That’s what I want to do.” Somewhere in this mess of jealousy and self-pity I remembered that “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” And this is exactly opposite of how I sometimes think about my time here. I’m often prone to think about what I’ll enjoy most instead of what I can do to help. So for those out there praying for us, you can specifically pray that my attitude will be continually molded by the grace of God to desire serving others versus seeking my own gain.

With those things in mind, I want to share with you a little about what I’ve been doing. Before I do that, I should describe AutoCAD very briefly for people who aren’t aware of it since I’ll refer to it frequently. AutoCAD is a computer program architects and engineers use to transform their ideas and calculations into drawings (which used to be called “blueprints”) that construction companies use for building. It’s like a gigantic piece of digital paper where I can draw lines, shapes, and patterns with varying degrees of thickness and on different layers before adding dimensions and notes. Best of all, I can make changes without wearing through a piece of real paper with an eraser. Onward…

So far I’ve worked on two different projects making drawing changes. Both of these projects were at the 95% percent completion level but needed final edits since the previous group of interns wasn’t able to finish them. Unfortunately, making these changes has been somewhat tedious and frustrating because some of the drawings were poorly drafted from the beginning. When I say “poorly drafted” I mean that certain lines or shapes get drawn on the wrong layer (or one of a slew of other problems). For instance, I had to change some railing from “Extra Fine” to “Fine” so it would show up properly when printed. This should have taken one minute to change 12 or 16 different objects. However, the person originally drew it incorrectly, so it ended up taking 20 or 25 minutes to edit.

Anyway, the drawings were both for great ministries. The first group, New Life Ministries, has a babies’ home for 11 children, a nursery/primary school with 230 students, a vocational training center for unwed teenage mothers, and a training center which host groups like Compassion International, World Vision, and Food for the Hungry. eMi helped this ministry design a 1.8 acre site for a primary school and an 8.6 acre site for a secondary school (needed to educate the students finishing their primary school).

Mto Moyoni was the second project to which I contributed. This ministry was started by a Dutch lady who has been robbed at gunpoint, shot and accused of being a rebel leader and political agitator. She started a “restoration ministry” for other Christians enduring difficulties in their ministry. eMi surveyed and master-planned three sites in close proximity to each other and developed detailed fundraising documents for one of these plots. My part in both of these projects was really quite small, but I’m grateful to have learned about them and contributed anyway.

I’ve also had the task of developing our eMi EA AutoCAD standards. Interns at eMi, and apparently universally, do a lot of the drafting work, but unfortunately come in with varying levels (mostly little-to-none) of AutoCAD experience. So part of my time has been spent adapting and adding to a manual from my dad’s company to help future interns draft more effectively. The hope is that when changes do need to be made in the future, they’ll only take one minute, instead of 20 or 25, if they’re drawn correctly from the beginning. The eMi architect, Steve, estimated that the poor drafting practices led to an additional 20 hours of work during the crunch time of a recent project. Hopefully my work will enable future interns to learn AutoCAD quickly and correctly.

It’s 9:35 PM right now, which does in fact confirm that blogging can take a considerable portion of someone’s life. Amanda’s ready to go to sleep so I won’t be able to describe my upcoming project trip tonight, so please check back before the weekend for another post about what I’ll be doing between October 7-15.

(I’m not sure who drew the renderings I’ve included above, but if you are really interested I can find out for you. Incidentally, the first drawing is the 8.6 acre New Life site and the second is a view of Mto Moyoni's three plots)

A Taste of Fall

On Saturday, September 16th the Gambles (directors of eMi EA) had a fall birthday party for Janet, an eMi staff member. It was a lovely, breezy evening and, along with the harvest decor and food, felt almost like autumn in Missouri!

The pumpkins here are green, not orange, but are sweeter for baking!













Me, Kate and Harriet. Kate works daily at eMi and Harriet
comes in on Fridays to do laundry (by hand!)

We divided into 5 groups and each group had to design an
animal out of a carrot, potato, & peas, using a knife and tooth pick.
David’s group did this adorable duck.

Shanthi Gamble prepared homemade caramel apples & apple cider.
We also had spice cake, homemade pumpkin pie, fudge and brownies.















The adorable little girl is four year old Sophia Hoyt, daughter of Steve (eMi architect) and Melinda (eMi housing manager). They live on our compound with us, along with two year old Maddie. Sophie's wearing her uniform from a past nursery school. Almost all of the kids who go to school here wear uniforms.

Frequently Asked Questions, Part I

Before I get into this installment of “Frequently Asked Questions,” I want to point your attention to the fact that this is Part I. In order for there to be parts II, III, and MMVI, please let us know what you would like answered. Most of today’s post relates to everyday things, but we’re open to other questions as well. Please leave us questions using the comment button below.

What is the weather like?

The weather in Uganda is gorgeous! In the morning, it's cool and breezy; I usually need to wear a light jacket. It gets up to about 80 or 85 degrees during the day. There's no AC but most of the time I don't even notice. We sleep with a fan on at night (when we have electricity) and sometimes I even get cold! November and April are the peaks for the rainy season. September begins this rainy season, but it has only rained about once or twice a week so far for about 15-20 minutes (which is unfortunate since 87% of Ugandans live in rural areas and depend on the rain for their farming). When it's not raining, the sun is usually beaming down quite hard. We're almost on the equator and very close to Lake Victoria (we have a beautiful view of it from our balcony!) which combines to create very temperate temperatures and a tropical vegetation. One of the oddest things is that the sun will come up around 6:45 all year (once again, an amazing view from the balcony) and will set around 7 pm all year.

It's weird to think that the cool breezes do not indicate the fall season approaching. I'm really going to miss the beautiful autumn, the colors of changing trees, the joy of picking apples, the smell of cooking crisps, and the treat of carving pumpkins. Please send me pics of your fall fun if you want to!

What kind of food do you eat?

We are definitely not going hungry! We really like the Ugandan food, though it's a lot of carbs! We frequently eat beans, rice and potatoes. In addition to that, we eat "posho," which is kind of like mashed potatoes made out of maize, which looks like corn on the cob. We also eat a lot of matooke (pronounced mah-toe-kay). Matooke looks like a banana but kind of tastes like a potato. We usually eat Ugandan food for lunch, David at the office and me at school, and our dinners, provided at eMi, are usually more international. Tonight we had coconut chicken with rice and green beans. Last night we had rice and veggies. (Meatless meals have been a hard adjustment for David but he's getting used to it.)

There are a lot of fresh fruits and veggies here, especially bananas and pineapples! You can barely drive 20 meters down the road without finding a stand that sells fresh produce. There's a big market called Namuwongo that we walk to occasionally to buy the staples: lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, etc. Strawberries, blueberries and peaches are pretty much impossible to find. I bought some kiwi the other day thinking it was 2,700 per kilo but it ended up being the price for each kiwi, about US$1.08!

We miss our dairy products: skim milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, cheddar and mozzarella cheese, and ice cream. It's a good thing we brought calcium pills because we definitely are not getting the USDF recommended daily allowance! We tried the "skimmed" milk that came in a bag but it was not so good. Most of it is "full cream" and comes in bagged, boxed, or powdered. Many people here want to be fat; it's a sign of wealth! I did find light soy milk the other day and to my delight, it was quite tasty! I had it on my Kellogg's "Fruit and Fibre" cereal today; it's the first time I've had cereal since I've been here! We usually eat toast and peanut butter with bananas or eggs for breakfast. On weekends, we've made French toast a couple of times which is a nice treat. I've also baked banana bread and I think it tastes better than in the States, probably because of the wonderfully fresh bananas.

Coffee and tea are served around the clock here, much to my delight! (I'm definitely using the Splenda packets I brought!) We buy "biscuits" for a sweet fix or drink African Tea, made with milk, sugar and masala. Occasionally, someone will bake cookies or a cake here. You can bake most things here. (Not from buying the box, but from scratch.) However, chocolate chips are basically non-existent and cream cheese is super expensive.

Bottled Coke is everywhere! The kids drink it at school out of a glass bottle with a straw. It seems quite fancy. Unfortunately for me, there's no Diet Dr. Pepper or Diet Coke. They have Coke Light at the mall food court and some grocery stores but it's 1-2,000 shillings more that the regular soda and it tastes way different than D.C. Again, the low calorie items are not in high demand here.

You cannot drink the tap water in Uganda since it carries diseases such as typhoid and cholera. We do run the tap water through ceramic filters although the water still tastes "dirty" to me. Fortunately, bottled Rwenzori water is donated to Heritage. I still drink about 4 Nalgenes a day (4 L). And with 5th graders, it is NO problem to excuse myself to the bathroom. It's nice knowing that they will continue to work quietly and won't deliberately hurt each other!

Is there a McDonalds?

No. Surprisingly, we have seen NO American chain restaurants here! We have gone to several good local restaurants since we are own our own for weekend meals. Caffe Roma is one of my favorites so far. Barbara and her husband from Italy own it and they serve authentic Italian food, including delicious pizza. They even have gelato! The same restaurant provides the lunches at school, though they are different form what they serve at their caffe.

Last Friday we went to Le Chateu, a Dutch owned restaurant, on a double date with the Gambles. We sat under thatched roofs and ate by candlelight. (Remember, it gets dark early here!) We had delicious cheese burgers, French fries, and a Coke Light, all for about $5.50! It was quite a treat! Afterwards, we went over to Chad and Shanthi's to play Settlers (the best game ever!) and made ice cream sundaes. It's the second time we've had ice cream since we've been here! Drissell's, I'm not sure what you all would do!

What kind of animals do you see?

We haven't seen too many unusual animals yet, but then again, we haven't been on a safari either. We're hoping to visit the Masai Mara in Kenya when my parents come over Christmas! There are many farm animals around where we live that we see almost daily—goats, chickens (with baby chicks chasing behind them), cows, pigs, dogs, cats, floppy eared bunnies, large birds, and bats. I did see a monkey running across the field at school once, it was so cool! My students and I ran outside to find him but he was too fast. Apparently, it's not a normal sight. Geckos, little creatures that look like lizards, crawl around everywhere and I'm learning not to shriek when they're in our bedroom or bathroom. I've seen no big spiders or snakes yet, thank goodness! EMI has a guard dog named Okulia, which is Luganda for "to eat." She's a playful, friendly dog and longs for attention. However, she's already chewed a skirt of mine and flip-flops, and just tonight two pairs of underwear ("pants" here.) I was so annoyed that she got into our laundry basket that had been placed outside our room that I finally yelled BAD DOG!!! at her tonight in a very stern voice.

I am constantly battling mosquitoes here. I continuously have bites on my feet, ankles, arms, neck and FACE! It's rather unnerving when I go to the bathroom and they're swarming around me or when I'm sleeping and hear them buzzing outside the net.

What are the stores like?

Store after store (often, shack after shack) line busy streets. They are usually tiny little rooms or booths packed with "stuff." There are lots of clothes (usually used), shoes, groceries, plastic buckets and water jugs, and cell phones! Large coke advertisements appear on many stores as do other hand painted signs. I was quite surprised to find that there's a western mall here as well, (Trevor you were right!) It has "normal" mall stores, none of which I've heard of before but some look like they could be in the States! It does have a grocery store, so people push grocery carts through the mall which was quite odd at first. I was surprised the other day to see the sky from the top level, like I sky light without glass. I was quite perplexed and wondered what happened when it rained. There was a courtyard with benches and plants below it, I guess it just gets wet! The craft markets here are amazing; beautiful boutiqued paintings (like I used to do with Aunt Tracy at Art Antics!), woven bags and rugs, all kinds of jewelry, carved animals, painted cards....and it's all sooo cheap! It's kinda like a clearance at World Market or Pier One, except all of the items are locally handmade.

What is your mailing address?

We'd love to hear from you!!! Letters take about 2-3 weeks to arrive and are like a big hug from home. Stamps cost 87 cents.

David and Amanda Baca
PO Box 3251
Kampala , Uganda

Yes, you read it right. No zip code. I'm currently working on several other questions...but please let us know if you have one in particular!

Come Good Rain

On Saturday, September 2, Amanda and I went to one of the premier colleges in Uganda, Makerere University. An engineering professor from the US is teaching there for one year and is also interested in the work of EMI. He invited us to the university for “Come Good Rain,” a one-man play recounting the life of George Bwanika Seremba, a Ugandan who lived during the reign of Idi Amin and who was shot by the security forces of Milton Obate. The play was somewhat humorous in the beginning as the actor portrayed life in a British-run school but turned tragic by the end of the first act as the actor portraying Bwanika recounted the sadness of hearing about the 500,000 Ugandans being killed during the years of instability. Eventually, Bwanika himself became directly affected by the violence. He was accused of being a prison-escapee by Obote’s security forces and subsequently tied up and burned with cigarettes. Later, Bwanika was taken to a forest known to be an execution ground. Realizing he was about to die, Bwanika asked to be shot in the front, rather than the back, and to be placed somewhere where his body could be found so his mother would know of his death. Instead of shooting him in the chest, the security forces shot him six times in other places in an attempt to make his death as painful and long as possible.



I wanted to write about the confusion I felt after observing the reaction of more than half of the audience. There were probably 75 people watching the play, of which, seven were mzungos (white people). During the scenes of torture, I would estimate more than half of the audience was laughing as Bwanika was being burned, beaten, or shot. I was in shock and disbelief because so many Ugandans were laughing at this depiction of evil that occurred less than 30 years ago in their own country. Here’s the best way I can think of to help you understand the confusion I felt: Imagine what you would feel if you were to watch the opening scene of “Saving Private Ryan” with a theater full of World War II veterans’ children and saw them laughing. I don’t think it would make sense to you. In both cases, a generation one degree removed from the conflict is laughing at the pain and devastation of their parents. Why?

As I get to know the people here I find myself increasingly caring about their history and hardships. So, while I’m not Ugandan, I care about and want to understand the reasons people act certain ways. The laughter just didn’t make sense to me. It certainly does not seem like a good way of dealing with pain (but then again, I know that I often find myself making a joke to “lighten the mood”). Amanda and I were both unsettled by the laughter and wanted to understand why Ugandans were laughing. Kate and Janet, local Ugandans who work as housekeepers at eMi, were with us and so we asked them, “Why were people laughing when Bwanika was being shot?” They responded, “Because that is in the past” and laughed a little as well. “We know it is in the past and the man was just acting.” We asked the question a little bit differently because sometimes American words don’t equal Ugandan words, but the response was similar. And short. And puzzling.

500,000 people. Dead. Cigarette burns. Six bullet wounds. Laughter.

It didn’t and doesn’t make sense