Agandi! (Friday, Sept 5)

Greetings, or literally, “How is the news?” in Ryanankore.

Well, it’s been just over a week since the team left Vancouver Island. Our journey to Uganda included three flights, three continents, and spanned three days; we left the Comox airport on Saturday afternoon and arrived in Entebbe, Uganda Monday morning. We stayed the night in Kampala, Uganda’s capital city, before driving to Mbarara, where the Ugandan “home base” for ACTS is located. We stayed in the Canada House, which houses ACTS team members and staff when they are not working in the field, located on the property of the Anglican Diocese of South Western Uganda.

While at the Canada House, we had language training in Ruyankore, the local language spoken in much of South Western Uganda. While in the larger cities, almost everyone speaks English, the official language of Uganda, most speak only the local language in the rural communities where we will be working. We also spent a lot of time meeting with the various contacts that work for or with ACTS, including visits with two of the bishops at the Anglican Church, under whose jurisdiction we will be working.

I now have a cell phone and you can reach me at either 757 202 101 or 754 986 865. I’ve got two numbers because the service providers in Uganda only service certain areas, so I need to switch between the two SIM cards depending on which area I will be working in. All cell phone service here is pay as you go and you can buy a SIM card with an individual phone number for 2-3000 Ugandan Shillings which is less than two Canadian dollars.

Tomorrow morning, our team will be leaving for the camp at the most recently completed project site and we will be working out of that camp for at least the next two weeks. We are currently waiting for the Lifewater project to be approved and funded by CIDA and we cannot actually begin work on the new project until the funding has been received. This is actually a blessing as it allows the team a little bit of time to go over some of the past projects to learn and improve upon past practices and methods.

I'm once again sporting a bald head as I just had my head shaved earlier today as it'll be easier to keep clean in the camps, especially with the hot Ugandan weather. I've never been as far south as the equator before, but the sun here is far more intense than what we have in Canada. While it has often been cloudy this past week, when the sun does come out, it feels like it's burning the skin. Mike also shaved his head and the barbers here are something like I've never had. Our haircuts took nearly an hour, and they took the greatest care in cutting our hair, it was quite the experience. I'll post a picture of the barbershop and my barber, Isaac, when I can get it from Mike's camera.

As we head out to the camp, I ask that you'd keep a few prayer requests in mind:-There are huge expectations on our team by the Ugandan Bishops as well as the local communities in the proposed water project areas. We had intended on spending the first week at the past water project familiarizing ourselves with the procedures and such that we will be following in our own work. However, we were advised that one of the higher ranking Bishops in the Anglican church, as well as the First Lady, the President of Uganda's wife, will be visiting the area of our next project site on Thursday. We have been asked to be present during their visit to meet them since we will be working in the region. Thus, I ask that you pray for wisdom as we try to prepare for these meetings without having the chance to first visit the sites themselves. Also, as expected, there is a certain amount of stress that comes along with the work, and as we prepare to begin our work at the camps, that stress only magnifies. In a way, it is a first test as a team to be able to really work well together.

I must end here for now, as we are leaving for return to Canada House for the night. I hope to be able to update again within the next week or two!