Final Pictures

      So to concluded my posts of my time in Uganda, I thought I would just put a lot of pictures of people. The highlight of being in Uganda by far was the good times I had working with the people. Thank-you all for reading my posts, praying for me, and supporting me financially. God Bless you!

Mary at her taylor shop. She attended my "When Helping Hurts" training. She has 4 sewing machines and trains girls who are drop-outs from school.

From left to right: Faith, Franco, myself, Simon Peter, and Rose. Franco and Simon Peter are two of the leaders of Pentecostal Assemblies of God, the church denomination I spent my time working under. Faith and Rose are the wives of Franco and Simon Peter.

Alfred and his wife, Rose.

Sam and his wife, Jalia.

Isaac, my "twin". Life was never boring with this guy.

Anthony and Sara Sytsma. I spent the Christmas with them. I learned a lot from them and had a lot of fun visiting them.

No caption needed. :)

My math class.

Anthony on my left and Ben on my right. They were two guys I got to know from the Pallisa church.

Erich, the principal, and his wife.

Jane and Betty. They were friends of mine and we all three happened to be at the same training in Kampala.

Pastor Simon, my connection to the Pallisa church.

The "When Helping Hurts" class from Pallisa; I really enjoyed this group of people.

The church members of a village church where Alfred helps to pastor.

Final Comments

     

The party which my friends put on for me.

         As I write this post, I am at my parents house in the US. Yes, my almost year and a half experience in Uganda has come to a close. Many people ask "Are you home for good?" To which I respond, "I hope to go back to Uganda again sometime". I hope I am not "home for good". For this summer I will be working on the home farm. I am looking forward driving tractors and farming in the US again.
       Lord willing, this fall I will begin grad school at Penn State. The Lord has been good in working out the whole grad school thing for me. I won't bore you with the details, but I have to say I am excited about the idea of going back at Penn State again. I plan to pursue my Masters in Animal Science, focusing on Dairy Nutrition.
      In closing out my time in Uganda, some of my American friends had a farewell party for me. One of my friends came up with a list of questions for me. I have to note that some of the answers to my questions are answers I might have given before I went to Uganda. It is just that while in Uganda, I was able to see situations that make me answer certain questions with more Gusto. Here is the list of questions, with my answers to each question:

What is one of the lessons that you learned from living in Uganda that has impacted your life the most?
         Many times, us Westerners really miss things when it comes to helping people, especially in the area of physical help. We often set up programs from a top-down approach. We think we understand people's problem and sometimes really miss what a person's problem actually is. I believe we need to be more critical in asking ourselves hard questions such as "How sustainable is my work?" "How can what I am doing be scaled up in a big way?" "Does my program allow flexibility, or is it a one size fits all?" Obviously, we can't do things perfectly, but I believe we should be constantly asking ourselves how we can help in better, more holistic ways. Most of all, things which are given free of charge are considered relief. Relief is fine if it is given in an emergency situation, but relief given when people really need development, often does more harm than good. 

What have you learned about yourself?
         I learned I need to have more patience in life and trust God to work out life's details, rather than worry about how life will play out.
         I learned that agriculture still has a big place in my heart. Part of what makes me like or dislike an area of the world is how much and what agriculture is taking place in that particular area. It would be hard for me to do something long term which has no connection to agriculture.

What have you learned about people?
          While people have a lot of similarities the world around, there are indeed many differences. In Uganda, time is almost never considered and asset. Money, on the other hand, is a lot harder to come by. While in Uganda, I tried my best to appreciate the differences between myself and others around me.

What have you learned about God?
         God can work in situations that really seem hopeless. 
         God is perfecting people, but sometimes it is easier to see the imperfections of people rather than what God has done already in that person life.

What two things have you learned from Uganda that you want to carry over into America?

         People in Uganda are very hospitable and generous to guests when guests come. They appreciate their guests.
         Ugandan's do better with experiencing calamities than I do. Someone can lose a valuable possession and it doesn't seem to get them down like it does me.
         These are two qualities that I have observed from Ugandan's and which I want to grow in.

What is one of the things you did that you are most thankful that you did?
         Visiting friends at their homes is one thing I really am thankful that I got to do. You can't really experience a culture unless you visit a person's home. And the more you do it, the more you learn about the culture you are living in.

Is there someplace you wish you would've gone or something you wish you would've done?
         I got to travel to a lot of places and do a lot of things in Uganda, However, one area of Uganda I didn't visit and wish I could've was Western Uganda. People say it is a very green area of Uganda with lots of agriculture. 

How do you think you'll stay in contact with of your local friends?
         Through email, Skype and Facebook.

What do you think was your biggest achievement there?
         Probably the 5 curriculum outlines which I was in charge of developing. I had good help from the rest of the staff at the college in developing these programs, but I was the person heading them up.

Have you seen God on your side as God of able?
        When I traveled to Uganda, I was worried about the fact that I had never been to Uganda, I wasn't going to be living with any other missionaries, and that I was committing myself to one year! God was faithful, and within a couple of weeks I didn't feel like I was at a new place. I really enjoyed my time at Pentecostal Theological College, despite the fact that I was the only American there.

Dry Season, Wet Season, and Coffee

Please excuse me for all the landscape pictures this post! I wanted to fill you in on some of the season's we experience here in Uganda. Uganda has a defined dry season from December-March and a defined rainy season from April-June. From July-November the weather can be either rainy or dry.

This is a picture of our school compound at the end of dry season.

Same shot after a couple of rains

A couple of week back, I was doing a "When Helping Hurts" training in a village that is on the slopes of Mt. Elgon. The elevation of this village is probably around 4500-5000 ft above sea level. The climate and soil is very conducive for bananas and coffee. The rest of the pictures were taken during the end of the dry season.

In this area, there are rolling hills, as well as steep cliffs.

When I arrived in the village for the training, the coffee was in full bloom. In fact, as I was traveling up the mountain, I could smell the coffee flowers even before I saw the coffee trees. Coffee has a very pleasant and unique smell. Because there were so many coffee trees in the village, every where I went smell like coffee flowers, even inside the church.

The trees had a lot of flowers on them!

The flowers are a pure white color.

This village has such a wonderful feel; you walk through coffee and banana orchards that surround the homes and farms. Almost every home has at least one milk cow which they harvest 1-2 gallons of milk per day. The cows mostly eat banana stems.

"The Homestead"

The second day I was there, some type of moth showed up by the thousands. I was very intrigued by the way these moths were drinking the nectar. Every time there was a break in the training, I was outside getting pictures or videos of the moths drinking the nectar.

A moth drinking nectar.

"When Helping Hurts" Training

The bus and taxi park in Kitgum. The white van with the reds strips on the right is a Toyota Noah.

         My journey began on a very full bus at 6:00 am from Mbale. In fact, it was so full, that the isle of the bus was full of people standing up and luggage. After a stop in Soroti Town, we continued on to Lira Town. Lira is a town in Central Uganda. My end destination was in Kitgum, Northern Uganda, where I was to meet up with Pastor Francis to teach a short version of "When Helping Hurts" in his church. The ride from Lira to Kitgum was not as pleasant. We had 15 people packed in a Noah (mini-van), plus luggage. We traveled for hours on dusty, bumpy roads.

This is how I move deep into the villages.

          After spending the night in Kitgum, we traveled to Pastor Francis's home village on a motorcycle.  It was over an hour outside Kitgum on a dirt road. Often, motorcycle transport is the fastest, and sometimes, the only way to move out in these remote areas.

The dirt roads connecting the rural villages and towns in Uganda.

        For those of you who are familiar with African history, you may have heard of the Lord's Resistant Army (LRA). The LRA was mainly in Northern Uganda, especially in the Kitgum area. The trading center in the picture below served as a UN camp where 4000 people lived for several years until the LRA moved away.

Here is a trading center where I spent the night in a guesthouse which costed $5.

      In Uganda, there is a difference between a trading center and the village. A village is spread out and tends to be more of an area, than a group of houses. In northern Uganda, villages are often mud huts with grass roofs. A trading center is more like a very small, primitive town were people do business.

Myself, Paster Francis, and his wife, Darine

         Pastor Francis is a really great guy. I really appreciated his humble lifestyle and how he treated his wife well. His wife Darine is very resilient person and can ride a bike through the bush like nobody's business.

Pastor Francis's church where we had the training.

       The church almost felt like an igloo, except that instead of escaping the cold, we were escaping the heat. These mud hut structures are a little dark inside, but it was amazing to me how cool it stayed inside, even at the hottest time of day. Often churches have metal roofs and get quite warm in the afternoons.    

Inside the church.

The youth made lunch for all of us.

 Everyone was served a meal of Atapa, rice, and beans cooked by the youth of the church. Atapa is a local staple food made from ground up cassava, sorghum, and millet. It is a very heavy dough substance.

Finally, they showered me with gifts: 3 chickens (which I carried all the way home), pigeon peas and ground nuts. I am always extremely blessed and humbled to have them give me things, and even sometimes a little money as their token of thanks.

The women giving their gifts of appreciation.

     
         One of the things I have been doing when I go to villages is teaching "When Helping Hurts". The training was started by my friend, Anthony Systma, who worked with the authors of the book "When Helping Hurts" to come up with a training manual. The training is geared toward church and community leaders. While some of the information may be a little hard for illiterate people to understand, there are parts of the training that really resonate with the people. The prosperity gospel is something that always brings stories from people. At this village, a lady was saying she was trying to convince her neighbor not to go to a certain prosperity gospel crusade. The neighbor went anyway; when the neighbor took her money up front so she could be prayed for, the preacher humiliated her and chased her away because the money she brought was so little. Chapter six is another chapter which always resonates with people, especially up in northern Uganda where the UN took care of people in camps during the time of the LRA insurgency. The class was able to see how long periods of time where people received relief, hampered the development of people in their area. The people no longer wanted to go back to their old ways of life in the village and work because they were used to handouts from the UN and government.

     
There are 10 chapters in the "When Helping Hurts" training manual:

                      Name of chapter                                      What the chapter talks about

1. Why did Jesus come to Earth?  Talks about how God wants Christians to help the poor.
2. What is "Poverty".  Looks at how broken relationships are often the main cause poverty.
3. The Prosperity Gospel.  Discusses how the prosperity gospel is false and can hurt people.
4. Fighting Poverty through Reconciliation. Tells how to fight poverty through reconciliation.
5. Worldview's and Systems. Worldview's effect life perceptions; broken systems add to poverty.
6. Relief, Rehabilitation, and Development.  Which approach should you use? It depends.
7. Asset-Based Community Development.  Tells how to start with resources from within.
8. Participation of the Community. Talks about the importance of involving people on the ground.
9. What causes change in someones's life?  How to use situations to bring change in another's life.
10. Missionaries and Sponsors. Looks at some cultural challenges both Ugandans and Missionaries face when working together.

Future Plans
       I am planning to come back to the US in May of this year. It is hard to believe it is coming up so quickly! In some ways, I feel like my time here is not complete yet. On the other hand I feel like the last year and a half have been good and that now is good time to move on. I would say there is a good chance that I will come back in the future and serve in Uganda. Right now, I am hoping to start grad school in the fall. I am still deciding on which school, but planning to get a masters in Animal Science. For the summer I will be at home helping on our home farm and hopefully reconnecting with all of you! Obviously, all these plans are in the Lord's hands and I want to be flexible to any change God would bring. Please pray with me in this area of life.

Merry Christmas!

         Merry Christmas from Uganda! Maybe your wondering if my calendar is off. No, it's not, I just have not gotten around to updating you on what I did over Christmas. The month of December was filled with traveling and visiting various villages, which I will share about later. However, the week of Christmas, I got to spend 5 days with some of my best friends in Uganda, Anthony and Sara Sytsma.
        Maybe your heard me talk about the Sytsma's on some of my other blog posts. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed spending the days at their house resting, talking with them, preparing and eating food, watching movies, and playing games, mainly Dominion. We even had a gift exchange and had advent candles

Our Christmas feast and the advent candles

       Our Christmas Eve dinner was complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and gravy. Sara even made cinnamon rolls for us to eat throughout the week. One night we had hamburgers with avocado. Christmas Day we ate pizza made in Sara's clay oven. And our lunches consisted of the leftovers. It was good eating!

       You might be thinking "so what Eric, this is what we had for Christmas too". For me, I eat a lot of local food here in Uganda, which I don't mind, but it is fun to eat good once in a while. Most of my suppers consist of either French Fries or rice and beans.

Avocados are good with almost anything, even hamburgers!

         The highlight of the week was to be able to rest, hang out with the Sytsma's, play games, and eat food. This is one of my favorite parts of Christmas with my family, but last year I missed this part as I was new to Uganda and didn't know as many people. Being at the Sytsma's for 5 days was a huge blessing for me.

Dominion; one of my favorite games, which also happens to be one of Anthony's favorite games as well.

        I left the Sytsma's house on Saturday and went to the principal's house for the night and preached at his church the next day. Erich is the principal of Pentecostal Theological College where I live and spend most of my time. Erich has become a good friend to me. He also helps to pastor a church in Kumi, his home town, about an hour from Mbale.

Erich and his wife.

        I arrived at Erich's birthplace Saturday afternoon. Many of his relatives where still at his mother's house where they had enjoyed Christmas together. They all greeted me and Erich's wife made food for me. Even though I was not super hungry, it is culturally appropriate in Uganda to make food for a special guest, especially if you know in advance they are coming. The fun part about this cultural fact is that you get to eat often when you visit people; the down side is that as a guest, you had better not turn the food down, or it will offend the host.

Erich's birthplace and him with his relatives.

       After I had dinner, Erich took me and showed me some of his land and was getting my advice on what to plant in on his land. He has over 10 acres of land, which is a lot for some farmers in Uganda. I was advising him to try planting some trees and he is really excited about the idea. In the late afternoon, we left his mother's house and drove 20 minutes to his house, where I spent the night with his family.
        The following morning I preached at his church and talked with the church leaders about the possibility me doing a "When Helping Hurts" training (you may have heard me talking about this training; I will have an update later talking more about "When Helping Hurts"). The church leaders where excited about the training and we worked on the logistics of the training before I left for home Sunday afternoon.

Pastor Erich (the Principal) interpreting as I preach. 

       During the weekend, I also got to hang out with Isaac, the Finance Accountant for our college since he is also from Kumi. Isaac and I have a lot of fun together. He is only one year older than I am and is also not married. We pretend we are twins; he is Jacob and I am Esau because I have more hair on my arms than he does. :)

Life is never boring with this guy!

       Maybe you are wondering if there was anything God taught me or reminded me over the Christmas season. Nothing stood out to me in particular concerning Christmas, but I have been blessed the last month reading through the book of Hebrews. I am reading it now for the 3rd time in the last 6 weeks and have really been blessed understanding in a deeper way the new covenant in Christ. Part of the reason it has been meaningful is that in our staff devotions we are going through the Law (Exodus and Leviticus).