September 2014 Update

Happy September everybody!!

As everyone in North America is celebrating Labor Day, we have entered the second rainy season of the year here in Uganda. It’s been somewhat cool here the past week or so, to the point that on Sunday when we got home from church Becky & I put on hoodies.  That is not the norm, for sure, but it’s given a bit of perspective to live in a place south of the equator (even if it’s only by a few kilometers) and have the cooler season in August/September.

Well we have been here for almost 6 months now and we are doing well. The past few weeks and the coming weeks have been and are going to be really busy but it is going well so far. Last week Becky and the kids started school. To recap, Becky is the secondary science teacher at a small Christian international school here in Kampala. She is only a few weeks in but loves the school and I think it’s been great for her to get out of the house, if only for 3 mornings a week. As a part of that, both Nathaniel & Bethany are in the school’s preschool. Nathaniel for 3 full-days a week and Bethany for 3 mornings a week. It’s been great for Nathaniel to be around a bunch of other kids his age and get some of that energy out.

1st Day in their new uniforms!

Also, just a note, Nathaniel & my birthdays are this month. Whoop!

At EMI, I am now super busy for a few reasons. First, the project I will be managing for the next year started at the beginning of August. It’s a new 2-story, 10,000sf office building we have designed and are building. The building is located next to an airstrip in the suburbs of Kampala that is operated by MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship). This new office building is going to be occupied by MAF & EMI. EMI has made an arrangement with MAF that we are going to be in this building together, on different floors, for the foreseeable future. It’s a very cool partnership that I am excited to have such an up close part in. In the coming months, I will go into more detail about this project and my involvement. This project should last at least a year so I will have plenty of opportunity.

The main topic I wanted to touch on for this update is about a trip I have coming up starting Friday. As you may or may not have noticed, this month’s update is out a bit earlier than what we have been doing and there is a reason for that. On Friday I will be travelling with an EMI team from here and the US to the Democratic Republic of the Congo or DRC. Eight of us will be travelling by car 8 or so hours to this neighboring country for 9 days. We are going to be working with an organization called the ‘Christian Bilingual University of Congo’ or in DRC’s native French ‘Université Chrétienne Bilingue du Congo.’ I am going with a team of architects and engineers to do an assessment on an existing building and to start designing a primary school on the campus. You can find out more about UCBC and the organization that started this university at congoinitiative.org. They are an inspiring organization that has a huge vision to literally transform their country. Here is an excerpt from their website:

“Since its initial conception in 2002, the goal of Congo Initiative has been to provide hope and healing for the Democratic Republic of Congo through higher education, Christian leadership development and community transformation. Its core project is the Université Chrétienne Bilingue du Congo (UCBC) / Chrisitan Bilingual University of Congo, located in the town of Beni, in North Kivu province. Launched in 2007, UCBC is an institution of higher learning that intentionally integrates academics, work and service-learning, rooted in Christian ethics.”

I have attached a picture of where DRC is located in Africa and also I have given a few interesting facts about that country that you probably didn’t know. I know I didn’t.

• DRC is the 2^nd largest country in Africa by land area.
• DRC is the most populous Francophone country in the world.
• DRC is a country with a huge amount of natural resources. Over 50% of DRC’s exports go to China.
• There are 2 different countries in Africa with the Congo in the name. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (referred to as DRC) and the Republic of the Congo (referred to as Congo).
• DRC used to be a Belgian colony.
• DRC used to be called Zaire.
• DRC has a sad and hard past of civil wars, unstable political environment and a culture of corruption.
• Please check out DRC on Wikipedia if you are interested to check out more.

Here are a few prayer requests for our trip:

• Pray for the trip, that we would accomplish & complete everything the Lord has for us. That our team would work well together and communicate well. That we would slow to speak and quick to help where we can.
• Pray for relationships to be made and for communication (i.e. French, etc.) with the organization to be easy.
• Pray for the health & safety of our team, spiritually & physically.
• Pray for Becky & the kids. Becky will need all the energy & patience she can get. For their safety as well.

Nate & Beth enjoying some marshmallows beside our backyard campfire.

Thank you all so much. We love y’all.

The Whisnands

August Update

Hello friends and family!

I hope you all are enjoying your summers! It has been great to see many of your camping photos up on Facebook and we have enjoyed seeing all of the adventures you are having! Here is a recent one of us having lunch at the EMI office:

We are well here: school for me and the kids is starting up in a few weeks. I am nervous as I have a ton of planning remaining but the kids are SOOOOO excited! They have been asking to go to school almost every day, so I pulled out the calendar and we're counting down the days until school starts! We picked up their uniforms yesterday and they look so cute! The strangest part of the experience so far was receiving an e-mail from the PTA and realizing that I was getting it because I was part of the P not the T!

So, instead of a lengthy emotional update (to sum up, we're all doing very well) this will be a cultural piece about food here in Kampala!

First off, does anyone else see the face? It startled me while making dinner last night, then I felt guilty for mangling it for our sweet and sour pork dinner...

Firstly, I need to reassure you all that the local food we have had so far has been yummy! There is a big Indian influence in the cooking here, which is great because we love the variety of flavours! Rice and beans is a very typical dish here as well as posho and beans. Posho is an inexpensive starch that is boiled and pretty flavourless but works well with the bean sauces.

A few of our favorite local foods so far include:
- rice and beans
- chipati: a large and thin eggy pancake that can be eaten on it's own or like a flatbread with other sauces
 - Rolex: a chipati that is filled with scrambled eggs and tomatoes and onions and rolled up like a burrito
- Ugandan samosas: very similar to the Indian variety we had in Vancouver except that they just have ground beef and peas and greens in them.

Jay's friend and our local chipati and Rolex maker. The balls of dough are the chipati before they are cooked, and the finished chipati are next to the eggs. This stand is on the main road we live off of and that Jay walks on to work.

Despite all of the good things, there have been a few that were difficult to adjust to. One example of this is that the milk tastes really different here: I can't put my finger on it, but the first time I tried it, I thought that it had absorbed all of the smells from the fridge. The first time Nathaniel tried it, he called it "paint milk" and still only has it in his oatmeal or cereal...And because the milk has a tangy flavour, the cheese and other dairy products here also have a funny tinge to them. The GOOD news is, that we have adapted and I am now at a point where I can drink some of the milk plain!

New things for us:

- freezing everything to kill the bugs (flour, sugar, popcorn, oatmeal, rice, etc.) whether purchased from side of the road or from major grocery store and then having to sort through said food items to remove the dead bugs, small rocks, etc.

- the importance of sealing all food so that bugs don't get in...they will eat anything!!!

- lemons here are green and look like large limes, and limes here are also green but are quite small, like key limes

- bananas: we have never seen such variety in bananas before.  They have large bananas like back home, and red bananas which are HUGE and very sweet with a red peel. Most people, however, eat small bananas which are only a few inches long but which are SOO yummy and sweet. We eat about 4 or 5 bunches each week!


- Grocery Shopping: although there are larger supermarkets here in the city, they are not very close to our house and so our weekly shop has become much more complicated. We get most of our dry goods and dairy products from a local supermarket called The Embassy as they seem to have pretty low prices. Please keep in mind that this "super" market is maybe only slightly larger than your average 7-11, but they are able to stock most of what we need. They do not, however, have a meat department and so we head down the street to a delicatessen called Quality Meats where we are able to get things like chicken and ground beef. Once our dry goods,  dairy and meat have been purchased, all that remains is our produce. Produce can be purchased at the supermarkets, but the freshest stuff (and the most inexpensive) is at the local markets. Rather than brave the markets and foreigner mark-up, I send a list with my house help and she takes care of it all for me. I am pretty blessed. Overall, I enjoy our new routine and I am getting spoiled by all of the lovely produce, however, I do still miss the FABULOUS shopping carts at Superstore back home;)









- when we first arrived here, one of our team mates, who has been here nearly 10 years, told us that "after a while, you'll be able to make anything!" as she passed us her homemade ginger ale. To be honest, I thought she was a little crazy, but I have found that I am beginning to teeter off the edge myself. After nearly 5 months here, I am discovering that there are some things that I do miss from home and that I am willing to invest the time into making. Here are two of my more recent endeavours:

Can you guess what this is for?

Yup!

Yummy, homemade potato and cheese perogies! SOOOOO HAPPY!!!!!

We had a chili night at our house and we decided that Fritos Corn Chips needed to accompany the meal. They were a lot of work but they tasted AWESOME!

So there you are! As you all enjoy popsicle and freezie season, I hope that you have enjoyed getting a little "taste" of the food culture here in our new world!


Much love to you all,


Jay, Becky and the Kids

Nathaniel practicing his drawing skills. They like me to draw stick people pictures of our family and friends.

Nathaniel's handiwork: Daddy. Note the hat, mustache and goatee. Also note, those are legs and not a neck...we still have a little work to do:)

Bethany on her new "Boda." It has 2 wheels at the bike so it works like a trike but looks like a motorcycle! They have so much fun bombing around the compound on it.

July Adventures

Hello Family and Friends!

We hope that you all have been enjoying your summers so far and the many barbeques, camping trips and summer vacations that come with them! As a Canerican family (half Canadian and half American) we have the privilege of celebrating both Canada Day on July 1^st, and then American Independence Day on July 4^th, which made for a barbeque-rich week! We had a great time hosting our Canada Day party, eating yummy foods like hot dogs and potato salad, and I even figured out how to make Nanaimo Bars here (by substituting ingredients) for our yummy dessert! The highlight of the night, though, was sending off our red lantern into the night sky. 

Celebrating the 4th!

Sending off our lantern into the July 1st night sky.

There is so much to share with you from this past month that it will hard to make it all cohesive, so please bear with me!

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been here 4 months now, and yet our daily level of familiarity is testament to our time here. In the little ways, I can see how I am changing: the milk no longer tastes bad (I can actually drink a glass of it!!!), I don’t think the kids smell funny when they come out of the bath tub (because the water no longer smells funny), and I don’t get confused when my house help points to things using only her lips (an amazing thing that I will never be able to demonstrate!).

I do need to share with you part of the CRAZIEST week that we had here so far: a week where everything seemed to be happening all at once. We were once given the advice, “Blessed are the flexible, for they will not be bent out of shape.” This week was a week that tested our ability to bend…

• Sunday, June 8^th: As Becky is taping a wedding toast to be mailed for her dear friend’s wedding, our guard Moses informs us that we have small red worms living in our water tank…they are coming out through our pipes…we have been showering and bathing in them and washing our dishes with them…GA-ROSS! And we had company coming for lunch that day....

• Wednesday, June 11^th:  Nathaniel slams his finger in our iron screen door/security door resulting in a terribly bruised finger (which reminded me of my Dad drilling through his own bruised nails to relieve the pressure), a very upset little boy and a dark night drive through the city (which has little to no street lamps) to our medical centre. Nathaniel was brave through his x-rays (which was helped by a little cookie motivation) which confirmed that he had indeed chipped the tip of his left middle finger which is why it looked so gruesome. He has nursed his finger this past month, and although we were sure his nail would fall off, it has stayed on in all its bruised majesty.

  

  Nathaniel's broken finger the day after.

• Thursday, June 12^th: Jay takes the morning off work to go and get our Ugandan Driver’s Permit applications done with me. En route, we find ourselves accidental parties in a 2 boda (motorcycles used as taxis) car wreck. The bodas were travelling towards us and as one was passing the other, they clipped each other causing both of them crash and slide under our car which was moving towards them on one of the busiest streets in town. The large crowd that quickly formed pulled the men and their bikes off of the road, and Jay was about to get out of our car when I reminded that we had warned numerous times NOT to get out of your car if you are in an accident because mob justice is a real event here, but to proceed to the nearest police station to report the accident. We pulled ahead, and thank the Lord, there was a traffic cop not too far from the accident who pulled us over and took care of us. It was actually a really beautiful thing: we went back to the scene of the accident with our police officer and Jay got out to talk to the other officers and the boda drivers. We were a little nervous for many reasons, not the least of which is that police officers here often expect bribe money from foreigners which we weren’t prepared (or willing) to pay. So as Jay is standing there, he sees the officers and the boda drivers, one of whom is holding his headlight under his arm, and they are determining which of the boda drivers is at fault. Then the officer turns to Jay and asks if we will forgive the boda driver for the damage he caused to our bumper (which was pretty minor) because he does not have the money to pay for it. Jay was able to share that we would forgive the boda driver because we, too, had a debt that we couldn’t pay but we have been forgiven by Jesus.

  

  Jay negotiating our release...:)

• In true Ugandan form, we then went on to the driver’s permit office only to be told that we did not have the right papers (which we had been told to get…) and that we would need to come back another day! What a mess! The following week we went back and got it completed….

• Saturday, June 14^th: The Lord blessed us: we had the privilege of visiting friends of ours in the neighboring city of Entebbe where we got to sit in their lovely garden with wild orchids trailing overhead, enjoying good food and pleasant company followed by a great swim in a pool close by. Despite all of the challenges we faced in this particular week, we were able to see God’s provision and grace to us in the midst of it all.

On another topic, this past month I (Becky) had the amazing opportunity to visit 3 of the sites that EMI is involved with on a day trip with our interns. It was an amazing and incredibly encouraging experience! I feel like I have been sacrificing so many things living here, and so it was good to be in the field and seeing WHY God has called us to this life. We got to visit the MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) airstrip in Kajjansi where EMI will be building their new office and the African Children’s Choir campus. It was really neat to see the buildings that were thoughtfully designed and constructed for the Children’s school and housing! We even got to go into their practice room and see what they are rehearsing! I got to see a few of the kids, just being themselves and hanging out, and it was amazing to think how different their current lives are from their previous lives.

Visiting the rehearsal room on campus for the African Children's Choir.

My favourite part of our day was when we visited a ministry called Cherish Uganda, which Jay has talked about in previous posts. While I was there I didn’t get to meet any of the orphans because we were visiting their homes, and we didn’t want to interrupt their day, but I did get to meet some of the mommas: the women who have dedicated their lives to loving on and caring for children who are not their own. It was an incredibly powerful experience that I cannot begin to describe, but to meet these women was an incredible honour.

Currently, EMI is working on the construction of more family housing units so that more orphans can be cared for as well as a community medical clinic that will serve Cherish as well as the many villages that surround it. EMI is also slated to begin work on their CLC (Community Learning Centre) sometime in the next year.

Jay working on the Cherish site.

Emotionally, we are doing pretty well here. I recently was Skyped into my dear dear friend Ashley’s wedding which was a huge honour, but also a sharp reminder of the MANY precious events and relationships that we are NOT “home” to experience. I must confess to having a particularly trying day where I took my calendar and began a countdown: marking off the number of months that we have left before we go home. Definitely NOT a healthy approach or a healthy attitude to have: to view my life with such a closed hand and not be open to what God would have us do. That day, God gave me the following verse:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

                                                                                                Galatians 2:20 (NIV)

It was a hard verse to read, but it was a potent reminder that God didn’t call us to Uganda and the ministry He is doing here so that I could have the life that I wanted: He called us here so that the work that HE needs done for HIS Kingdom will be done. It is the work of Christ in me and my willingness that causes me to follow Him in FAITH, knowing that although I don’t have many of the things that I want, I can TRUST what God IS doing because He is GOOD, even in my heartache. And so beautifully, God is there in my heartache too, comforting me and providing special touches of His love for me.

So there you are! We are doing well here: I am in the middle of sewing curtains for our house and trying to get that HUGE project done before my textbooks arrive later this month and all of my “extra” time goes into lesson planning!

We love and miss you all very much and we so grateful for all of your prayers and support!

Quite sincerely,

Becky, Jay, Nathaniel and Bethany

Prayer Requests:

• Jay’s tooth seems to be infected again: we need a healing miracle or else more surgery is likely necessary and we do not want to have to lose the implant that was installed in February.

• Beginning next March, new administration fees are coming from EMI Canada to support us here in the field (this is a very common fee that most ministries have but that Canada is having to adopt because it is sending out more and more people…which is a good thing). This means we will need to raise more support for our second year here.

• Please pray for Becky as she will begin planning for the upcoming school year: this is a new school with a completely new program and there is MUCH work to be done.

• Please pray for Nathaniel and Bethany as we prepare to send them both to preschool in the Fall. Pray that they would adapt quickly and that they would make good friends, in addition to having fun and learning, of course:) Pray for Becky, as she has never been away from the kids for so much time before and may shed a few tears.

• Please pray for the people in our lives. That we would love them and point them to Jesus.

o   Our guard Moses and his son Paul.

o   A street vendor that Jay has become friends with named Dan.

o   Jay is mentoring an EMI intern this term.

o   Becky has a mom’s group that meets at our house every week. Jesus has already opened doors to new people coming.

o   Many more…please ask if interested in specifics.

June 2014 Post

Hello Everyone,

                I wanted to start off this blog post with saying a huge Happy Birthday to my mom (Diann Whisnand)!! Today is her birthday. Thanks for being an awesome Mom & Grandmother! We love you.

               

                So for this month’s update we first wanted to share what’s been going on with EMI East Africa this past month. It has been an eventful month for our office. To give a bit of background, a lot of what EMI does revolves around interns that come in several times each year. Most interns are just out of college and stay for a “term” meaning the spring, summer or fall term. Also, most of our design projects are started and completed within a term so most interns work on a single project while they are here. It is a great experience for the interns to see a design project go from start to finish. For EMI, it’s a great way to mentor young professionals in their faith and provide them with work experience, and also, the interns are able to churn through lots of work at our very very very busy office, which helps everybody out. So, this past month the spring term interns went home and the summer interns arrived. It’s been a lot of transition and interesting to realize that for our office, this transition happens 3 times a year, every year. So this spring we got to meet a cool group of young people and then had to say goodbye. A week later, we met 10 new interns from all over the place (mostly the US but from New Zealand and Uganda as well). It’s funny because we still feel like the newbies at EMI, but the new interns look at us like we have been here a long time because we’ve been here 3 months. It’s been fun.

Also, a bit about 2 of the design projects we are starting this month. Most of our design projects start off with a project trip that takes a team of design professionals to stay with the ministry, visit the site and do any preliminary work that needs to be done at the site so they can do the drawings and reports throughout the remainder of term. Two of projects we are starting this month are a master plan for a school for the deaf and blind in Burundi and a master plan for a seminary here in Kampala. 

I hope this all makes sense and you know a bit more about what EMI does.

Next, things are going well here for our family. We have some friends with EMI in town this weekend who are staying with us. They live in Mbale (east Uganda), working for EMI on a project there. He has spent the past 6 months or so managing the construction of a new classroom block for a ministry called Hines Ministries Uganda. We got in touch with them when we first got here. Like us, they have 2 young kids. Last night we were able to play Ticket to Ride and Rack-O with them while the kids watched Veggietales. It was a blast.

An update on Becky. In our last post, we told you about a part-time science teacher position at Acacia International School that came up unexpectedly here in Kampala. After much thinking, praying, and discussing, we have decided that Becky working there is a good fit for our family  next year. It will be 3 mornings per week and their pre-school class will take Nathaniel & Bethany for free. Booyah! We still have some fees to pay but the tuition is covered. Please be in prayer as Becky starts to prepare for the school year and teaching again in general. I think she’s excited and nervous at the same time.  Also, today they are having an open house for the secondary school for potential students and parents and Becky will be doing a presentation. Her principal has asked for something that would show well for the open house so Becky threw out the idea of dissecting something you can get easily here. They loved the idea, so this morning Becky is dissecting cow eyes with all of the people who come. Awesome introduction back into teaching science if you ask me.

We love all you guys (or “all y’all” for my Texas contingent). Please continue to pray for our family as we are here. That we would follow in the good deeds God has made for us and for our health. I have had several colds since being here and Becky is sick right now. Nothing serious but just annoying.

Last thing, here is a picture we took a few nights ago of Nathaniel & Bethany playing with their friend Paul. Having fun.

Thank you all. Happy June.

The Whisnands