Uganda YWAM Project (II of V)

Part II of V

Days 5-6:  7^th – 8^th September

I count it as one of the great blessings of my job with EMI to be able to work with so many good examples of Christians – to say nothing of the very talented architects and engineers our volunteers and interns are. This trip is no different, other than the fact that it’s my biggest team yet so there are more of them to like! Here they are:

With interns Michael (left) and Deryck (right)

Michael Day (Edinburgh, Scotland) – One of two Scots on the team, Michael is an intern in our office in Colchester this semester. An electronics and IT guy by degree, Michael is helping with the electrical design as well as finishing the report back in the office after the trip. He’s one of those guys with a great attitude and always seems happy. I am really looking forward to having him around for the next few months.

Deryck Chan (Cambridge, UK / Hong Kong) – Deryck is one of the more interesting people I’ve met. He’s very smart – after spending his early years in Hong Kong, he moved to a very prestigious secondary boarding school here in the UK, and then on to Cambridge where he was the student of Matt DeJong, our friend from back home in Davis who is now a professor there. Deryck is also a bit of a jack of all trades and seems to know a little something about everything - no doubt he’s been influenced by his time working for Wikipedia! He’s very humble though, and his self-effacing style probably masks how much smarter he is than the rest of us. :)

...and Dave, 'stressing out' over the design.

Jaz, practicing a balancing act...

Dave & Janet (Jaz) Lambert (Portsmouth, UK) – Dave is a recently retired principal architect from London who, along with his wife Jaz, just completed a 4 month walk from the southwestern-most point of England to the northeastern-most point of Scotland – an 1120 mile walk, in all. They are joining the trip as the first step in beginning to figure out what’s next for them in life. They really are a very lovely couple, and Jaz has been such a positive personality on the team and was clearly the ambassador for our team with the ministry, taking part in and interacting with almost every facet of the ministry’s work on the campus. We at EMI are of course hoping this won’t be the last time we see them as they do have a desire to be involved with mission! Dave and Jaz also used to lead children's groups at their church, so they treated us to a mini-concert one night featuring a couple of the songs they used to sing - including the corresponding body gestures.

Meg, doing the dishes yet again.

Ray, smiling as he does 80% of the time.

Ray & Meg Womack (Jackson, WY) – Ray is a Geologist and Geotechnical Engineer who is a longtime and respected EMI volunteer on both past EMI projects and Disaster Response teams. In their early-mid 60’s, he and his wife Meg have also been a wonderful example to the rest of the team of a strong Christian marriage that has stood the test of time. Meg is a very outgoing person and helps Ray run their business back in Wyoming, so she has jumped in to help us here as well and has been a great support to the team, willing to take on any and every job (including our dishes, as seen here). Between Meg and Jaz, the quality of care the trip volunteers received on this team was at a significantly higher lever than what most of my trip volunteers get! Ray also brought his travelling guitar along and led us in songs during our morning devotional times. And on most nights, Ray would strum and pick away on a variety of songs on the guitar while the team would join in singing as we worked.

Shana, working on the architectural report.

Shana Reiss (Atascadero, CA) – owns and runs her own architecture business in Southern California despite turning just 30 during our trip. Shana, alongside Dave, has brought good leadership to the architectural team on the trip. This is her first EMI trip, though in her business she has worked on other projects in Africa and China. Shana went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for her architecture degree, so it was nice to have another West Coast person around to talk to (with the 'correct' accent - ha!).

Pearly, cranking out the CAD and Sketchup drawings.

Pearly Tsang (Hong Kong) – This is Pearly’s 5^th EMI trip, and 3^rd trip with me. She was on the very first trip I volunteered on with EMI to Uganda back in 2006 and then on a school project I led in Uganda back in 2010. Pearly is a very talented architect and has worked in both London and Hong Kong for a number of years. We’re hoping at some point she’ll just bite the bullet and join EMI full time!

Sarah, plenty safe in her traffic vest in the middle of a sugar
cane field. (The vest was a nod to her company, who helped
support her in joining this trip.)

Sarah Comfort (London, UK) – Sarah is nearly finished with her architectural schooling, but has taken 2 years off to gain work experience. She’s a whiz at drawing things up on the computer and has been so helpful to have on the team. She also never stops smiling, which is probably even more helpful to the team! Also, a sidenote – Sarah’s dad used to play professional football before becoming a vicar, and was a teammate of David Moyes, the new Manchester United manager! And no, I did not insist on her getting me tickets in exchange for agreeing to sign her up for the trip. If she does that anyway, that is her prerogative, and she is more than welcome to email me at brad.crawford@emiuk.com or phone me at any time of day, or night. ;)

Our 'niece' Jordan.

Jordan Cox (Fairfax, VA) – If you recognize the name from this blog, it’s because Jordan was an intern with us here in the UK one year ago when we first arrived. Due to the visa mess that semester, she and the other interns weren’t able to travel on a trip. So, we set aside the money they’d paid so they could join a future trip – and that’s what she’s done. Even though she’s an Auburn graduate (who barely beat my Oregon Ducks in the Nat’l Championship game 3 years ago - grrrr!), it’s great to have her on the team and to catch up with her. She too is a computer drafting whiz! Going back to her internship with us, Jordan has always reminded me of some of my nieces, and thus she’s had to endure a larger than normal amount of ‘guff’ from me as her ‘uncle’.

Civil engineers William and Jean had the water and
wastewater design well in hand.

Jean Parker (Guildford, UK) – A British civil engineer, Jean is both a former EMIEA intern and current part-time staff member at EMIUK, as well as being one of the EMIUK board of directors. She’s also helping me on this trip to manage this larger team. She’s become a friend to us in Colchester, so it’s been fun to have her along on this trip.

William MacLeod (Stornoway, Scotland) – William is a young civil engineer who is on his first EMI trip. We have two Scots on the trip (intern Michael), so it’s been enjoyable having that influence on the team dynamics. William is passionate about development work and has been to Africa a couple of times before with other organizations. Ever the jokester, I enjoyed the endless bantering with William.

The stereotypical Alabamian, Yao.

Yao Wang (Birminham, AL / China) – Though she lives in the deep south, Yao is Chinese and grew up in China – so not quite the typical southerner! She has a sweet personality and is very humble even though she’s a capable electrical engineer. This is her first EMI trip and first time to Africa, so it was quite a wild start for her when she missed her connecting flight into Uganda because of a delayed flight, then was put on a different airlines that arrived here (via Egypt) in the middle of the night! She met a couple on her flight and they took her to their home in Kampala when they arrived. She then had to take a boda (if you remember, the motorcycle taxis) across town to meet up with us that morning! Quite an ordeal for her first time in Africa!

Things pretty well shut down on the YWAM site over the weekend. During the week, they run several activities that make it feel like a pretty busy place. First, like all YWAM bases, they run a Discipleship Training School (DTS) for early twenty-somethings from all over the world. The program is roughly a year long, with 6 months of classes, and then 3 to 6 months of in-the-field training. Every staff member of YWAM is required to attend a DTS somewhere around the world before joining. YWAM has over 1000 ministry locations in 180 countries around the world, with 25,000 people a year going through their DTS program!

On top of the DTS program, which I’d guess currently has around 50 students here, they operate a vocational training school, biblical studies school, HIV counseling and awareness programs, prison ministry, street kids ministry and several other outreach programs. Adding the primary school we’re designing (along with the existing nursery school) seems like a natural fit for this ministry site since it’s all about training up people – now they’ll be able to train up young people too.

Our team kept working away though, apart from a trip to the nearby local church on Sunday morning. For security purposes, I stayed behind with all the laptops and gear. It feels safe on site, but there’s no perimeter fence over much of the site and past experiences have made me ultra paranoid about theft. As former President Bush once said, “Fool me once, shame on …me, fool me twice, …shame…on…you just don’t want to get fooled again!”

(Update:  Two weeks after our trip, the Director Tim had his laptop stolen out of his home on the site, which was approximately 100 meters from our guesthouse. He was even home at the time, in the shower. It underscores my feeling that despite how safe it feels in many parts of Africa, the needs and level of poverty are so great that you truly never know how vulnerable or safe you are in a situation. While physical attacks on Westerners are relatively rare, the valuable property that most Westerners bring with them to Africa are a prime target for theft. Thus, it’s prudent to take as many precautions as are reasonable and feasible to prevent our 'things' from becoming too much of a temptation for those who may be in a state of desperate need.)