Wow. I have no earthly idea how to describe the last two
weeks. It has definitely been an experience that I will remember for the rest
of my life. I am thinking that I will split up the experience into multiple
posts. For the first one, I guess I will just start where I left off on my last
post.
Our two remaining team members arrived safely on the next
flight from Amsterdam on Sunday and we left early in the morning so that we
could make it to the project site by lunch. Although the trip was only a little
over 150 miles, it still took us almost 7 hours by van to make it to our project
site in northern Uganda. Driving through Uganda’s capital, Kampala, is unlike
anything I have ever experienced. The streets are lined with shops and packed
full of people. Unlike in the U.S., pedestrians yield to vehicles in Uganda. It
is amazing that more people aren’t run over on a daily basis.
 |
| This was on the van that took the first group to RG! |
I was absolutely
certain that we were going to hit either a person or another car at some point,
but we didn’t. The roads were not very well maintained, but I would come to
learn that they were in very good condition compared to the rest of Uganda. As
we made our way into rural Uganda, pavement gave way to gravel and eventually
to dirt. In various places, attempts at paving the road were evident but only
served to create seemingly insurmountable potholes. Driving is a different
animal in Uganda than it is in the U.S. I hope everyone reading this gets a
chance to experience it someday. Another cool experience as we made our way
into rural Uganda was when kids from the villages would come running and waving
after our van yelling “Mzungus, Mzungus!” at us. This is the term used by
Ugandans to mean “white people” and comes from a word in their language which
means “confused person” or “person who walks in circles”. I was told that it
came from when British explorers came to the region and seemed to just be
walking around in circles.
Alas, we finally made it to our destination around 2 pm
where they had saved us a lunch of rice and beans (a lunch we would become very
accustomed to). With kids running around everywhere, I couldn’t help but go
play with some of them, so they taught me Ugandan checkers (a clever name for “Mzungu-never-wins”
checkers) and we played around on the “football” (soccer) pitch. After a while,
the director of RG, Dr. Tim McCall, gathered us up and spoke with us about his
history and his vision for the site.
After working in Kenya for almost a decade, Dr. Tim moved
back to the states where he learned about the tragedies carried out by the Lord’s
Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda. If you are unfamiliar with this
organization, here is a quick summary: Joseph Kony gained a military following
in response to governmental oppression by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni
(still president today). While it may sound just, Kony abducted and recruited
child soldiers to do his bidding which included raiding and pillaging innocent
towns and people. Basically, he’s a really bad dude who did/does a lot of bad
stuff.
 |
| Dr. Tim explaining his vision |
Despite the LRA’s activities in northern Uganda and the
government’s warning against the dangers of the region, Dr. Tim proceeded to
obtain land there in order to build an orphanage. While the LRA has since been
vanquished from the region, Restoration Gateway has thrived and now contains
almost 100 orphans, staff housing, a dental and medical clinic, a gym, a
primary school and hopes of much more to come. Dr. Tim explained to us how God
had told him that he would own 800 acres of land in northern Uganda which he
would develop into a community that would restore national Ugandans to prosperity
and send them out into the rest of Uganda to make a difference in the name of
Christ. He currently owns 650 acres and has more on the way.
Ultimately, he wants the site to house even more than it already has including a resort, a conference center, a hospital (which we are here to design), a bible training school, a secondary school, a university, a nurse and residency training school, an agricultural training program, a vocational school, a children’s retreat, and a pastor’s retreat. Needless to say, Tim’s vision is massive. With this in mind, over the next 7 days, we set out to design a hospital that would help to fulfill at least a small part of this vision.
 |
| Master plan for RG |
I will go into more
detail about how that turned out in my next post. For now, as always, thanks to
all of my donors who made this possible. My experience cannot possibly be
explained adequately in this blog, so please feel free to ask questions or grab
coffee or lunch with me when I get back so I can better explain everything. I
hope I’m not going into too much detail and boring everyone!
Apwoyo! (means thank you in the language of north Uganda called
Luo)
Ryan
P.S. If you would like to donate to me and my trip you can do so at
P.P.S. For those of you who have donated, keep an eye out for your thank you letters. they are on their way!
No comments:
Post a Comment