Last Holla from Kampala

T minus 12 hours before I get on the plane to come back home. My last blog from Africa - So I guess this will be mostly reflecting.

The past month I have been busy working on construction documents and presentation boards for an orphanage. On the fourth of July we had the ground breaking ceremony which was a great way to spend the holiday since there wasn't going to be any fireworks. A group from Texas who helped with the fundraising for the orphanage came out for it and we camped at the site after the groundbreaking. We celebrated the fourth by having a campfire, waving American flags, and singing American songs loud enough to drown out bombs bursting in air.(The true American way - making sure you are the loudest group around)

Now time for some reflection

There was a question on my exit survey for EMI that asked 'How would you describe your experience in under three minutes?' I put 'It was great, hard, sucky, and wonderful.' That basically sums it up, but I will try to expand a little.

Looking back on a certain periods of our lives always reminds me of watching a trailer to a movie. All the high points are shown and the trailers are usually more exciting than watching the whole movie. I feel for some reason that all my time here should have been exciting and wonderful and could have all fit into a trailer, but the truth is that not every moment was incredible . There was downtime and plenty of moments where I just wanted to be comfortable and lazy. There are times that I have been taken advantage of, but I will fight to not let it harden my heart. I figure if I was in similar situation, or had half the problems many Africans had, I would probably be the same if not worse when it came to taking advantage of people. What is surprising is that some of the best cons were small children and old ladies. Crafty ones they are.

Looking at my pictures I have taken here, it turns out I mostly have pictures of construction site visits and buildings. For the things that truly have affected me, I don't have any photographs. I think that just as easily as a camera can capture a moment, it can also ruin it. Maybe photographs aren't necessary to see as vividly in my mind what I did at these times. It could have frozen a moment that should never be still, but stay a complete experience of the whole event.

There is a building near the office I worked at that was graffitied with the words 'They love Africa but not Africans.' Some days I felt like I was 'They.' Stepping on the soil of another continent doesn't automatically increase your capacity for love. Africa doesn't instill spirituality, or take you to new levels of compassion just because you are here . The hardest lesson learned. I now realize that it is our relationship with Jesus that will take us there.

Thank you everyone for all your prayers and support. I hope to see many of you soon. If you are keen to hear more about my time in Uganda, or to look at pictures of random African buildings and construction site visits, please give me a call and we can go for coffee or something.