Back in Uganda

We have been back home in Uganda for just under 3 months now. In that time frame, we have found a new house and moved in with a one-year contract/commitment, have finally unpacked all of our things (in the new house), overcome jet lag with toddlers for the last time in likely many months to come, reunited with our foster son and subsequently sent him off to his second year of high school, reconnected with many friends and friends-like-family here, Matt has started back at work AND completed his second trimester of his Master's Course AND received a promotion at EMI to be effective July, and reacquainted ourselves with Ugandan culture and the Luganda language...to name just a few of our happenings.

View of Kampala from a nearby hill at dawn. Ashley has been taking advantage of quiet roads early in the morning to go for runs (sometimes with a friend) before Matt leaves for work. This is one of the new life-giving rhythms that we've incorporated into our weekly routines thanks to the times of reflection on home assignment.

The kids have adjusted well to being back. They enjoy exploring outside every day and eating passion fruit any chance they get.

They have also enjoyed having friends over to play regularly at our new place. This is Joshua's best friend and her cousin who was visiting.

Upon landing, we were picked up by a friend at the airport and taken to stay at another friends' place in the same area of Kampala where we were living before. It was such a blessing to be able to stay at this EMI family's home while they were in their passport country for the Christmas and New Year's holiday as it not only put us in the area of town we were hoping to look for a home in, but it also placed us in a compound with 3 other EMI families which helped our adjustment and feel welcomed back in Uganda. It was incredible. The kids loved playing with all the other children on the compound. We found it restful to be immediately submerged in community and in a familiar neighborhood of Kampala.

We spent Christmas Day attending a morning church service (typical in Ugandan culture), then feasting at American friends' house that evening with other cross-cultural workers. Joshua and his best friend found each other at church on Christmas Day after the 2 hour service.

Once we began to overcome jet lag a bit with two toddlers, we knew we needed to find a house quickly as our friends who were loaning us their home would be back in Uganda in less than 3 weeks. Matt set out our first Monday morning feeling burdened to find us a home that would not only be in the area of town we wanted and hopefully walking distance to our friends, but also for the price we needed and ideally with lots of grass in the yard and enough bedrooms for us to host people and oh yeah, that would be ready to move in with such little time to go right after Christmas while most people are away in the villages...It was a tall order. He set out to talk to a broker we had used in the past. After he left, Ashley had the thought of going to a local shop owner whom she had befriended last year when they lived in the area, and asking her if she knew of anywhere to rent within our parameters. She sidelined that thought and decided to talk to Matt about it when he returned from meeting with the “professional.” Well, after not being able to find the broker, Matt ran a couple of errands and in the process found himself at that very shop owned by Ashley's friend. After buying some eggs, he asked her if she knew of anywhere to rent that met our “wish list.” Within an hour, she walked him over to a house that fit every item on our list to the upmost and beyond...and it was just 3 houses away from where we were currently staying at our friends'. The price was lower than we anticipated, the compound larger and more green, the house more than enough to host, and landlords are wonderful and kind people. We moved in within 2.5 weeks and couldn't be happier with the location, the compound, and the deepening of relationship between Ashley and this shop owner because of her investment in us personally. Ashley now frequently takes walks to her shop with the kids just to chat and catch up, and has even hired her daughter to watch the kids 2 mornings a week while she engages in other activities.

We are amazed at how God provided this home for us, and with everything and more from our “wish list.” This is the front yard view from the front porch. There is also a large backyard, also all grass.

We have enjoyed being in the same neighborhood we were previous to our home assignment as it has allowed us to reengage in previous relationships and not start from scratch.

The kids love being able to explore and greet (Abby mostly, our social one) people and animals along the way. We take neighborhood walks at least 3 times a week to pick up groceries or chat with shop owners.

Upon returning to Uganda, we were also able to reunite with our foster son. We are so thankful to the many friends who stepped in to give him places to stay on his school breaks while we were away. In fact, at one of the homes, he made incredible friendships with solid young men his age and was given an opportunity to use his God-given talent in guitar playing and singing to join the worship team at their church. He enjoyed spending much of his school break back and forth between there and serving in their church, and with us. His second year of secondary school resumed the first weekend of February. He was excited and ready to be back at school and pursue his dream of finishing his education. Beyond that, he is still unsure of what he wants his future to be (but aren't we all?).

 

Getting ready to go lead worship at his new home church thanks to meeting these friends while we were gone. God works in incredible ways sometimes. If we hadn't been gone and needing somewhere else for him to stay, who knows if he ever would have met these friends or had the opportunity to lead worship with his guitar so regularly?

 

Before resuming school, we all were able to go visit dear friends in a village a couple of hours outside of Kampala. They graciously gave us 2 dogs to have as pets (and guards for our new home), as well as 3 chickens. Abby loves the dogs and can frequently be found feeding them stones or sitting on them like horses. Joshua favors the chickens and decidedly named them Thomas, Piggy, and Submarine. Our oldest, pictured, is hoping the chickens have some babies that he can eventually sell.

Matt resumed work with EMI at the beginning of January. He has enjoyed being back and reengaging with projects and programs. He continues to be very passionate about EMI's vision to transform the engineering industry in Uganda and East Africa for God's glory and kingdom. Having had time to reflect on that while on home assignment, he finds himself passionate about integrating that vision into all that EMI does and reevaluating the best ways for EMI to achieve that vision. His recent promotion to Deputy Director (effecting July 2020) will give him more opportunity and time to do just that. He has also recently finished the second trimester of his Master's Program. He took a management course that he can already see being fruitful for his roles at EMI. He looks forward to having extra capacity to think through the application and implementation of the concepts he learned before the next course starts in July.

Matt's main project this term is an administration building for LivingStone International University (LIU) in Uganda. LIU exists to transform Africa through quality, Christ-centered higher education through providing ethical, empowered, employable Christians in every sector of African society and even beyond. Matt is managing the project, and it is the largest building the office has worked on. 

3D Model of LIU's Administration building

The first-ever Ugandan structural intern started in January. This is an exciting development. Matt and the other structural engineers have been making changes in the design approach and codes over the past year and a half to make this possible. The intern has been a great fit.

Every January EMI has a staff week where the staff come together to look at goals and changes for the upcoming year.

That is some of what we have been up to since landing back in Uganda. While we can see ways God is working, we are still feeling a bit overwhelmed at times. Overwhelmed at all the questions we still have unresolved of what life should look like for us living in Uganda, overwhelmed at implementing life-giving activities to our days to prevent future burn out, overwhelmed that some of the things we struggled with before home assignment are still the things we struggle with (they didn't just magically go away because we did for a season...), and overwhelmed just because we have 2 toddlers at home and sometimes that is more than enough. We are thankful for the opportunity to strive after what God has for us where we are, and aim to be faithful with what He has given in the midst of feeling overwhelmed at times.

All that to say, we are happy to be back and reengaging in the life and passions God has given us. Thank you for standing with us and sharing in the passion of EMI through your support, and the passion of God for relationship and capacity building within Uganda.

We spent New Years Eve with friends on the second floor of the apartment complex we were staying in. We had a beautiful view of more than 20 firework displays going off around Kampala from our vantage point...while our children slept soundly and snugglely in their beds downstairs...

Joshua was thrilled to be reunited with his best friend our first week back in Uganda. We have shared a compound with her and her family since before Joshua was born up until we left for home assignment. It was such a sweet reunion.

We think the kids' favorite part of our new house is the self-created sand pit in the back yard. Joshua can spent hours on end “cooking” and “building” in there uninterrupted. Before we moved in, our landlords were doing some construction on the compound wall. They left some sand behind that our kids have since claimed as their own play space.

Abby is taking special care to make sure all of our jerry cans are full of water. Within two weeks of moving into our new home, our water tank ran dry and we ran out of water. This is not untypical for Kampala...especially when, like us, a nearby major road is under construction. We spent a couple of days getting all of our water for cooking, bathing, drinking, and cleaning from these jerry cans.

PRAISES

• Our new home! It is beyond what we could have asked for, and we are so grateful for the gift that it is. We pray we would use it to bless others as well.
• Successful (however you measure success??) reentry into Uganda.
• Matt finished his course. The past seven weeks have been tiring, but the course is proving to be fruitful.

PRAYER REQUESTS

• Our oldest foster son as he resumes his studies. He struggles a bit academically and we pray he would be granted wisdom to know how to best spend his time at boarding school and maintain his focus and goals in that.
• The children overall have transitioned back well, but have struggled a bit more with Matt's transition back to work fulltime. We pray they would continue to feel secure and safe in the midst of continued changes.
• Please pray that we would have the wisdom and discernment to implement the renewed vision for life into our day to days and not just get caught in old routines and ways that had us reacting to life and not focusing on life.
• Ashley is slowly looking for opportunities to get involved in something. Please pray that God would bring the right thing at the right time.