Wow, it feels so great to be home. It felt great that first day, seeing my girlfriend in the airport and my family back home, and driving on roads without potholes on the right side of the road, not having to think or worry about what I'd eat or if I'd actually enjoy it. And the joys of being home just blossomed from there, spending a day at the beach and being able to go in the water, getting a burger with my friends and having about a dozen great options on where to go. Saturday brunch, cool summer evenings that go until 8:30, the sound and smell of lawn mowers going in the morning.
I've had two weeks of this, and it's been so great, I haven't wanted to really think about my time in Uganda. If it was hard being there, it seems like it was harder after experiencing, seemingly for the first time, all the great little things back home.
And that's the tension I've found in coming home. Yes, there are other tensions, like how to live with so much when everyone in Uganda has so little. I think most people would have the tension of living in comfort when everything they just knew was so uncomfortable. And maybe all the old comforts make them a little uncomfortable. But I have such a new appreciation for all these little comforts, and I love being thankful for Ramen noodles that taste just like Ramen noodles, that I don't want to think about the poor substitutes I had in Uganda.
But in Uganda I was filled with a whole other kind of appreciation. Yes, for the things that I didn't have, but much more so for the new things I had over in that foreign country. And that was the prayers and support of so so many people. I felt empowered to do what I did because of the encouragement of everyone praying for me, reading this little blog, who supported me financially, who sent me encouraging emails. Even now I'm discovering some of the details of what that looked like - people who have told me they were reading my blog, were praying for me, who are interested in hearing what my time was like. That network of support was much bigger than I realized, and now I understand why it was so real for me in Uganda.
Everything all told, I learned a whole huge deal about relationships, doing business, the developing world, management, non-profits, commodities, you name it. But the most important thing I learned is that life in community is powerful. I've always had the belief that extraordinary circumstances have a way of bringing out the best in us, of creating inflection points in our lives where we sink or swim and go through big changes. And my extraordinary 6 months required an extraordinary community to see it through to completion. I learned a lot, I rose to challenges, but the biggest challenge was met not by me alone, and I'll never run into another challenge without that support.
That's my way of saying thank you, for everything to everyone, for being a part of my trip, for making whatever success I had possible, and for bringing me home in one piece.
This marks the end of this blog. I think I'll take some time off, do some very un-adventurous things for a while, before starting back up.
And the blog will definitely have a different name.
Thank you, I love you all. -ANDREW
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Friday, May 25, 2012
the next three weeks
I think it's a universal phenomenon, that when the clock starts winding down, things both accelerate and slow down. They slow down because everyone is fixated - that final shot heading toward the basket, and that one moment can make or break the whole thing. I guess that's the last moment, when the clock is hitting zero. But back up to the final 10%, the final two minutes, or for me, the final three weeks, and things certainly pick up. In football you have the two-minute drill - no huddles, everyone rushing to the line. The team gets 10 plays off in the same time they got 3 off in the 1st quarter. In basketball, the full court press comes on, and either team is scoring every 10 seconds. And when shipping a product the whole business is a buzz as the deadline gets closer.
That's where I am right now. Everything is buzzing as I'm tying ALL the loose ends together in my last three weeks. And it still amazes me that we're starting new things. But today I'm interviewing a fellow that will be taking over my work - first on the farm, then with the research. Between the transition, the research, and all the logistics to tie up, I'll be the busiest I've been right up to the end.
I've always told myself I just needed an opportunity or a challenge to bring out my best, and this whole experience has been something like that, but these last three weeks seem like a gauntlet for me to take up. So here's to the challenge and the next three weeks.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
the next adventure
It's been a terribly long time since I've last posted. So long, my time as an expat has dwindled down to four weeks and change. These last four weeks serve to be my busiest and most fruitful yet. Certainly not the hardest - I've had my hardest weeks, I'm glad they're behind me, and I got through them with the support and encouragement of everyone reading this blog. But the busiest? Definitely. Already in the last five days, I've been downtown to Kampala for four of them, I've bought furniture and moved into a new house, I've researched the maize market, sold more pigs after re-negotiating a supply deal, and taken care of A LOT of Kyklou business. When my four weeks and change are finished, I'll have settled Kyklou into their new home, bought a car, registered as an NGO, stabilized and transferred the farm to someone else, and developed an approach to tackle a small problem in Uganda - the maize value chain.
That will be my legacy, what I've accomplished here, what will go on my resume and what my successors will thank me for (I'm certain of this, our new house will be awesome, but not finished until my last day here). But what I'll tell people back home, the stories I'll share with my friends and family, all of you reading this, are the little struggles and joys and failures and successes that make up the inch by inch terrain of my time in Uganda - not the massive valley we were in and the hill we've climbed, but the rocks and pebbles along the way, the ones that got stuck in my shoe and made my life miserable, and the ones I could climb on top of, sit and watch the sunrise.
Each and every email from one of you is one of those little moments of joy, each comment, every time I see the stats tick up with one more viewer. I'm more thankful than I can say for all the prayers I never heard about, and the ones I did.
It seems like the end, but really it's simply the beginning of the end. We're focusing on knowledge transfer and turnover, creating deliverables and tying up loose ends. Each week is so busy it flies by like a day, only when I look back have we done so much more than 24 hours would allow. I'm beginning to prepare for my life back home, more mentally and emotionally than actual plans, even though I'm doing that as well. I'll come home changed, this many new experiences guarantees that. I'm working in these last four weeks to make that change count and to make it stick.
I think, from all the support I've had on this adventure, the next won't be too hard. So here's to the next adventure.
That will be my legacy, what I've accomplished here, what will go on my resume and what my successors will thank me for (I'm certain of this, our new house will be awesome, but not finished until my last day here). But what I'll tell people back home, the stories I'll share with my friends and family, all of you reading this, are the little struggles and joys and failures and successes that make up the inch by inch terrain of my time in Uganda - not the massive valley we were in and the hill we've climbed, but the rocks and pebbles along the way, the ones that got stuck in my shoe and made my life miserable, and the ones I could climb on top of, sit and watch the sunrise.
Each and every email from one of you is one of those little moments of joy, each comment, every time I see the stats tick up with one more viewer. I'm more thankful than I can say for all the prayers I never heard about, and the ones I did.
It seems like the end, but really it's simply the beginning of the end. We're focusing on knowledge transfer and turnover, creating deliverables and tying up loose ends. Each week is so busy it flies by like a day, only when I look back have we done so much more than 24 hours would allow. I'm beginning to prepare for my life back home, more mentally and emotionally than actual plans, even though I'm doing that as well. I'll come home changed, this many new experiences guarantees that. I'm working in these last four weeks to make that change count and to make it stick.
I think, from all the support I've had on this adventure, the next won't be too hard. So here's to the next adventure.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
employees #2 and #3
If you ever need to kickstart your day and bring back a bucketload of lost motivation, a nap and a shower will do it. You trick your body that it's a new day, you feel great, when you eat dinner it feels like breakfast, and you can work all night. Every office needs to offer a nap/shower to sleepy employees.
The big news is that in 10 days the first of Kyklou's new employees will be here, and the second by the end of May! I'll have company and help, and it really will begin the end of my time here, as we'll be doing a lot of knowledge transfer and they'll be slowly taking over my duties.
There's a lot of change in the air - I'm looking for a house to rent, Kyklou's first HQ and the home of the team that's coming over here to replace me. We're applying to be an official NGO in Uganda, and setting up a partnership with the university here to train students.
And things are improving - we just had a pig give birth to 10 piglets - which is phenomenal. So things seem to be looking up. I have busy days, but not busy putting out fires, just busy because things are changing and we have five things going at once. In other words, a good kind of busy. And at first things will be busy but much better with my two new compatriots, then they'll wind down for me until I'm on that plane home. So here's to employees #2 and #3.
The big news is that in 10 days the first of Kyklou's new employees will be here, and the second by the end of May! I'll have company and help, and it really will begin the end of my time here, as we'll be doing a lot of knowledge transfer and they'll be slowly taking over my duties.
There's a lot of change in the air - I'm looking for a house to rent, Kyklou's first HQ and the home of the team that's coming over here to replace me. We're applying to be an official NGO in Uganda, and setting up a partnership with the university here to train students.
And things are improving - we just had a pig give birth to 10 piglets - which is phenomenal. So things seem to be looking up. I have busy days, but not busy putting out fires, just busy because things are changing and we have five things going at once. In other words, a good kind of busy. And at first things will be busy but much better with my two new compatriots, then they'll wind down for me until I'm on that plane home. So here's to employees #2 and #3.
Friday, April 27, 2012
officially a ugandan
I'm not THAT tan yet, although I'm working on it. I now have a piece of technology completely foreign to us in the U.S., but one every single Ugandan has - a dual sim phone. And multiple phone numbers. I now have to my name three phone numbers, two on one phone, a third on another - and a fourth sim card is in my 3G modem, so that makes four. And it's completely normal here. They even sell quad-sim phones, so you can have a line from each of the major carriers on one phone. How crazy is that?
That means I'm also carrying around two phones, which is another Ugandan thing to do. It's fitting that I've crossed this threshold into native living as the farm seems to (finally) be settling down. For the first time we're coming up on paying salaries and buying feeds, and I'm not scrambling to give the farm a loan. We're keeping records better than ever, we're being more efficient with our feeding program, and our workers are doing a great job. I'm also in the early stages of talks to link up with the largest university here, Makerere University, to have our farm act as an extension classroom, for groups of interns to learn hands on from our farm, with university instructors teaching. It's obviously a win win, because these students get practical, hands on training, but the farm gets free labor, oversight from the university, and funding to run the whole program. It lines up directly with our mission to not only run a business, but run one that has tangible impacts on the community - we'll be enabling farmers to run successful piggery businesses on their own.
It's amazing to see the Lord's hand in how all these things come together. All I had to do was sit down with the executive director of this program at Makerere and he wanted to partner with us - he sent me a draft MoU before I got home. I'm amazingly excited to push through to the end of my time here, and work so the farm can go from our current stability to true growth. Maybe it's all because I'm not officially a Ugandan, technologically speaking. Here's to that.
That means I'm also carrying around two phones, which is another Ugandan thing to do. It's fitting that I've crossed this threshold into native living as the farm seems to (finally) be settling down. For the first time we're coming up on paying salaries and buying feeds, and I'm not scrambling to give the farm a loan. We're keeping records better than ever, we're being more efficient with our feeding program, and our workers are doing a great job. I'm also in the early stages of talks to link up with the largest university here, Makerere University, to have our farm act as an extension classroom, for groups of interns to learn hands on from our farm, with university instructors teaching. It's obviously a win win, because these students get practical, hands on training, but the farm gets free labor, oversight from the university, and funding to run the whole program. It lines up directly with our mission to not only run a business, but run one that has tangible impacts on the community - we'll be enabling farmers to run successful piggery businesses on their own.
It's amazing to see the Lord's hand in how all these things come together. All I had to do was sit down with the executive director of this program at Makerere and he wanted to partner with us - he sent me a draft MoU before I got home. I'm amazingly excited to push through to the end of my time here, and work so the farm can go from our current stability to true growth. Maybe it's all because I'm not officially a Ugandan, technologically speaking. Here's to that.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
required to trust
Today I went to church, but not the service I had been planning on. Yesterday 'plan A' was to go to an early service then spend the day relaxing at a nice hotel, turning off my phone and taking in some western world luxury. But I woke up to flat gray clouds, and I was proven right in my choice to abandon the hotel - it rained much of the afternoon. So instead I slept in and went to my normal 10am church service. I almost left early to get some shopping done, get in some lunch so I could get back before the rain, but I stuck to the end to meet up with some new friends I'd met a couple of weeks ago. I got to the grocery store as the rain started, and decided to wait it out at the local pizza place - maybe the rain would pass by the time my brick over pizza was finished.
I found two of my new friends at the pizza place and sat down with them to wait for our pizzas. They are both my age and year in school, both went to Alabama (I said "Roll Tide?" to make sure I knew what school they were talking about, and they said "yup!"), the guy almost went to Wheaton, and almost went to law school, and both had been to Uganda before and were working with an orphanage and other ministries around the city.
We were talking about our experiences here in Uganda, and it came up some of the dangers of living here, how we've all had our places broken in to, how we've all seen boda accidents. They told me that two years ago they went to an Ethiopian restaurant to watch the World Cup final; they arrived late for a fluke reason and didn't get their usual table, instead were put into a side room separated from the main room by a wall. The restaurant happened to be one of two places bombed by terrorists that night, that killed something like 75 people, Ugandans and Westerners and injured many many more. But in that back room, where they were seated, their whole group of 7 people were unscathed. Even people closer to the door were injured, but they escaped the blast.
God was in control of every event that day leading to their safety and to their testimony, but really, he was in control of every event that day, events that led to a terrorist attack. It's obvious He had a greater purpose for them, the initial inspection shows God's sovereignty and how he protects us. But there were hundreds of people not so fortunate, victims of a terrorist attack. What do we do with that? It's not too hard to follow a train of thought to randomness and chaos, and it's much harder to figure out God's plan in it all. But then I think to even today, and how it was not in my original plan but God's that I even have lunch with these two. And sometimes God lets us connect the dots and see his plan and give him glory for its goodness, and other times we're kept in the dark, required to trust.
I found two of my new friends at the pizza place and sat down with them to wait for our pizzas. They are both my age and year in school, both went to Alabama (I said "Roll Tide?" to make sure I knew what school they were talking about, and they said "yup!"), the guy almost went to Wheaton, and almost went to law school, and both had been to Uganda before and were working with an orphanage and other ministries around the city.
We were talking about our experiences here in Uganda, and it came up some of the dangers of living here, how we've all had our places broken in to, how we've all seen boda accidents. They told me that two years ago they went to an Ethiopian restaurant to watch the World Cup final; they arrived late for a fluke reason and didn't get their usual table, instead were put into a side room separated from the main room by a wall. The restaurant happened to be one of two places bombed by terrorists that night, that killed something like 75 people, Ugandans and Westerners and injured many many more. But in that back room, where they were seated, their whole group of 7 people were unscathed. Even people closer to the door were injured, but they escaped the blast.
God was in control of every event that day leading to their safety and to their testimony, but really, he was in control of every event that day, events that led to a terrorist attack. It's obvious He had a greater purpose for them, the initial inspection shows God's sovereignty and how he protects us. But there were hundreds of people not so fortunate, victims of a terrorist attack. What do we do with that? It's not too hard to follow a train of thought to randomness and chaos, and it's much harder to figure out God's plan in it all. But then I think to even today, and how it was not in my original plan but God's that I even have lunch with these two. And sometimes God lets us connect the dots and see his plan and give him glory for its goodness, and other times we're kept in the dark, required to trust.
Monday, April 16, 2012
thankful
I'll refrain from titling more posts about my showering habits, but the shower I took today, phenomenal. It's amazing how a nights sleep can take away worry and stress like a magical remedy. Nothing's changed in the morning, except you have LESS time and things are closer - but they all seem ok. And even though I did not want to wake up this morning (I contained my alarm snoozing to three hits) sometimes all it takes is starting a day you don't want to find out it's not going to be as bad as you thought. Now life here throws some craziness at you everyday. But the today was great. When a day like today works out, and I can feel really good about taking my dinner on the patio here, overlooking a beautiful sky and setting sun, I'm really overcome by thankfulness for all the people that have supported me through the tough times, and are praying for me behind the scenes and across an ocean, because it is largely due to that massive effort that I'm here, in this good spot, today.
So I'm not going to say more than that I'm thankful for everyone who's out there reading, for sending up little prayers and big prayers and fb messages and comments that let me know the people I love are out there thinking about me. It's the right perspective on life too; I think it's a big circle (prayers to bless you make you feel thankful, which in turn makes you feel blessed) that God intended. So here's to being thankful.
So I'm not going to say more than that I'm thankful for everyone who's out there reading, for sending up little prayers and big prayers and fb messages and comments that let me know the people I love are out there thinking about me. It's the right perspective on life too; I think it's a big circle (prayers to bless you make you feel thankful, which in turn makes you feel blessed) that God intended. So here's to being thankful.
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