Costa Rica & Home!

We are back!  After traveling throughout 3 continents and 7 countries for just shy of 6 months, we are so thankful to be reunited with our friends & family.  

Costa Rica was wonderful!  We met up with Sarah & Mark on August 12th in Manuel Antonio.  During daily beach excursions, 4-hour hikes, and afternoon downpours, Sarah & Mark graciously listened to our endless tales of African adventures.  

In Monteverde we zip-lined through the cloud forest.   I won as the loudest screamer during the "Tarzan Swing".  The guides pushed us off a 50-ft high platform - we plummeted toward the ground and then swung out into the trees.  Volcan Arenal towers majestically over the town of La Fortuna.  We hiked through the forest below the active volcano, getting soaked by a sudden rain strom and trekking through mud-lakes along the trail of volcanic rock - so fun! The decadent Tabacon hot-springs, sitting at the base of the volcano were a highlight.    

We spent 5 days in the small town of Brasilito, in Guanacaste (the northern region of Costa Rica on the Pacific Ocean side).  The 10-minute walk down the black-sand beach, up and over the hill into Playa Conchal was amazing!  Playa Conchal (shell beach) is covered in tiny white shells and fine white sand.  We tucked under trees to get out of the sun, talked and swam in the clear blue-green super warm ocean water.  

These past few months have held a time of tremendous learning, challenge and fun.  We are so grateful to you all who have been thinking of us.  You have encouraged us so much, and we are so thankful for your care!  We look forward to catching up with you!

Love,

Crystal & Ryan

Italy, Austria, France

Hi everyone! We miss you and hope you are enjoying your summer!

Ryan and I have had an amazing time traveling around Italy, Austria and France over the last few weeks. I had visited Cinque Terre a few years ago and really wanted to take Ryan there. We spent about 4 days there - hiking the trail between the 5 villages, swimming in the clear blue Mediterranean waters, and eating fantastic Italian food (my favorite!)

After Cinque Terre, we moved on to Florence, and got to bike around Tuscany! It was beautiful. We toured a winery and got to see how wine and olive oil are made.

Taking the train from a little town called Villoch to Salzburg (Austria) was one of the most brilliantly scenic treks I have ever done! Deep green hills, an emerald river meandering through the trees, towering granite rocks, and just a few little houses sprinkled throughout - it was like a fairy-tale land!

Upon arriving in Salzburg, we discovered that the hostel, for which we had made an online reservation, was full. Amazingly though, they had transferred us to another hotel. This hotel was much nicer and we got to stay there for the cheaper price of the hostel! We got to eat the best buffet breakfast, and I rested in the hotel to fight off a sickness while Ryan roamed the town. We did a short hike up on a hill overlooking the city and got to see the roof of the house where Mozart grew up.

Innsbruck, Austria was lovely. A little mountain town with a free hiking club - Ryan's dream! We hiked around the beautiful mountains, explored the town, and enjoyed free concerts in the courtyard.

We are currently in St. Tropez, visiting some friends. It has been so amazing to catch up with good friends and be in such a beautiful and peaceful place for several days. We have been swimming, boating and exploring the little nearby towns.

Congratulations to Scott & Jenna!!!! We love you guys!

Europe!

We arrived in Geneva, Switzerland 10 days ago and we've been having an amazing time so far! We spent 4 days in Chamonix, France and Ryan did not want to leave. : ) Chamonix is a small town resting at the base of the beautiful Mont Blanc and incredible alps. The town is pristine, complete with brilliant flowers, a sparkling green river, and the most fantastic food we have ever eaten. What a treat is was to be there.

We took a cable car up to Aguille du Midi, the highest cable car in Europe. The cable car takes you straight up the mountain, and then straight up another one, until you reach 12,000 feet and are facing the top of Mont Blanc. We took a train ride along a glacier, and hiked in an even smaller town just up the valley from Chamonix, called Argentinere.

On Monday we took a train to Cinque Terre - spending a few days hiking between the villages on the Mediterranean coast, and swimming in the clear blue water.

To celebrate the 4th of July, we just completed a 12 -mile bike ride through Tuscany, stopping at a winery and for a delicious Italian lunch!

We are so thankful to be here and have a bit of extra time to explore Europe.

I hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July!

Leaving Africa

We've been in Africa for 103 days and every one of them have been...uh...memorable. After lots of praying we were able to switch our flight from July 15th to June 24th. We fly out tomorrow morning at 9am and close the africa chapter and open the europe chapter. We're excited for the extra couple of weeks we'll get to spend in Europe.

Stay posted!

Budget Meat Revenge

Last night Ryan and I got together with our Bible study group and ordered pizza, as usual. We decided to go for the 'super saver' deal this time, however, and purchase 'Budget Meat' and 'Budget Veggie' for the small price of $4 a pizza. It turns out that the effective cost for this meal was actually much higher, but only for me. Just like after eating the Ethiopian food, upon returning home, I knew that my body did not like what was in it. I ended up fiercely fire-hose vomiting for 3 1/2 hours, and could not lay down without the involuntary attempt to extract something more from my then empty stomach. I finally was able to prop myself up with pillows in bed and catch a few segments of restless sleep. I think I may become a vegetarian for the next 5 weeks.

Zanzibar!

Ryan and I just returned from an amazing tropical vacation on the island of Zanzibar! (just off the coast of Tanzania). We had such a fun and relaxing time.

We spent some time hiking through the Jozani Forest, the only national park on the island. At one point, our guide directed us off the trail to stand under a dense set of trees with low branches. Upon looking up, we saw two big 'Mom & Dad' monkeys way up at the top. Then I sudddenly ducked, covered my head and scampered away a bit as 'da childrens' jumped and slid down the trees! Little monkeys were everywhere! They were so playful and curious. They reached out and touched our camera, tasted Ryan's finger, and flung themselves from branch to branch right above our heads!

After enjoying several mintues with the monkey family, we visited a small pond with several sea turtles! We fed them some wilty lettuce, and even got to hold one!

True to African excitement, we encountered some moments which are not so fun to experience, but later make good stories. : ) On our first evening in Zanzibar, we ventured out to the seaside garden where there is a lively outdoor food market. A smile lighted up Ryan's face as he saw an array of seafood out on the tables. He excitedly picked out octopus, calamari, and a few other items that were then grilled and piled high on a thin paper plate. He enjoyed his seafood meal, happy to have purchased so much food for the small price of $5. A few hours later however, his stomach began to protest. It was quite scary for me to see him in so much pain and be alone on a island where we didn't know anyone or know how to get medical help. Ryan proceeded to spend the next couple of hours ridding his body of the apparently spoiled food though, and he felt much better the following morning. : )

For the first couple of days on the island, we stayed on the south eastern coast in Bwejuu. Since we were in Zanzibar during their off-season, nearly everything in Bwejuu (a quieter part of the island anyway) was closed! We had reserved a room in a small guest house on the beach. On this side of the island, the water is only ankle-deep for a couple of miles! The guidebook describes it as an area where 'there is not much to do but listen to the wind rustle the palm tree branches'. There were only 2 accesible restaurants open - one was a 1 mile walk down the beach, and the other was a 1.5 mile walk down the beach. One night as we were walking, we heard a fierce barking in the distance. It quickly grew louder and from behind us we turn to see 2 large dogs barreling down the beach snarling and heading toward us! Ryan pulled me behind him and bravely kicked the first dog directly in his side sending him yelping away. He geared up for the second one and kicked him hard in the stomach too. Both dogs then crept back in into the dark forest from where they had come. Whew! I had been screaming so loudly, but no one was around to hear. God protected us as we had to walk that desolate stretch of beach a few more times.

The beaches of Kendwa, on the north western side of the island contained the most amazing clear blue-green water and white-sand that we had ever seen! The water was warm, and we enjoyed swimming, snorkling, and taking a sunset cruise on a dhow. We stayed in a beach bunglow right on the sand, and loved eating at the restaurant overlooking the ocean.

We are so thankful to have had such a wonderful vacation! We are healing well from our boda-accident wounds and are rejuvinated for the remaining 5 weeks we have here in Uganda!

The Emergency Room

Last Wednesday morning we were downtown checking on bus times for the next day. I was planning on traveling to Gulu to teach some professional development material over the weekend. We checked the times and then walked for about 20 minutest to get out of downtown before catching a boda (motorcycle taxi) back to cornerstone. Riding bodas is the single most dangerous activity one can engage in Africa. There are apparently entire hospital wards dedicated to boda accident victims. We have been trying to take them as sparingly as possible but because they're so convenient and because strangely they feel so safe we had lulled ourselves into a false sense of security. We'd been taking them more and more.

Back to Wednesday. We hopped on the back of a motorcycle near the Speke hotel and headed back to Cornerstone. Everything was fine, not too much traffic on the road. When we got to the last round-about that's only a 1/3 of a mile from cornerstone we circled all the way around it and then our boda driver slowed and stopped before merging onto Yusuf road (a major thoroughfare). He stopped because there was a small grey truck flying down at about 50 mph...I'm thankful he didn't pull out in front of this car. So we were stopped there for just a few seconds right against the curb on the inside of the roundabout when I see out of the corner of my eye coming from our left a small corolla-type car coming straight down the roundabout. Turns out he didn't see us, he was looking at the oncoming traffic.

Its impossible to forget the crunch sound as vehicles collide. The car slammed right into the back of our motorcycle while we were stopped. The second that followed is a little fuzzy, but given the pattern of bruising, the bumped of the car hit the back tire of the motorcycle and the back of my left leg all at once. I was wearing sandals, no helmet & short sleeves, Crystal was in slip-on shoes, short sleeves and of course no helmet. The bike lurched forward with the impact and spilled its cargo of humans into the street. I had already been ejected off the bike and was airborne at this point. Crystal toppled down with the bike pretty hard ending up a couple of fee from it sitting down on the tarmac. As soon as I hit the ground I was pretty sure I had broken my leg. My foot was under the bumper at impact and in addition to the lacerations I could see had that unmistakable feeling of nerve-freak out--like fire ants on an ant hill. I found myself sitting in the middle of the road and the moment I hit the street I knew I had to get out of there even if I had to crawl. Ugandan drivers lack a certain politness and caution. Its dangerous to even cross the street much less lay down in it with injuries.

I hit my heel against the ground to see if I felt that patented bone-grind that I am unfortunately too familiar with. I didn't feel broken--damaged yes, broken no. I stood up and put weight on it, yep there is definitely something wrong with it but it would take weight for a few steps even if it was only adrenalin making it possible. I took a full 3 or 4 steps before getting to Crystal she was sitting in the road holding her knees still screaming. I picked her up carried her out of the road across the sidewalk and laid her down in the grass in the middle of the round-about. It was quite obvious that she'd injured her left foot too. There was an unmistakable hole right through the top/inside of her foot that mined deep down in there. It was all white and inside and hadn't started bleeding yet. I moved her ankle around asking her if it was broken and although she was wincing and still screaming, her ankle was also absent of that bone-grinding. Not broken. The puncture had yielded a single stream of yellow fluid that dripped down her arch, no blood yet.

I pulled out my phone to call someone from cornerstone to come pick us up and take us to the ER but before I did, the boda driver who was unharmed since we had graciously absorbed the blow for him picked up Crystal and carried her to a car across the street to a car that was waiting. I limped in pursuit. They drove us the a clinic called, "The Surgery" which is right across the street from cornerstone and is the best clinic in Kampala. We didn't know it at the time, but our chauffeur was actually the man who had slammed into us. We received prompt attention and was focusing on calming down Crystal whose screams had now mixed with tears.

The checked us out and Crystal received three stitches in her foot. Before putting them in, however, the doctor called me to stand up and watch as he dug into the 3/4 inch hole with tweezers to show me that there was no debris still left in there. I could feel the blood draining from my face and my vision starting to tunnel in. I knew I had about 5 seconds to step back and sit down in the chair or I was going to be on the floor.

Crystal ended with a prominent puncture would and a very bruised heel and leg and some auxillary scratches to accent the others. I sprained my ankle and it promptly swelled up to softball size that afternoon complete with a tasteful stripe of purple and blue across my arch. The back and outside of my leg are extremely bruised and my calf feels suspiciously like a broken fibula (yes, I know precisely what a broken fibula feels like). I've speculated whether my leg may have broken if it hadn't had a titanium rob in there to keep intact. My elbow is sprained also and there's a formidable bump on the outside and a nice gash on the inside of my forearm.

We're quite thankful to God that our injuries are not worse...no broken bones, no surgery, no emergency evacuation back to the states. We'll be fine. Our injuries are just not consistent with the physics of the impact. We didn't skid or roll, we both left as though we were quite literally laid down softly on the pavement. We've just been laying low and healing. Crystal cannot put weight on her foot yet so I've been carrying her sometimes in my arms, sometimes on my shoulders for a little bit longer trek. I'm lucky to have such a small wife.

SOOOOO...AS IF WE HADN'T HAD ENOUGH OF THE EMERGENCY ROOM, on Friday evening we went to Ethiopian food with some friends. We hired a car to drive us and it was so good to get off house-arrest for a bit. The food was delicious, cooked in a hole in the wall by an ethiopian refugee--it was legit. After dinner Crystal wasn't feeling that well and so she rested in bed and I watched part of a movie in the little common area of the guesthouse with some other expats. About an hour into it, crystal hops to the door and calls for me. I came over and she said she'd been trying to puke for half an hour and felt awful. She was also starting to break out in hives and a rash on her hips and behind her knees. We decided to give it 15 mins to see if it got worse--and worse it got. In 10 mins here legs were covered in welts all over. I've never seen anything like it. It was 1:30 in the morning and so I put crystal on my shoulders and walked across the street to The Surgery again. She had some sort of alergic reaction to the food and they gave her a shot of hydrocortisone which solicited another round of shaking & near-hyperventilation (Crystal's not so fond of needles, or blood or anything of the sort). It cleared up and she's fine.

She took her first steps today with the help of a 9-iron as a cane. Thank you for your prayers.

Life in Kampala

Hi! This is Crystal, jumping in to write some too! We are enjoying daily life in Kampala. It is a great gift to be living in such a central location where people are often coming by. We love talking with people who stop in to say 'hi' or rest for a few hours, and offering guidance for those seeking help with business ideas. As we were reminded by a friend yesterday, daily life in Uganda seems to include more of 'just being', rather than 'doing' and aiming for ultimate productivity. It is nice to have a bit more time to read, cook and talk with people instead of having each day rigorously scheduled as we are used to. It does take patience, however, when things like grocery shopping, sending a few e-mails, and traveling across to town to meet with someone take the whole day. : )

On Sunday we traveled up to the Ranch to meet with a Ugandan man who runs a corner market there. We had a great time talking and reviewing his financial records with him. He keeps excellent records of his sales, inventory, accounts receivable, etc., but he had not been introduced to how to organize that information for better assessing his profitability. Ryan walked him through completing an income statement and balance sheet.

I miss you and hope you all are well! Have a great week!

Professor & Mentor

Last Saturday I (Ryan--I'm sure you assumed this though since Crystal is a little shy when it comes to blogging ;) attended a African Youth Leadership breakfast at Kyamboya (pronounced Cham-booya) University. It was a gathering of University students in the Kampala area that talk about servant-leadership and leadership based on the principles of Jesus. I enjoyed interacting with a group of young people that want to change their nation by a becoming a new breed of leaders. Some will do it through politics, some through business, some through other ways. After the meeting I met with three of the leaders that will be graduating soon and we talked about setting up a workshop in June about job seeking skills--interviewing, resume writing, networking, etc. The job market is brutally competitive in Kampala, being the only professional and industrial hub in the entire country, there are not enough jobs to go around--espeicially if you don't know someone who knows someone.

On Saturday afternoon I got to play professor at the Business Forum. The Biz Forum is a gathering of cornerstone graduates that are either entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs. The come once a month to hear someone speak and to support an encourage each other. So after a short interduction I was handed to floor. I reviewed a dozen business plans the week before and all had deplorable financials, that is if in fact there were any financials at all. Many of the plans had completely left out any evidence that profitability or loan repayment had even crossed their mind. So I set about to correct this grevious thing! I had prepared a mock business that I was going to start and we went line by line though a start-up budget, loan amortization and terms, a projected income statement and balance sheet and lastly a few basic financial analysis ratios. I counted on it taking an hour, maybe an hour and a half. Over three hours later the Biz Forum Chairperson finally intervened and called it when he looked over at Crystal and saw her looking pale and dozing. There must have been 10-15 questions per line through each financial statement and then a dozen or so questions on financial theory or marketing etc before moving to the next line item.

It was actually extremely encouraging that there were so many questions, they really dove in to the information and were all right there with me. At the end I sent them all home to add financials to their business plans and bring them back. I had a blast teaching. I loved making something so complex and downright scary into something simple and understandable.

On Wednesday, I again go to dig my teeth into some great business interaction. Crystal & I headed to work with the Ugandan gentleman that is the Chairperson for the Business Forum. He is the operations manager of a property management & maintenance company that was started by a businessman from Texas that has recently stepped back to let it run on its own. The business is growing rapidly and had a great group of employees. We spend a few hours meeting with some of the employees learning about their work and what their frustrations or challenges are and brainstorming for solutions. Every business if filled with little inefficiencies and ineffectives but often everyone inside the business is either to busy to look for them or to close to be able to notice them. An outsider simply asking questions can sometimes open a lot of doors. I loved, loved, LOVED getting to do this. Solving complex business problems with very limited resources is thrilling (perhaps you think I'm crazy now). But I feel like its a stategy boardgame like Risk, or Settlers, or something except infinately more complex and much more rewarding too. We hope to spend more time with this company learning about it and then presenting a more formal analysis with proposed solutions and implementation in the coming weeks.

Tomorrow we are planning on heading up to the Cornerstone Ranch to help with some financial things...we really have no idea what it is, but we'll find out tomorrow!

We're also going to be heading up to Gulu on Thursday to teach some professional development curriculum to the teachers of Restore Academy who will then teach the material to the kids next term. Things like: Business writing, public speaking, resume's, networking, etc.

Happy Mother's Day, Margot & Carolyn! We miss you and love you!

Pictures...not yet.

sorry...picture uploads aren't working. I think I'm going to try it a diffent way next time.

Business Plans

We spent about 4 hours yesterday combing through business plans. There's was everything from cafe's to farms to microfinance organizations. Some are excellent, astute observations and explanations of their target market and the market inefficiencies that they solve. Some still need a little bit of work--like questioning, "who is going to buy this?" Its so great to be doing some business-type consulting. Even though a finance degree is about the last thing one wants in the US right now, its turning out to be valuable in Africa. It turns out that financial reporting and projecting is one of the areas that are a little less emphasized in the curriculum.

As far as pictures on the blog. We're working on it, I'm going to try right now. But no promises, The computers in Uganda are from the 1800's and don't have all the fancy software plugins needed to load pictures. Not to mention that the whole nation runs on dial-up. Yeah, its pretty slow.

Ranch and Village

There's a lot of bikes in Uganda. They all come in this sort of one-size-fits-none style where giraffes are the only ones with legs long enough to reach the pedals. You see them everywhere often with a four crates of bottled sodas strapped over the back tire that leans and rattles like a tropical version of jingle bells. You see all sorts of things on the backs of bikes, sugar cane, 2x6 boards, a stack of firewood, people, we heard one story of a coffin strapped sideways on the back!

Crystal and I visited the Cornerstone Ranch Thursday Friday and Saturday. It is 600+ acres of working dairy farm, primary school, secondary school and the Cornerstone Leadership Academy. Its an amazing place that is home to an incredible group, not the least of which are black mambas, green mambas, c0w-eating pythons, puff adders and a host of insects that strangely bring thoughts of teradactyls to mind. We stayed at the African Hospitality Institute which, along with African Children's Missions is just adjacent to the ranch. AHI is a vocational school that trains local at-risk ugandans so they can get into the hospitality industry. The food is fabulous (the snakes say the same about the tourists) and we had a taste of home with fajitas & coffee ice cream. We also borrowed some bikes and set out on a tour of the ranch property--inspite of a valiant effort we were forced to turn back after a mile or so when Crystal, being unable to reach the pedals while sitting on the seat--actually being hardly able to reach the pedals and clear the bar running from the handle bars to the seat--became tired. The bikes are really magnificently large and the brakes will occasionally clamp on to the tires like pit bull that's been abused. Interestingly though, you see young children, 6 or 7 year olds that stand inside the triagle frame of the bike with their feet on the pedals, on arm like a chicken-wing over the frame and the other hand steering--its really phoenomenal to watch and after inquiring about it to a few ugandan friends they confirmed that that is how kids learn to bike in Uganda. So we didn't spend too much time biking, the heat being a factor in addition to the bikes themselves.

I did, however, get to bike around with one of the local employees of African Children's Mission to local villages and visit some of the children they sponsor. It was a moving experience as back in the States you get pictures of kids that need sponsoring for $30 a month or something and all you get is a photo and maybe a line or two about their parents dying of aids. But its impossible to mentally bridge the gap between standing in my kitchen opening junk mail and the child that can eat for a month on what we spend on a nice lunch. But here I was across the gap. Sitting on a crude bench in the heat, flys everywhere with children that haven't eaten yet today (it was 4pm) and have one pair of pants that reminded me of western fringe that went all the way up to the waisteband. Some of the children ran up to me and grabbed my hand not letting go until I stood up to leave, others jumped in my lap rubbing the hair on my arms or touching my 3-week beard. Other children were more shy and they would hide behind they aunt or caretaker or an older sibling and peer out at me with a smile. A lot of the kids were sponsored, I was sure they're picture was on someone's fridge in the states and an automatic deduction hit their visa card every month and somehow the money made it here to buy a little posho and beans so this child could eat once per day. Some of the kids were not sponsored, they were still waiting for someone to take a liking to their picture and send off a little money...still other kids, many other kids, were sponsored last year but with the credit crisis and recession non-profit giving has been sharply reduced in the states and it echoes loudly in Africa and they had lost their sponsor. To someone in the states this child was an expense that had to be cut since money is a little tight, to this child that means no school fees, and longer periods between meals.

When we got back to Kampala we had arranged to stay with some ugandan friends for the weekend while another visiting couple used our room at cornerstone. We had no idea what to expect, other than they told us, "We live out in the village, I hope that's okay." Of course we offered our confident affirmations that we were excited to experience "The Real Uganda" having absolutely no clue what exactly the real uganda was. We had an amazing time. We were overwhelmed with hospitality, served amazing local food, and their apartment was a great little hideaway amidst fruit and coffee trees. They took us to visit Lake Victoria which was beautiful, its so big its like an ocean--indeed when they found it they must have thought they reached the coast. Little waves patted the shoreline and carried discarded waterbottles and other trash back and forth up the sand. The water was a distinct greenish-blackish color and actually looked a little more like motor-oil than water--needless to say we did not touch it. But it was so great to be back at a lake. We walked and described wakeboarding and waterskiing to them, boy do I miss the lake. That night was ate boiled liver and proving our apprehensions wrong was delicious. We looked at pictures--their wedding pictures, and some from college; we showed some of our pictures from home that we had on a flash disk. The we talked african politics, economics, and social reform before retiring to bed.

If I could describe the night with one word, hmmm....lemme think, HARROWING. For some absolutely ridiculous we-know-better-than-that reason we decided not to go to the effort of affixing the mosquito net that night. Big mistake. Some time around 3am as the beads of sweat turned into creaks running down our faces we decided to open the screen-less windows. It was like sending out an evite to all the local mosquitos that we were holding a banquet. We served up some nice warm Type A negative and some delicious O positive. MMmmm. Turns outs the mosquitos preferred the A negative and the little gluttons just about drained me dry. I almost needed a blood transfusion in the morning.

On Sunday we went to church together and really enjoyed the singing and dancing. Ugandans aren't into standing there numbly during praise and worship. Nope, its more like a Ska concert conplete with a mosh-pit near the alter. People seriously get down and dance, and tone deaf? doesn't matter, sing louder! Everyone was so friendly and we must have shaken 100 hands and returned twice as many smiles. Toward the end of praise and worship a note was passed through the auditorium that the pastor would like to know our names. We wrote them down with a tinge of terror hoping we wouldn't be asked to speak or cast out demons or something else awkward. Actually, the pastor was so nice and welcomed us by name, thanking us for being there. The US would do good to get a dose of African hospitality.

Sunday afternoon we went to a young marrieds group at cornerstone. We thoroughly enjoyed it (all 7 hours of it)! There were probaly close to 40 people there (counting small children as a half person) and after one individual shared some thoughts (for 45 mintues) we ate and opened it up for discussion. You can really learn a lot about a culture if you listen in to the issues young marriages face, some are identical to things we wrestle with in the states, some are so strikingly different that you feel baffled. It was an amazing interaction and was filled, like everything, in Ugandan hospitality.

It was a great 4 days, but we're exhausted. We're back at Cornerstone now. Miss you all! :)

More Fun Encounters

We just had a great afternoon meeting with the leaders of a local church in Kampala! They kindly picked us up and brought us over to their church grounds in a small village on the other side of town. We got to meet several children who are being sponsored by some friends in the US, which was amazing! The children are so shy when we first meet them. They smile, giggle, cover their mouths with their hands and barely whisper when we ask them questions : ) We have found that it usually takes meeting Ugandan kids a couple of times before they become more comfortable talking with us.

Last night we attended a dinner with the Cornerstone business forum group. We had a such a fun time talking and laughing with them. They are a great group of people.

We are excited to be attending prayer breakfasts, business forum gatherings and a married couple's group this week!

Football in Kampala

We're settling into Kampala. We've had some meetings with Cornerstone about what's going on and how we can fit in and apply our skills to help out. One of the big things we'll be doing the next six weeks is reviewing business plans. The "business forum" are a group of conerstone graduates that are aspiring to start their own businesses and they are all competing for a chance to get a lone from a group of american businessmen. We have already started reviewing the business plans and loan proposals and doing some editing, etc. We'll be meeting with several of the entrepreneurs over the next number of weeks and asking probing questions and helping to sharpen the proposals.

Yesterday afternoon I went to a football match (that's soccer). It was KCC ( the Ugandan team) against a team from Sudan. Uganda lost 1-0. It was the hottest 3 1/2 hours of my life. I was absolutely baking in the equatorial sun and stiffling humidity. When Crystal saw me last night after the game she exclaimed, "Whoa, you're sunburned!" I figure the darker I get the more I can blend in here, unfortunatly I'm more of a reddish hue.

The match was fun to watch though...its amazing how worldwide, across all cultural boundries, men love sports. When I looked around and I was the only white guy in the entire stadium I though to myself, "You're a long way from home." I went with 3 of the employees of Cornerstone and they took great care of me, making sure I didn't get lost (as if anyone could lose me--I stuck out like a sore white thumb) or get hit by a bus on the walk into downtown to catch bodas. Neat group of people and I am so appreciative for being included.

Easter in Gulu & Moving to Kampala

Happy Easter! We spent Easter weekend up in Gulu. We drove up on Friday and stopped by the Cornerstone Ranch in Ekitangaala (about 2 hrs out of Kampala) on the way up to Gulu because there was a big reunion for all the Cornerstone Leadership Academy graduates over the weekend. Cornerstone is an organization that's going to start showing up a little more in our posts, more about them below.

When we got to Gulu we went over to the Youth Corps home that is near the Restore office to spend time with some of the girls that had not been able to go home for the holiday. The Youth Corps homes are homes that house groups of girls or boys that either do not have parents or family that will support them or their parents/family is not a positive environment. The kids ranging in ages from elementary to high school live in the home together. 1-3 mentors live in the homes with the kids and take them through a discipleship curriculum and love them like a big brother or sister. Them mentors are usually university students that have graduated from the Cornerstone Leadership Academy (CLA--mentioned above and elaborated upon below). There was a raging storm outside where about an inch of rain dropped in an hour and was accompanied by constant lighening and thunder. The power had been out in gulu for 6 days and so we spent the evening playing cards by the light of a single candle on linolium(sp?) and concrete floor. The girls served us king-sized portions of posho and beans for dinner and we just had a great time playing cards and teasing each other about losing. "Cards" is the only game that is played in Uganda and is similar to our Uno except everyone plays with slighly different rules, ie: sometimes a jack reverses the direction, sometimes its a wild card, etc.

On Saturday we went to the Restore Academy and spent time with the kids that were studying for their exams (equivalent to our finals week) which started on Tuesday of this week. We played some more cards and then went into town to buy food for the Easter Feast. That night we had several of the students over the the restore house and played more cards.

The Easter Feast: So on Saturday on the way home from town we stopped by the live goat shop on the side of the road and picked out a nice fat little she-goat for Easter. We tied her up (against her will) and threw her in the back of the SUV. She ran around the yard of the Restore Office all that afternoon and night crying for her fellow goats--I think maybe she knew it would be her last night.

So on Easter Sunday we assembled in a small African hut amidst a deluge that was dripping a little through the ceiling making little cups of mud on the floor. There was the sound of beating drums and singing in the background from some of the students holding a "fellowship" in one of the classrooms. The boys tied the goat up and laid it down on a bed a leaves and that was it for the goat. I'd never seen an animal that large get slaughtered right in front of me. Growing up in Orange County I tended to buy my meat nicely packaged from Trader Joes, it didn't come with fur coat, brown eyes and four hooves. On a little bit deeper level it struck me as powerful to witness the killing of a goat on Easter. I thought about how goats were sacrificed as a sin offering long before Jesus was offered as the final offering. To see something actually die for you is powerful--in a practical sense this goat gave her life to feed us, but in a symbolic sense it takes a blood offering to atone for sin. It was an experience I will not soon forget. And, BTW, I did eat some of the goat later and it wasn't bad, really a greasy meat, but I'd try it again.

We also got to go out to lunch with the boys and girls Youth Corps homes from Gulu on Easter. What a great experience. The restraunt was a buffet of local indiginous foods and we all served ourselves mounds of it. It was an incredible treat for many of the kids, as restaurants are not usually part of the weekly (or monthly or yearly) agenda.

On Tuesday we took the bus from Gulu to Kampala. If you've never taken a bus in a third-world country your really missing out on an experience. Live chickens flapping around, goats standing in the aisles and relieving themselves at will--its a real treat. Not to mention the shear terror you experience when you come withing 6 inches of other passing buses at 120 kph. Our bus ride, thankfully our bus ride did not have these usually standard elements. We rode the Post Office bus which delivers mail to all the passing towns and we had a phonomenally careful and slow driver, something we'd prayed for the night before. We sat in the very front seat for the 7 hour trek which was not a bad place to sit. The biggest inconvenience was that on top of the 90+ degree heat outside and almost negligable ventilation in the bus, we were sitting on top of the engine compartment and the floor was rusted through in a few spots so blazing hot air was pouring onto our feet the entire time. Picture yourself sitting in a bus in ridiculous heat and humidity, not airflow and you're sitting on a furnace that is so hot that after the first hour the bus driver put a tarp over the floor to block some of the hot air. I had had to put my feet up the whole time otherwise they would have been pretty burned. With the tarp down it was bearable.

So we made it to Kampala yesterday. We're actually going to be spending the majority of our time in Kampala over the next three months because of the shifting of needs and opportunities. We're really excited to be in the city, where we feel like we can use our gifts to minister more effectively. After losing our place to stay in Gulu (I think I had a blog post about that--the landlord tripled the rent and we got the boot) we were really confused and searching for what we should be doing. Some doors opened to help out an organization called Cornerstone in addition to our continued work with Restore. Cornerstone is an organization that runs dozens of schools across Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, & Tanzania. They also run a network of Youth Corps homes described above. One of the things Cornerstone runs is the Cornerstone Leadership Academy which is a very intensive leadership training and discipleship school for 25 outstanding students to be a part of for the Junior/Senior years of high school. The kids that CLA graduates are phoenomenal, the cream-of-the-crop and we had gotten to spend time with many of them. One CLA graduate is the headmaster of Restore Academy.

There was a couple from Seattle that had been working and living in Kampala for 8 months focusing on creating a professional development curriculum to go along with the spiritual development curriculum that cornerstone offers. This couple was leaving Uganda today and leaving a need for someone to maintain, implement, and add to their work here and Crystal and I are so excited to jump into this need. Everything seemed to be pointing to Kampala so we made the decision to move here and continue our work with Restore by taking care of logistics and meetings for Restore in Kampala and also living at the Cornerstone headquarters and working at Cornerstone as well. There are also some additional ministries we would like to get involved in that are here in Kampala. Stay tuned for more specifics~

We hope you are all well, thank you for reading these long-winded blogs! We miss you all tremendously!

Boda's and Jams

We've been in Kampala for a off and on for a couple of weeks and we're finally starting to get our bearings. We've been staying near downtown and so we've had a little more accessibility to getting around. We're about a 15 minute walk from the country's only mall and so we've had a little more access to email (and civilization) lately. Its nice to be close enough to downtown to be able to walk instead of taking the boda-boda's. The traffic is so terrible sometimes that its faster on foot anyway.

We took a boda across town last night and got stuck in such a bad "jam" that our boda driver turned off the bike and we sat there for 10 minutes until it started to move. When it did start to move some of the most terrifying seconds of my life ensued. There's so much pent-up aggression when people have been sitting there for several mintutes that everyone took off and tried to ram everyone else off the road. We ended up charging over some glass shards onto the sidewalk and we got bumped by a van. And I would consider this driver relatively safe for Kampala. Needless to say, we're going to be phasing out our usage of bodas in Kampala.

We had a great dinner last night with several people from Canada, the UK, and the Netherlands that are all doing work here in Uganda. There are a lot of great things going on here. More about this in a future post...

Rafting the Nile & Bring Solar To The Villages!

So much to catch up on! Turns out that internet is harder to come by than we though :)

Last weekend we went to Jinja to do some "touristy" activities. I (Ryan) got pretty sick on Saturday and could hardly stand up. We managed to get me on a boda and to the international clinic for a Malaria test (which came back negative). We were told the test would cost a dollar or two but when we went to pay we think we got the "Muzungo" price. We were told 15,000 ush. ($7.50) and when we started to pay she said, "15,000 for the test and 30,000 for the consultation" the "consultation" that I received was 30 seconds with the doctor who mumbled, "No sign of malaria or parasites" in an almost undecipherable accent. so we paid $25 bucks for it, but sometimes there's nothing you can do.

On monday I was feeling much better and was able to white-water raft the nile. Phenomenal! There are 5 grade V rapids including a 16 foot waterfall. We flipped 3 times and I was sucked a quarter mile down river--underwater--on the largest rapid named "Big Brother." It was so much fun, and is considered to be the best rafting in the world by many. Even more, they are putting a dam across the nile and so the world-class section of river that I ran will only be raftable for another couple of weeks and then it will be gone forever. Kinda sad really, but I understand that a lot of people need electricity, so the dam is all bad either.

We came back to Kampala for a few days during the week and set up some appointments with contacts that we had. One of which was a man that I sat next to on the bus to Jinja. He started his own solar company and developed a technology to drastically lower the cost of an "solar system" (not the one with planets) so that it is reasonable affordable for people in smaller towns and villages. We talked on the bus like old friends for 2 hours on the way to Jinja and then swapped emails before we parted ways. Yesterday Crystal and I were able to meet him in downtown kampala for some passion fruit juice and talk about solar, and different business models and ideas. It was such a great two hours as we talked about how to get affordable, and clean energy to the 15-20 million people in Uganda that have no power at all. He can set up a basic solar system that powers three lights, a cell phone charger and an FM radio for $150. This is a perfect product for the villages and is desperately needed. Electric light at night would allow adults to work into the evening extending the work day and productivity and would allow school aged children light to do their homework by. You can imagine the transformative effects that power would have on the development of Uganda. Also, nearly everyone in the villages have cell phones, but no way to charge them. Instead they spend hours sitting at "charging stations" and paying for electricty to charge their phones so they can stay in contact with loved ones. Solar truly has an ability to transform a lot of people lives--and to be able to do it for $150...Incredible! I got to apply my finance background and go through some financing models of how he might be able to extend credit to his customers or structure his working capital to grow his business.

I loved this conversation and I came away so inspired about how business can transform peoples lives.

We're still in Kampala this week, we're hoping to connect to a few more contacts before heading back to Gulu at the end of the week.

Group Homes & Jinja

So much has happened since the last post and at 3000 shillings an hour for internet there's not time for it all now.

We're in Kampala at the moment, Garden City Mall. We ventured from Gulu Thursday night and spent time at a Youth Corps group home in Lira then made our way by van, boda, bus, another boda to Jinja, the source of the Nile River. Spending time at 4 different group homes on Wednesday and Thursday was amazing. It was the best interaction we have had yet with the kids. They served us dinner- beens and posho, and then we all sang a couple of songs together and then ate dinner. It is incredible to interact with the kids to tell them about San Diego and to learn a little about their lives here. It takes time to develop trust and transition into deeper conversations. We know it is good to just interact and love on the kids. All the kids in the group homes are separated from their families. There is one or two mentors for 15-20 kids so just being a big brother for a while is a ministry in itself. In Lira we were able to have an amazing conversation with the mentor at the group home and representatives from 4 different non-profits working in the area. We discussed what the mentors' biggest challenges are and where they need assistance and help and how they see this model becoming sustainable in the long term.

I became ill in Jinja, and as our neighbor in Gulu said, "when you're sick in africa, you HATE africa." It was a rough day that included a malaria test at the local clinic. No malaria. I regained enough stregnth to white-water raft on the nile on Monday. Then we stayed at the Haven Monday night and caught a ride to Kampala last night (tuesday). We have so many more stories and thoughts...they will be posted soon.

Rain! Boda's & Third World Markets... :)

This will be a quick one...

Crystal is feeling much better now. She ran a fever for two days but it back to herself. One of our roommates came down with the flu also, she thought it might be mararia, but it wasn't and she is feeling better also.

On Saturday evening it rained. I have never been so grateful for rain in my life! Gulu feels like its about the hottest place on the planet and so when the dark clouds roll in everyone thanks God. We've had some spectacular lighting and thunder displays this weekend, last night was like a light show in the sky...amazing!

This weekend we walked into town to get our bearings. We stopped at the bank, at Kope Cafe for lunch and went by the outdoor market. More about the market later, but lets just say we stumbled into about 50,000 blackened fish with an odor too pungent for words. Where the fish come from I have no idea, they must be transported from quite a distance. And refrigerated? nope. It was before lunch and Crystal almost lost her apetite, I got her out of there before she started dry-heaving. After lunch I took a big breath and headed back into the market for some vegetables but Crystal opted out the the third-world market experience and waited outside.

This morning we took our first boda-boda. That is a cross between a motorcycle and a taxi. He drove very safe--though I think it may have been because his beaten-old motorbike didn't have a whole lot of giddy-up with the three of us on there (surprising considering all the weight we're losing).

Today we spent more time at the Restore Academy, getting to know the kids and hanging out with the faculty--especially Peter, the headmaster. Many more thoughts on this to come...

"You are most welcome here"

Being sick far away from home is rough. Crystal woke up this morning with a pretty sore throat. Throughout the day it progressed into quesiness(sp?) dizziness and a fever. Its a little scary when your wife gets sick out in the bush in Africa. We rested this morning and then walked to lunch with one of our roommates where we ordered some much needed american food. I got a "beef burger" crystal got spaghetti. But believe me, whatever picture is brought through your mind right now of beef burfer and spaghetti is not what we got served. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't In-n-out or Buca-di-beppo either.

Crystal took a turn for the worse after ordering so we got our plates to go (they charge an extra 500 shillings for take out boxes--not much motivation to save some in a doggie-bag) and walked 15 mins back home. It felt like we were walking in a giant dusty tanning salon and I have a white-trash tank-top tan that any red-blooded american hick could be proud of.

I talked to a friend in Kampala that is a nurse this afternoon and ran Crystal's symptoms by her for some feedback. She said it sounds like a minor flu that has been going around Kampala, nothing serious. Praise God. We stocked up on the Immodium and the Cipro before leaving thinking that diahrea would be our arch-nemesis, turns out to be the opposite. Getting fiber is near impossible on a diet of white rice and poshu (sp?) an bland pot of corn flower that looks like angel food cake but tastes ironically like a bland pot of corn flower.

Last night we had 16 of the students from the Restore Academy over to the Restore office and held a video conference with 200 people supporting Restore in Washington. It was amazing to bridge the gap across the world. The kids introduced themselves and talked about how much they enjoyed being able to go to the Academy. Before the conference call we all watched the movie "War Dance" which is about a group of students from Patongo (pronounced Pa-Tong) primary school (in an IDP camp) that wins a national music award. A moving picture that I recommend, the kids stories place an unavoidable lump in your throat. It was an honor to watch the film together.

On our first day in Uganda last week we bought a local cell phone. The phone was 45,000 Ush (about $22), then we bought 5,000 Ush of pre-paid minutes to use (ends up being about 4 mintues, "airtime" in uganda is expensive). If you do the math that makes a nice round 50,000 Ush (no sales tax in Ug). I handed the woman 3 bills of 20,000 each and the woman put them in the desk gave me my receipt and moved on to something else as if the transaction were complete. "Umm... lets see, 45,000 for the phone, plus 5,000 for the minutes," I announced, pretending to be doing the math for the first time, "makes 50,000." Studbornly, the woman reaches into a drawer to pull out change as another employee tells her what she owes me. She hands me 5,000 in change and then looks at me. I stared back into her dark eyes without moving the hand that the cash was in. Reluctantly she gave me another 5000.

Today when we were walking back from lunch we passed a late-elementary age girl dressed in school uniform who greeted us with a smile and a hello and then unashamedly said, "You give me money." Not 2 minutes later we passed an older ugandan woman about 50 yards from our house who looked at us and then looked down. As we passed each other she muttered, "We don't need you people here."

How does one reconcile these encounters with the tremendous hospitality that floods northern uganda? Nearly everyone we pass on the streets smiles and every time we enter a room we are greeted with handshakes and the warm greeting "You are welcome!" The nation is abundantly friendly--far more friendly than my own. The teachers and students we have met have embraced us as their own in only a matter of days. We are served tea at every stop and it is always insisted that we are served meals first. We are taken care of and looked after and constantly asked, "How you like Uganda?" The hospitality is overwhelming, I feel embraced by people that are not my own. And yet still I struggle, wondering if we are doing some good here.

Potholes, Toilets, & Gulu

After arriving at Entebbe Intl Airport and being greeted by John-John, the Restore International driver, we got a quick tour of the city and then stayed with some friends in Kampala. As Crystal hinted at, we stayed in Kampala for 5 days as we adjusted to the new surroundings and slept off a pretty severe case of jet-lag. In Kampala we tagged along with John Neimeyer (with Restore Intl) as he ran errands, had meetings, etc. We bought a local cell phone and groceries and became surprisingly efficient at converting Ugandan Shillings to USD in our heads (about 2000:1).

Kampala is an interesting city, by far what stands out the most is the traffic. I don't recall anything bigger than a 4 lane road and there are no freeways, no lines in the road, only 6 traffic signals in the entire city and no real rules except avoid the potholes and yield to larger vehicles. Kampala was a good transition to Uganda because it is relatively westernized.

On Tuesday morning we left for Gulu around 8am and made our way through kampala with what could be considered light traffic (everything's relative). The roads meander through the country like a highway of swiss cheese, it seems like we were on the right side of the road (which is wrong side of the road) as much as the left. African huts and small towns are scattered across the countryside between bananna trees. If you slow down in any of the towns you are bombarded with salesman pedaling meat on a stick, casava, and roasted banannas (which aren't half bad). At almost every turn there is a brightly-painted building bearing the initials MTN, UTL, or one the other mobile phone networks. Everyone it Uganda that I have come across has a cell phone, but everything is pre-paid minutes so you constantly have to drop by an 'authorized dealer' (or really anyone on the street) and pick up some airtime for 5 or 10 thousand shillings.

We arrived in Gulu around 230 or 3 and met our new roommates outside of Barclay's bank. We got a quick tour of the town (at 3 blocks by 6 blocks pretty much any tour of Gulu would be quick) and then headed 10 minutes north to the house we will be living in. Apparently the house is nice for Gulu standards and its really not all that bad--even considering that the toilet erupted the day before we got there and flooded our room shortly after the our door had locked itself shut. Our 10' x 10' utopia marinated in toilet water for 30 hours or so before we moved in. We dropped our stuff off and headed out to the Restore Academy in the afternoon. Classes were out at 5 and the students assembled under the shade of tree where we were introduced and asked to say a few words.

We have spent a couple of days at the school and are getting to know a few of the students. We sat in on discipleship class where the Headmaster, Peter, lectured. Peter is an exceptionally gifted teacher. He drew on stories and examples to illustrate the shifting paradigms of the local culture and environment. In the afternoon there was a soccer game about an hour away but Crystal and I were tired and still very much adjusting to our new surroundings and so we headed back to the Restore Office for a little R & R. We borrowed a motorcycle from one of the teachers and after stalling a few times and getting some help from the students (amid healthy roars of laughter) we putted the 8 or 10 kilometers back to Restore.

We have been commuting an hour by foot every morning to the Restore house. Its amazing how great we feel after an hour walk as compared to sitting in traffic for an hour. We do live quite a distance from the office, the academy and town and so we're thinking about how we can solve our transportation woes.

Beyond that, it is hot here! Hot, Hot, Hot. I'm praying for the rainy season to come quickly (apparently it cools down a bit) although that in and of itself with add to the complexity of our transportation dilemma.

We miss you all!

welcome to uganda!

we have arrived safely in uganda! the country is beautiful ~ green & lush. we are staying with a kind family in kampala while we work out some car repairs and arrange transportation. we have met some great friends already & have visited with ugandan teens in some group homes. we miss you & hope you all are well!

56 Hours And Counting...!

Hi Friends and Family!

Well the countdown is beginning, in a little less than 56 hours we will be taking off from LAX en route to London and then Entebbe, Uganda. We’re looking at almost 20 hours of flying consisting of two back-to-back overnight flights. Sweet! And while Crystal, being the world traveler that she is, has experienced several multi-day flights across the world, I have never been on an airplane longer than 6 hours at a time.

Five months ago tomorrow was my (Ryan’s) last day working as a Service Center Representative for LPL Financial in San Diego, CA. I graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a Finance Degree in June 07 and then worked as a wakeboard coach (my third summer doing so) before landing my first “real” job for LPL last fall. I answered phone calls, about 50-60/day for 50 weeks before finally breaking down and giving my two weeks notice on the day the Dow Jones dropped 777 points (September 29, 2008). Terrifying? Yes, who quits a finance job on the brink of a global financial crisis?

Over the next three months Crystal and I were looking pretty seriously at moving to Colorado. I applied to nearly 60 jobs in Colorado and San Diego and Crystal sent resumes to at least a dozen companies. No leads. My only job prospect was a position as a financial advisor with Edward Jones. I went through the interview process, which took five weeks and included going door-knocking in my neighborhood to survey people. I was pretty sure I would land the position based on my degree and experience in brokerage finance, but on Friday January 23rd I received a letter from Edward Jones. The line that stood out the most was, “Although your background and experience is impressive, we have decided to pursue other candidates for this position.” Slam! One door closed. I almost felt a sense of relief, the prospect of having to knock on 75-100 doors a day for the next two years was a little intimidating to me anyway. Hmmm…what now?

At 8am the next morning Crystal had an email from an individual that we had been referred to in Gulu (Northern Uganda) that was looking for roommates. She said she’d hold a room for us and we could move in when we got there in March. One door open. 72 hours later we bought plane tickets from LA to Uganda. After a year of searching and praying for the “next chapter” in our lives, in 24 hours it had become clear.

Crystal gave two weeks notice to the Alumni Office that she would be stepping down as Communications Assistant, and she resigned her position on the board of Professional Women’s Fellowship. We packed up everything in our little backhouse in Ocean Beach and moved out at the end of February. We painted our walls back to white—the brown living room, the red kitchen and the smurf-blue bathroom (which took multiple coats of primer).

Now we each have one backpack and a small suitcase of consumables. I’m bringing 3 pairs of pants, 2 shorts, 4 shirts, a mosquito net, a rain jacket, a small video camera, 3 tubes of superglue, 156 Malaria pills, 75 Clif Bars, and a pinstripe business suit from Goodwill that was $18 including the shirt and tie. That should cover it for about 9 months right?

Thank you all for the tremendous support we have received. We have been prayed for, we have been given checks, hundred dollar bills, boxes of Xperia, old suitcases, books, countless meals, and loads of encouragement. We look forward to taking this journey with each of you by sharing pictures, videos, and stories. We hope you will see Uganda not as a distant place with complex issues, but as a beautiful place with beautiful people who are filled with love and joy. That you would feel like perhaps you have more in common with someone in Uganda that you do with your own neighbor.

We are doing this in order to learn about each other. To experience something extraordinary in our first year of marriage that will for decades be a glue that bonds us together more and more. We believe that Jesus is engaged in a worldwide conspiracy of love and that he is up to something special in Uganda and we want to see what it is. We want to learn to listen to and love people that seem different than us but perhaps are really more similar than we ever imagined. We want to learn to pray. We want to inspire those who, like us, are as average as can be but have big dreams. Go! Do what it is that is on your heart to make a difference to someone somewhere.