Chillin’

After a long and very busy trip, Lloyd and I are taking a day to relax, catch up on notes and I thought it would be a good time to write a little different blog post.  I am sitting on the shady porch at Pastor Peter Kasiviru’s home enjoying the beauty of Uganda.  It has been a quiet morning and we have been watching so many tropical birds landing in the trees.  There are some very beautiful birds of all different colors, shapes and sizes.  Truly been magnificent.  Right in front of us is a big avocado tree with some verrrry tasty avocado’s growing on it.

 

Last evening I returned to Ggaba from my time in Buloba at Africa Renewal University.  It took over an hour and a half to travel just about 24 miles through Friday rush-hour traffic.  And that was avoiding the downtown part of Kampala and skirting around side roads.  I had a whole new appreciation for the bodabodas weaving in and out of traffic – not that I like them any better, but at least now I know how to better pray for the passengers & drivers.

The work at ARU was productive and we really accomplished what I hoped to do while I was there.  As we were wrapping up our time together at ARU, one of the guys that I was working with asked me what I would miss the most about Uganda.  I told him that it would be the people – of course!  His response kind of surprised me when he said that he didn’t believe that was true.  I asked what he meant and he said “there so many people, people everywhere – what makes us special?” (at least this is the message I heard through the question).  I told them that I could go anywhere in the world but there would not be THEM – God makes each person uniquely and wonderfully.  With all of the people we see in the streets every day in the city, each is special to God. 

So, with that background let me introduce three of God’s special children!  These three men are the technical staff, instructors and leadership at Africa Renewal University.  The picture below was taken while eating lunch together the last day I was there.

From left to right:  Richard Mugarura, Jonah Mukiibi and Bruce Musinguzi (aka Google).

Richard is the chief librarian at ARU and studying at Makerere University to get his Master’s degree in Information & Computer Technology.

Jonah has been at ARU for the past 7 years and is the only person besides Jeff Atherstone who has been there since the beginning.

Bruce (“Google”) is a brilliant young technician who began as a volunteer at ARU but was soon hired for his potential.

The more time I spent with these men, the more impressed I became with their technical expertise, the amount of work that they do in a given day and their faith in God.  They are also hampered in their work by an extreme shortage in money, computer resources and very expensive internet connectivity (the entire University shares a 256K internet connection that only works when there is power).  They are responsible to maintain all of the computer systems in use by the university staff and students, they are lecturers (in the US we call them professors) and are also responsible to establish the curriculum for the up and coming IT studies at the University.  On top of this, they work in their respective churches (often very far away from the school), Richard studying for his master’s degree – I get tired just thinking about it.

Google received his nickname for migrating university staff to use Google Apps and gmail.  It is a very affectionate nickname and, while he seems to dismiss the importance of what he has done, it truly is an accomplishment for him to have done in such a short time.  One of the suggestions we discussed was to start “Google-U” at the campus – create a  center for excellence using and teaching Google applications in ways that will transform lives in Uganda.  He is just the man to make this work and now instead of having to travel to attend Google conferences, people will travel to Buloba and ARU to participate in these conferences.  One day I can picture Bruce as the keynote speaker.

The first intensive meeting I had with Jonah was in the computer lab. We had to hold the meeting there because he was proctoring a computer lab exam for students in the IT diploma program.  Jonah has a light and serious side to him.  But, contrary to many people think, he is human.  I saw this the last day I was there as he had been up virtually all night working on a project to prepare a very demanding report for the government as ARU finalizes its University status and puts forward the program curriculum.  The picture to the right is Jonah showing me the “server room” for the university.  It has been encroached by people wanting to store paper flowers, books and other material not typical of a server room.  For anybody reading this who cares to know – the primary file server for the university is running on a Pentium III PC with 512K RAM and a 40GB hard drive.  I was using boxes just like this for desktop PC’s almost 15 years ago (which is precisely how old this computer is).

While all Ugandans are soft spoken, Richard is probably the most so out of this team.  I did not understand the depth of his knowledge and the work he is doing until I had spent time with him.  For his Master’s thesis, he is doing a study of library management systems and has the hope that his work will improve library access and management for all schools, colleges and universities in Uganda.  Quite a vision that he appears well able of achieving.

It was a huge blessing for me to spend time with these men during my time here.  We ate, talked, laughed and rode bodaboda’s together (FYI it was Jonah who made us ride the bodas).  When I came to Uganda last year, God touched my heart in a very special way in the village of Kacungwa.  This year, He has given me the privilege of getting to know people here at a whole new level.  I have been so grateful for the chance just to talk and learn about the people here – and them about us (yes, there are misconceptions both ways).

Well, I am going to wrap this up for now and try to get some rest for the remainder of the day.  It is a busy week next week.  Thank you so much for taking the time to read and care about what we are doing.  I realize that strategic technology planning and analysis is not the most interesting thing in the world, but Lloyd and I truly believe that with this work, we can impact the next generation of leaders AND make life better for the children in Uganda through the use of technology.  We pray that God blesses our work for the advancement of His kingdom and to help the children, young people and men like Richard, Jonah and Bruce here in Uganda.

Dave