This is Andrea’s first time blogging! On Friday March 12th, we headed out to Musana Camps for our first visit as a family. If you remember, Dave was there back in 2008 when he first visited Uganda and helped clear some of the land. The trip from New Hope to Musana is not an easy one. It takes 5-6 hours and a large part of that travel is on very rough roads (ie. on the roughest part it took us 2 ½ hours to go about 20 miles). But it was well worth it and we were so blessed by our weekend there.
What a spot God has chosen! The view from the current building is incredible, and there is a constant breeze coming off the lake to keep it cool. Syd and Andrea Sparks are there alone, building their house and making things happen. During the month of February, they hosted several groups and teams. This weekend (Easter weekend) one of the family groups from New Hope will be going for the first time. We are praying that they are blessed and God uses the ministry at Musana for His glory! Check out the Sparks’ blog from the link on our homepage to find out what has been happening there.
If anything, the weekend got us even more excited about getting out to Musana! It will be challenging going from the New Hope family and community to the empty shores of Lake Victoria, but the Lord has been preparing us for this all along and we are anxious to see what He continues to do. We’re so thankful for our friends, the Sparks and are really excited to work along side them. We would appreciate your prayers, as the enemy would like nothing less than to see us fail at all things, especially in our relationships with those around us, and particularly our family.
Even thought we have about 8 weeks left in the Institute, Dave has finally started handling some of the administrative responsibilities of the camp in order to take some of the pressure off of the Sparks who have been doing everything. Though things are busy, Dave is glad to finally start getting more involved in that way and will be taking on a lot more in 2 months when the Institute ends.
Last weekend we had the opportunity to get away for a little refresher. We had our mid-institute break so we took the family to the town of Jinja, also on Lake Victoria, which is located right at the source of the Nile River. It is so beautiful there! The kids had a blast swimming in a pool and we were able to relax and let our hair down with some other westerners who joined us. Burn-out can be a real danger here and the staff try very hard to get away for a weekend every 6 weeks or so and we were grateful for the chance to do that.
It’s been a while since I last posted, and it seems like one day blends into a week and a week into a month in the blink of an eye!
The last several weeks were characterized by kidney stones (I, Dave, had 2 of them within as many days a few weeks ago), colds, amazing teaching and growing at the Institute, the kids starting school, doing devotions with our family group (Samuel Family), car shopping and buying, getting to know different people by sharing meals, birthday parties, soccer games, slumber parties, women’s bible studies, staff meetings, staff fellowships, meetings with our mentors, small group meetings, Luganda lessons, and several trips to Kampala…to name a few things!
We are definitely enjoying life here at Kasana, but we admit we did not think we would be this busy! The kids are really adjusting well and have made many new friends. In this kind of community, you are rarely alone, which can be good and bad! It has been such a blessing to see the kids loving it here. They have started to talk about missing family and their cats back in the US w/o being asked about it, but typically they are too busy playing to be homesick. While they have adjusted very well overall, there have also been some very challenging new behaviors with Emileigh and Micah in particular that have required extra patience, wisdom, and lots of prayer. In fact, when our mentors recently asked us what has been most challenging over the last few weeks, Andrea and I both said w/o hesitation having the patience and wisdom to deal with these behavioral issues in a way that would honor God and the kids. We want to parent our children in such a way that they see the glory and love of our heavenly Father revealed through us even when we need to discipline. It’s about relationship and growing heart connections, not intimidation and control. But some days, it is easier said than done. We’re grateful to have the prayer and support of many other families here who are raising children of similar ages as well. This is probably one of our biggest prayer requests at this point!
It has been such a joy to be a part of the Institute of Childcare and Family each day. God has been teaching us so much through this training that focuses on a journey of relationship and transformation as we tackle so many significant issues relating to the Christian life and ministering to fatherless children. We have done countless bible studies focusing on the significance of the glory of God, worldview, the doctrine of adoption and moving from slavery to sonship, the orphan heart, how to study and exegete Scripture and so much more. It has been amazing to see God’s heart for the family and the fatherless in Scripture. Much of the first several weeks were focused on dealing with our own heart issues and relationship with the Father. One of the common sayings around here is, “You can’t give something you don’t have.” With this principal in mind, we are addressing our own relationships with God realizing that it is only through the power, presence, and leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives that we can enter the lives of the many broken and hurting fatherless children we interact with here at Kasana. Of course, that principal applies to all relationships! It has been amazing to see God doing so much healing in all of the lives of the Institute students. Both the Ugandans and foreigners in the training have experienced some extremely difficult circumstances in life and God is doing a mighty work in all of our lives as he reveals his glory to us all. On many occasions I have wanted to blog about a specific truth God has been confronting us with, but so far the posts have been more of general updates. Hopefully that will change soon!
We are glad to say that we have purchased a vehicle…though we don’t have it yet as the registration process takes some time. It is a Toyota Prado Land Cruiser which is probably the most common 4×4 vehicle in Uganda. All of the vehicles in Uganda are imported used from Japan or South Africa unless they are brand new. It is very much to your advantage to get a vehicle that has come straight from Japan which has not been used in Uganda yet! We are very glad that we were able to get one of these! It is an older vehicle but is in very good shape with low mileage and it’s obvious it was cared for and maintained very well by whoever owned it in Japan. Hopefully it will be a good reliable vehicle as we will do a lot of traveling back and forth from the camp to Kasana and the roads down to the camp are very rough! Once we get it, I’ll post some pictures.
Speaking of the camp, we are very excited to finally get down there for a visit this coming weekend! While we are there we will pick out the location of the building site where our house will eventually be constructed. At this point, construction is not likely to begin until around June and will probably take around 6 months to complete. We still need a little over half of the funds needed to build the house, but we will actually begin buying construction materials within the next few weeks as it takes time to secure everything that is needed. Andrea and the kids are very excited to finally see the property that will soon become home! We’ll try to post some pictures on the blog after our visit.
That was a long update, but hopefully it fills you in on a little of what’s been going on with us. The next post will probably get a little more specific about just what we have been learning culturally and spiritually. Life here so different in some ways, but so similar in others.
Thanks again for all of your prayers and support. We are so grateful for your being a part of our lives!
BouffardBuzz_Jan_2010_Edition_03
Here is the latest Bouffard Buzz newsletter covering our first month here. Thanks for visiting and enjoy!
If we thought we’d be less busy in Uganda and get to relax a bit more, that hasn’t really been the case! We have really been enjoying the Institute and were feeling like we were getting into a routine with life too. That is until “ENVISIONING” started. Envisioning is NHU’s unique week-long conference for NHU staff that seeks to offer spiritual refreshment and discover where God is leading us as a staff/organization/family for the coming year. There was some tremendous teaching and Andrea and I both were really challenged individually by the theme that focused on God’s Word. The whole conference was rather long but came complete with an evening of cultural dances and learning about Uganda’s western tribal customs (and some Rwandese and Congolese staff strutted their stuff too!). New Hope Uganda has been significantly impacted by the global recession and finances are really tight. It was absolutely amazing to see the leadership of the mission lead the staff right to their knees and seek God’s wisdom and direction. It’s not about money…it’s about seeking God through this time. It is an opportunity for us to grow in our faith and do some much needed overhaul of how we handle accounting and spending. There is a peace here that is so rare in the midst of such trials. The Ugandan staff had not been paid in almost 2 months and NO ONE was freaking out about it. Not to say there wasn’t some anxiety, but they handled it by trusting in the Lord and it is really amazing. The leadership of NHU from the Ugandan Board Chairman down to the department heads are transparent and open and there is a distinct sense of family and community here that I’ve never seen in the US. It was really a great experience to be a part of and we know God has our finances in control. It’s HIS ministry anyway.
Today we got to participate in the harvesting of maize (corn) which is the staple Ugandan food. It is milled into a flour called posho, which is used in many ways and eaten in one form or another EVERY DAY by Ugandans! You harvest it by hand here one stalk/ear at a time, make piles on the ground which are then picked up and put into sacks and taken to corn cribs for drying. Once dry, it is taken to the mill to be processed into the posho flour. It was a lot of fun diving into a corn field with over 100 people and harvesting the corn and talking and getting to know each other along the way.
In the middle of all this, I had to run back to our house to let our house worker in because she thought she was locked out. I borrowed a friend’s bike and on my way back had a head-on collision with a bota-bota (motorcycle)! I went over the handle bars of the bike and knocked the guy of his motorcycle! It was quite a sight for the few Ugandans who witnessed it and word spread quickly! The driver of the bota was not hurt, nor was his bota, so he fled fairly quickly once I assured him I was ok. It was no one’s fault really. We were on a narrow path and both tried to avoid each other but ended up swerving in the same directions and WHAMMO! I didn’t think I was hurt at the time, but as I went over the handlebars, my lower quad just above my left knee slammed into the handle bars (and completely bent them out of shape). It is really bruised and hurting now many hours later…but I’m thankful nothing seems to be broken. The worst part is that I damaged someone else’s bike in the process! Fun learning experience!
Tomorrow we look forward to spending the afternoon/evening with Syd & Andrea Sparks and their baby Malachi. They are the family we will be serving with at the camp and they have been living there on site for a year now. They came up for Envisioning and we will be doing some planning and getting me up to speed on things with Musana Camps. We are still facing significant challenges with the whole land acquisition and removal of the squatters who are living illegally on our property. The squatters are trying to milk every penny they can out of us, and the people we are buying the land from are doing the same. They have not held up their end of the deal and it really is a bit of a mess. I am grateful for our Ugandan leadership here though who understand how thing work and are taking over dealing with this situation. The Board Chairman was part of a meeting we had about some of these issues the other day and is an amazing man of God and knows how to get things done in Uganda. I have never seen such a committed, understanding, and effective Board member in an organization before! It was a real blessing to be a part of that and feel completely supported and understood by the man who is at the absolute top of the organization! God is in control of these issues and things will happen according to his time and his will.
So if you’re reading this lengthy post, we appreciate your continued prayers for our family and the ministry taking place here. While we are definitely still adjusting and not really feeling like we are ministering much yet, God is teaching us so much more than I could write here. It hasn’t been easy at times, but we are deeply grateful for God’s presence each day. Thanks for being a part of our journey!
Though we haven’t been here long enough to feel homesick (at least I, Dave, haven’t), it is still cool to see friends from the US! Our friend Stephanie Lantz, who is from Lancaster and worked with us at Black Rock Retreat is visiting us for a few days! She is in Uganda for a little over 3 month while doing short-term missions with AIM in Tororo. It’s been great to hang out with her a little bit tonight and she will head back Wednesday evening.
I also wanted to mention that Micah is feeling better and finally on the mend. Now I am sick with a cold, probably a result of a serious lack of sleep over the past several weeks and just running around like crazy. Anyway, thanks for those of you who have been praying for Micah!
Saturday January 9th, 2010 was a day of new experiences. Uncle Christ Vogt needed to go to Kampala for groceries and supplies and offered to take us along. Andrea stayed back with the kids, but Sonya came with us. We were armed with shopping lists and prepared for a long grueling day of dusty roads, bartering, and learning how to get stuff in Kampala…the capital city. No sooner had we pulled out of Kasana when Chris said, “Ok…you want to drive? This is the time to do it!” Now I had been up quite late the night before and have not had a good night sleep in weeks…literally. I also have gotten sick with what Micah had…and I can feel the strepp throat coming on. So I was not really feeling up to the adventure of the day anyway, but I sucked it up, shot up a quick prayer…and said, “Yeah let’s do it!”
Driving on the left side of the road was definitely a first! That was not so bad though. It was getting used to EVERYTHING being on the left that was tricky! Shifting a stick with your left hand is tricky at first, and the turn signals are on the other side of the steering wheel too! So my morning was focused on thinking LEFT LEFT LEFT…but not in the political sense! haha
So as we were just about to Kampala, a taxi (mutatu) went by and the driver gave me a weird hand gesture that we were trying to figure out. Turns out our right rear tire (which is the driver’s side here) had gone flat and I couldn’t even feel it. YES! First time driving in Uganda and a flat tire! It wasn’t as bad as it sound though. There was a fuel station about a half mile away and we pulled in. An attendant came running up and promptly found a broken piece of nail in the tire. He and another guy had the tire plugged and pumped back up in about 10 minutes and off we went! I let Chris do the driving in Kampala though. The traffic is crazy and I’m not quite ready for that yet. Almost no traffic lights, mostly round-abouts for turning. As you might guess…traffic laws are quite lax here and you see some CRAZY stuff! I might drive another time or 2 and then tackle Kampala. Chris was a brave man for letting me learn in his vehicle!
The rest of the day was spent visiting some new stores and places to shop. There are 3 or 4 supermarkets in Kampala now that are as nice as the average one in the US. You can actually get most of the things here that you can in the States, though the brands are obviously mostly different. It was to know that most anything you want is available in Kampala either at a “western” type store, or even out in street shops. Andrea and I both have cell phones now and I text more than I ever did in the States!
During our shopping we had lunch at a neat little restaurant that caters to westerners and had a good lunch. Though I am not used to mango smoothies that are warm! It was interesting to see lots and lots of muzungus (white people) in Kampala. Mostly in the western stores, but there are a lot of NGO’s here (non-government organizations) and many westerners around.
So after making several stops at various stores and exchanging money, we headed back up to Kasana. It is still hard to get used to using Ugandan schillings because the numbers are so much bigger! The exchange rate has been between 1,800-1,900 Ugandan Schillings to the dollar, so it’s easy to figure out the comparison by just diving by 2 and rounding it up to 2000 UGS to the $. So if something costs 2,000 shillings, it costs $1. 100,000 shil would be $50 and so on. So when you spend lots and lots of money stocking up on groceries for the first time and you see the total come up at the cash register, you have to pick your jaw up off the floor!
It’s much cheaper to buy produce at roadside stands. That’s a fun new experience! As soon as you pull over…you are rushed by a dozen or more different people trying to get you to buy their produce! Then the bartering begins! I have learned to start the process by offering a big warm smile and saying, “Now you’re not going to try to charge me muzungu (white person) prices are you?!” It is not uncommon for people to try to charge you twice the amount of what they would sell something to a Ugandan for just because you are white and they think you have money! It doesn’t take long to realize that paying more than 1,000 USX for a plate of tomatoes is highway robbery! You also begin to recognize faces of vendors and find the ones who deal more honestly with you. They LOVE repeat customers and learn to treat you well if they want your business. I am finding this process enjoyable despite it being a little intimidating at first!
Finally, as we got back to Kasana, Sonya and I quickly turned right back around and took a bota bota (motorcycle taxi) from Kasana into the local village of Kiwoko (pronounced: chi-woko). Every Saturday the village turns into a big market as people sell all kinds of thing along the roadside. You can buy anything from clothes to batteries, to fish (though the nearest lake with a sustainable fish population is quite far away…imagine the smell!) and shoes. It’s a really neat experience to walk down the main road of the village in the midst of hundreds of rural Ugandans and barter for things. Sonya really wanted to experience this, so we went in quick before dark when they close up shop. She wanted to buy a wrap skirt and found a print she liked. The woman there quickly tried to charge her 25,000 UGX! A Ugandan might only pay 5-10,000 depending on the print and quality of the fabric! Sonya talked her down to 15,000 after the woman tried to walk away with her money when Sonya refused to pay the 25,000! It was quite amusing and though she still payed more than she probably should have, I think Sonya enjoyed the experience!
So after a long day it was good to finally get home and eventually to bed. From learning to drive on the left side of the road to bartering for food, it was certainly a day of learning experiences…though you come home very tired and very dirty! At least church was a bit shorter today…it was only 2 and a half hours long instead of 3 and a half hours long like last Sunday! Welcome to Uganda!
I got to do what the old 80′s song by Toto says today, “I blessed the rains down in Africa!” We had a good rain today and it was beautiful and brought a nice cool breeze after a hot morning. The funny thing is, it is supposed to be the hottest month of the year here but the rainy season and cooler weather have lasted a month longer than normal! Record snow in PA, record cold in the UK, extended rainy season and cooler weather in Uganda…makes you wonder about the whole global warming thing…but that’s not what this post is about!
We started the Institute this morning and everyone started sharing their personal stories. It is so awesome to be part of such a multi-cultural group. There are 22 of us all together: 9 “muzungus” (white people), 12 Ugandans and 1 Kenyan. The muzungus are from all over the U.S. We are really excited about what God has in store for us in this training program. There is definitely excitement and anticipation in the air. As several people shared their stories today it was so encouraging to see how it is really God’s story and we are all a part of it. Some of the Ugandans talked about surviving the war and horrendous atrocities that we can’t even imagine in the States. Some Americans shared of how God rescued them from deep pain bad decisions. We are excited to journey with everyone that is here over the next 20 weeks and are praying for a posture of openness to what God has for us.
Another great part of today…we spent the afternoon with Nalugo Irene…our sponsor girl! It was so good to see her again and she was so happy to meet the rest of the family for the first time. We talked and caught up and looked at pictures of my time here in 2008. She has really grown up a lot in the past year and we are so excited to be part of her life as she continues to grow into the godly woman God wants her to be. I cannot express how special it is to use what God has blessed us with to bless someone else and then build a relationship with them. It’s not about the money. It’s the love of the Father. Don’t forget that we need more sponsors for the children here at Kasana!
Please pray for Micah and Emileigh and their health. Em’s fever is more under control and her cough wasn’t as bad today, but Micah is getting worse. His cough is worse and his tonsils are the size of marbles. It’s hard to know what to do for him. But we know he is in God’s hands and not ours. Sleep has been illusive between jet lag, sick kids, and adjusting to MANY new noises during the night! We know we’ll adjust in time, but I confess I would love to fall asleep in my recliner while watching the New England Patriots play football for a couple of hours. Maybe in a few years…
That’s all for now. Off to do my homework for class tomorrow…praying through Psalm 63.
After many months of planning and preparing, we have finally arrived in Uganda! Thanks to all of you who have supported us in so many ways!
Our journey went really well overall and our baggage all came through too! We went from the airport to the Entebbe International Guest House for the night and we greeted there by a nice little New Year’s Eve party with other guests by candlelight in this nice little African guest house. Though we didn’t sleep real well, it was nice to be in a bed for the first time in almost 48 hours! After going into Kampala to exchange money and buy some groceries, we finally arrived at the house we will be staying in (which is the home of Jay & Vicki Dangers, the founders/Director of NHU). The staff here have been so warm and welcoming and providing meals till the Institute starts Sunday night, which is wonderful! Last night was a bit rough though as we were all very very tired and Emileigh was sick w/a fever. Then Micah began vomiting and that continued every half hour for 5 or 6 hours! The poor little guy is feeling a good bit better now. I think it’s time to wean him from thumb sucking…or should I say germ sucking! That long night has us even more tired now, but we are able to take it easy till Monday morning and hopefully get some rest.
Our friend Sonya Lantz that traveled with us has been an incredible help and blessing and I can’t imagine having done what we just did w/o her! For those of you who know how amazing she is…she is not disappointing! =)
All of the children and many staff here at Kasana have been away for holiday and will be returning tomorrow. So it is rather quiet and peaceful here now, but that will change soon! We are really really really looking forward to seeing Nalugo Irene, the young woman we sponsor here at NHU tomorrow! The kids have been praying for her for a year and finally get to meet her tomorrow and are really excited about that!
We hope to update with some pictures soon, but that’s all for now. Thanks again to all of you for your prayers and support. We are so glad to finally be here!
We found out yesterday that British Airways cabin crews are going on strike and will be when we are scheduled to fly to Uganda on December 30th. This could get interesting! We know God is in control and we’ll get there when we get there. Right now we have 3 options: wait it out and hope they resolve their issues quickly and our flight remain unaffected, delay our flights and arrive late in Uganda for our Institute training which starts on January 4th, or cancel our BA flights and try to book flights with another airline, which will most likely be far more expensive and a lot less of a baggage allowance than the missionary tickets we have with BA. Appreciate your prayers with this! Just trusting the Lord and seeking wisdom to proceed.
Thanks to my good buddy Todd from 343 Design, our website has been updated and new features added. Look through for some new pics and information.