The
Interns Have Arrived!
June 3, 2004
Greetings!
Hi! My name is Shawn Tyler, one of the Mbale Team missionaries, and I will
try to send you at least one picture a week to let you know how the interns
are doing.
First, you should know that all six interns arrived safely - though Holly's
luggage decided to take a couple of extra days in route. Shenai was bringing
a guitar for us and it didn't come in either. So, I will be traveling to
Entebbe tomorrow to check on late luggage.
Below is a picture of the interns together with James and Noeli Luchivya.
I think you can figure out who James and Noeli are in this picture. The
interns are:
Front row (from left to right): Lauren Fitzgerald, Rachael Campbell, Shenai
Rieken (and Noeli Luchivya).
Back row (from left to right): Nicole Temm, Chris Chaney, Holly Sobetski
(and James Luchivya).
This picture was taken today after we finished our first orientation session
about the internship. We spent about three hours talking about our
exptations of interns, the schedule, trips, finances, intern project, meal
rotations, and a bunch of other things.
After the orientation session, Ian Shelburne and I (Shawn) gave all the
interns a tour of our town church facilities and the Bible school compound
(Messiah Theological Institute). Tomorrow, the interns will do a town
survey in the morning, eat lunch at Eldima (which they have to find), and
then spend the afternoon with Mike and Judy Shero and the town church.
Saturday, the interns will be going out to village visits with James and
Noeli (two separate trips). Noeli will be conducting a ladies meeting, and
James will be conducting a wedding. Sunday, the interns will go out
with me (Shawn), Ian Shelburne, and Mike Shero.
Hope this will be a blessing to you.
Shawn
Return to top
Still the
First Week
June 7, 2004
Greetings!
I thought I would send a few more pictures.
Nicole Temm, Chris Chaney and Lauren Fitzgerald are getting ready for a day
out on Saturday. The six interns divided up into two groups - one for a
ladies meeting, and the other for a wedding.
Five female interns have been wanting to get a hold of Chris' mohawk haircut
and he finally consented today (Monday). Rachel Campbell cut the spike off
the mohawk and all the girls are talking about cutting the rest off within
the week. We will keep you posted on what happens to Chris.
All six interns and John and Linda Glover ate supper tonight with James and
Noeli Luchivya, some of our coworkers here in Mbale. They feasted on rice,
ugali, boiled bananas, beef, greens, tea, and chapatis. After supper, James
and Noeli, Bosco and Nancy sange several Swahili songs and we sang several
English songs. We finished the night off at our house (Tylers) playing a few
rounds of Taboo.
Tomorrow the interns will experience our weekly office day, business
meeting, and begin their intern project.
Return to top
The First Full Week
June 10, 2004
Greetings!
Several things have happened over the last couple of days. Mondays are
our family days. We spent some relaxing time at a local hotel, swam in the
pool, ate lunch, and rested. Monday afternoon found some of the interns
playing cards and laughing. Tuesday is our weekly office day at the town
church building. We spend from 8:00 AM until after noon visiting with any
and all church leaders who come into to town to talk to us. They often set
dates for village visits, pick up tracts, collect any newsletters, arrange
evangelistic meetings, etc. The interns interviewed many of the church
leaders for their project, observed some of our office functions, and sat in
on our staff meeting. In the afternoon, the Mbale Mission Team had a
business meeting (pictured below). The interns sat in on the meeting and
watched how we conduct team business, make decisions, and organize our
weekly activities. (Shawn and Ian are in the background of the picture
below.)
On Wednesday, the interns worked at the town church (called Mbale Church or
Christ - MCC). They did some door knocking in one of the town's housing
districts (Indian Quarters), ate lunch at the church, and did some more
visiting in the afternoon. They finished off with a women's Bible study at
MCC before going to their hosts' homes. We finished the day with a team
devotional that started at 8:15 PM.
On Thursday all of the interns went with me and John Glover to Kagwese about
45 miles west of Mbale. Before the meeting began, I took the interns around
the compound and pointed out different kinds of food planted, important
trees, the roofing styles, and different kinds of huts. I tried to get them
to evaluate the compound as I see it after years of living here. Shenai and
Nicole (pictured below) sat with all the other interns as four different
speakers encouraged the crowd. I was one of those speakers and I cut my
sermon down to 50 minutes. ;-)
We finally stopped our worship service about 1:30 PM when the food was
ready. As is customary for the Bugwere area, all of the church members left
the building to allow their visitors to eat by themselves. They consider it
rude to sit and watch their visitors eat. By leaving us alone, they reason,
we are free to eat as much as we want. We were servied a large plate of
rice, two small plates of posho (cornmeal cooked into a dough), beef in
soup, and cool cokes (probably brought from a nearby store.
On the way home, we had to stop and let the two men sitting in the back of
my pickup get inside (one in my truck and another in John Glover's truck).
Rain pelted us most of the way home dropping the temperature several
degrees. John Glover (pictured above with the interns) is serving our team
as teacher, preacher, evangelist for the next four months to help fill in
for Phillip and Laura Shero who just left on furlough.
For those of you watching the ever-changing hair style of Chris Chaney,you
will note in the last picture that Chris buzzed all of his hari this
morning. This rid him of the mohawk hairstyle and put him more in tune with
local Christians' expectations of visiting American Christians.
Return to top
Sipi Falls
June 14, 2004
Greetings!
Let me apologize for the size of this email. I have included several
pictures of Sipi Falls, and it was difficult not to include even more. These
pictures come from Nicole Temm's digital camera because I forgot mine.
Sorry!
Sipi Falls is about an hour northeast of Mbale. A small stream originating
on top of Mount Elgon (14,000 feet) cascades down the western side and at
Sipi Falls makes a spectacular descent in three stages with the last fall
over 300 feet into a small canyon. Sipi stream travels another half mile
before dropping again onto the flatter plain that is characteristic of
central Uganda. The stream empties into Lake Kyoga (pronounced Choga) where
the Nile runs through it. So Sipi Falls water can begin its thousand mile
trek to Egypt.
We stopped at a small tourist place called Crow's Nest. It was established
by Peace Corp people who wanted to provide a cheap place for tourists to
experience Sipi Falls. We ordered lunch and then hired a guide to take us on
the two hour hike down into the canyon to the bottom of Sipi Falls.
From left ot right: Leila Shelburne, Lauren Fitzgerald, Nicole Temm, Rachael
Campbell, Shenai Reiken, Holly Sobetski, and Natalie Tyler. Not pictured
with us on the trip are: Chris Chaney, Linda Tyler, myself, John and Linda
Glover. Linda Tyler, John and Linda Glover decided to stay at Crow's Nest
and enjoy the scenery and birds while we took the hike.
The first part of the hike has a long stair case of about 100 huge steps
that take us over the canyon rim through some narrow crevices in the side.
The picture above shows us going back up - a killer of a hike.
Our trail took us through the small cluster of houses in the bottom right
corner of this picture. We walked through the grove of tall dark blue gum
trees just behind and then approached Sipi Falls on the right.
Rachael, Holly, Nicole, and Natalie enjoy a snapshot in the spray of the
water fall. The rest explored around the water fall pool.
Most everyone except me and Shenai braved the slippery rocks around behind
the water fall. Getting completely soaked in the process, our brave group
encircled the water fall without difficulty. Nicole said it was one of the
most exciting things she has ever done.
The water fall drops 300 feet onto a set of rocks in the middle of the pool.
Sometimes the wind blows the stream of water to the side and changes the
sound echoing off the walls. When the water hits directly on the flat
surfaces of the lower rocks, it has a slapping sound emphasizing the power
with which the water descends.
We left home about 9:00 AM and arrived in Sipi Falls about 10:15 AM. We
began our trek about 11:00 AM and returned for a tasty meal by 1:00 PM. Most
of the interns tried cheese or tuna sandwiches. John Glover tasted the
vegetable curry. Chris and I insisted on the local favorite - smoked bamboo
shoots cooked in ground up peanut sauce. We made it back home by 3:15 PM.
It was a good day, but we are all tired from the adventure.
Return to top
Rafting the Nile
June 26, 2004
Greetings!
Last Monday, a large group of the Mbale mission team and interns traveled an
hour and a half southwest to Jinja to raft the Nile. We booked our trip with
Nile River Explorers, a group we have used numerous times before. We paid
$65 for a 4-5 hour excursion covering 10 miles (17 kilometers) of the Nile
with lunch at the end. We put larger rubber rafts into the Nile just below
the dam in Jinja and cover some of the most exciting parts of the Nile.
Because the river drops over 90 feet within this short distance, several
large rapids appear. In our picture below before the trip, there are from
left to right as the faces appear: Brian Stroud (apprentice intern to
Kampala), Holly Sobetski, Meagan Carey (Brian's fiancee), Ian Shelburne,
Shawn Tyler, Nicole Temm, Shenai Reiken, Rachael Campbell, Lauren
Fitzgerald, and Chris Chaney. You can see part of the rubber rafts in the
background.
The yellow map below (from the back of Shenai's T-shirt) lists all the
rapids we encountered including: Morning Shower (1), Whirlpool (2), Tall
Walk (1), Camp Rapid (2), Rib Cage (4), Bujagali Falls (5), 50/50 (3), Total
Gunga (5), Surf City (3), Silverback (5), Jaws (3), and Pyramid (2). The
numbers behind each name represent the size of the falls with 5 being the
largest rapid that rafting companies will attempt with amateurs.
Let me give a brief overview of each of the rapids we encountered.
Morning Shower (1) - The first three rapids are small and provide our
guide an opportunity to test us and give us practice for the larger rapids
further down stream. For our first rapid, the guide (Henry) wanted us to
jump out of the boat and practice going through the rapid with our arms out,
facing down stream, and our feet up. He coached us on how to breathe and to
encounter waves. This was invaluable information for later.
Whirlpool (2) - Henry our guide wanted us to practice rowing through
this rapid. This would also be helpful in later rapids where we would need
to place our boat in the correct position to enter a large wave. We passed
safely without anyone falling out of the boat. After this rapid, we
practiced turning the boat over and getting under it and back into it.
Tall Walk (1) - Henry visited with us and coached us about further down
the stream. We sat and rested after our turning the boat over and practicing
to get back in. Henry guided the boat into this rapid and even turned it
around backwards as we went through safely.
Camp Rapid (2) - Henry had us row through this rapid and practice the
"lean in" command of getting our weight low and in the center of the boat.
Such tactics make passing through larger waves more successful.
Rib Cage (4) - This rapid is the most disorienting in that we must
enter it a little backwards because the water twists us around a corner. We
must hug the right bank in order to avoid some larger more dangerous falls
to the left. It is our first big drop and was quite exciting. We passed
through without difficulty. Rib Cage is only the top part of Bujagali Falls.
Bujagali Falls (5) - Henry put is in an eddy just above the falls to
give us time to view the huge wave we were about to encounter. He gave
instructions before each rapid on what to do, how he would steer the boat,
and what to do if we fell out or the boat turned over. Good advice for this
wave. We went down into the wave and had our boat turn over (left over
right). Thankfully, we all stayed hanging to the raft's safety ropes. When
the water calmed down we flipped the boat upright and prepared for the next
rapid.
50/50 (3) - This rapid is called 50/50 because the largest wave breaks
different ways every few minutes. If it breaks forward, the raft will go
through without difficulties. If it is breaking backwards, the raft tends to
flip. The guide can not always guess which way the wave will turn as we
enter the rapid. For us the wave turned against us and our boat over turned.
We righted the boat after the water calmed down.
Total Gunga (5) - This rapid is the longest rapid we would encounter
for the day. After several large waves at the front, one huge dip and wave
awaited us before the end. Our boat made it through the first waves without
problems but on the last wave (more than ten feet high) our boat went
vertical and dumped backwards. Nicole floated free of the boat but was
rescued immediately by one of the two kayaks that patrol the waters around
each raft.
Surf City (3) - When the water is running high, we can enter Surf
City from the side and practice surfing the big wave as many times as we
want. however, today, the water was running low so we took it only once. We
were surprised that our boat hit oddly and turned over. As we struggled back
into the boat, our guide, Henry exclaimed he could not believe we turned
over on a grade three rapid.
Silverback (5) - This rapid is called silverback because the white foam
created by the two branches of the river coming back into itself. A more
powerful stream from the right forces four large waves up. The first is
large followed by two smaller ones and then the fourth and most powerful
one. We hit the first one and made it through safely but the stream forced
us out to the left making us miss the three successive waves. We kept inside
the boat but missed some of the action.
Jaws (3) - We added Sam, and English fellow who was surf boarding down
the Nile, to our raft for Jaws. Henry guided us through it without incident.
Pyramid (2) - After having braved three larger grade five rapids, our
last grade two rapid seemed tame, until Henry asked us to stand up on the
perimeter of the boat, locking hands, bending our knees, to see if we could
go through the rapid without falling. We took the fist wave well, but lost
our balance. Half of us fell out the left side of the boat. Rachael became
separated from the boat and was brought back to us by a kayak.
The first picture below shows us in our raft after having completed Rib Cage
and just before we wiped out on Bujagali Falls. Notice the kayak to the left
of us and behind us. Linda Tyler took this picture from the shore.
We are in the boat on the left. Chris Chaney, Brian Stroud, and Meagan Carey
are in the boat to the right. They went first through Bujagali Falls and
passed without difficulty. We weren't so lucky.
Rachael (sitting at Shawn Tyler's computer): This last picture is the group
after we survived the rapids...and we are all still smiling!! You can see
Bujagali Falls in the background, which was our first grade five rapid of
the day. All of us had a great time, and were so thankful that Shawn and Ian
took time out of our schedules to take us on this incredible adventure! Many
of us had never been rafting before (including myself!), and we braved the
Nile River! It was a bonding experience for all of us, and a first-hand look
at the power and beauty in God's creation.
Return to top
_small.gif)