Summer Internship 2005

Mbale Internships                    Intern Information

Safe Arrival!

June 8, 2005

Greetings from Mbale, Uganda!

My name is Shawn Tyler and I am one of the missionaries working on the Mbale Mission Team. Your email address was given to me by one of the seven missions interns we have visiting us for the next five weeks.

My goal will be to send at least one email each week to give an update on the activities and interaction of the interns from June 3 through July 11. I will try to include pictures and give brief descriptions of some of the activities.

To the point: All seven interns arrived safely in Entebbe International Airport Friday morning around 5:40 AM. They cleared customs and presented themselves to Ian Shelburne (around 6:30 AM) who was waiting for them with a van to take them back to Mbale via a short stop over in Kampala. Part of the delay in getting through customs was the loss of one piece of luggage for Daniel Gray. It seems one of his bags wanted to spend a little more time sightseeing before joining us later. We will keep you posted on this lost luggage.

Ian met up with his wife Danetta in Kampala. They did a little shopping and helped the interns change money. Then they set off for Mbale arriving around 4:00 PM. Their first stop was our house. Ian unloaded the van and paid the driver to release him. Linda and I loaded up all the bags not staying at our house and helped the Shelburnes deliver weary interns to their host families.



We scheduled an early meal at Mike and Judy Shero's to meet all the interns and then finished up with a brief devotional. Eveyrone was tired so we stopped early for bed.

(Jon is goofing off with his book upside down.)

Saturday morning found all the interns back at our house for their first orientation. We gave out two small booklets that included a schedule for the entire internship. There were lists of do's and don'ts, some cultural advice, maps of town and our housing area, reading suggestions, journal letter questions, intern expectation list, and several other helpful guides. We went over the calendar of events and fielded questions. Linda collected money for the internship. Then we sent off all the interns on a scavenger hunt around town. They were to collect prices for a long list of items designed to get them in different shops all over town. We wanted them to get a feel for town before meeting us at Eldima's for lunch. Where was that they asked? We wouldn't tell them. They had to find it on their own.

Saturday afternoon was given for rest. Malachi Shero was having a birthday party and all the interns were invited to attend. The evening will be quiet since electricity will be rationed in Mbale tonight. Tomorrow, the interns will go out in groups to various village visits. Some will attend the town church called Mbale Church of Christ (MCC).

The Interns


Heather Colston - Junior at Ozark Christian College - Majoring in Bible/undecided


Jon Bristow - Junior at Cascade Christian College - Majoring in Bible and Ministry


Kristy Peebles - Junior at Ozark Christian College - Majoring in Bible and Psychology


Daniel gray - Junior at Abilene Christian University - Majoring in Social Work
 

Chad Turner - Junior at Cascade Christian College - Majoring in Bible and Missions
(Actually Chad's picture didnt' turn out well so we will get him in the next newsletter.)

Joshua Granberg - Junior at Harding University - Majoring in Art and Vocational Ministry


Jennifer Allen - Senior at Harding University - Majoring in Public Relations
 

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First Week

Greetings from Mbale, Uganda!

Second, I need to apologize to James Morrill who also arrived with the interns and rounded out our number to eight visitors. I did not put James in the original internship list because he has a special purpose here in Mbale. James agreed to come and help us set up the Messiah Theological Institute's library. Many of you may already know that MTI received a container of more than 11,000 books for the library. Caleb McLean from Lockney, Texas came last year for several weeks and was able to design the library layout, build shelves, catalogue and shelve more than 1,000 of the best books. But Caleb had to leave with about 10,000 books still in boxes. Recently, James contacted us and said he was interested in spending his summer with us to see if he could help us either finish out the cataloguing or come much closer to it. So, while the seven interns are out doing village visits, helping our town church, or taking surveys of church growth, James will be working away in the library sorting books. I will try to keep you updated on his progress as well.
 

This past week the interns divided into two major groups. Phillip Shero took Kristy Peebles, Josh Granberg, Heather Colston, and Jon Bristow as well as James and Noeli Luchivya to the Rakai district of Uganda some 7 hours to the southwest. We work with a growing number of churches in that area and Phillip Shero and James Luchivya were scheduled to teach two extension courses for MTI. The interns spent their time listening to the courses, interviewing church leaders for their survey work, and learning a lot about the culture of that area. A brief visit was made to the Tanzanian border just a few miles away.

Jennifer Allen, Daniel Gray, Chad Turner, and James Morrill stayed in the Mbale area to participate in an extension course in Bubulo and take a survey trip to Lira. Due to security reasons, the survey trip was cancelled and Jennifer, Chad, and Daniel spent most of their time at the Bubulo course. In fact, on Thursday the Tylers' house was robbed and Shawn had to bow out of teaching the course to take care of some police matters. Chad and Daniel stepped in to help teach with the use of Shawn's material.
 

James was able to get a phone line setup and internet working in the library. During the week he was able to prepare several hundred books (at last count 530 books). This process includes looking each book up on the internet, finding its ISBN number, preparing a bar code sticker, entering the data into our database for the library, putting a label on the spine of the book, stamping the book with a library stamp, and shelving the book in its proper place. Part of Saturday afternoon, Daniel, Jennifer, and Chad helped in the library.
 

Saturday evening all of the interns got together for the first time since Monday. They wanted to reconnect and share their experiences for the week. They laughed about their cultural mistakes, shared insights, and drew closer together as a group before our very eyes.

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Change of Plans

Greetings from Mbale, Uganda!

Well my plans on keeping you informed about the internship this year were dashed early on.

First, our house was robbed shortly after the interns came. Don't worry none of the interns were in the house at the time of the robbery or even around town. Our interns were some six hours southwest of Mbale doing a survey trip in Rakai. As it turned out, our housekeeper was the one who planned it and waited for just such an opportunity. We have been busy trying to put back our finances, cooperate with the police investigation, and reapply for passports stolen in the break-in. Such an emotional upheaval and already heavy work load has pushed intern newsletters to the back burner.

A second obstacle appeared when our computer developed a virus that required us to take it to Kampala for repairs. In their efforts to "fix" things, I lost several programs including the one I use to cut and edit my digital photos. I am in the process of seeking a replacement, but for the moment I am without the ability to send pictures of the interns going about their daily activities here.

I have decided to go ahead and send you some reports - sans pictures - on how everyone is faring. I apologize for the lack of pictures.

Shawn

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Sipi Falls

Greetings from Uganda!

One of the most scenic trips we make during the internship each year is to Sipi Falls, about an hour northeast of Mbale. A small stream originating on top of Mount Elgon (14,000 feet) cascades down the northwestern side and at Sipi Falls makes a spectacular descent in three stages with the last fall over 300 feet into a small canyon. The Sipi stream travels another half mile before dropping again onto the flatter plain that is characteristic of central Uganda. The stream eventually empties into Lake Kyoga (pronounced Choga) where the Nile runs through it. It is there that water from Sipi Falls begins its four thousand mile trek to Egypt in the legendary and Biblical Nile River.

Driving three vehicles, we made our way through Sironko northward to Muyembe before turning up the winding mountain road. After two escarpment climbs with breath-taking views, we stopped at a small tourist place called Crow's Nest just 60 minutes from home. The Crow's Nest was established by Peace Corp people a few years ago 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.

Our guide led us out of Crow's Nest down the main road for about 300 yards, and then down a path towards the canyon wall. At the top of the southern wall there is a crack in the rocky side that allows for a series of wooden steps to wind their way down safely. The steps are uneven and sometimes tall. We drop a couple hundred feet very quickly before our feet find a path that winds down to the water fall. It takes us about 45 minutes to walk the path that moves us through fields, compounds, and small groves of trees. The closer we get to the falls the louder is its roar.

Just near the falls, our path comes out about 40 feet higher than the small pool of water catching the falling water. The power of the water is so great falling into the small pond that it creates high winds and a spray that actually stings the closer you get. The spray is so great that we are instantly soaked by the time we make it down the muddy trail (sometimes on our hands and knees) to the edge of the pond.

Most of the interns climb around behind the waterfall to explore while a few of us talk and keep watch closer to the front. We take a group picture at the top of the path again before we return to Crow's Nest.

About an hour is all we need before we scale the muddy slope that leads back to our vehicles.
 

After eating lunch at the Crow's Nest, Ian and I set up a white board for our cultural orientation. We had a British couple interested in the event. They also sat in the back and enjoyed the insights we gave. By the time we finished our orientation, everyone was ready to head home. We were sore, but happy to have visited Sipi Falls.

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The Library Project

Greetings!

This summer's internship is unique in that James Morrill came from Ozark Christian College to work specifically on our library. Messiah Theological Institute's (MTI) library received a container's worth of library books last October and most of them have languished in boxes awaiting someone with library knowledge to help us get them on the shelves. Caleb McLean from Lockney, Texas came last August to help us set up the library, but the books delayed in route, and limited the number of books he could run through the system and put on the shelves. So Caleb spent the first month or so of his time in Mbale working on the bookshelves, the floor layout, setting up a computer and bar code system, hooking up a phone line and purchasing an Internet connection, and pulling together all the necessary equipment to use for opening the boxes of books and processing them. All of the books for the library were stacked in order of priority so that we could make sure our time was spent on the most important books for the library.

With all of this in place, James came into MTI ready to push books through the system and place them on the shelves. Let me cover his footsteps on the process.

When electricity is available, James fires up the computer and hooks up to Internet. Finding the Library of Congress website,

James looks up the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) for each book. Our computer software for the library was designed to work with this particular website, so a key will pop up asking if we want to download the book's information. This automatically fills out the form for our computer saving lots of time and energy. When the book's information is safely in our computer, James then assigns a bar code number to the book, print out a spine sticker (that goes on the back, bottom, outside part of the book) and a catalogue card. Another sticker is made for the spine of the book to use as reference on where it is to be placed on the shelves. After the book receives its spine sticker, it is also stamped with a rubber stamp identifying the book as property of the Messiah Theological Institute's Library in Mbale, Uganda. After this it is ready for shelving.
 

In order to work most efficiently, James will open a box of books, sort them according to whether or not they already have a ISBN. Those that do work more quickly on the computer. Others need to be looked up by title and author. James noted that nearly all books before 1970 do NOT have an ISBN. Most books after 1970 do have an ISBN unless they are from a small, independent publisher. James will hook up to the Internet and collect book information on a large number of books, and then disconnect. This will save us money since we have to pay per minute for Internet services here. He then will work on bar codes, spine stickers, and rubber stamps before shelving them.

With seven additional interns here for the summer, we have incorporated them into the library work whenever they have spare time they wish to donate. They especially help in putting on the spine stickers, rubber stamp, and shelving the books. This has saved lots of time for James in that he can concentrate on the computer and Internet part of the process.

James estimates that it takes about 5-6 minutes per book on the average to get it from the box to the shelf and have its card in the catalogue. Caleb was able to put over 1500 on the shelves during his brief stay and working by himself. So far James has been able to put more than 2000 on the shelves. Our library is beginning to look like a serious theological library.

We have more than 11,000 books to process, so we will need James to stay around for a while. We might hide his passport and keep him here until he finishes.

A brief note of thanks to all the interns for their hard work in processing the books and shelving them. In the beginning, the interns had to move lots of boxes from the shelves and spread the processed books out throughout the system of shelves to make room for new books. This took a lot of lifting, carrying, and adjusting heavy books. The interns did so without complaint. Good job guys (and girls)!