Where in the World is Emily Bean?

A friend from home recently asked me, “Where exactly are you, and what are you doing?” In case you’ve just tuned in our have forgotten, for the past year I’ve been in south western Uganda working for a small organization (ACTS) that brings safe water to rural communities. My role has primarily been to coordinate the health and environmental education programs that run concurrently with the water project.

Bwesumbu Football (Soccer) Club, the team I played with near the ACTS camp.

I speak in the past tense because this is all about to change. Yes, it is not what I had planned, but through various circumstances, prayer and wisdom from those I respect, it has become apparent that it would not be beneficial for me to continue with ACTS for another year.

So what’s next? Well, if I could answer that, where would the excitement of life be? If you read the previous post you’ll see that living here requires extreme flexibility, and I’ve become almost comfortable with the unknown (note, almost). What I do know is this:

• I am still sensing a call and desire to work amongst the poor in Africa. As hard as it’s been, this place lodges itself deeper and deeper into my heart.
• I am becoming increasingly interested in agriculture work amongst subsistence farmers (there’s an awesome conservation farming program called Farming God’s Way and I’d love to learn and teach it).
• I need more knowledge/training in agricultural and community development. Grad school perhaps?
• I am torn between the wonderful family, friends, church and life that I left at home and the opportunities I see before me here.

As the days pass, plans slowly fall into place, with many questions still remaining. In the next three weeks I am planning to visit friends in Kenya and Iris Ministries in Mozambique. After that I’m heading to Lesotho (a small south African country) for 6 weeks of training in Farming God’s Way. Then I’ll be returning to “home” here in Mbarara, Uganda for a week-long conference on transformational development. Then the plan is to return to good ol’ PA in November.

Emily's travel map for the next two months

Although most of my plane tickets have been purchased, I hesitate to put this “itinerary” into writing because a wise person once said, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” Hopefully God’s not laughing too much right now.

I will do my best to keep you posted as I travel over the next few months. I may have to resort to more emails and less posting/photos, as I don’t know what internet access will be like. Until later…

Saying Goodbye to ACTS

Yesterday I bid farewell to my ACTS colleagues and the Bwesumbu community members that have become friends over the past year. (Read the post that follows this one for more information on the transition from ACTS.) These 10+ months that I have spent with ACTS in Bwesumbu have contained much learning and stretching, tears and laughter, loneliness and belonging. I must confess that many times I just wanted to be in a familiar place where people don’t stare at me, where I can understand the language, where I know how the culture functions, and where I can walk in the woods or ride my bike. However, I have no regrets of coming, and I believe that somehow this year and all it contained fits beautifully into a bigger tapestry of intersecting lives and God’s purposes.

Colleauge Pidson (one of our amazing mechanics) and Patrick, a volunteer and soccer friend.

Speaking in terms of work, I can look back and see that I was able to contribute to the efforts of ACTS and the impact it will have in Bwesumbu. Thanks to all of you who have been a part of this endeavour whether through encouragement, prayer or finances. Here’s a brief summary of the work I (and therefore you) have been a part of:

• Along with my counterparts, Rose and Jovanice, I coordinated the health and environmental education programs. This was mostly administrative, managerial and logistical support, particularly when it involved anything with a computer.
• We completed a home-to-home survey, and I wrote a report on the demographic, health and environmental status of homes in Bwesumbu.
• In February and March I conducted an impact assessment study in a previous ACTS project area that was able to demonstrate significant positive change for the community as a result of ACTS’ work.
• I led 18 of my colleagues through a discipleship class that met weekly to discuss basic aspects of following Christ. I was excited to be able to finish the last study in our book the night before I left!

Teaching discipleship class

The ACTS staff discipleship class

• In the past couple months I’ve been introduced to a conservation farming method, and I taught it to ACTS’ widow cooperatives by planting two demonstration plots.
• Throughout all of this, my hope was to equip and empower my colleagues to better manage the health and environment programs. I taught basic computer skills, gave driving lessons, and have been working with Rose and Jovanice on program evaluation and encouraging them to dream and develop their programs.

The ACTS Bwesumbu water project and its programs will be finishing in September and the ACTS team will move to a new area to start the process all over again. Pray for the team’s transition and for the community in Bwesumbu to care well for the resources and knowledge that has been entrusted to them.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for standing with me through this year. The words from one of my favourite songs run often through my head: “This has been a long road/harder than I anticipated/but it was good.” (From Megan Bream’s “Conclusion”.) I don’t know exactly where the journey of life is taking me, but I am looking ahead with much hope and expectation.

Colleague and budding guitarist Hannington. I helped him figure out chords for some of the his favorite songs, and he's taking care of my guitar while I travel so that he can practice.

It's a Gong Show

[Note: this post was written near the beginning of July.]

They say that to be a missionary you need to be flexible. But I’ve concluded that a new word needs to be invented – one that goes way beyond “flexible.”

Take this morning for example: Steve and Brittany (two volunteers) and I were supposed to be headed back to the village for work at 8:30am. Mind you, we were supposed to have returned three days ago, but plans changed (not surprising at all). But this morning when they came to pick me up in one of our ACTS pickup truck, we discovered a seriously leaking radiator and a water pump on its last leg. So we called our mechanics and asked for another truck option. We got differing opinions, but finally decided on one. So Steve went to return the broken truck. While he was away my phone rang. It was Steve asking “How important is it to have a working emergency/hand brake?” Seriously?, I thought, but I answered politely, “Yes, we need a working brake. Any other options?” After multiple phone calls, we found that none of the five trucks here could be taken! So, it looks like we’ll be working from town for at least another day. I had just closed up my house in preparation for being gone for three weeks. I had emptied my fridge, given away food, and packed all my clothes to take back to the village. [Sigh…] I guess I should now pull some food out of the freezer and bring my bags back inside. Oh, and call our colleagues in the village and tell them a second time that our arrival will be delayed. Flexibility? Somehow it just doesn’t fit anymore.

Driving one of our ACTS trucks. I love this little Toyata Hillux. I wish they sold them in North America.

These types of situations are not an anomaly in my life. Rather, I’ve come to count on them. (I’m not saying they never bother me.) I picked up a phrase from Steve and Brittany which is the most sutabile one I’ve found for describing situations like the one above. I simply say, “It’s a gong show.” Originally a TV show reference, the Urban Dictionary now defines a “gong show” as “an event marred by confusion, ineptitude and shenanigans”. Basically it’s a situation that has gone way out of control. What a perfect fit!

In trying to find a replacement word for “flexibility”, I decided its definition must be “the ability to live within a perpetual gong show.” Therefore, to live here we concluded that one must possess not just flexibility but gongability. Maybe I should start marketing the word to mission organizations.

Steve, Brittany and I with the small July ACTS team. (The rest of the team was on their annual leave.)