Goings-on

I know I’ve been light on blogging of late – as soon as I think not much is happening, things happen.

First, some good news… my proposal is done!  It will be presented 4 Oct, and I’m thrilled/nervous/relieved/thankful.  My supervisor thinks there will be changes, and that is fine with me.  It’s just great to be at an end-point, even if it felt anticlimactic to read her email.  I get to keep reading (what else?), but I can work on the questions I will ask in the interviews, and I can watch YouTube videos on how to conduct a focus group.  That made me smile; my supervisor has no idea that I’ve conducted quite a few focus groups in my day, though I probably need to brush up on my skills.  It’ll be interesting to see how those work in the African cultural setting!

I have some friends who are in Uganda for a mission trip, so I wanted to visit them.  If they can fly several thousand miles, I can drive a couple hundred kilometers!  Michael and Jen were “deep in the bush” as we say.  Getting to that village was a typical Ugandan adventure… drive down the road, branch off where you’re supposed to, go down the murram (it’s dirt, but it’s not called dirt) road, praying that you’re going down the right road, then calling to get the remaining directions and paying a boda driver to follow him because he’s the only one who knows what those remaining directions mean.  Pray as you go down that path that you’re using as a road that you can climb the hill that feels precipitously steep as you go down, then offer many thanks to God that you arrive at your destination well.  Amen.

I will be having a visitor for the next month.  She’s a missionary serving in South Sudan, who needs to get away for some literal peace and quiet so she can work on her masters dissertation.  I understand that concept, though I’m completely humbled – she is serving Jesus under tremendously difficult circumstances.  I am in awe, and am looking forward to having her.