LED!

Oh, for the last session which had tons of pitcures from space in it the other LED finally worked right!

Day Two Passion Kampala

Well this will be short because it is 1 am local time. So here is my list of moments for the day:

• Chris Tomlin and the children's group singing "There is Love" which is an African beat song. So wonderful.


• Each Passion event the students always give to support the next event. I got to hold a bucket and it was amazing to see kids in Africa give to make Passion Paris happen. Talk about a moving experience.


• The sunset over the field
• The Ugandan, heart, these people are so warm and loving.


• My great volunteers who worked so hard!


• How smoothly everything went, God is Good!

• The fact that I hurt everywhere, but still have such joy about what happens


• That more than 20,000 students got to experience Passion


• The amazing friends I've made with fellow volunteers


• That I'm in my hotel and we don't have to meet until 10:45 tomorrow!

Well I intend to write more tomorrow, but for now it's off to bed.

LED? Who Cares? Passion Kampala!

Day one is in the books and was amazing! There were some early worries with running out of volunteer credentials and t-shirts and even a rumor that a place in town was printing fake ones, but in the end everything went so smoothly! OK, so the second LED didn't work, but it didn't even seem to matter and after the session it looked like they might have finally got it working! I'm sorry about the poor night shot, it was really hard to get a pic to do the atmosphere justice, but it was electric.


OK, back to the beginning. I was blessed with an awesome group of volunteers, so willing to help and so energetic. They all belong to one of two churches and are pretty close friends. When I had my first meeting with them this morning I had to step away to take a cell call (speaking of which, the Ugandan cell system is cool, you can get reception anywhere and I mean anywhere and it's pretty cheap, even to the states). So anyway I step to the side and within about a minute my whole group sprung into song singing, "I am a friend of God." They all were awesome for me today.


The event start was surreal. The music started and the words started flashing on the screen and it all kind of hit me that Passion Kampala had happened. The Ugandans really get into things too. my best estimate of crowd tonight, maybe 20,000 with more expected tomorrow. It was awesome to here the crowd singing "God of this City." The crowd moved so easy it was amazing.

Well I might be a little tired, a little red and have some blisters on my feet, but I know I'm not the only one in that group and I believe in grace. Tomorrow is a long day, but I have no doubt that it will be a great day for Kampala. Good night.

20,000 and SPF 30

Well it looks like a venue! It has a perimeter fence, tents and the second LED wall is almost back in place and things are looking promising for it to work. It was a beautiful day, no rain. This sun is brutal though, I had SPF 30 on and I reapplied 4 times and still got lit up and a little burned. Sound checks looked awesome, something amazing is going to happen in Kampala. It just melts your heart to see Chris Tomlin on stage playing "How Great is Our God" with an African children's group singing behind him. I think when they started the whole field froze for a couple of minutes and just stopped to take it all in.

So here's the really exciting news, we already have 20,000 students registered! There is just a buzz everywhere and tomorrow I think the place is going to go nuts. The voluteers are awesome, so eager to serve. We have so many who want to help, hopefully we can find roles for all of them.

So are there still worries and prayers? Sure. Good weather would make things so much easier. Loading the students on and off the field will be a challenge, but our folks have a great plan. Also, hopefully we won't be in a situation where we have to turn anyone away.

So it's late and I'm tired, but I'll share a quick story from the people at registration. So there was this little African boy, maybe 7, that was trying to get in. Finally he shows up at the gate and must have heard some of the volunteers talking because he said, "I'm Chris Tomlin and I'm here to play my guitar at 4:00!"

Good night and the next time you here from me I should have pictures of Passion Kampala!

The Sights and Smells of Africa

A note about the look and feel of Africa. I will never complain about the air quality in Atlanta again. It's like you picked-up a 2 pack a day habit coming here. Most trash is burned and I don't think most cars are passing Georgia emissions. Africa sort of looks how you think it would, but two things strike you. The first is the unique smell which sort of smells like a mixture of mud and fire. The second is the joy of the people. I was struck at the orphanage that even in a place like that with no parents in Africa, the kids made pictures that said, "God is Good."

Boats, War Eagle, Rain and Things Get a Little Insane

What a day. So we started off with our morning meeting. Then a large part of us went off to an orphange in a town called Bethany, however, getting there was a little different than I expected. So we were to take a bus to the shore of Lake Victoria and then take a boat the rest of the way. Most of us were thinking a ferry style boat and someone even asked if we were going to drive the bus on the boat....um no. This boat kind of reminded me of a large wooden canoe with a small motor and it launched from a dock that really felt like Africa. We asked if people swam in the water and the comment back was, "Only in and emergency." When we got there we also saw ant hills as high as people, probably something best to stay away from.

The orphange was great. The kids were wonderful. There was a group there from Auburn University too. Pam, for your sake I made a video of them doing the "War Eagle" cheer and I guess they taught it to some of the kids too. It was a pretty powerful trip. It was a place of joy and happiness and the kids have a singing troop that performed for us too.

IWe had a huge 30 minute rain shower and it caused some major chaos at the field. Rivers and lakes were formed in the field. We had a 2 ton LED video wall come crashing down into the spectator area on the field and some general flooding. No one was injured. We really need for it not to rain on Friday or Saturday. I so trust the people on this trip and have no doubt by Friday things will be right. They think there's a chance it can still work and there are fences being put in place to protect from it happening again.

More Kodak Moments

We've Upgraded! (From Goats to Cows)

So it was a little warm out there today. We spent about 4 hours on the field and were getting roasted, I can't imagine what 12 hours on Saturday will be like. Clouds without rain will be a wonderful thing.

We have part of a fence and the rest appears to be going well! We also had cows grazing and the goats were still around too. Someone had the bright idea that maybe we could put sandwich boards on them and use them for advertising.

So it's Tuesday and I guess we have 10,000 people registered already. The rumor is that we might have 30,000 college kids inside the perimeter and up to another extremely large group of non-college folks around the outside. You have to show a college ID to get in and we're thinking me might have a crowd control issue. I guess Ugandans don't handle queues too well and sometimes just form a human spear at the point of entry and shove. They also tend to not want to show-up until right when the event starts. We're thinking a crossing guard type with white gloves a red stop sign isn't going to cut it, so we're going to need to work some major crowd control magic.

Lunch was interesting, pizza served in chicken boxes. They were labled veggie, chicken, beef and meat. We didn't really know what "meat" was. Food here is interesting and it's really about psychology. If you order something "american" and expect it to taste like back home, you'll probably be disappointed. If you go with the local stuff with little to no expectations, it'll probably be good.

Went to the local market and, like a Monty Python movie, You Have to Haggle! Got some pretty cool stuff, but since some of you reading this blog will be getting some of it I'll just keep that to myself for now.

Things to Pray for....."TIA"

OK, so here's the list of current worries for you all to pray for:

• We don't really have a good rain plan, so sunshine would be nice.



• That the fence would be built the way we hope to help us have some level of security.



• That no one gets Malaria. (I guess even with bug spray and medication it can still happen)



• That we find a good way to queue the students to load the field and get the students on and off with minimal issues. Right now we only have two doors, but hope to come up with something so we don't have to open 5 hours early and take 5 hours to empty the place plus have an evacuation risk with the expected 30,000 (and people think we'll hit the number).



• That catering, security and other services come through. I guess the local Coke distributor backed out lat week from providing water because they were out. Hopefully we don't have too many similar issues.

I heard a pupular saying here is "TIA" which stands for "This Is Africa" and it basically means don't count on things being the way you expect. Everything takes longer, doesn't happen, isn't what you anticipated or is more expensive than you think. We have some great Ugandans working with us, but there are a lot of moving parts that need to fall just right.

Here's a pic of the stage coming together.

Well, it's off to morning meeting and the field!

Caterpillars!

Don't touch! See post from a week ago.

OK, Now I Feel Like I'm in Africa

Wow, this place is as advertised. The streets remind me of a scene from an Indiana Jones movie. Street markets, scooters darting everywhere, it's like a beehive. The food has been tough already, it's all very good, but steering clear of bad water is tough. It's hard to think of avoiding anything that could have been washed with water. So they handle restaurant customer service a little different. It's simultaneously spectacular and interesting. They are so attentive and professional, but some things make you wonder. Someone ordered a burger, it was someones else's at a different table and he had already taken the cheese off of it and put it to the side of the plate. The server actually took the plate back, gave him the right one and took the plate, melted cheese on the side and all and gave it to the table next to us!

Another strange thing, be on the lookout for "fake" water. I guess they drain the sealed bottles out the bottom for the "good" water and then refill it with "bad" stuff. I guess you check the bottom for an injection hole and really avoid buying from someone you don't know. Theft is a big issue, but the locals tell us that people will take unprotected stuff, but crimes against people are pretty low.

So we headed to the "field" for the first time today. It's always a good sign when goats are grazing where you hope to hold a concert in 4 days. The stage is going up and the big project is getting a fence around the perimeter right now for security. We hope and pray that it will be done in time. This equator sun is INTENSE too. You just feel like you're cooking even though it isn't all that hot out. I guess you can get burned in only 15 minutes unprotected. The weather in the shade is very pleasant though, just the right temp. All the Ugandan people we have met have been so warm and friendly

The pic to the left is the empty field, other than the goats. The start of the stage is just starting on the right side of the picture. We've spent part of the day planning, part making hospitality baskets and part at the venue. Had some downtime as well so we got in a few games of spades too and had an amazing back to back "blind low" comeback from almost 400 down!

No Ambien Required

Slept like a rock last night, about to start my first day!  We have breakfast and then a meeting at 9am.  Think we'll probably make it to the field where the event is shortly after that.  From what I understand that area is surrounded by some pretty rough neighborhoods.  Probably get my first Ugandan cell phone today, talk about an event.  First little thing that it's tough to remember, to wash off your toothbrush with bottled water instead of stuff from the tap.

I'm Here!

I have arrived and am at the hotel and internet appears to be working!  This will be short because I'm pretty dead tired.  The first thing I noticed here is how dark everything is at night.  Most building are lit by a single bulb and most parking areas and streets are unlit.  It was Sunday night at 10:30pm and auto shops were still open and stores were too, activity everywhere.  Our hotel is very nice, the President of Uganda actually had a meeting here tonight!  We were hoping he was here to greet us, but no such luck.  Well more tomorrow and here are a couple of quick pics of the dark at the airport and an African sunset from the plane.

In DC next Stop Paris

Had a great walking tour of DC on my layover, now about ready to board for Paris!  This is a picture of the White House that I actually took!  I'm really proud of it.  I have a bunch more of the Vietnam Memorial, Washington Memorial, Lincoln Memorial and Capital.  Gotta love a $3.10 city bus and an 8 hour layover.  Had a real American lunch, McDonald's chicken nuggets on the national mall.  Note, download speeds are OK here, but upload is lousy, so will probably limit pics to 2-3 key ones per day.

Packed and Ready!

Well I am writing this to you from the lobby of the B concourse at the Atlanta airport!  I am packed and ready.  Checked my bag all the way to Uganda and waved goodbye and hoped to see it again.  I have a really long 8 hour layover in DC and then a short one in Amsterdam so I'm hoping all the timing works out.  Who knows, maybe I'll leave the airport in DC for a bit and be a tourist.  Then it's off to Paris.  Well here's to on-time and comfortable flights!  More later!

...But I Did Stay at the Serena Hotel Last Night

Well here's the hotel in Uganda, the Serena, that I'll be staying at. Looks like a pretty nice place to call home for a couple of days.  It appears pretty Western and I hope the Wi-Fi works!

To DEET or Not to DEET.

OK, so I will have to credit Pam with the above title. I guess they grow so pretty big mosquitos in Africa so bug spray is a must. The travel clinic was too funny. They said something to the effect of, "Use lots of bug spray with DEET. DEET is a poison and not very good for you, but effective...Use something with lots of DEET." So I took this to mean that bugs are a pretty big issue over there, especially with things like yellow fever. Well let's just hope mosquitos don't find me too attractive. OK, so I'm a chemist, so I thought I'd throw the chemical structure of DEET up here too.

Singing in the Rain in Kampala

So I guess it does rain in Africa. Got an e-mail today telling us to bring gear and flashlights to work in the rain.

This could be just like "One Day" in the rain (an outdoor Passion event several years ago where it rained) except in Uganda.....see forcast below with 65% and 70% chance of rain:

FridayMay 30
Afternoon: Showers / Clear
Hi: 76° Lo: 64°
Evening: Drizzle. High 76F and low 64F.
Rain 65%

SaturdayMay 31
Afternoon: Showers
Hi: 74° Lo: 62°
Evening: Drizzle. High 74F and low 62F.
Rain 70%

This could make life more interesting........Well God is in control so if he wants rain then let it rain.

Go! Pack! Go!...But Crisp $100 Bills Only Please

Ok, so for those of you from Wisconsin, you probably recognize the first part of the title above as a stadium chant for the Green Bay Packers, but I think that's going to be my life for the next couple of days.  I have to go and do things like get my prescriptions filled for Malarone, Cipro and Ambien, get some other supplies like breakfast bars and pack like crazy.  I also need to go to the bank to get some major cash as I guess you get nearly double the exchange rate when you use crisp and unfolded $100 bills from the year 2001 and beyond.  Talk about picky.  I'm really hoping to not procrastinate and get most of my packing done by sat Thursday, but you know what they say about good intentions.

I guess according to our leaders, we're all set and the only thing left to do is show-up in Uganda. Still doesn't seem quite real yet, but I'm sure it will Saturday morning!

Don’t Touch the Caterpillars

So these were some fun words from a recent e-mail about Uganda, "Don’t touch the caterpillars on the event field! Redness and swelling sure to follow."  The first site below is all about caterpillars in Uganda and the second is a YouTube video of a huge caterpillar that's really kind of freaky:

http://travel.mongabay.com/uganda/topics/caterpillars.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xLOtd5EcAg

I'm both excited and nervous about the new world I'm about to enter.  I love experiencing different cultures and especially love trying new foods, but I might have to reel that in a bit over there for the sake of my health.  I guess theft is also a pretty big issue over there, but I can't think of anything that I'm bringing over that would even be close to resisting letting anyone take.  My biggest worries right now are things like a stomach bug or sunburn or sore feet or something else that would stop me from being able to help in all the ways I want to.  I'm also hoping that Pam and my mom don't worry too much while I'm gone, I'm sure they'll do great though and I've so much appreciated all their support. Other than that, as long as I don't get my passport stolen, or I get it replaced if I do so that I can get home, I'll be happy.  I so much trust the team I'm with and have faith know we'll be watched over and given the grace to push through even the stuff that seems tough and confusing at the time.

Running Through Schiphol

So here are all my flight plans. The one thing you'll notice below is that I have only 50 minutes to get off my flight from Paris and on my flight to Uganda. This is the part where we all hope and pray I don't have any delays and that the gates are somewhat close and not on opposite ends of the world. I may have to wear my running shoes and plan on packing all the critical stuff in carry-on luggage as I'm not really counting on my luggage making it. Oh well, hopefully it all works out! Oh, in case you didn't know, Schiphol is the name of the airport in Amsterdam. So if you want to know how fast I have to run that day, you can check it out with a flight tracker website like the one below and my flights are also listed:

http://www.flytecomm.com/cgi-bin/trackflight

Sat 24 MAY DELTA 1044 LV ATLANTA 705A AR WAS-DULLES 846A

Sat 24 MAY AIR FRANCE 39 LV WAS-DULLES 445P AR PARIS-DEGAUL 615A

Sun 25 MAY KLM ROYAL DUTCH 1228 LV PARIS-DEGAUL 900A AMSTERDAM 1020A

Sun 25 MAY KLM ROYAL DUTCH 561 LV AMSTERDAM 1110A AR ENTEBBE UG 815P

Sun 01J UN KLM ROYAL DUTCH 562 LV ENTEBBE UG 1020P AR AMSTERDAM 550A

Mon 02 JUN NORTHWEST 39 OK W LV AMSTERDAM 800A AR DETROIT METRO 1035A

Mon 02 JUN DELTA 1819 OK N LV DETROIT METRO 1150A AR ATLANTA 146P COACH

Visa, It's Everywhere You Want to Be

So I got my Uganda visa in the mail today and I guess that was my last hurdle.  It's a little boring looking, basically a tan sticker that says Uganda and has my name on it, but if it gets me in and out of the country, that's all I care about.  It's always a little disconcerting to mail your passport into the great unknown and hope you get it back, so when I saw it in the mail today it was a big exhale.  11 days to go and so much I'd like to get done before I leave and work is very busy too.  Here's hoping to close out the next two weeks well, but still leave time for reflection and all the important relationships in my life so I show up at the airport in the right place spiritually and mentally.

A Shot in the Arm......or Two or Three or Four

So a couple of weeks ago I went and got my immunizations for my trip.  I admit to being a little worried about it as I really don't like shots.  The nurse at the Peachtree Travel Clinic was great though.  She told me that 98% of people don't like shots and the 2% that do kind of scare them.  They also said that 100% of the people in their office fell in the 98%.  I had to get 4 shots (Hep A, Tetanus, Polio and Yellow Fever), two in each arm and 2 oral vaccines (Typhoid and Malarone).  They said they  have a philosophy that shots shouldn't have to hurt (especially with so many) and they really didn't!  I remember walking in and praying, "God please help this not suck." and they this was an answered prayer.  It was so cool, they had me ice down my arms to numb them and then gave me a kids pinwheel to blow out on while they gave the shot.  They said they used to just tell people to exhale, but people would hold their breath and that didn't work, so they went to the pinwheel....the whole process was brilliant.  I guess the record for shots in a day was 8 or 9, I feel bad for that poor person.

The oral typhoid was a riot.  It's a pill that you take every other day over a week and have to keep in the fridge to keep alive (they promised me you couldn't actually get typhoid from it).  I went on a business trip to Macon right after so I had to tote around a cooler to keep my typhoid alive.....things I never thought I'd say.  The other guys on the trip from the partner company gave me a little grief like, "Shouldn't that have a biohazard sticker on it?", but were really supportive and shared some stories of their immunizations (they were both former military and got a ton of shots in not as kind of ways as I got them).  The typhoid also got to travel to Panama City, Florida last week, talk about a well traveled virus.  Took my last one today.

Well hopefully all these things, and a good antibiotic, keep me happy and healthy in Africa! 

13 Days to Uganda

Well only 13 days until I depart for Uganda to serve as part of the Passion world tour.  May 24th is getting closer and still almost doesn't seem real.  I have my plane ticket (through frequent flyer miles), got my shots and I should get my visa through the mail early this week.  For those of you who aren't as familiar with Passion, check this out:

http://www.268generation.com

Here's a map of where it is in Africa.  I hope to update everyone as the date approaches and then I should have internet in my hotel once I get there to be able to blog, post pictures and even video!  Hopefully technology will cooperate and allow all of you to join me in this amazing journey.

If you'd like to donate (tax deductible), just send a check to the address below and write my name and Kampala in the memo line:

 

Passion Conferences

PO Box 5

Roswell , GA 30077

 

I also believe you can donate online by putting the same information in the comment section of the online form and selecting world tour:

 

https://web.memberclicks.com/mc/quickForm/viewForm.do?orgId=268gen2&formId=28478

 

Thanks for all your prayers, love and support!

My First Blog

Well this is my first "blog" entry ever.  Kind of strange for a guy who is usually on the cutting edge of technology.  The main reason I'm creating this blog is to let all the important people in my life keep up with my upcoming trip to Uganda, but I suppose I can put some other fun stuff here too.  Thanks for looking!