My Half Marathon for Eagles Wings Children's Village

I have decided to once again run the half marathon in Winnipeg on June 16 to raise funds and awareness for a housing project at Eagles Wings Children's Village.

Why am I doing this?  Quite simply, because this is a cause I believe in with all that I am.

Last time I ran in 2011 I raised money for the Family 3 Housing Project.  The children are now living out at the property and they have completed 2 eco-san toilets (that I designed!), a dining hut, a girls hut and a boys hut.  However they still need to raise funds to build an additional girls hut, boys hut and house parents house.

So, I'm lacing up my runners and hitting the pavement again this year to see what I can do to help.

When I went to Uganda in 2012 after running my first half marathon, several of the kids told me they knew I had run a race for them and said thank you.  One little boy, Fred, looked up at me with his big brown eyes and said "Auntie, did you win?"  Well not quite, but I did finish and that was the goal:)

Anyone who has run a long distance race knows that last mile is run on iron will.  Last time I ran, I rounded the corner with a little over a mile to go and the thought of putting one foot in front of the other seemed nearly impossible.  My lungs were burning and my legs were heavy, and all of a sudden this guy I had never seen before in my life looked at the name on my bib, got right up in my face and screamed at the top of his lungs "YOU CAN DO THIS JAIMEE"  That was the push I needed to finish.  Likewise, I'm sure there are days these children I love struggle to get out of bed and put one foot in front of the other. I want to be someone they see on the sidelines cheering them on and letting them know they have what it takes.  Will you join me?

If you would like to sponsor me, you can donate on-line at

http://www.eagleswingschildrensvillage.com/

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Donate Via Paypal."  No paypal account necessary.  Before finalizing your donation, please click "Add Special Instructions to EWCV" and write "Jaimee's Marathon" in the box.  They will direct the funds to the correct project.

Donations over $20 will be issued a tax receipt at the end of the year.

Cheques with "Jaimee's Marathon" in the memo box can be mailed to

Eagles Wings Children's Village

712 - 133 Niakwa Road
Winnipeg, MB

R2M 5J5
Canada

Some of the Family 3 Children enjoy their new housing situation. Completed huts seen in the background.

The nearly completed boys hut.  It is now completed, sorry I don't have a more recent picture!

The completed dining hut.

Nearing the finish line in 2011

Some Days are just meant for writing. . . and today is one of those.

Looking back now, I realize there are many things people never told me. Some days I wonder what I will see when I look back on me 30 years from now. What will I know then that I wish I knew now? As I sit here in the now, I think about the future, but I ponder the past. No one told me that going overseas would change so much of me. That after being in Rwanda, countless nights later I would close my eyes and still hear those stories, see their faces and feel their pain. That little girl I passed in India?  The one I’ve talked about before, whose eyes were blinded intentionally so she could beg more effectively. I walked passed her and I remembered watching Slumdog Millionaire, only this time it was real and she was right there in front of me, close enough to touch.

Here I sit, 3 weeks home from Uganda. Somehow coming home this time is different from the times before. I’m reminded to become a hunter of beauty, to find wonder in small places where no one else does. And somehow, sometimes, I find myself succeeding. I ski through the woods and my dog Wilson looks up at me with a mischievous grin. I love her wild. And then the joy, that untamed joy and thankfulness is followed by guilt as I think about the challenges of where I just was and I miss my friends there deeply. How do I bridge the gap of where I am and where I just was?

How do I become that person God intends me to be? I realize that sometimes His plans are different from mine. I certainly didn’t think I would still be single by this point in my life. One day as I was complaining to one of my good friends about my seemingly perpetual singleness, she looked me deep in the eyes and told me never to let being married get in the way of the way I love people, or the things I do overseas. That day she challenged me, she made me realize that whether I get married or not I can be one of those people who gets up and lets God open the hands and hold my heart. As one of my favourite songs says I can learn to stand with arms high and heart abandoned. I can learn, am learning, how to be called to holiness, yet to still love people in a way that says I can listen and accept who they are fully and completely without judgment. To let people know that even though our life experience may be vastly different, I still know and understand what it means to be human. All this, it will take all of life to learn, because I know I will fall and have to find my way back up time and time again. And so I look forward, challenged to keep finding joy, to fight for peace and to learn how to live fully present to those around me even when parts of me live across the ocean even still.

God Speed,

Jaimee

Final Days in Uganda

So I decided I would write one final post about what I did the last few days in Uganda, since they were quite eventful.

Wednesday night we had youth fellowship and it was so much fun.  They turned the evening into a sending off party for me and Jonathan, another volunteer who was returning home the next day.  Each person said something special about us and it was so very meaningful.  I won't soon forget the words that were spoken that night.  After that was finished we had cake and had some more fun.  I am going to miss those people so much.

Even though I don't feel like I did a lot of "tasks"during my time at Eagles Wings, I still found it incredibly meaningful, because I felt like I spent time with people, deepening friendships and really just being able to be present with no agenda. I felt more than ever that Uganda was home while I was there.  Being able to walk down the streets of Masaka, and have kids on the street know who I was, and slowly beginning to feel like I understand a bit more of this culture. 

Friday night the Macris family had us over for dinner.  I love that family and the way they open their home.  We had a wild dutch blitz tournament and Jovan entertained us with his antics the entire night. 

Saturday we made our way to Kampala since I was leaving from the airport late that night.  We brought 4 kittens Joan had rescued to the only animal shelter in Uganda, which is located in Kampala.  I was incredibly impressed with the animal shelter.  We didn't know what to expect, but they take really good care of the animals and we all felt good about leaving the kittens there. 

And so now begins the adjustment back to the Western world.  I am reminding myself that coming back from an experience like I just have does not make it easy to fit my life back into an 8:30-4:30 routine. Being back in Canada for less than 24 hours, I'm reminded that things that are part of my everyday life seem strangely familiar yet still somehow foreign. I have mentioned before struggling to figure out how to live this fractured existence is not easy. Part of me here, and part of me there.

 Me with one of the rescued kittens.  They were so cuddly and cute!

 Farewell party at Youth Fellowship.

 Me with some kids from another nearby project.

 On our way to Kampala.

 These kitties weren't always so happy being in the car for 3 hours to take them to the animal shelter.

Bill & Ann came to welcome me back home at the airport.  It was so nice to see some familiar faces again.

Another Update

So I finally have some time to sit down and write.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I had a wonderful time with my eMi team. We were designing a primary and secondary school for a ministry that is actually not to far from the Eagles Wings property.  And it turns out I met the American directors last time I was here and I didn’t even know it.  It seemed like a rush to get everything done in the amount of days that we had, but then again I guess it always does on these projects.  However, in the end, it all worked out and things managed to get finished just in time.

I really enjoyed working with Angie, the other civil from Idaho.  We see life much the same way and I found it very easy to work with her.  And she really was so very gracious to me when I wasn’t feeling well. We presented out design on Sunday night and the ministry was happy with the finished product.  I’m going to miss my team when I get home, this I know.

Now I am back at Eagles Wings and trying to hold on to every last minute I have here.  Some days are emotionally draining and I struggle to find ways I can be an encouragement amidst the challenges, however, I have done this enough to know that as soon as I get home I’ll be wishing I was back here, so I think that helps add perspective while I’m actually here on the ground.

I’m not sure if this will be the last update until I get home or not, but I do miss you all.

 The architects hard at work.

 The "poop crew".  We had to get into some specifics to design a good bio gas system.

 One of the boys at Rapha's House.

Back in the land of the internet

So, sorry for the lack of posts.  I have been out of internet access all of last week.  I am now back at Eagles Wings for my final week here in Uganda.  As usual it has flown by and I don't think I'll be ready to leave by the end of the week.

I had a good week with eMi the past week.  These projects are so valuable to me for so many reasons.  First of all, I always meet so many quality people on these projects.  Secondly, I think they make me a better engineer.  They give me experience in two areas I don't really do much of at home, namely design and public speaking, which I think makes me a more well rounded engineer.  This time I again had the pleasure of working alongside another extremely talented civil.  This project was based out of the UK office, so the team was a mix of people from England, Northern Ireland, United States, and of course Canada.  I really enjoyed Brad our team leader as well as everyone else on the team.

Unfortunately I had the experience of picking up some kind of stomach bug and was out of commission for Saturday and part of Sunday.  However today, I am feeling mostly back to myself and I still wouldn't trade being here for anything.  More and more I see that I leave more of myself behind here, and I'm not sure what that will mean for me in the future.  It could mean simply continuing doing what I am, coming for a few weeks once or twice a year, or maybe someday it will mean making development work a larger part of my life.  I'm really not sure, but I do love being around people who have the same heart as I do.

Well I feel like I have so much more to write, but in the tired space I'm in the words just don't seem to be coming.  I'll try to give more of an update on my project maybe tomorrow when I've had some more sleep.

Until next time,

Jaimee

 Sweet Janet

 This water, which the locals drink had e-coli, but I promise I didn't drink it.  So I'm not sure what made me sick!

 Me with some of the girl's from Rapha's House, one of the orphan's homes we were working with.

This is Africa

I had a crazy day today.  So crazy that I wanted to write about it before I forgot all the details.  First it started off with trying to get 5 cakes out to the orphanage with driving for 45 minutes on African roads without them hitting the roof or a similar disaster.  We were travelling with the Macris family who was in another vehicle.  They got a flat tire before they made it out of town so stopped to get that fixed. We went ahead and our car broke down about 10 minutes out of town.  We broke down in the middle of a construction zone too.  It couldn't have been a worse place.  They caught up and Rachael and I went ahead with them while the rest of the crew stayed with the broke down vehicle.

After church, I had lunch with family 3, which was wonderful.  I got to spend a lot of time with those kids last year so it was great to see them all again. Then we had the birthday celebrations with the cakes that we had so carefully brought out there.  It was so great to see the kids get so excited about celebrating their birthdays.  We celebrated birthdays for the kids who were born in December, January and February.  They usually only do one month at a time, but since there was Christmas and then their school holiday in January, they needed to do 3 months at once.  Which also meant singing Happy Birthday 21 times in a row.  A first for me, but it was so fun! 

On the way back, Rachael and I took local transport since we didn't have a car to get back with.  We hopped in a taxi, and guess what.  That one broke down too!  How is it possible to have 3 car disasters in one day?  I'm not sure.  So we had to wait on the side of the road for quite some time until a bus came along.  After finally making it back to Masaka, the guys of the house butchered the turkey, and then we played some wild rounds of dutch blitz.  All in all, it was a really great day.

 Trying to figure out what to do with the dead car.

 Bushira who I sponsor shows her Canadian pride.  I love this girl.  She is much less shy around me on this, my third visit here.

 Boys will be boys, who don't want their picture taken.  My parents sponsor Joseph, second from left in the picture.

 Little Trust loves her cake!

Triumph loves cake too!  Fred is so compassionate to help her have some.

More of this wonderful

Hello again from Uganda.  More wonderful times here.  Yesterday we went into town in the morning to pick up some supplies.  It was fun.  Jovan went to negotiate on some pots for us at the market.  When he had agreed on a price, he needed to come back and get that amount of money, but walked right past us like he didn't know us, because if the store keeper saw him with 3 mzungu's (white people) the price would be more.  So we walked farther down and gave him the money.  When he went back, the shopkeeper had put up the price because she had followed him and saw him with us!  He was not so happy about that, so we went to a different shop to buy them.

Today we went out to the property and the highlight of my day was walking up to the school to see Wasswa, the littlest boy that I sponsor, come flying out of his classroom to see me and give me a hug.  It was so wonderful!  I love these people so much.  I simply just love being around them, the kids and the staff of Eagles Wings.

I have been so much enjoying staying with Joan.  Just being with her and lounging around the house in my pj's until noon.  Playing dutch blitz in the evening and laughing at silly things.

That's all for now,

Jaimee

 Elisha's all ready to go for school.  I was so half asleep when I took this photo I didn't even realize he had milk all over his face.

Me & Wasswa, my little sweetie:)