A Mom's Perspective

Kerri has asked me to update her blog while she is gone.  I will post snippets that I receive from her throughout her journey in an “as-is” format, but I will also try to give you a bit more insight when I have it.  :) 

Leading up to this point, you should know she has been extremely excited, fearless, and well prepared.  Brian and I have had a hands off approach, only giving advice when asked and really letting her manuever through the logistics of this trip.  

She took the initiative to get all of her shots, sponsorships, passport/visa, etc.  Brian and I even had a little scare when we thought she may not have everything in order minutes before boarding the plane.  She did! I am so proud of her.  We literally didn’t help her much at all for this trip as we needed her to demonstrate independence, courage, and above all, faith, to carry this out on her own.  

Running Late as always……

For international flights, it is recommended to arrive at the airport 3 hours prior.  We are quite the traveler’s so we decided 2 hours was plenty of time.  Leaving our house at 9am would put us at the airport by 9:30 for an 11:30 departure.  Perfect.  Car loaded, lots of girly squeals of excitement, but…. Oh wait!  

Notice her bracelets!

“Mom, its 9:00, do I have time for a quick picture with Chowder?”  Of course.  

We make it 1/2 mile, maybe, and during my “You did pack this, right? What about this?  And that?” speech, we make our first U-turn at the middle school to retrieve a small pocket bible. She had planned to use her Bible ap on the phone, but the what if no electricity.  The bible is important!  

On the road again, we begin chatting.  We pass the school (phew), but we didn’t even get to the red light and have to turn around again.  This time, for a very important bracelet. Kerri will wear this 37 year old bracelet the entire time she is in Uganda. It was a gift from our cousin.  Alex wore it the 3 years he was in Ghana and it was given to him by a fulani man to make the talents you have stronger.  

Third time is the charm.  No more turning back.  Driving like a mad woman, we make it to the airport and even have a little time to kill.  Daddy is helping her stash money while Mom is a blubbering idiot.  I promise if I had known my kids were listening when I said,  “DREAM BIG, YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU WANT TO DO IN LIFE,” I might would have left that RAH RAH speech out during my parenting.  

A long ride…..

Hotel Room in Kampala

She was “wheel’s up” at 11:30am Central Standard Time on June 5th while I sat blubbering at Eppley Airfield and snapchatted the process.  I offered to fly with her to MSP to meet up with her peers and even Amsterdam to spend extra time with her, but she politely declined my offer.  "I've got this, Mom."   I received the text at 2:32pm on June 6th that she arrived.  For those of us not quick at math, that is 27 hours!   Her text said she planned to go straight to bed when she got to the hotel.  I don't blame her!

Nets

Text From Kerri:  have to sleep in nets!! can't use tap water! but other than that it's pretty nice. will be here for two nights then the next two nights will be at queen elizabeth national park. will send pics of our tentative schedule when i wake up tomorrow but i'm off to bed!

Her first two days will be in Kampala and will primarily consist of travel and jetlag recovery, currency exchange, shopping for personal supplies, and packing items for team orientation.  She recommended I put the KAMPALA clock on my world clock (iphone), so I would know what time it was for her.

UP NEXT: Queen Elizabeth National Park where she will meet up with the local college students (MAK) and then on to Kamuli where she will do her work.  

As always, please keep her in your prayers.   Prayers for safety and strength!  

Additional pictures from her hotel:

Good morning from Omaha!

I officially finished my junior year!  Two down. One to go.  With all A's and one B+ (that 300-level Botany class really snuck up on me), I landed a 3.88 GPA for the semester, boosting my cumulative from a 3.56 to a 3.67! I was really wanting that 4.0 semester, but I still have 2 semesters left to achieve that goal. I won't stop until I get there! 

It's down to less than a month before I embark on my trip to Africa! With part of my belongings in storage in Ames, and part at home in Omaha, I can finally begin to think about packing.  I found the skirts that I will need (modest and below the knee) in my mom’s closest and the work pants that I will need at the outlet mall. 

Since my last post, my internship coordinators and professors have asked me to teach in one of the three primary schools in the area. I was originally a bit disappointed when I didn’t think I would be able to teach, so I was excited by this change of events!  

English, my favorite subject, would be a complete joy!  Any subject that requires reading would be great as well.  Math?  Well, as a child, I would always tell my mom, “math makes my brain hurt!”

I will be teaching mathematics, more specifically fractions, twice a week to fifth graders at a school called Naluwoli. I am extremely nervous for this portion of my internship because I did not expect it. Although the children speak English, like any other English-speaking country the language is very different from the English we speak in America. Thankfully, I will have a partner teacher from my bi-national team member from Makerere University. Even though math has always been a shaky subject for me, I am excited to work in a team to teach these children.  I've spent the past five summers nannying and so I have a lot of experience and love for working with kids! 

Thank you for reading this and thank you in advance for praying for me on this wonderfully exciting time in my life that I'll be spending in Uganda! 💕💕💕

XOXO
Kerri 

Hey everyone!

I'm about 5 weeks out from beginning my internship in Uganda, and I couldn't be more excited! Especially because I got accepted for my visa today! 🎉

As an update, it is currently finals week here at Iowa State, and I am finishing up my IRB course to be eligible to conduct research with the use of human subjects.  As soon as I complete this training, I will submit my interview forms for approval! Once I tackle that and my last 2 finals, I will be headed to Omaha to pack and prepare for Africa.

A big thank you to all who have made donations to me!! My wonderful and beautiful mom helped me figure out my total budget and expenses, so I thought I would post it here in case you are wondering exactly where the money will go!

Thank you so much for reading and for your prayers and donations!

XOXO,

Kerri 

Hi!

Welcome to my summer blog! This is where you can find any and all updates about my internship in Kamuli, Africa, for the summer of 2017.  Thank you for visiting, and I hope you will stop by frequently.

I am a junior at Iowa State University majoring in Global Resource Systems with two minors, Spanish and Sustainability. The GLOBE major requires an overseas internship to gain relative experience in our fields. I chose to serve in Kamuli, Uganda through the Iowa State - Uganda Program. There, I will be meeting with community officials to conduct independent research on the water resource systems that each community uses outside of the deep water wells that Iowa State has provided, as well as the quality and costs of those outside resources. I will also be surveying and observing the process of installing new boreholes, and I will have the opportunity to learn how to decide where to place boreholes in Kamuli. I am extremely blessed to be able to gain experience in water sustainability in rural Africa.

The second aspect of my internship is my service that I provide to the primary schools in Kamuli: my participation in a bi-national team with my peers from ISU and students from Makerere University in Uganda. I was placed on the irrigation team, and we will be implementing drip irrigation systems throughout the school gardens, and testing out which irrigation systems are more efficient while also cost-effective.

That's all I can really give for a summary of what I will be doing, because I have been told by my supervisors to be flexible, as everything that I am planning to do can change at the drop of a hat!

At this time, I am busy wrapping up the semester, raising my funds, and beginning my packing list.  I had a dream last night that I arrived in Africa and realized that I forgot to pack!  Packing immediately went closer to the top on my on-going to-do list.

Stay tuned for more posts about my preparation to leave and setting up my research project!

XOXO,
Kerri