13 Sleeps.....

With only 13 sleeps to go the countdown is on. It's hard to contemplate, sometimes, packing your life into 4 suitcases. (I visited the rest of my life packed in the basement of a friend's today...I miss it already!) I keep thinking I have everything, then I find something else I need. I know I will probably be able to find it in Kampala, but there is some security in knowing you have everything you need right off the bat. There is still alot of uncertainty, like getting through customs, hoping that someone is there to pick me up, not knowing where I will be staying for the first few weeks. It's comforting to know that I have everything I need to "live" my life the way I know it, at least until my supplies run out.

With only a short time left at home, I have finished work and am "working" at trying to spend as much time as possible with family and friends. As much as I am excited about my new life in Uganda, I am already starting to miss home. I guess that's normal. I try not to think ahead to my birthday and to Christmas as I get too sad. It will be interesting to live between two worlds: making a new life in Kampala yet still keeping my foot in the door at home. I was never one for psychology, and now I feel like I will be living in a life sized psychology experiment.

I am truly looking forward to making Kampala my home. I am most looking forward to the everyday presence of God in my life. It is so eay to leave Him in the background here at home where everything is familiar and comfortable. But to rely on Him each day, to talk to Him each day, to have Him be present in my work life, this is something that I have been dreaming about since I came home from Bufukhula last May. I give thanks to God and my supporters each day for this amazing opportunity.

Almost Famous

Sharing Number Sense in Uganda

Caroline Skelton, North Shore News

Published: Sunday, August 12, 2007

Kristee Watson, 32, says she would have helped out in Uganda by taking out the garbage.

But with her accounting background, it will be her way with numbers that she brings to a three-year stint as a volunteer in the country.

Watson will be taking a break from her Canadian life to help out in the finance department of Food for the Hungry in Uganda, reporting all major donors, handling all the funding that comes in to make sure it's recorded then allocated out to different regions.

"It's not as glamorous as nursing or doctoring or being an engineer, but those projects don't get done if there's nobody there," she says.

Considering Uganda's record of troubles with fiscal responsibility, she says, she looks forward to bringing with her both good accounting practices and a sense of financial ethics and accountability to her new job.

Watson learned accounting while working with the Earls restaurant group during the last decade. Starting out serving, then moving into the head office, and finally being hired on as assistant controller for the Joey Tomato's restaurant chain, Watson says it's not just a knowledge of accounting that she'll take from these experiences.

"I think that what I gained with Earls was an ability to go into a situation and not be afraid of it and learn as you go," she says.

Watson is still in the process of collecting funds before her departure, as Food For the Hungry requires volunteers to secure all their funding before they leave.

These funds, explains Watson, include living expenses, transportation, training and an emergency evacuation fee, as well as savings for home, so that volunteers will have funds to return to.

But Watson says she has already received no shortage of support from the community, especially members of her church, Capilano Christian Community, which already sponsors 300 Ugandan children.

Watson was first inspired to volunteer in the country after she helped out in a short-term volunteering excursion last May with a work team from the church that helped in a building project in a Ugandan village.

While there, she was impressed by both the Food for the Hungry staff and the Ugandan people.

"I think there's the perception that Africans are poor, that they have nothing, that they must be miserable and sad all the time, and that is just not the case," says Watson. "I've never been in a place where there's so much joy."

So while her life here is rich with "(a) great job, great friends, great church," says Watson, "there's just something about Africa and the opportunity to go and serve the rest of the world that I think is important for a person to do."

To donate to Watson's volunteering effort, visit http://www.givemeaning.com/proposal/UgandaBound.

cskelton@nsnews.com