As COVID restrictions have been lifted in the US over the past few months and life is starting to return to normal, it’s easy to forget that most of the world is still in middle of the pandemic. A lot of people have asked us how Uganda has handled COVID, so I figured this would be a good opportunity to share about the what the past year has looked like there.
Last year, when the magnitude of the pandemic was being understood by the world, most African countries were quick to take action. Uganda went into complete lockdown – no cars were allowed on the roads, the airport shutdown; everything came to a screeching halt.
During lockdown, no non-essential cars were allowed on the roads. Motorcycles came in handy to get to the grocery store!
Photo: Emily Greene
For the EMI Uganda office, this meant making some major adjustments. All office workers shifted to working from home, much like the rest of the world. Many of the construction projects were halted. The EMI workshop also had to shutdown for some time. But the lockdown was extremely hard on much of the country, as the vast majority of Ugandans can’t work from home.
EMI Uganda office director Phil Greene working from his home office.
Photo: Emily Greene
Although the lockdown was hard on the country, the strategy worked. For the first 5 months of the pandemic, Uganda barely saw any COVID cases. As the country started to open up last August, cases started to creep up, but they stayed at a manageable level for the most part. By October, the airport was open again. When we visited in December, the city of Kampala was quite busy and seemed to be doing well. Other than a nightly curfew, life appeared to be fairly normal. In April, vaccines started to be administered throughout the country, and it felt like the pandemic might be nearing the end.
But the vaccine rollout has been slow. At this point, less than 2% of the population has received their first dose. And only a small fraction of that is fully vaccinated. This isn’t due to the population not wanting to be vaccinated – they all have seen first hand the effectiveness that vaccines can have. Instead, like much of the developing world, there just aren’t enough vaccine doses to go around, and countries like Uganda are the last to receive it. And you can see the impact that the shortage has had – cases in Uganda have spiked to the highest level that they’ve been at throughout the pandemic. And the actual number are likely much higher, considering the lack of available tests in the country. 95% of cases in the country are currently the Delta variant, which has proven to be much more contagious.
As a result of all this, Uganda started a second lockdown 2 weeks ago. All public and private transportation is not allowed, except for medical and other essential travel. At the moment, the country is holding its breath. The hospital system can’t handle many cases and could quickly become overwhelmed if cases continue to spike. Hopefully the number of cases will start to drop. The government is currently planning for at least another month of lockdown.
R&D project during lockdown last year.
Photo: Daniel Propst
How does this affect our plans as we prepare to head to Uganda? Currently, we are still planning to move in August, as long travel restrictions do not get tightened any further. While that is far from a guarantee, we trust the God will get us to Uganda when He wants to get us there. Whenever we end up heading out, we know that God has it all under control, and we’re trusting in His timing. Hopefully we’ll know more about those specifics soon!
Arensen Update
The month of June was full of twists and turns for us, but we have seen God’s goodness through all of it! Hannah’s sister, Sarah, had some complications in surgery, resulting in multiple hospital stays and a ban on lifting heavy items (like any of her three young children). We were so grateful that we happened to be staying with her family when this happened! We postponed our trip to Ohio, and were able to jump in right away and flex our Auntie and Uncle muscles full time. We had so much fun with the kids, who helped with laundry and eating popsicles (because somebody has to eat them). Praise the Lord Sarah is on her way to full recovery!
We made it to Minnesota last week, and have been spending time catching up with supporters, sharing about our ministry at our home church here, and spending time with family!
We’ve loved the chance to meet in person with so many people over the past month – check out the gallery below to see some of the wonderful people that we’ve been able to spend time with! (Many other wonderful people not pictured)
Pond cleanup with the kids! They were so excited to help pick up trash and steward God’s creation!
Uncle Bruce is everyone’s favorite!
Pray With Us
We are so grateful for your prayers and support! Please join us in prayer for the following:
- Pray that the number of cases drops and that Uganda can get more vaccine doses as soon as possible. Also be praying for all of the people struggling through this lockdown. Uganda has many people that live day by day, so this lockdown is making it difficult for many to be able to provide for their family.
- Pray for Hannah’s sister Sarah as she continues to recover from major surgery. Pray also for her family (especially the kiddos) as they adjust to her current activity restrictions.
- Pray for us as we continue to raise up ministry partners! Pray also that we would continue to be protected during our travels.
Praises!
- Praise the Lord for Sarah’s path to full recovery from her surgery and for all the doctors and nurses who took action and prayed over her in the hospital. We are so grateful for everyone who dropped what they were doing and prayed. She is doing really well!
- We are so grateful for the extra time were were able with Hannah’s family this past month!
Stay Connected
Each year, EMI’s people complete over 100 development projects which serve the poor and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To keep these design services affordable for Christian ministries, professionals like the Arensen’s on EMI’s staff are responsible for raising their own salaries. We are so grateful for God’s provision through the generosity of donors. Would you prayerfully consider partnering with the great things God is doing through the Arensen’s ministry at EMI?