Good question.
About a year ago, a handful of my friends from Northwestern University gathered during Homecoming Weekend to hear Jeff and Jennifer Austin present plans to move their family to Kampala, Uganda to work with an organization called eMi. As it turned out, the men who joined Jeff and Jennifer for brunch were all Delta Chi Fraternity brothers and groomsmen for Jeff nearly a decade ago.
We have stayed in touch over the years, perhaps most frequently through Jeff’s phone calls during his drive home from work when he lived in St. Louis. From my end, those phone calls spanned the time shortly after I left Northwestern to the half decade I lived in North Africa to just around Homecoming Weekend in 2011.
In August 2012, I had an opportunity to visit the Austins in Uganda, as part of a multi-purpose trip to East Africa. By then, in preparation to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, Jeff had already begun walking nearby Ugandan hills in the mornings, prior to walking to his Kampala office. He explained that people from his office, along with friends and family members who wanted to join, would be making the climb in January 2013 as part of a fundraiser for a new eMi office.
Jeff extended an invitation to join him. Right now, I am substitute teaching and can work a two-week trip to East Africa into my schedule in late January. Thanks to the generosity of people who wanted to encourage friends and family to join the trek, the finances of the trip are workable to where I can focus on getting physically ready, along with raising funds to help eMi.
About a year ago, a handful of my friends from Northwestern University gathered during Homecoming Weekend to hear Jeff and Jennifer Austin present plans to move their family to Kampala, Uganda to work with an organization called eMi. As it turned out, the men who joined Jeff and Jennifer for brunch were all Delta Chi Fraternity brothers and groomsmen for Jeff nearly a decade ago.
We have stayed in touch over the years, perhaps most frequently through Jeff’s phone calls during his drive home from work when he lived in St. Louis. From my end, those phone calls spanned the time shortly after I left Northwestern to the half decade I lived in North Africa to just around Homecoming Weekend in 2011.
In August 2012, I had an opportunity to visit the Austins in Uganda, as part of a multi-purpose trip to East Africa. By then, in preparation to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, Jeff had already begun walking nearby Ugandan hills in the mornings, prior to walking to his Kampala office. He explained that people from his office, along with friends and family members who wanted to join, would be making the climb in January 2013 as part of a fundraiser for a new eMi office.
Jeff extended an invitation to join him. Right now, I am substitute teaching and can work a two-week trip to East Africa into my schedule in late January. Thanks to the generosity of people who wanted to encourage friends and family to join the trek, the finances of the trip are workable to where I can focus on getting physically ready, along with raising funds to help eMi.
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