Pictures from Africa

I tried to add a slideshow box onto the sidebar, but it wasn't working.
Here's a link to my Flickr account

I took way more pictures, but I didn't want to overwhelm everyone. Here are some of the highlights. Enjoy!

Life in Colorado

The past week and a half have been great. I've been very busy doing computer drafting and helping edit and write reports. This past week I worked on a hospital in Sierra Leone, and a youth camp in Jordan. I did computer drafting for a 7-story structure in Egypt that will have rooms, a conference area, and training for mentally retarded people. I also worked on a project for an organization ministering to the deaf in Egypt. It's amazing that God has led engineers and architects to EMI to design these facilities for ministries for free!
This past week we did an intern scavenger hunt in downtown Colorado Springs. My team lost, but on a technicality, so I'll still claim it as a win. :) Some of us interns also went on an overnight backpacking trip to the Venable Lakes in the Sangre de Cristo Mts. It was rainy and cold but very beautiful.

Happy Father's day, dad!

My time in Colorado Springs begins

I made it back safe into the US on Wednesday. Everything went smoothly as far as customs and luggage. Thursday I had the day off. I used it to get adjusted to the time change, make some phone calls, and do other necessary tasks.

Today we had office orientation, and on Monday we'll have AutoCAD orientation. On Fridays, interns volunteer at a soup kitchen during lunchtime, so in a few minutes I'll be leaving to go do that. I think this weekend I'm going to visit some friends at the camp I worked at last summer, so I'm looking forward to that.

Thanks for your prayers while I was traveling. God really blessed our journey and our work.

Almost back to the US

Right now I'm in the UK, outside of London. I'm traveling with Alyssa, an intern, and Danna, the EMI intern director. Danna is meeting with the small staff of the newish EMI UK office. We're getting great homecooked meals and learning differences between American and British English.

Today we went driving around the countryside for a few hours and walked around a small town and a church. Then we all had fish and chips at a riverside English pub. What a cool experience! We're planning a day of touring London tomorrow, and then on Wednesday we'll fly back to the US.

I've been reflecting a little bit more on our time in Sudan. I a happy-go-lucky, positive person in general, but I tend to be negative too. I'm experiencing negative feelings and low expectations to a degree about the impact of our trip and the school and women's center we're designing. I'm wondering how something so small in a country so large could make a big difference. The problems of the world our big, but God is bigger. Sometimes though, I have a hard time seeing that. God works through people, and results come quickly, slowly, or not at all. I think I'm learning to trust him to bless what I do.

I'm looking forward to starting the stateside portion of the internship. Once I get back I'll have about two months in CO Springs to work in the office. I'll be getting a mentor in the office and working on this project in Sudan in others. I'm also excited to see some family from my dad's side this coming Sunday.

Pray that we make it home on Wednesday and that we can get into the groove quickly back in the states.

As much of an update as dial-up internet will allow

My time in Sudan has come to a close. Right now I'm in EMI's East Africa Office in Kampala, Uganda. Today we did a design review meeting with the Staff here. It was great to discuss design choices with them and to receive some advice.

We were on a mission to design a school and women's center for an organization called Rebuild Sudan. While in Sudan we had a lot of meetings with officials and community leaders. We tried to learn as much as possible about local construction practices and about what a school needs to function in Sudan. My function on the design team was to assist John, civil engineer from Denver. I helped him determine how the locals treat and dispose of wastewater. We also did some water quality testing at various hand-pump wells. We only were able to visit the possible site for the school for a few hours one day, which was a bummer. The dirt roads were very bad due to the onset of the rainy season. While on site, we looked at the soil and the surrounding areas. Last Saturday evening, we presented our preliminary design to Michael and some of the local community leaders. Now as we return to the states we will refine the design and prepare a drafted set of plans and a report.

One of the things I was most amazed by was the stark difference in development from Sudan to Uganda. In Uganda there are many cars, miles of paved roads, lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, and power lines. Southern Sudan is still suffering from the civil war that destroyed so much of that. There is a cycle of poverty there as well. They have no money to plant fields or start businesses and no good roads to transport goods or materials to build with. Development is very slow in coming. I think the future of Sudan is promising; the people want better lives and will work to succeed.

Last Monday and Tuesday some of the volunteers from our Sudan trip and I were able to do a safari (with a drive through a park and a cruise down the Nile). We saw tons of animals. Half the team has returned to the states, but the rest of us are taking advantage of our time in Africa to go whitewater rafting on the Nile. On the way back to the US, I'll be in London for two days. I'm due back on the 10th.

I'll probably write some more about the trip later, but for now I'm done. I'll definitely post pictures sometime when I get back to the states.