Farewells - 24/05

A week of farewells began with saying good-bye to Christine on Monday, then two returning interns Belinda and David on Thursday.  In the evenings the interns and I have been making the most of our last days with these three fantastic friends, one such celebration involved making Kentucky fried chicken (see David and Paul in the photograph below).On the weekend I played American football, taught some rugby, organized relays for kids, taught acrobatics and sprained my ankle doing a backwards flip off an unstable wall. Wednesday was dedicated to project peer reviews and I presented the electrical and civil engineering aspects of Kibuye Hope Hospital.

Spiritual High - 17/05

Last weekend I had my laptop fan repaired, helped with games at Heritage International School and went back to my church Refreshing ministries. During the work week though, I helped to organize half an hour every morning for office staff to discuss how God is visible in our lives. Not to mentioning learning guitar and playing three songs for the whole office to honor God with. Wednesday was a day where the whole office went out to meet, pray for, physically help our neighbor hood. The photograph below shows some of the physical labor we did at a local school.

Halfway - 11/05

After realizing there is less than 3 months of my 6 month internship to go, I have begun to spend quality time with the friends I have made here. This week I had a couple of bonfires outside, slept under the stars, went swimming in the lake and taught break dancing to 10 year-olds. At the office I shared a book report, prepared a series of morning devotions, begun drafting the new Kibuye Hope Hospital buildings and completed the structural analysis and drafting for a roof design in Kenya. As a side note I provided a short interview for an organization called International Design Network (http://internationaldevelopmentnetwork.tumblr.com/). The  rendering below shows the existing hospital campus (top) and proposed hospital campus (bottom), the buildings highlighted blue are used for academic and administration functions.

Back in Burundi - 06/05

For the last week and a half I was part of a team including 3 architects, 1 landscape architect and 5 engineers. We were at Kibuye Hope Hospital to work on a master plan. Every day would begin at 7:00 am with breakfast, at 7:30 we would discuss how God is portrayed in the bible, 8:00 am would see the beginning of the work day, dinner at 7:00 pm, discussion of how God is portrayed in our lives at 7:30 pm, then more work before heading to bed just after midnight. The PRAYER tab has been updated and the photograph shows the office environment we worked in.

Unavailable - 21/04

I leave for Burundi in just 2 hours. This trip is for the master planning phase of Kibuye Hope Hospital. There have been some difficulties getting hospital leadership to be present in the week and a half we will be there since the top dog passed away. There is a link to a blog written about him which is an interesting read because he was named as the 5th most influential person in Burundi.I shall be back on Thursday the 2nd of May and during the trip I shall have not access to Internet or phone.

Community - 14/04

Last weekend saw us interns spending all of Saturday with our guard's (Ali) family, and the joy on his face, the excitement of his neighbors, the unlimited food supply was testimony to the honor we had bestowed upon them in a simple visit. The following day we visited visited Monica who shared tea with us in the evening on a roof top. Accompanying the tea was a salad of tropical fruit, enough food and peanut butter for an army, and the joyous announcement that she was to be engaged and needed her family's (our ) approval. This week I have pulling long days at the office so that our report is finally ready for print there are 46 pages in the report, 18 pages of drawings, and who knows how many pages int eh Appendix. The PHOTO below shows Ali and a few of us interns waiting for lunch.

Holidays - 05/04

The last two weeks have been 3 day weeks at the office. The first four day weekend was the Intern weekend away which is when 9 of us interns went on a two day Safari and to a local rural village. The second four day weekend was Easter weekend and I spent time relaxing at an out door pool, a day of feasting and games, and many occasions acknowledging what Christ did for us more than 2000 years ago. The deadline for the Kibuye Hope Hospital infrastructure assessment is next week, so with many late nights and early starts I have maintained two 36 hour weeks at the office. The photograph below shows intern Paul and the Doors House boys skinning our sheep for Easter festivities.