Hi everyone!
I am currently on my project trip in Burundi Africa! We got here on Tuesday (a couple days after we expected due to a cancelled flight) and we are here until Thursday. I am learning so much and I am really thankful to be here.
As I learn more, I would love to share a little bit about what my team is doing here. Hope Africa University (HAU) has asked us to partner with them in their vision for expanding their campus. Their existing campus is in Bujumbura and they want to develop a second campus in the city of Gitega. They have a couple classrooms there right now, but other than that just a lot of (very beautiful) land. HAU envisions this campus becoming the main campus in the future. Burundi’s political capital recently moved to Gitega, so they anticipate a huge growth in student population.
Our team consists of two project leaders (with backgrounds in electrical engineering), 4 architects, two civil engineers, and three electrical engineers (including me even though I am still very much an engineer in trainingJ). Three of these are volunteers who don’t work for EMI and who took time off work to come on this trip as experts in their field. We also have four civil engineers who just graduated from HAU helping the team on weekdays.
Our goal here is to create a master plan for HAU which maps out detailed designs for each campus so that HAU can hand our plans over to local professionals who they hire to complete the construction. This way HAU can save some money on the design portion of the development, and hopefully use it towards making their vision a reality.
Local professionals can also ensure that everything is built in a way that is customary for the area. This way equipment (specifically power and water systems) can be built with materials mostly from Burundi and can also be locally maintained.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and for loving me so well in general! I clearly have so much to say already and I know I have more, so please reach out to me because I would be so happy to hear from you and I would love to tell you more stories from the trip.
Prayer requests:
- Spiritual discernment for our team as we finalize plans that seek to be realistic while incorporating as much of the ministry client’s vision as possible
- Continued health and safety for our team
- Opportunities to build relationships well in the limited time we have here
- Clear, honest, and helpful conversations and planning with HAU despite cultural or language barriers
- HAU and their ability to share Christ’s love with so many students as these young adults develop spiritually and professionally
Blessings,
Becca
