Working with eMi

Hello All!

We hope everyone is doing well.  We just wanted to give a quick recap of how work has been going for the first half of our year here in Uganda.  We’ve managed to not write much at all about our work here so far.  Both Erin and I have been very happy with what we’ve been doing with eMi and Heritage International School.  Our work here has been quite an experience, and we are so glad we came – and so thankful for all the support you guys have shown to get us here.  We have both felt very needed throughout our stay.  And we’ve also felt pretty incompetent at times as we’re trying to figure our jobs out here.  But for the most part, it has been very fulfilling as we get to help out with all the good going on in the area. 

Erin is letting me go first to discuss my work so far with eMi.  Most of you probably remember a little about eMi and the projects they work on.  But as a quick recap, eMi provides free architectural and engineering services to communities and organizations in need in developing countries.  We work on such things as hospitals, schools, universities, orphanages, projects to provide clean water, site infrastructure, bridges, disaster response, etc.  My office here in Uganda works on projects throughout the east Africa area including countries such as Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, etc.  As you can imagine, working with eMi is very rewarding.  Each of their projects address very necessary needs. 

There is no shortage to the need for the types of projects mentioned above in this area.  Your helping us come here has allowed eMi to take on a number of projects that they would have otherwise had to turn down or put off.  I’ve gotten to work on a few projects this past term.  I certainly won’t go into them all, but I will touch on a few.  The one that I’ve spent a lot of time on is a bit of an atypical project for eMi.  It has revolved around the planning for development of the land surrounding an Airstrip for Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF).  Who knew I would get to work on an ‘airport’ project when I came to Uganda!  MAF is a Christian mission organization that flies light aircraft in order to transports goods and service teams into hard to reach areas in developing countries.  MAF Uganda (http://www.maf-uganda.org/) flies all over East Africa. 

 

The Kajjanzi airstrip is a single dirt runway that sits on the shores of Lake Victoria.  MAF currently operates 5 planes from this airstrip and leases out use of the runway to other organizations.  I’ve gotten to see many planes take off and land in my time on site.

MAF has owned the airfield for many years and the land around it currently contains mostly buildings associated with the storage and maintenance of aircraft.  But they have been aware of the large amount of potential for this land to be able to support quite a few buildings (for MAF and others) very convenient to their air operations.  That’s where eMi comes in!

  
MAF’s immediate need is to build a structure on this site to serve as their office of operations and as a temporary terminal.  Currently they have an office off-site which has been serving their needs for a number of years.  But it is not the most convenient, and the rent for this is becoming less and less sustainable.  Their other needs for the overal master plan include a terminal building, plane workshops, housing and community buildings for the staff to live on site, a guesthouse for passengers, as well as reworking their taxiways and aircraft maneuvering areas to work better and facilitate more aircraft.

 

It was a fun and challenging project where all sorts of factors needed to be taken into account – such as the many building restrictions involved when building next to an airstrip as well as all the security and checkpoints that must be in place when dealing with an ‘International’ airfield of any kind.  Also, since all of MAF’s flights are humanitarian in nature, they typically don’t make much extra money – especially the kind of money to be able to afford site development of this magnitude.  So a big part of the project was to help them develop a business plan to be able to finance the project; and to work out phasing schemes to schedule and workout the order of development of the site in affordable stages.  The business plan mainly consists of leveraging the valuable land they have surrounding the airstrip to tenants who would develop parts of the master plan for MAF in exchange for reduced rent. 

My role has been to work with our director and team of engineers within the office to develop the business and phasing strategies, the design and presentation images for the site master plan, as well as the building design for the office building and housing units.  It has been a great experience and a lot of fun.  It is exciting to play a part in all the amazing things MAF’s organization is able to do here in East Africa.

 

  

I’ve also had the privilege of working on the RAMBIA health center clinic located in a rural community in the far west of Uganda.  Rwenzori Mountains Baghuma Integrated Association (RAMBIA) (http://www.emascanada.org/uganda_rambia.htm)  is an indigenous non–governmental organization, and the leaders of RAMBIA built this small clinic using money raised from such things as bee-keeping, brick-making and rearing goats.  The current center consists of two small buildings: one containing a dispensary, laboratory and consultation rooms; and the other, a maternity ward and inpatient department.  The clinic has proved to be a very valuable part of the community.  The nearest hospital is over an hour away and not accessible to most.

The clinic sometimes sees between 40 and 70 patients on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Many are mothers who bring their children for routine vaccinations, but others of all ages come with a variety of ailments.  RAMBIA's aim is to develop strategies for improving the standard of living of their surrounding community while advocating for human rights and non-violence.  Their goals include providing primary health care, maternal care, providing preventative services for malaria and other common diseases, educating the community on HIV/AIDS, and providing general counseling.

The clinic’s facilities are not at all adequate for all it is doing in the community.  It has needed to expand for a while but hasn’t possessed the means.  However a Canadian ministry, EMAS, has partnered with them to help with the funding of the expansion and overall upgrading of their clinic.  So as you can imagine, this is a very exciting time for this community.  As they prepare for the building project, I, working on behalf of eMi, have been thrilled to provide them assistance with the planning of the expansion.  My work for them has included development of an architectural site master plan which lays out new structures including a general exam/treatment building, a ward, a prenatal/maternity center, a covered waiting / vaccination area, and staff housing buildings on the compact site.  I’ve also prepared basic plans for each of these buildings.

 

It is something else to be able to see the impact just a little bit of our work can have on a community.  It is exciting to help them plan for their ultimate goal, to help them more fully utilize their resources, and then be able to give them actual drawings to clearly communicate their desires to a contractor. 

The Western Uganda Baptist Theological College (WUBTC) is located in Kiburara, Uganda (about 200 miles west of Kampala).  WUBTC was founded in 1990 by WorldVenture but is run by indigenous leadership.   The college trains pastors and their wives for ministry in rural Uganda through a two year theological training program during which the pastors and their families live at the campus.  Currently, the campus can house and train up to 20 families. 

Students and wives are both trained for ministry as well as ways to expand their community roles by developing skills in health education, bush medicine, birth assisting, teaching English as a second language, agriculture and irrigation methods, development of cottage industries and micro business ventures.  Because the school is not accredited, people who have not had the opportunity to continue their education beyond the 4th or 5th grade are eligible to enroll.

My assistance to WUBTC has been to address two current needs of the college.  The first need is to renovate the roof structure of several of the existing buildings on campus.  Currently several of the classroom’s roofs are very badly deteriorating – and their current design is not very appropriate for a classroom space.  The roof’s current large overhangs severely restrict natural light from entering the interior of the building, and the noise created from the significant amount of rainfall (that very frequently falls in their area) on the current single layer of thin metal roofing, makes conducting class very difficult.   So I’ve been researching different ways to insulate the roof and detailing it up adding clearstory windows to allow for more natural light to enter.

The second need is that of a Guesthouse facility for visiting professors or friends of the college who visit the campus.  Currently there is no suitable location to house these VIPs, and the necessity for it is becoming more and more regular.  The modest guesthouse facility is to have 4 separate bedrooms with a dining area, a meeting area, a separate guest suite with a its own dedicated shower and toilet, a garage for the tractor on campus, a workshop, an open air kitchen area, and pit latrines.   I've prepared construction drawings for them as well as some presentation images.

I’ll quickly touch on one more because of the very exciting organization.  The Ugandan American Partnership Organization (UAPO) (http://www.theuapo.org/) is a group that strives to actively partner with Ugandans to assist with ways for them to sustain themselves.  They have many projects throughout the country and their goal is to see each of their projects make lasting impacts for generations to come.  I assisted them with their Akola project, developing building plans and construction details for a women’s vocational center, to provide a place to give skills training to women. 

Working for eMi has been a lot of fun and I look forward to what the rest of the year has to bring.  I actually leave this week to go to Rwanda on a project trip to develop a master plan for an orphanage and women’s vocational center for the Gate of Hope organization (http://gateofhope.org/).  The organization looks like a fantastic group, and I’m very excited to learn more about them.  I’ll be gone for almost two weeks to leave Erin to fend for herself here in Kampala.  So be sure to drop her an email for me so she doesn’t get lonely!