Smooth travels & A little exploring

[the following are my journaling of the past 24 hours of my travelling, when I didn't have internet. Since I have it now, I thought I'd update]

September 29, 2010

 

I’m currently en route to Washington DC from Denver---first let of my 4-legged, 3-day journey to Sudan. Things went so smoothly this morning, Praise God! My Sudanese visa was waiting for me at the FedEx in Denver when I got there at 10am, and I quickly and easily checked my bag—which ended up being EXACTLY 50lbs (such a blessing!). I also found out that though I transfer airlines (United to Lufthansa to Ethiopian Air), my luggage is going all the way to Juba so no need for me to baggage claim and recheck my GIANT 50lb bag at the different airports. I just want to add, I think I packed pretty light—for me at least. Half of my bag is full of things for the trip that are staying there. I have a bunch of water testing kits for the MENA office, clothes and a soccer ball for the orphans at the orphanage in Sudan, and a book and miscellaneous supplies. That means… PLENTY of room for souvenirs on the way back?!?! I guess that means I need plenty of money for those souvenirs too, which I don’t have, so I guess I’m traveling light on the way home! 

It hasn’t sunk in yet that I’m on my way to AFRICA for a month! In the prayer-sendoff in the office yesterday, one of the staff prayed about God having this trip planned for me since before I could even imagine it would happen, and that really changed my perspective on this next month. Since this trip fell into place as a series of ideas turning into actuality, I didn’t really take the time to think about the fact that none of these stops are random, and God has a plan in all of it. It made me start to consider why I am the intern that is suited for have this experience (“The eMi Office Tour 2010” as Rex & I have dubbed it), and what it may be that God is going to do with it. I’m excited to find out! I think I’m ready for anything… I think.

9:45pm- Washington DC

Ok, so I don’t want to speak too soon, but God is REALLY blessing this trip so far! Last flight I sat on the aisle and there wasn’t anyone next to me. This flight—the 7 hour one to Frankfurt—I am ALSO on an aisle (making going to the bathroom at 3am a LOT easier) and I ALSO do not have a neighbor. Now, despite the convenience of this, I do actually enjoy having someone to chat with a bit on the plane. I like making friends J But, instead I get this… which will make it easier for me to sleep, hopefully!

Sept. 30, 2010 –Frankfurt Airport

Surprise! I found a church to sketch ;)

I’ve arrived in Frankfurt and am a little confused as to what to do when I get off the plane—we’re EARLY on arrival and I already have a 12 hour layover. Thank goodness for my friend, Davidson, who gave me detailed instructions as to how to get on the S Bahn to go to the city (a 5-minute train ride). I will probably just go to the places he mentioned—the shopping areas and churches and old buildings (touristy stuff)—so as to keep a low profile and blend in with the crowds. I’ve traveled enough that I’m pretty good at hiding the fact I have no clue what I’m doing sometimes ;) I’ll have to find a locker to put my carry-on into. I don’t want to make it THAT obvious that I’m straight off the plane. I think I might sketch a bit if possible. The pilot just said it’s 50 degrees here… I’ve packed for 80+ degrees… haha, we’ll see how I fare!

6:22pm – Frankfurt Airport (Flughafen)

Well, I’ve returned from “Frankfurt am Main” (downtown). It was a nice little excursion! It took a lot of info-desking and question-asking but I found the luggage lockers (very secure) and train tickets and got downtown around noon. It was very bustling because it’s the work-day lunch hour. I bought myself a nice little map and followed roads around the city. It looks pretty similar to other European cities I’ve been to. The juxtaposition of contorted glass-box skyscrapers abutting classically-European, 19^th century stone buildings with arched entryways was neat, and made me think it looked like Belgrade combined with Paris. I found some neat parts of the old city that is left after the Allies bombed Frankfurt during WWII (thanks Davidson for directing me to those places!), and took some awesomely-lame pictures of myself in front of some cool places (see above). I also got a chance to do a few quick sketches (will scan and add later!)! I spent about 4 hours downtown, and then it started to rain (it was overcast all day). BUT, even with the rain, and the 55-degree temperature, people were still enjoying their coffee and food outside on the umbrella-covered seating areas on the pedestrian-only streets. That is what I LOVE about Europe—the café-&-street life. I still think places like MN could get away with doing this, because in colder places like Germany and France, they do it, they just put heaters outside. Now, it couldn’t be year-round, but it could be 3-seasonal! I do feel bad that I didn’t take the time to learn a lick of German before heading out into the city today. Even though I know almost all Germans speak English, I really like to at least know basics of a language when I travel somewhere. I guess that means I should start listening to those Arabic lessons I uploaded onto my iPod!!

Now I’m at a Starbucks until 8pm, when they will start getting boarding passes for my flight.

I saw this building on the left and immediately sat down to sketch it because of the glass addition hugging the old stone building on the corner. Such a nerd.

Visa craziness!

We have had quite the excitement regarding our visas for Sudan this week!

My project leader has friends in the Sudanese Embassy in the country he is in, so it seemed pretty certain that we would be able to get our visas on Monday. However, turns out that office just stopped producing the visas we need, so on Tuesday we were left trying to figure out how in the world we would get into Sudan! The embassies in Uganda  & Kenya, and the office in Sudan can produce these visas, so my project leader sought out these options.
After much prayer, emails, and favor-asking, we all now have TWO visas each! Our office in Uganda was able to get our visas and is sending them to us with a group returning to the states from Uganda on Monday. We should get those visas Wednesday morning---the day we leave! If this doesn't work, the ministry in Sudan has also gotten us visas, and we can most likely get to the airport in Juba as long as the visas are waiting for us when we land.
Needless to say, it was a crazy rollercoaster of being ready to go, then suddenly having no idea of how we would get into the country, and then having two options work out! God provides in cool ways, now we're just praying that at least one of them works!

Sickness & Health

I talked to my boss yesterday about the place we'll be staying in Sudan. He had just talked to a doctor who spent time at the orphanage we'll be at and there is good news and bad news:
First, this doctor's friend got typhoid, then pneumonia, while they were there. So basically, don't touch the water.
GOOD NEWS though, is that there is a doctor on site and he is actually very very good, so if we need to...we can be treated quickly and well!

Links and Prayers

Yesterday I got a really encouraging email from one of my former professors from the University of Minnesota. He is in Haiti because the U is planning on having a grad studio work with Architecture for Humanity down there during the spring semester. He ran into some eMi engineers down there, and hearing about that made me want to plug AFH and just say how exciting it's been to see so many different groups of design and engineering professionals give their time and talents to serving those in need in the world! It's also exciting to see Universities get students involved in that kind of work too!

Check out what eMi and AFH are doing in Haiti:
AFH in Haiti
eMi's disaster response efforts

I also have a quick prayer request for visas! Our project director will be going to the Sudanese embassy to get our visas on Monday, Sept. 19, and so please pray that everything goes as planned and we get them! Since he is going with a Sudanese friend to the embassy who knows people there, we hope that things will go smoothly, but getting visas are often the cause of a lot of frustration and uncertainty for these trips! My friend, Val, an intern in the UK office, hasn't been able to get her visa for her India trip that leaves this week, so prayers for her visa to come in or for another option for a trip to work out would be appreciated too!

Thanks for all of your encouragement and prayers, friends!! I can't wait to update you more when I'm in-country!

(and my flickr pictures are veryyyy behind. sorry. I will get that worked out before I leave!)

So many things I feel like I want to update about!
First, 10 days until I leave! Wow... it snuck up on  me! This next week and a half will probably have a lot of errand-running and last minute preparations in it!

This week at work I was helping out one of the engineers finish up a project in Egypt they did this summer. I was given a SketchUp model drawn by the team's structural engineer of the structural system of this theater/music studio building. My job was to redraw the structural grid plans in CAD. Other than the fact that I don't know all the technicalities of drawing a structural grid, it was quite the project because the SketchUp model was in inches, my CAD drawing was in millimeters. And the model's dimensions were slightly off in a lot of places---so all in all, it was quite the learning experience! After asking a lot of questions of the engineers in the office, I finished the grid drawings and we got them sent to the engineer and we're just waiting to get them back with adjustments made! Working on all of these other projects around the office has made me really excited to get started on my main project this term--the one in Sudan! only a couple weeks away!

This week I will be going up to Minturn, CO, (near Vail, in the "high country" as some call it around here) to meet the architect that is coming on our trip to Sudan. He's been on multiple eMi trips before and owns the firm, Blueline Architects, in Minturn. I'm excited to see what his firm is like and start talking about our work in Sudan! I know that week in Sudan will be a crazy challenging week--like a weeklong design charrette-- and I hear the electricity goes in and out a lot! Gotta get an extra battery for my computer! But I can't wait to get back into design and this time something that will be built!

Oh! I also wanted to update with details about my crazy travel schedule. I am super excited because I get to visit so many different eMi offices! The 5 days in Uganda was definitely a surprise addition that I didn't expect, but it will be great because we are going to have our design review in that office. I also have a friend, Brice, from Minneapolis who will be in the Uganda office that week too! I love random encounters with friends abroad! While I'm in Egypt, one of my best friends, Sara, will be visiting Cairo for a week, so I get to spend time with her there too. And then, the stop in the UK office was mostly me asking for an extended layover there so I could visit the team there, and I can't wait! Overall, the month will be full of traveling and new experiences and lots of learning and designing---it'll be great!

Calendar of Events!!

This week has been productive! We finally bought our tickets for our project trip and it's exciting to have things moving ahead in our plans! My travels are much more complex than I had imagined, but I'm excited for all of the exciting things that the complexity entails. To help me organize my month away (Sept. 29-Nov. 2), I made myself a calendar (visual learner). I'm posting it here as a link to a GoogleDoc.
Claire's Travels Calendar 

More details to come soon :)

Another eventful week & beautiful weather

This week was a short work-week, but that doesn't mean we weren't busy! The directors of all the eMi offices were in town for the Director's Conference, so Tuesday night we went to an office & directors barbecue at a local park. It was really interesting to hear about the dynamics of the other offices--how big or small they are, the way God has been blessing them and the challenges they face in their different locations. I might take a couple of them up on their invitation to visit their offices in the future, too!
I've had a steady stream of work coming in from my boss in the other office, mostly making adjustments to CAD drawings of a previous project and studying up on the ministry we will be working with in Sudan. I've also started trying to learn Arabic. Thankfully, the office has a set of Arabic language CDs and a co-worker was nice enough to lend me his books on Egypt and learning Arabic.
The office was pretty empty on Thursday and Friday, due to the director's conference and a co-worker's wedding. Friday morning we had a really moving worship and prayer time in which we prayed over the directors of the other offices, and over our CEO who was having surgery that day. We also served at the soup kitchen, Marian House, like we do every Friday. I really enjoy this time of the week because the more we work there, the more we build relationships with both the Marian House staff and the regulars who eat there.

4-Nation Dance Party (clockwise from top left: UK, COS, Nelly Video, Costa Rica, Canada)

At the end of the day on Friday, since there were only interns in the office and most people had finished their work for the day, we TokBox'ed the interns in the UK, Canada and Costa Rica. We put on some music and had what we call a 4-Nation dance party! It was so fun to see our friends at the other offices!

As for our social lives here, we've been watching A LOT of football! We went to the Air Force Academy game last weekend, as well as watched the LSU and Virginia Tech games. I also watched the Vikings-Saints game with my two Louisiana friends--that was tough. This weekend a few of us interns are helping out at a co-workers' church retreat with childcare, so I get to spend two mornings with 9 adorable preschoolers! I'm also putting together my portfolio for graduate school applications and getting a started on those.

We're now VT fans!

Prayer Request:

-We are still looking for a Civil Engineer for our project trip, which is delaying our purchase of tickets. Please pray for continued provision for these details to be worked out so we can still be in Sudan at the beginning of October as planned. (If we delay the trip, we may not be able to meet with the ministry leader there, which would be difficult)

Living Water Ministries, Juba, Sudan

This past week I've been getting projects from my boss, Steve, to do before the trip, which has been keeping me relatively busy at the office. These projects include little adjustments to previous designs on CAD, paperwork, and reading up on the organization in Juba's vision for the project and the project scope. I've just finished learning more about the ministry we are working with in Sudan and I wanted to share it with you!

Living Water Ministry, founded by Brother Mafdy Moosa

The ministry, started in 1984, has ministry centers in both northern and southern Sudan. Since their founding, they have been providing training and leadership seminars to raise up national missionaries and church planters to reach all parts of the country. They also train their students in vocational skills like carpentry, english, computers, farming, teaching and welding by which he or she can be a self-supporting missionary or church planter.

The ministry has land in northern Sudan that they plan on having dorms, a retreat center, recreational courts/pools, and farms on. Part of our time in Juba will entail master planning this site (which we will not be going to). The other part of the time will be spent expanding what is currently in Juba by adding a girls' orphanage, chapel/gathering center, kitchen, sewing workshop and storehouse.

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In other news, I'm leaving for Sudan in less than a month! I've gotten my shots and taken my typhoid pills, so next will be making sure I have my visa and starting to pack!

This week the directors from all of the other offices will be coming to Colorado Springs for the directors' conference. Thus, the office will be busy with visitors! We have a fun labor day weekend planned, with the first big event being an intern outing to the Air Force Academy football game tomorrow!

Color Coordination = Unity in the Spirit!

This morning when everyone walked into morning prayer, we realized there was a strange, unplanned, color coordination amongst the men of the office (and Ainsley!). Here's the picture they snapped and my co-worker's caption:

"This morning's inadvertent shirt matching just attest to our walking together in the unity of the Spirit.." -Craig