Friday, January 29, 2010

Surveying Work

Yesterday our whole office traveled out to a site not to far away to do some survey work.  This is part of one of the many "small" projects that our office works on whenever we have extra time around finishing our large (fly-in-many-professional-volunteers-to-help) projects.  We were helping the Gaba Bible Institute survey their land so that we can help them develop it as needed in the future.  They are one of the only places around offering degrees and certificate programs in youth work (the director said there are hundreds of NGOs in Kampala currently working with youth), and they are also about to start a disabilities studies program.

I've never done any kind of surveying before, but I thought it was really fun!  (For those who don't know, it's basically using this line-of-sight tool to help you measure the distance and elevation of a large area of land or buildings, etc.)  We were also right on the shore of Lake Victoria, so it was beautiful!

Today I found out that I will be joining a team from our Colorado Springs office in a project they are doing in Kenya.  We will be working at Kijabe Hospital, near Nairobi, which was founded by African Inland Mission in 1915.  They have a large campus with a need for new buildings, but before they can plan for expansion, they need us to help survey and document everything that already exists on their site.  In a future project, EMI will then help them work on their 10-year growth plan for the site.

I am very excited to go to Kenya, where I spent 2 summers 8 years ago.  I am also excited to try to brush up on the Swahili I studied in college and see how much I can put into use while I'm there.

No comments:

Post a Comment