Crunch Time

Hi Everyone.  It’s nearing the end of the project which means crunch time.  I was feeling quite relaxed yesterday morning, the intern and I that are working on the sanitation design were ahead of schedule.  And then we met with the architects to go over the master plan, and suddenly we were back at the beginning.  As far behind as it made me feel, I think it was a good lesson in learning to be flexible and taking things as they come. Of learning to find more to give when I feel like I have nothing left. We talked this morning as a team about offering what we have and I was reminded of a book I read recently that said we are all broken, what matters is what we do with the pieces.

As the nights get later and the mornings get earlier, I can feel myself and the rest of the team getting more tired as the week goes on.  Designing an entire school in a week is really a crazy thing to do, but it is so amazing to see how things always seem to come together at the end.  Since on a project like this at home, everyone on this team would be a separate consulting company, it is so fun to be able to all work around the same table and just yell your questions to the appropriate specialist when you need to know something about say architecture or structural. 

I’ve been having fun designing dual ventilated improved pit latrines and I’m so happy I have an intern to work with and help me out.  Although this time the intern I’m working with is from New Zealand with an accent that is hard to understand, so I’m sure he probably thinks I’m either slow or deaf since I keep asking him to repeat himself.  It’s been an interesting week with all these accents around.  One of the Australians told me I sound funny and I’m still trying to figure out if that was a compliment or not?

I’ve still been having fun taking some time everyday to visit the babies home.  I just love cuddling with those cute little people for a bit everyday.  Yesterday I had 3 of them sitting on my lap and it was so fun.

Today we attended one of the youth gatherings at Amazima. I met one of the staff members who used to work for Compassion International and knows the child I have sponsored here for the last 12 years.  Isn’t that crazy?

Sorry no picture today, the internet is quite slow so those will probably have to wait until we’re back in Kampala with faster internet.