Another beginning

Looking back and looking forward

Well, this is it. As of Wednesday, I didn't have to take anti-malaria pills with breakfast anymore. That means a full month has passed since I returned from India. After a month of being home, everything's different and nothing's different. It's strange how these two parts of me - the part forever changed by India, and the part that feels completely comfortable being home again - can coexist so peacefully. Only time will tell what the full impact of India will be on my life. For now, I am thankful that I lived in India for a season, met some awesome people, worked on two meaningful projects, and learned a whole bunch about God, life, and myself in the process.

Would I go back to India? Yes, definitely. Probably not tomorrow (I need to get a "real" job in the US for a few years before I can get my Professional Engineer's license and be really useful), but some day, if the opportunity arises, I would go back. We'll see.

I can't properly capture India (or even my brief experiences there) in a blog post, but I can share more stories with you. I've posted some new photo albums (with good captions!) to share a few more vignettes of my time in India (click the link below each picture to go to that photo album):

(1) Intern holiday to Mumbai & Goa

(2) Muscle Magic Gym experience

(3) Trip to Agra (Taj Mahal, etc.)

(4) Church in New Delhi

*NOTE: this 4th album is not on Facebook*

Now that I've posted those pictures/stories, I have to admit that it's difficult to write much more about India. There's just so much I could say. And sitting here at my laptop (in my bedroom in the US), India feels distant. I could (and would be glad to!) sit down with you in person, scroll through pictures on my laptop, and tell the stories behind each one. For example, I could tell you about...

...how Indians are so resourceful and efficient with their transportation

(as evidenced by this picture I took in Hyderabad)...

...or how awesome it is to have fresh veggies *come to you* on neatly-stacked carts every day...

...or how mind-boggling the Indian electrical system is (the real question is not "Why are there so many outages," but "How does it even work at all?!")...

...or how this gate (which I walked past every week on the way to church) was a vivid and sobering reminder of Matthew 7:13-14 ("...wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.").

. . . etc. . .

*Sigh* ...I guess part of the difficulty is knowing that no matter what I write, you will never get the full impact of India unless you go yourself. So I would encourage you to go. Seriously! Maybe not India, maybe some other developing country, but definitely try to get outside of your comfortable bubble in the US if you ever get a chance. It will (a) make you appreciate the blessings of the US *so* much more than before, and (b) open your eyes to ways that you are broken that you never realized before. Plus it might even give you some great opportunities to serve others. ;)

However, please know that an American going to India is not a clean-cut case of "rich-healthy-person going to help poor-sick-person." Yes, Indians (like Americans) need to meet Jesus, and many of them (unlike Americans) also have unmet physical needs like water, sanitation, and healthcare. But there are some things that Indians have/understand that Americans don't. Go to India with your eyes and heart open, and you will see them.

If you're curious, there's a really good book called When Helping Hurts that talks about how you can effectively help others escape poverty. I'm reading it now and it's rocking my world:

So what's next?

That seems to be the question that everyone's asking me lately. It's certainly a question that I frequently ask God! Many things are still up in the air right now, but I can say that in general, I'm trying to find an entry-level engineering job so that I can begin my professional career and start working toward earning my PE (Professional Engineer) license in a few years. Once I get to that point, I'll be much more useful for serving people, both in the US and abroad. Who knows where I'll eventually end up after that (short term or long term). I'm just planning to take it one step at a time, following the Lord's lead.

For now, if I could choose all the details of my life, I'd like to get an entry-level Water/Wastewater Engineering job in Charleston, SC, since that's where my girlfriend lives. Job applications have been submitted, and at least one interview is in the works, so we'll see what happens. I'm not sure how many more personal details are appropriate to post online, so if you have questions, please come find me and we can talk about it. :)

The final word(s): THANK YOU!!! :)

Thank you, friends, for all of your support, encouragement, donations, and prayers during this journey! I truly could not have done this internship without you.

• Those of you who donated, thank you for sacrificing your hard-earned money to allow me to go.
• Those of you who wrote letters to me, thank you for your thoughtful kindness. It boosted my spirits on days when I was feeling really discouraged (there were a few of them!). 
• Those of you who prayed for me, thank you for your powerful assistance and encouragement. There were many things that happened in ways impossible to chalk up to coincidence (the uncanny sequence of fortuitous events when I visited Shanti Niketan Children's Home comes to mind as an example). Prayer is powerful - that is one lesson I keep relearning!
• Those of you who read my blog, commented on my pictures, or even just "liked" something that I posted on Facebook - thanks for caring. It means a lot to me. :)

Most of all, thanks to God all of his gracious gifts: food, air, life, clothes, friends, education, grace, peace, freedom, and Jesus. As one pastor put it, "I have reason enough in the gospel alone that should Christ call me, I would leave everything and follow Christ, even to the ends of the earth."

This is the end for now, but really it's just the beginning. I've finished school, finished my EMI internship, and now I'm about to begin my professional career (whatever that will mean). Here's looking forward to seeing how God will use the small thread of my life as it's woven more and more into the grand tapestry of his redemption for all of creation. Woohoo! :)

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,

for you judge the peoples with equity

and guide the nations upon the earth.

Let the peoples praise you, O God,

let all the peoples praise you!

Psalm 67:4-5 (ESV)

"Take root below, bear fruit above" - Shanti Niketan Children's Home

Wow, it's been exactly one month since my last blog post! Sorry about that. Things have been busy, but now I have some time and wanted to tell you about my second EMI project trip to a place called Shanti Niketan Children's Home (SNCH).

Before I start, I must say that I spent all day yesterday compiling and captioning a photo album for this trip (it's not extremely long, it's just that I wanted to do it carefully), and it would really be great if you could take some time to look through that album before reading this post [if you saw my Facebook pictures, they're the same ones]. :) Pictures are more fun to look at than bunches of words anyway. ;)

To see the album,

click here

Now, with that in mind...

Matthew (in the khaki pants) and I did some surveying during this trip. Surveying in the Himalayan Mountains feels pretty epic, I must admit. :) [CG]

Shanti Niketan (pronounced "SHAWNtee nicKAYtin") means "house of peace" in Hindi, and it is a very fitting name. SNCH is nestled up in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains near a town called Subathu, in the state of Himachal Pradesh. It's a beautiful, serene, secluded location. The site was originally founded by the Leprosy Mission back in the early 1900s (1916, I think?), but now it belongs to SNCH [note: technically it belongs to one of SNCH's supporting organizations, but I don't want to bore you with the details.] You can actually search for "Shanti Niketan Children's Home" in Google Earth and it will take you right to the correct spot!

This is one of the property markers put in place when the Leprosy Mission site was originally established (in 1916, I believe). Obviously it has stood the test of time!

Another EMI team came just 3 weeks ago to survey the site and create a map, so our team's goal was to follow up on that by creating a site master plan for the campus. We also worked on designing the first new structure that would be built - a bigger dorm for the boys.

A sneak peak of the masterplan in progress. ;) The blue blocks in the lower left corner are the proposed boys' dorms.

The first order of business (spearheaded by the architects) was to talk with the SNCH staff and see what their needs/concerns were for the new site layout and building design. What kinds of struggles were they facing? What kinds of features were they hoping to see in the buildings? Did they have any suggestions for where they should be located, or how the floor plans should be laid out? Etc...

Interviewing the SNCH staff to see what their needs/concerns were. [CG]

For the engineering side of things, the main concern was the water supply/distribution system. For one thing, it was quite complicated (built in a piecemeal fashion that made it difficult to decipher which valve controlled which tank/pipe, etc.). It also ran out of water during the dry season sometimes, which was a problem.

So John (the civil engineer volunteer who came on this trip) and I went to see the springs where the water came from, visited the big storage reservoirs, and worked to map their current water system so that we could find ways to improve it.

This is one of the places where a pipe (that tiny hole that Dipuk is pointing to!) captures spring water for the SNCH water supply. Excellent opportunity for  a "spring development" project (basically scraping away the dirt and building an underground concrete box to capture as much of the water as possible before it comes above ground). Should make a noticeable difference in both quality and quantity of water.

The reservoirs (uphill) are great, but the sand filter (downhill) was poorly designed and unnecessary. We're recommending that they get rid of it.

Look, a flower! :)

One neat thing about this trip for me was that I actually got to use something I learned in class to contribute to the design! Back in 2010 I took a Water Resources Engineering course (CE 443) that taught me how to use EPANET software to model water pipe networks. I was able to use that to model the system here at SNCH and then predict how things would perform if we made certain changes (different pipe diameters, different pipe lengths, different tank elevations, etc.). Neat! :)

Woohoo! I felt like such a legit engineer once we got the system modeled correctly and error-free! Haha. :)

By the end of the week we had a set of conceptual design drawings to show the SNCH directors and staff (and donors, who happened to be visiting!). They were EXTREMELY appreciative and excited to see this first step toward improving the lives of the children and staff who live here. I don't think I'll ever have a client in the US who is as grateful for design drawings as these folks were!

So that covers the technical side of things. But there was a whole other set of neat things happening during the week!

For one thing, the love of Christ was vibrantly evident during our stay at SNCH. Their hospitality was overwhelming - every meal was a feast, every meeting required tea and biscuits, every task we did was an chance for them to help/serve/encourage us somehow. Incredible. If you want to know what 1 Peter 4:9 looks like in real life, talk to these people!

The first of COUNTLESS cups of chai that I drank that week! :)

Another striking thing was the prayerful attitudes of the SNCH staff. These people didn't just pray to look pious, they prayed because they knew that it worked. They prayed and then trusted God to answer. For example, not ONCE during our week there did they give us an advertising spiel about the home, or ask us for money/support - they just prayed regularly that God would provide funds, and then trusted that he would make it happen as he always did.

This became really vivid for me when I heard how EMI had lost SNCH's application a few years ago(!). Apparently, in 2008 SNCH applied to EMI for help, and inexplicably (this is NOT a regular thing!), the paper form got stuck to the back of a folder and lost before EMI could reply. So SNCH never heard back. Instead of pressing the issue, following up, and asking what had happened, they just figured, "Well, God must not think we need engineering help at this time." And they kept praying about it. [Incidentally, the lost application was recently found, which is why I heard this story.]

Now, four years later when we finally arrived, they were overjoyed, explaining how we were the answer to "prayers they had been praying for years." Wow. There were so many things that fell into place when we came on this trip that it's difficult to chalk it all up to coincidence; clearly God has honored their attitude of trustful dependence on Him. Some of the staff members have lived and worked here for 10, 15, even 20 years (they are cross-cultural workers originally from the northeastern state of Mizoram, mind you), and over time it seems that their prayer lives have only been strengthened. Very cool to come work and pray alongside them.

There are more stories I could tell and pictures I could show, but this is enough for now. Ask me in person the next time you see me, and I'll be happy to tell you more about what God is doing at Shanti Niketan. Long story short: very cool stuff. :)

Gate at SNCH. Very cool.

Just for fun.

[note: EMI = Engineering Ministries International]

Sarah's Covenant Homes - EMI project 8211

O LORD, the hope of Israel,

all who forsake you will be put to shame.

Those who turn away from you will be written in dust

because they have forsaken the LORD,

the spring of living water.

Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed;

save me and I will be saved,

for you are the one I praise.

Jeremiah 17:13-14 (NIV)

I've heard the passage above quoted many times, but for whatever reason, I don't remember ever seeing verse 13 included in the quote. However, I think it's a fitting passage to use when talking about my recent trip to Ongole [pronounced on-goal] (where Sarah's Covenant Homes is located).

Ongole (like much of India) is full of industrious, resourceful, likeable people - some living in better conditions than others. There are the guys who drive the autos, the guys who cook on the street corners, the guys who clean out sewers by hand, the ladies who cook, clean, and maintain their homes while also raising children, the chokidars who keep watch at night - not to mention lots of middle and upper class folks who have jobs just like those in the US. So often these Indians put me to shame with their work ethic, humility, and patience. Yet despite their physical and social fitness, so many of them are feeding on spiritual dust - trusting in rituals and images that can never truly nourish the core of who they are. Bowing down, offering sacrifices, reciting prayers ...to figurines made by men?

This disparity has broken my heart over and over since coming to India. Being a people-pleaser by nature, I want so badly to be able to tell people, "Oh yes, you can believe whatever you want. You worship Ganesh, I believe in Jesus, that other guy follows Allah - sure, no problem! As long as you are sincere and trying your best, that's all anyone can ask for." That's certainly the prevailing mindset in India. Hindu spirituality feels no need to worry about objective truth. It would be so much easier if I could endorse that mindset, not make waves, not question cultural norms, not care so much about strangers.

But unfortunately it's not like that. I am convinced that there is one true God (I know him!), and he has spoken clearly and objectively about himself. While God is loving, compassionate, patient, and faithful, he is also just and true, and he does not accept false/misdirected worship. He will not share his worship with anyone else. And he will hold people accountable for living lives that do not acknowledge him. If all of this is true, then it should profoundly influence my thoughts, words, and actions regarding the beautiful people of India.

So... how does this relate to Sarah's Covenant Homes (SCH)?

Excellent question! :)

The connection is this: while in Ongole, I saw representations of BOTH parts of the passage shown above. The first group of people (those who seem outwardly healthy but are spiritually wasting away) was vividly contrasted with another group of people - those who were painfully aware of their deformities and unhealthiness but were receiving a steady stream of nourishment and healing (both physical and spiritual): the children of Sarah's Covenant Homes. These precious kids are being fed not only with rice, vegetables, and meat, but also with the bread of life and the living water. No dusty hearts here.

A Deuteronomy 6:9 doorframe :)

Now, with that as the backdrop, let me take a break from metaphorical comparisons and actually tell you what we *did* on our trip. :)


Unfortunately (thankfully?), I don't have enough time or space to tell you everything we did throughout the week, but I did put together a photo album with a healthy serving of photos and captions to walk you through our activities/experiences for the week. I'd encourage you to check it out here to fill in the gaps of this post. (Note: if you've seen my Facebook photos, these are the same ones.)


Arriving and getting acquainted

After a 3-day journey that involved an excursion into the modern city of Hyderabad, an overnight stay in a really nice guest house, and a total of 34 hours on various trains, our EMI team finally arrived in the town of Ongole early Monday morning (Sept 17).

The train station in Ongole. The bubbly language on the left is Telugu - the local language.

Our client was Sarah's Covenant Homes (SCH), represented by the wonderful Eric and Tisra (an American couple who recently moved to India to help run/support the ministry). SCH is a children's home for disabled/developmentally challenged children, and it falls under the umbrella organization of India Christian Ministries (ICM). ICM is led/founded by a guy named James, who is married to Sarah, and Sarah started Sarah's Covenant Homes back in 2008. Hopefully that all makes sense. Unfortunately Sarah was out of the country traveling when we were there, but Eric & Tisra did a great job filling in for her.

Our task was to help prepare a site masterplan and conceptual building design for a new SCH facility. They wanted more/better space so they could serve their kids better and accomodate more kids in the future. They also wanted it to be their own property so they didn't have to worry about landlords kicking them out unexpectedly (apparently hosting disabled children is not popular among landlords in India due to Hindu beliefs such as karma and fate - many think that the kids should accept their lot in life and not receive help from anyone). :'(

Tour de Ongole
We were given a thorough tour of the current SCH facilities as well as a chance to meet some of the kids. They were precious. I know that's an overused word, but it's so true. Just look at them:

Evan.

Lily (?).

Rhoda (and me).

[photos by Christine Gerhart]

If you want to see more cute faces, go here.

Of course, we weren't there just to play with the kids - we needed to collect data about their current facilities so that we could do a good job of designing a new facility for them. So the architects measured the rooms and asked the workers what they thought about them (should they be bigger? smaller? arranged differently? etc), while we engineers went and looked at their water storage tanks (how much do they use each day?), wastewater system (how many toilets & showers do they have? where does the wastewater go? how is it treated? etc.), and other pertinent tidbits.

Checking out the water storage tanks at one of the current SCH facilities (it extended below ground). [photo by Christine Gerhart]

Later in the afternoon, we drove out to the site where they would like to build the new SCH compound in the future (and by compound, I mean a building(s) large enough to hold all of their children, up to 150 in the future). We walked the perimeter of the site, saw its existing features, and saw the corner where they wanted to put the SCH facility.

There is currently one structure on the 11-acre site - a multipurpose administrative building for ICM. Its floor plan is in the shape of a cross. :)

The rest of the site is covered with scrub/grass and mostly flat (except for one large pit, which we were walking past in this photo).

We rounded out the day with dinner at a nice Indian restaurant downtown (and no, not all the restaurants in India are Indian! haha). It was delicious!! :)

Getting to work
The day after we went on our various tours, we set to work generating our design. First the architects brainstormed the features and layout of the new building, while we engineers went out to the field to survey the land and make a map for the architects to work with. In addition to surveying, we also performed percolation tests (to measure how fast water drains into the soil [important for wastewater treatment/disposal]), soil tests (to see what type of soil was in the ground [important for structural loads and general knowledge]), and lots of calculations (water demand, wastewater projections, stormwater runoff, etc.).

Here I'm setting up the survey equipment (grey "Total Station" and yellow "data collector") while John (the new EMI CEO, in the green shirt) and James (the ICM director, in the beige shirt) look on. If you want to know more about the surveying, go read the captions on the photo album I mentioned above. ;)

It actually took a few days to make a complete map, but by the middle of the week we gave the architects had an accurate-enough map of the site boundary to begin laying out the building footprint.

(Note: I'm skipping over plenty of details here in the interest of time/space. Again, please view the photo album for more info.)

After much measuring, interviewing, deliberating, discussing, calculating, drawing, rendering, printing, and preparing, we finally had a conceptual design ready to present to our client. The last day of our trip (Sunday), we showed James, Eric, and Tisra the design we proposed, got their feedback, and then departed from Ongole in the morning. The professional volunteers (architect & civil engineer) flew back to the US, while we EMI interns & staff returned to New Delhi to finalize the design and report. (We also did an in-house design review with the entire EMI India staff once we got back, and that was extremely helpful too.)

The water/wastewater/stormwater part of the design, drawn in colored pencil on top of the proposed architectural layout (ground floor). I helped make this!! :) [Note: the design will be revised significantly based on the feedback we received, so this preliminary photo is just to give a flavor of what kind of work we were doing.]

Somehow the architects' drawings always end up looking prettier than the engineering plans... ;)

Our end-of-the-week design presentation in Eric & Tisra's apartment. (Eric is in red, Tisra in light blue, and James in dark blue.) The meeting went really well! :) [photo by Christine Gerhart]

Long story short: the trip went well despite having to make some adjustments along the way, and we have a really good start on the design for a future Sarah's Covenant Homes facility. Now that I'm back in the office, I've been working on tweaking the surveying drawings, writing our design report, and preparing for my next project trip (for a different children's home project in northern India) which starts in two days!

The SCH design will be revised significantly based on the feedback we've received (it's only a conceptual design, after all), so my work is nowhere near done, but it's still really encouraging to see all the progress we've made. It was also really encouraging to see the work that SCH is doing to bring living water to a dry and dusty land (to tie it back into the passage at the beginning of this post). Keep up the good work, SCH! :)

Learning more every day in India,

David

View of the sunset from the roof of our apartment the last night we were in Ongole.

My apartment and the office

I realize that's it's ironic for me to be writing about my new home when I'm not even there, but we have a few hours of down time in Hyderabad (and free internet at the guest house where we're staying!), so I wanted to tell you a little more about my living and working conditions.

The Flat
In India (as in much of Europe, I think), apartments are called "flats." I am sharing a flat with two Indian guys named Huberth and Shyam - both are believers, but only Huberth works at EMI (Shyam is a friend of his from church). They are both great guys and have been extremely hospitable to me since the day I arrived. They both like to cook, but Huberth is from the north-east of India (descended from a head-hunting tribe, actually!) and Shyam is from southern India, so they have different opinions about what constitutes good cooking. It's fun to hear them jokingly criticize each other's cooking techniques ("Well, maybe in the NORTH that's considered good cooking, but if you really want to know how to do it properly..." haha). :)

Here Huberth is cooking up a feast for all the interns who visited our flat one evening.

The compact kitchen is missing some of the modern appliances that I take for granted in the US (notably: oven, microwave, and dishwasher), but that doesn't stop these guys from making DELICIOUS dinners every night. There are also a few additions that I haven't seen in America - a small water heater up on the wall (a geyser, pronounced "geezer"; not shown in this picture), a propane-fueled stove that sits on the marble countertop, and (most surprising to me) a reverse-osmosis water purifier to filter the tap water (the blue tank on the left)! Talk about clean drinking water...

Shyam commented that the kitchen was "very dirty!" when I took this picture, so please imagine that the dishes drying beside the sink are all put away neatly in the cabinets, and everything else is neat and orderly. :) That's how it usually is.

Following the trend with the rest of the apartment, my bedroom is also compact, although it has ample closet space. My bed, desk, and nightstand take up about half of the floor space, while the rest of the floor space is open (nice for doing push-ups if I want to). There is also a powerful adjustable-speed ceiling fan to keep me cool at night (and to keep any mosquitos at bay).

I bought the green travel sheet in the US - it's impregnated with permethrin (an insect repellant) to frustrate any mosquitos that find their way into my room. :) So far it seems to be working!

I have more closet space than I know what to do with! (Most of my clothes are packed in my backpack in this picture, but even unpacked, I had plenty of space.)

My bathroom has some idiosyncrasies (e.g., the light switch is located in the hallway, there's no hot water, and you operate the toilet by pressing a button on top instead of pushing a lever), but it does everything it needs to, and I'm happy with it. Perhaps my favorite part is the fact that the toilet is solid pink, haha. :) The bathroom doubles as the washroom on laundry days, because I have to hand-wash all my clothes in a big bucket, and the fastest spigot in the house is located in my bathroom. To do laundry, I sit on the toilet (with the seat down, of course), set the laundry bucket in front of me, and scrub my heart out (usually while listening to a Tim Keller sermon on my laptop). So far I've only had to do laundry twice.

It's hard to see, but there is a 1-inch drop in the marble flooring that separates the shower from the rest of the bathroom.

Finally, the flat has a living room and a small outside balcony that overlooks our entry gate. We (roommates) normally eat dinner together and then hang out in the living room watching TV, browsing the internet, having conversations, and/or reading books. Past conversation topics have included cooking techniques in India, opinions on churches in Delhi, current topics in the news, the role of women in the family & the church, and how to keep rodents out of the apartment (haha; they're not a huge issue, just an occasional visit. I killed a small mouse using my Nalgene bottle the other day).

Shyam has been doing various home-improvement projects lately, hence the random items laying around. It's normally neater than this. That dark door is our main entry door, and the bright glass sliding door leads to our porch/balcony. The small thing in the bottom right corner is our refrigerator.

Standing on our porch looking left...

...looking straight forward (there's a small park across the street where neighborhood kids like to play cricket)...

...and looking to the right. (This is the way I walk to work each morning.)

A view of our apartment from across the street. Admittedly it's not the best picture I've ever taken (I was in a hurry when I took it), but you get a general idea. The lower balcony is ours, and the other 2 balconies belong to other flats.

The office
Our office is situated in the basement of an apartment building across town. It's neat: the girl interns live upstairs in one of the apartments, so they only have to walk downstairs (and through a few doors: to maintain "boundaries" ;) ) each morning to come down to work. I'll readily admit that the girls' flat is a bit nicer than the guys' flat (but ours is more "authentic"!!). :)

The girls in front of their flat. I shamelessly stole this picture from Alyssa's Facebook album, but I don't feel so bad because I'm pretty sure I took the picture in the first place. :) (From left to right: Meredith, Christine, Alyssa)

Turn left and you'll go to the girls' flat. Turn right and you'll go down to the office. :) The motorcycle ("bike") belongs to an upstairs neighbor.

The office has an open feeling - there are a few partitions dividing up the space, but it's not a cubicle jungle by any means. Normally there are people sitting at almost every desk, and you can easily lean over and ask them a question, but this is project trip season, so some of the staff was out of the office (and I was taking this picture the morning before we left for our project trip, when people were out running last-minute errands), so the picture below just shows the desks. The main entryway staircase comes into the office just to the right of this picture.

My desk is the one with the light on.

A picture taken from my desk looking the other way. This is where Dannah and Ryan (two of the married EMI staff members) normally sit, with Matthew and Ivy (another married couple) sitting across from them. Ivy just gave birth to their first son Sean a few months ago (hence the green mosquito netting tent for changing diapers), so she's been taking a break from architecture lately and spending time at home taking care of Sean.

We have a printer/plotter area (on the left) and a "conference room" (on the right). Every morning we meet as a staff to do morning devotionals in the conference room.

There are a few other nooks and crannies that I didn't show here (namely the bathroom, kitchenette, and a few other desks), but this provides the general gist of things. The people in the office are great! There are three married couples, two single guys, and then us interns (plus Christine who is technically a long-term volunteer but went through orientation with us, so she feels like a part of the intern family). It's a neat mix of architects and engineers (each with his/her own personality), plus a graphic designer and computer network administrator thrown in for good measure. I've really enjoyed getting to know them, and I'm looking forward to working together on projects this semester. Hopefully in future posts you can get a better idea of what each of them is like. :)

Heading to AP! :)

It's official - my bag is packed, the survey gear is loaded up, and we are ready to head to Andra Pradesh for my first project trip! :)

Driving from New Delhi to Ongole is the equivalent of driving from Chicago to Miami (according to Google Maps).  In other news, I'm bringing Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology to read on the train (no joke). :)

In about 4 hours, our group will leave Delhi on a 26-hour train ride down to Hyderabad (southern India). Then after spending the night in Hyderabad, we'll take another train (and various other forms of transportation) to reach the town of Ongole, where Sarah's Covenant Homes is headquartered.

Sarah's Covenant Homes (SCH) is a Christian ministry that helps children with neurological and development disabilities - children who have been abandoned by their parents and are unlikely to be adopted. The Homes (there are more than one) provide special education, therapy, and medical resources for these kids, lavishing them with the love of Christ. You can see a short video about SCH produced by a former volunteer (not from EMI) by clicking here.

In the past, SCH has rented out space in various apartment complexes in order to house the kids, but the landlords often complain about having "those kinds of people" living there, and they force them to leave, so it's exciting for SCH to be planning a more permanent/stable home for their ministry. They already own the land, they just need EMI to help develop a masterplan for the site, including a few buildings (and of course water distribution and wastewater treatment plans). :)

Over the course of a week, our goal is to meet with the client, verify their current and future needs, and then produce a conceptual design for them. They can then use this design (which includes 3D renderings of what the site will look like) to help do fundraising to make the project happen. If you don't hear from me between now and September 25, no news is good news - it means I'm busy working on the design with the rest of the team! :)

This is a data collector we'll use while surveying the site (it connects to a Total Station - the most important piece of surveying equipment). Perhaps my favorite part is that the data collector uses a stylus. :)

Hopefully I'll have the chance to do more blogging on the train!

Thankful to be in India,

David

[P.S. - for the internet robots: EMI = Engineering Ministries International]