5Crawfords

Coming into September we knew it was going to be a hectic month with both project trips in our office going out and then another team coming from the Colorado Springs office to do a project here with several members of that team staying on for a week afterwards to visit around the office. Around home, school was getting into full gear with the boys' soccer teams starting practices and the swim team getting going as well (I didn't even know they were on the swim team, but they practice each week with their classes so apparently that means they participate in the meets!). But even though we were expecting it, it still felt like even more of a whirlwind than we were anticipating. So we are happy that October is here, especially because that means we're one month closer to our trip home in December...actually 59 days from now!! Heritage Int'l School had it's first swim meet against two of the other international schools in town this past week. Alisha helped organize the...

The project team, overlooking Lake Nakuru National Park. (L to R: architect Jill, civil engineer Elisa, Jason, architect intern Jaclyn, civil intern Travis, architect Casey, ag engineer Roger, and me) It's a small national park compared to Masai Mara and the others in Kenya, but it was loaded with rhinos and flamingoes (we saw about 20 rhinos). We did a 4-hour safari drive on the last day as a closing time activity. The park was actually about a mile down the road from our hotel. PART III On Thursday, as we returned to work on the project, we began to hear reports from back home that riots had broken out in Kampala. Since this is not all that unusual of an occurrence (maybe once or twice a year), we weren’t too concerned about it. But on Friday morning, Alisha called me with panic in her voice telling me that they had just announced that they were closing the school for the day since the riots were spreading out from the city center into other parts of town. Alisha was pretty sc...

"The Heist" Wednesday morning started out normally enough. I woke up early to shave before breakfast. Afterwards, I typed out my blog journal for the previous day. Since I wanted to finish what I was writing, I was late for breakfast at 7:37am. I left my computer on my bed since I didn’t want to wait for it to shut down. I also left my backpack next to it without thinking – usually I load my computer in the backpack and carry it with me everywhere on a project trip. It’s annoying to lug around a heavy laptop everywhere, but I’m always paranoid about it being stolen. I remember pausing as I closed and locked the door, looking at my computer on my bed and wondering if I should wait for it to shutdown, and then deciding that I wouldn’t be obsessive compulsive this once. The Jumuia Guesthouse in Nakuru. A very nice and comfortable place...but security could apparently be better! Our room was on the back side of this building on the second floor. This picture was taken from out fr...

My most recent project trip was to Nakuru, Kenya to help design a new orphanage project for a ministry called Miracle House. Miracle House was started by Deanna Bjork and her husband Dan (from Breckinridge, Colorado) in response to the huge need for orphan care found in the slums in Kenya. About 5 years ago, God spoke to Deanna's heart the message, "How about an orphanage here?" Though she had been on many missions trips before with other organizations, she had never entertained the idea of starting her own orphanage. A message she heard early on in the process remains at the heart of their ministry. She was told by someone to “not be motivated by the needs of the people, but be motivated by the heart of God.” That really resonated with me, as I realized that that statement is the reason eMi exists as well, and it’s an important distinction to make and remain cognizant of. Miracle House (MH) began with a day-only care house in Limiru (just outside of Nairobi) where childr...

A giraffe in Masai Mara. Giraffes are one of the most fun to watch since they are so tall and graceful. This was my favorite picture I took on safari. I'm a terrible photographer, but out of a couple hundered I'm bound to get one right...though the experts would probably scoff at this! We've enjoyed the last days of summer in a big way. Alisha's parents took us on an amazing vacation to Kenya the last week of July and first week in August! It was such a treat to get away and enjoy some of the magnificient creation in this part of the world. When we first joined EMI the CEO recommended that we get out of Uganda every 6 months to help us keep our sanity. Well, that may not always be possible, but after returning from this incredible trip we can definitely see how it was good for our mental well-being and a great chance to be refreshed for the coming semester. First, we got to see all kinds of animals in the Masai Mara on a safari for a few days. The Masai Mara is the...