My recent trip to India was wonderful! It was great to use my engineering skills again and to lead an amazing team to design a girls home. The EMI team was responding to a request to redesign a 1 acre site that has been in use since the 1930's. Over the years a number of buildings have been constructed and many children have been loved, encouraged and raised on this site. Currently, the government is planning on expanding the frontage road and as a result will take 15' from each property owner to accommodate the widening project. Unfortunately, many of the buildings on the site are within this 15' and therefore will be destroyed when the road is widened.
The EMI team consisted of design professionals from 3 different continents and 4 different disciplines. In the week that we were on site we were able to survey the entire property, create a master plan for the site to show where the new buildings would be located, design 3 of the new buildings, provide recommendations for a new water and waste water system and spend some time getting to know the girls that were living there.
By seeing the operation of the home and the joy each person had, I was reminded of how possible it is to be content with a simple life. This is something that Shanthi and I have really been trying to implement since we have returned from Uganda. There are so many demands of our times and resources it would be very easy to be always going from one thing to another. However, we have decided to live a deliberate life and not a busy one. This is much harder to live out than we first thought, so it was good to be reminded of this through my time in India. Simplicity is a good thing and there is much joy to be found in it!
Pictures of the trip are located at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=149174&id=621319418&l=88c550865f.
Thanks for the prayers for the trip! God protected Shanthi and the kids, provided the team unity and gave the entire team wisdom to know how to design the site.
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