Designing a World of Hope: The Photo Blog

First Impressions

After 21 hours of flying and layovers, I got my first sight of Uganda with my own eyes.

Boda-Boda's race across Kiwafu road. This is the street I live on. You can see a movie store on the other side of the road (trust me, its there). That scaffolding looks like it might meet OSHA standards... maybe.

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Scavenger Hunt

Just a guy carrying some mattresses in downtown Kampala. This was at beginning of the scavenger hunt we conducted downtown. We had to use some vague directions to find random points of interest. It gave us a good impression of the city, and we got more comfortable talking to locals.

There are these huge ugly birds everywhere. I can see three just in this picture alone.

Silly picture in front of "1000 cups."

Just me drinking some ginger beer in a restaurant downtown.

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Ultimate Sports Event!

I don't know what this was supposed to be, but I thought it made for a cool shot. I took it while were on our way to a resort off of Lake Victoria. We went there to just play around and have some fun.

These are a few of the missionary kids. It's awesome to see all get along so well. We've got Australians, Irish, Americans and Ugandans.

Talia and Whitney playing with a disk. Whitney was being looked over by one of the families for three weeks, since she suffers from random seizures.

Talia, waiting for me to look away so she can throw a basketball at the back of my head.

Thomas and Mark with Lake Victoria in the background.

Teaching Mark how to throw a disk, he caught on pretty fast.

Another interesting shot I took on the way back. Construction standards here are close to non-existent. The buildings are straight, I just took this picture in the back seat of a car.

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Construction Site Excursion

The gang of interns, riding in a Special Hire Taxi (or Mutatu).

Steve Hoyt showed us around a completed eMi designed site. This is a School with boys and girl dorms. There is so much to say aout this place, its awesome. Not only do the buildings look great, everything was hand made on site. This includes every piece of woodwork and masonry. A special type of wood was used that looks beautiful and termite resistant. There is a pretty sweet rain capturing system operational here too. It all gets treated and pumped back up into those tanks you see.

A pretty sweet macro shot I took of the wall Steve was talking about. this particular building is the kitchen.
There is a random paved path that leads between the buildings that some a church built on a short term mission trip. Its kinda sad, since they just made it without consulting anyone from eMi. Its crooked, kinda unnecessary, and runs right through the middle of the property. eMi is going to have to tear it down to make way for the phase II buildings of the project.

Yes, pineapples DO NOT grow on trees.

One of the many chickens at Cherish, a safe home for children with HIV. This ministry is changing lives and bringing hope to so many children and families. God is doing an amazing work here.

The gang, once again.

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Office Work, Meetings, and Painting.

Darren Jackson ( in the middle) is our civil engineering water expert. He is from Australia, and a long term volunteer here at eMi. We were discussing the different water supply options "Bless the Children Ministries" would have on their site as they continue to grow.

Oh, and did I mention the bugs are freaking huge here?
(They eat grasshoppers here, but not this kind in case you were wondering.)

My current wallpaper. I really like this shot.

David Wright, our new Irish structural engineer from South America, tries to keep his clothes paint free. We had an office volunteer day and helped clean up our neighbors house. He has a ministry for ex-convicts, and needed help beautifying the place.