England

On our way back to Canada, Chris and I decided to stop for a few days in England to visit our fellow interns in the UK office.  These interns were near and dear to us.  Back in Colorado Springs during our Orientation, we had small group time where we shared more deeply about our lives and discussed other things that we had learned throughout the week.  We became rather close during those few days in August so taking a short trip to go see them was a no brainer.  This is a picture of our group minus one intern who was gone on a project trip.  

In the five days that we were there, we got to see lots of impressive things.  I had never been to England before so it was all new to me.  We saw the typical tourist sites in London, lots of little churches in the villages and countryside, the Colechester Castle, and the shore of the sea somewhat shown above.  We also attended a Bible study where the other two interns typically went.  It was an entertaining mix of people.  Even though we were in England, there were more Americans there than British.  
A few days after that, I was fortunate enough to attend a house warming party for different EMI intern.  He and his wife were opening up there house to some of their friends.  The four of us pictured above all made the trip along with some of their friends from university.  As we sat around the table, I was hit by a hilarious situation.  There were four American having a great time with six British people that we had never met before.  It was a great time.  We joked and laughed and conversed for hours.  I will always have fond memories of that time.
Chris and I eventually had to head back to Canada.  We took the train back into London and got on our plane.  Public transportation served us well during those days.

Day 11 - October 11th

This was the final full day that we had in Burundi.  There were two places that we could go to: a nearby orphanage or a safe house in the middle of the country.  I decided to go to the safe house but here is a picture from a team member that was taken at the nearby orphanage.

Several of us traveled to the heart of Burundi.  It took us nearly three hours to get there.  That may not seem like a long ways but Burundi isn't very big.  Also, Burundi is rather hilly/mountainous so the travel was slow going at times.  The reason that we were heading out to the safe house was that it was the site of a potential future project for EMI.  We were on an investigative mission to see what we could find out about the place.  Here is a short video of what we saw.

The next day we would fly out of Burundi.  It was a bitter-sweet farewell since we knew that it was unlikely that we would see each other again all in the same place but we also knew that great things had happened to us in the last few days.  Chris (the other intern) and I would be taking a stop for a few days in Colechester England on our way back to Canada.  Little did we know how much fun it was going to be.

Day 10 - October 10th

Today was church.  We went to the church where Painito was preaching and had our second experience of African churches.  We sat up in the front corner of the room looking at the rest of the congregation.  Singing songs was also quite the experience.  Since I didn't know the language, I had to focus rather intently on the words if they were projected on the the screen so that I could sing along.  Much to my delight there was a melody that I recognized.  Even though the words were different, I could make my way through "How Great Thou Art".
Several of the team members were invited to come up to the pulpit and share a few words to the congregation.  Each team member would say a few words and the translator would translate the English words to Kurundi, the local dialect.  Here is a picture of Ben during this time.

Day 9 - October 9th

Today was a day for relaxing after the busy week.  The plan was to go to Lake Tanganika and relax on the shore.  Once we made it there, this is what we found.

It was a great place to be.  Before we left, we were treated to a very nice meal.  Little did I know that this was going to be my first encounter with a different type of food.  I went ahead and ordered what most everyone else was ordering and this is what came out of the kitchen.  

After I got over the looks of the fish, I dug in and started to eat it.  It was actually quite tasty.  After the meal, we headed back to Bujumbura and relaxed for the rest of the evening.  

Day 8 - October 8th

The day for the final presentation had finally come.  The presentation was going to happen after supper so we had the morning and most of the afternoon to put the final touches on things.  Things were a little busy during that time but that's alright.  


After supper we started the presentation.  This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip because of the reaction of Painito and Rose and others in the room.  They have had this dream for a ministry for several years but it's only been a dream.  They've never had anything tangible to look at and see that their dream was becoming reality.  That was until tonight.  When they first saw the renderings of what their dream could look like, their faces lit up.  Smiles became infectious at that point.  For the volunteers that had been working on this campus for the last five days, nothing seemed new to us anymore.  But after seeing their faces, I couldn't help but smile along with them.  The presentation went off very well.  Here is a picture of Kevin, our project trip leader, presenting.

Day 7 - October 7th

Yes, it has been quite a while since I have last updated the blog.  I'll devote a different blog post to that topic.  The rest of this post will be dedicated to my trip to Burundi.


October 7th wasn't too terribly exciting.  The entire day was spent at the computer working on drawings for the project.  There was a sense of urgency in the air because everyone knew that the following day was the final presentation to the ministry.  Lots of things had to happen so we put the pressure on ourselves to get things done.  Larry and I finished up the surveying drawing during the afternoon.  After that I offered to help some of the other team members with the items that they had remaining to do.  It ended up being a long day of working but it was also a great day because I got to know some of the team members on a deeper level and lots of tasks were accomplished.  Eventually we quit for the day when tiredness came over us and the mosquitos became more than annoying.  Here is a picture of several of us working at our "office" in Burundi.