1. We left on January 19 with an organization called Engineering Ministries International (EMI) http:// emiusa .org/ out of Colorado Springs. They are a non-denominational organization doing volunteer engineering and architectural projects in 3 rd world countries. Africa 2007 Dale and Sue Kanen

5. We shared the guest cottage with 12 other people and shared the one toilet which occasionally even flushed-yeah! But we didn’t complain because the orphans in the dorms did not have flush toilets or tissue. I asked the maintenance man for some nails so I could put survey controls in the ground. He came back an hour later with a few rusty nails he had straightened for me…that was my first real clue as to the depth of the poverty…later I learned that the staff at the orphanage had not been paid in a month.

6. It took us six days to survey the 12 acres. Then it was the architects’ turn to design the new school and dorms. The whole time we were always running out of water…it took me almost 2 weeks to figure out why. Five years ago Living Water International drilled a 300’ well for the orphanage and built a 30-foot tower with a 2,000-liter tank …the orphanage now has excellent water. Prior to that, they had to beg for water for the kids. 30’ water tower

7. But Kenya Power would cut back on electricity to rural areas during the day so the 3 phase electric pump could not run to refill the tank. In the meantime, the maintenance man, whose heart was in the right place, was selling water to tank trucks for $5/truck…to make money for the broke orphanage. He could fill 2 trucks before the tank was empty. And as I said, there was not enough power during the day to refill it so the kids were going to bed without washing and we had to wait until 11pm every night when the electricity was back to full power to flush and take showers. The maintenance man always acted like it was mystery that they were out of water and there was no electricity to refill the tower during the day.

8. I finally figured out that he did not like heights and did not want to climb the 30’ tower to check the volume in the water tank before selling to the trucks, so the last day I was there I drilled a hole in the bottom of the tank and ran a clear plastic hose up the side of the tank and floated a red ball in it. It was just a manometer. Now they can see the level from the ground and decide if they should sell. They have not been out of water since. What it took to find a drill and then a drill bit to make the ¾” hole in the tank is another 2 day saga.

9. Sue brought craft projects like key chains and beads for the kids. They were a big hit! She also brought rubber bands and hairclips, but many of the girls, due to malnutrition or lice problems, had little or very short hair. It made her realize that she was not even aware of needs, let alone how to meet the needs that we encountered.

14. I tried to fix things around the Anglican orphanage in my spare time but there were no tools. The only tool the maintenance man had was a broken claw hammer. So we went tool shopping in the afternoon. Many of the kids had no lights in their rooms because the 60-cent porcelain fixture was broken and the maintenance man did not touch electricity. So I replaced light fixtures and wired in a stove that had been given to the orphanage 2 years ago…so our cook at the cottage would have an oven to bake in. However, all of the meals for the kids were cooked over wood fires. I still don’t really know what their world is like .

24. THARS 5 acre project site UN Refugee Camp All fields hand plowed by women

26. One day the city water stopped so they let the school kids out to collect more water.

33. While in Africa, all of the places where we were housed had high walls with barbed wire or broken glass on top. English will get you by in Kenya but French is spoken in Burundi. The good news is that I had 3 years of HS French. The bad news is that I left behind a lot of confused people in Burundi who wish I had studied harder or gotten laryngitis.

35. The End