See the Site!

Wow! Another amazing day. We spent more time up at the site today, walking the boundaries, visiting the water source at the bottom, and brainstorming ideas for the village. The site is challenging but the vision is so exciting. The steep slopes are very steep. Even though I saw the contour maps, it was impossible to understand how steep the site was until I was standing on it, hiking down it, and huffing and puffing back up it.

Working on a project with engineers and architects is amazing. It is so incredible to come up with an idea for a site, run it past the engineer and find out how to make it technically feasible. Or talk to the architects about the ideas of how to ventilate, daylight, and keep the buildings cool. Because the slope is so steep, terracing is vital. I had an idea today to group the homes around a central area, and have a walking path along the retaining wall. I showed it to one of the engineers, he drew a possible design for the retaining wall… and there you go! I had an even better idea and knew that it would be technically feasible!

Colin, Austin, and I have named ourselves the ginga’ ninjas… We are the design team. Colin is an architecture student, Austin is an architect, and I am the planner. And somehow, we all have some shade of red in our hair and freckles. We played two truths and a lie either yesterday or the day before and one of Colin’s truths was that he once had a “ginger afro”. He’s British… they say things like that! We are thinking through a lot of things. I wish I could share it all with you because it’s been fascinating. But, I don’t have enough time to go over everything that has happened today. I will try to get some of the ideas up here this week. I expect that we might be able to go to the radio station tomorrow and I will send this out… but I don’t know when the next time will be.

I have been so encouraged to hear of the stories of folks that are looking towards the future of Africa. Akachi is from Nigeria and he told us the story of how he came to work on this project. When he saw the video yesterday, he realized for the first time that he was helping out people in very similar situations to what he had grown up in. He told us about his father dying when he was two. He was the youngest of eight children and his mother had to find them a place to live and somehow support them. She really turned to the church for help. And now, 30 years later, he is in a position to help children and widows like he and his mother. It was an amazing story.

I am so happy to tell you that I have heard many encouraging things. I have often heard (and thought) that Africa had a lot of problems and that there was little we could do. It is so encouraging to hear from people living here what they are doing in Africa and even outside of Africa. Akachi would like to start a sister branch of EMI or something like that in West Africa so that he could bring these services to folks in his area as well. He has been looking for an opportunity for a while and this one seemed to fit what he wanted to do. So many of the stories I have heard from others on this trip just make me think we are here for a reason.

Yesterday, as Cammie told us more about the history of the project, she shared how Elikia Village acquired the land. She found it through contacts and because the project excited the person selling the land, the price went from $50,000 for the land to $4,000! Amazing!

Tonight Colin, Austin, Kevin, and I sat down with Cammie to ask her more about the programming for the site. We brainstormed on all the different activities, services, and facilities she would like to see on the site. I will, of course, let you know what the end result is but here is the list as it stands now:

School that can serve 400 children – we would build it for 200 but they will be able to do two different school times to accommodate all 400 children. We are looking at phasing the school in so that not all the classrooms have to be built at one time.
Community center that could also serve as a local church.
Vocational building/mechanics garage – This would be a place where people could learn how to fix autos/motor bikes and other mechanical equipment.
A home for babies – This would be a home to take in abandoned infants under the age of two and care for them until they are adopted out or placed with one of the mothers in Elikia Village.
Village homes – After discussion, we are hoping to group the homes in pods of four or five. They would face inwards to each other (somehow we are trying to make this happen with terraces) and share a common space in the middle of them. This common area could serve as a eating area or a place for the children to play or the women to come together and talk or work.
A guest house that would house the director of Elikia Village and a small number of visitors.
A visitor’s building – this would be a dorm-style guest house that could house larger teams. Possibly this would house future teams of volunteers interesting in helping the project.
A training institute – this would help to train the workers, house parents, and other staff in this site and hopefully, other project sites on how to best serve the children and other people coming to use the facilities.
Administrative building – this would hold offices for the director, social services worker, and would act as the front door to the site.
Agriculture – This would probably be done anywhere not yet built. They are trying to think of appropriate crops for the hillside. It is very steep and very sandy. If anyone has ideas for what would be most appropriate, or has resources, they can share, please let me know!

Okay, once again, it is time for bed. Some more design brainstorming tomorrow!!! Fun, fun, fun!

We should have a draft design concept by the end of the day. Oy!