Project Trip: Meet the Team

The eMi team consisted of ten engineers and architects. Two of the staff members from the Kampala office lead the trip with four professional volunteers from the US and four interns. Here is the team on top of one of the rocks we climbed one morning.




Front Row (left to right):
Todd (mechanical engineer, volunteer from Colorado), Christina (civil engineer, volunteer from Texas), Jonathan (architect, intern from Ohio), Daniel (architect, intern from Florida)

Back Row (left to right):
Pat (project leader, civil engineer, staff member from Vancouver), Me, Tim (architect, volunteer from North Carolina), Brittany (civil engineer, intern from Washington), Janet (project co-leader, civil engineer, staff member from New York)

Very Back:
Shawn (structural engineer, volunteer from Pennsylvania)

So what exactly did we do while we were there? Well, the main goal of the week was to develop a master plan for the site and gain as much information as possible to help with the design when we back to Kampala (or the US for the case of the volunteers).

Throughout the week all of the architects (Tim, Daniel, and Jonathan) were working in close proximity with Safe Harbor to determine what types of structures would be necessary for the proposed farming and milling. The civil engineers (Christina, Brittany, and Janet) worked on the water and wastewater demands for the site. Todd, the mechanical engineer, worked through how all of the milling machines would be powered and how the site would have electricity. The structural engineers (Shawn and I) were used as surveyors for the week, mapping out both sites using GPS equipment.

On top of the eMi team, there were several others from Safe Harbor that were very important to the team. Two businessmen, Andy and Aaron, from the US came over to help analyze the business aspect of the project. Throughout the week they were doing market research to determine if the project would be even be profitable. Additional, there was a native agricultural specialist from Kampala, Francis. He took soil samples and studied the land to see which crops would be best to plant.

There is a lot more that I could talk about, but I will spare you the boring engineering details. Soon, I will post about some of the wonderful people that we got to meet while we were there.



Everyone hard at work in our make-shift office.


This was another common meeting area.


Me out in the field surveying. This is the kind of head high grass I had to tramp through all week.


Digging at hole to test soil permeability for waste water treatment… exciting right?


Getting away from the others to go through the presentation in one of the tukles. Aren’t the mosquito nets fashionable? By the way, they are called moh-skwee-toes here.