Designing a world of hope!

Here are some photos of our preparation, the architects hard at work (LTR- Me, Jill & Casey)

Presentation Day...

And the design....

Our Master Plan: This is the master plan for the final build out. The architects divided the site into multiple zones, with the entrance running along the west border of the site into the public zone, which includes the chapel, administration building and parking. A private zone was created directly to the west of this, where the international staff housing and the baby's home will be. This will have their own direct vehicular access and will be separated from the rest of the site through vegetation. You enter the children's home site directly south of the public zone on a pedestrian walkways and you will be directed on a path through more public areas including the guest/missionary housing, multi-purpose hall, dining hall, and educational centre. At the end of this path in the middle of the site is where the children's homes lay. A soccer pitch is shown to the west and the beginning of the agriculture is on the east. The agricultural fields flow down the site to the east towards the more service zone of the site. There is a service entrance on this site that will allow for public access to the vocational centre, the poultry and livestock and also allows access to water tanks. The national staff housing is also located on this side to allow separation from the rest of the site and their own entrance to the site.

The site will be developed in phases. Phase One buildings include two of the eight children's homes, one of the educational centre, two of the four national staff housing, and some toilet facilities. Below are perspectives of our Phase One buildings.

A perspective rendering of the children's home unit.

A perspective of the one of the educational centre.

A perspective of the national staff housing.

I know this only gives a little smattering of what the designs are. I could add more, but I don't know how interested people are in seeing them. But I wanted to include some idea of what we were designing! I hope you all enjoy!

"Motivated by the Heart of God, Meeting the Needs of the People"

This was the mission statement from Miracle House, the ministry that we were working with in Kenya. Deanna Bjork and her husband, Dan, founded this non-profit organization that seek to develop international children’s homes to care for orphans in a loving, Godly family environment. They currently have children’s homes in two different cities in Kenya: Webuye & Limuru. We were commissioned with developing the master plan for their base camp, which will be in Nakuru. We developed the master plan, which included 8 children’s homes, a pre-primary school, dining hall, chapel, and staff housing to name a few. The ministry also wanted to incorporate agriculture within their site to help support feeding the children.

We stopped by Webuye on our way to Nakuru. Some of the children sang for us, which was so great.

We were able to meet all of the children of Miracle House one day during the week. The Webuye kids drove 4 hours to meet at the site, and the Limuru kids drove probably 2 hours. Nakuru is in-between them and they came out to see where they will all be united together at Nakuru! For most of them it was their first time meeting each other. We were able to help dish out PB&J sandwiches to them.

But unfortunately it starting raining when we were on the site, which you will see later, does not have any shelter. So we all scrambled into the vans! Here's a great pic to showcase the chaos.

Miracle House Kids! Along with those who either help care for, teach, or run the program.

Deanna getting to say goodbye to the kids right before they head out for either a two or four hour drive back! They ended up just being on the site for an hour or two total.

This kid made me smile so much! He wasn't use to white people so whenever we would go near him he would start crying. He has the best smile though, which I couldn't really capture. Deanna says that he doesn't even come to her yet. But his mom brought him over and he didn't cry! Woo-hoo! So I got a picture of him and his mom, with him somewhat happy. : )

"Only in Kenya"

Be prepared for updates! September has been a crazy month with lots of traveling and adventures to share. I will be updating these next couple days with posts from my project trip to Nakuru, Kenya. My team and I were in Nakuru from September 5th through September 13th on our project trip working with a mission organization called Miracle House. Here are some snapshots of the city/team/hotel, etc.

Our welcome party into Kenya! A very typical surrounding of people selling produce and asking if we wanted to exchange money.

A view of a street in Nakuru. We didn't take a lot of photos of the city, but here's one to give you an idea of what it was like.

A quick shot out of the van window at the craft stands!

Our hotel! It was a very nice hotel accommodations which was its own little paradise within it's walls. Here is a view of the street right outdoors, a little different.

And last is our team photo while we were on safari our last day!

(LTR) Jill, Elisa, Jason, me, Travis, Casey, Roger, Brad

More to come soon!

Welcome to Home aka EMI compound

Okay so I know that I am long overdue for some photos and updates. Here are some pictures of both EMI's office and the apartment I am staying in.

The entrance to my apartment which I share with three other girls. Two, Holly & Laura, are teachers at Heritage International School down the road, and my roommate Jen is working for a NGO nearby.

And right next door is the entrance to the office! EMI has a duplex with the girls apartment on one side and the office on the other, very convenient in case you forget anything!

Entrance to apartment- security is above all else! We literally lock ourselves into our apartment with a padlock every night!

The living area...

with interesting plaster details on the ceiling : )

This is literally my favorite thing about going to bed!

More photos to come soon!