I want to tell you a little more about what I actually do while I’m here in Calgary – so here is a sort of ‘Day in the life of’ for you.

Although I don’t have an absolutely typical day, because I do different things on some evenings, so I’m going to try and include a bit of everything!

Lets see how we go.

Each working day we have a time of reflection and prayer as an office in the morning – we pray together, have a time of discussion and pray for a pair of eMi’s global offices. I find this time important as everyday it brings focus back to why we are here doing the work we do.

I should also say that about three weeks ago I came back from our project trip to Uganda – this gave us the opportunity to visit our site, meet representatives from Chayah and the current children in their home. eMi always send their project teams to the site they will be working on and I think this is extremely important – better design is produced when you really know where and for who you are working. Since most design work is completed in country it has meant that now we are back in the office we are working more of refining the details.

Me and Cody doing some material research in Uganda.

On site discussing Chayah’s vision for future development.

Since being back in the office I have been working on formatting the report document we will send out in December. I’ve also been doing some AutoCAD work to do with designing our pathways through site and having a look at a suggested Guest house design. As the site has an average 14% gradient it is a bit tricky doing pathways! So a mixture of discussion, hand drawing, sketching and CAD work is going on at the moment as I try and work out ramps and stair, retaining walls and slopes for the site.

My desk – currently hidden by a sea of sketching and notes on pathways.

A section I have taken through the site’s most inclined slope with some of the proposed retaining walls.

I’ve also been working on some design things in the office – as interns we have produced a video for our Uganda trip (found here) and a presentation board to give a snapshot of our project. It’s not all computer work either and I am working on some hand sketched perspectives of our Master Plan design to go into our report.

One of the hand rendered perspectives I am working on.

In the evenings I can be doing a mixture of things. On Tuesday’s I go to small groups organised through my church here. They meet fortnightly so I go to two – in one we will be going through a book on pursuing God and opportunities in our lives and in the other we are looking at books in the Bible to better understand their historical and literal context and then our interpretation and their relevance to us. I also normally go into Downtown Calgary once a week to serve soup and distribute food to the homeless.

Jess and I prepping some food in Downtown Calgary.

So life can be pretty busy! It’s great though regardless of any tiredness because I’m getting a chance to see how I can work a professional job – within my field of study – whilst still serving and pursuing the things I see as important. Like friendships, my Christian faith and outreach to others.

Willy & I in Downtown Calgary.