Half way

It’s hard to believe that our time is more than half way through… for my first post it’s a challenge to know where to start.. here’s a few quick ones..

I’ve been supporting the technical manager (Bizi) with various tasks. As part of his varied role Bizi looks after the water system and as a ‘water engineer’ I have a specific interest in this field! We’ve even been able to carry on some of Alex Densmore’s tasks from his work earlier this year. The task however that seems to have gained traction has been to begin mapping the Heal Africa locations in North Kivu province. These mostly entail medical clinics, safe transit houses and hospitals. You can see a rough draft of our google map at this link. The intent is to expand on the available data for each location to enable more strategic planning as we move from an emergency response condition to post conflict redevelopment. We started by asking the question – how can we plan strategic progress if there is limited information available about where we’re starting from? There are around 100 locations in North Kivu province that Heal Africa has invested in.

During Wednesday morning chapel Mary Ellen explained to the staff that First Pres had written cards for each of them. Congo on one side – Berkeley on the other. I was asked to distribute a stack of these by the door and was personally interested considering Svetlana and I had not seen these being put together in early July. We wondered how they would be received – our question was answered when staff patiently but feverishly grabbed them from us as if they were Wonka golden tickets – later staff who were unable to attend the service approached us for more! They greatly, greatly appreciate your continued support and prayers.. this was a very simple but highly effective way to communicate a little of our concern.. our two worlds were brought a little closer by this simple act.. thank you..

Steve