In the early morning of March 6th, I left Chicago headed for Cambodia. With two small suitcases in-hand, I had every expectation of living in Phnom Penh for a full three months. . .
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I’ve been involved with EMI for about 4 years. EMI is a non-profit development organization made up of architects, engineers, surveyors, and construction managers who use their skills to serve the least reached world. I went on my first project trip to Honduras in 2016, my second trip to Guatemala in 2018, and over the last year I have served as the leader for the Chicago EMI Network …
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I remember writing this blog post the week after I got back from Guatemala. I was certain I had at least two more posts in me, and that I’d be sharing more about the experience in no time! It’s funny how life happens and time gets away from us…
In mid-July, EMI staff had completed their review of the plans, calculations and report. At that point, I agreed to give a lunch-time presentation about the project trip at my office. I finally gave that presentation two weeks ago (it went really well BTW)! And now, here we are, six months later… and I’m finallllly sharing more about this experience with family and friends. Phew! Six months, how did that happen?!
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I returned from Guatemala over a week ago and I still haven’t been able to put into clear, blog-worthy words what that experience has meant to me. I spent most of my flight back rotating between (1) crying, looking out the tiny airplane window and (2) sporadically documenting every thought and feeling I was having while it was still fresh in my mind. I raised some concern for the flight attendants, I’m sure...
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I got back from my service trip to Honduras about six weeks ago (previous trip posts here & here). Since returning, the eMi staff has been working hard to QA/QC the Concept Plans our design team prepared for the CAFFIN (Centro Asistencial de Formación Familiar Integral) project in Siguatepeque, and now I'm so excited to finally share what we worked on while we were there! ...
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After weeks of struggling to find the right song to accompany my Honduras video, I turned to Shay and simply said "name me an artist", and he replied "Ben Rector". When I searched his name on Spotify, the first song that popped up was "Brand New". I knew immediately it was the right fit! (And once again I was reminded of my husband's excellent taste in music, one of the many reasons I married him. Shay, are you reading this?) ...
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Happy Easter everyone! It’s hard to believe I got back from Honduras exactly one week ago! The whole experience has been a whirlwind, and even coming back to my “normal” life in the U.S. has been an adjustment I wasn’t prepared for...
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I’ve never blogged about my career. To be honest, there usually isn’t a whole lot say. However, today I have something to share that’s close to my heart. It’s requiring me to be a lot more vulnerable than I usually am, but exciting things can happen when you step outside of your comfort zone - so here it goes! ...
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