Engineering Now .: Volume 2 - Edition 10 .: April 21, 2006

Keeping in touch from Ghana

Luke Brown, a recent Biochemical Engineering grad from The University of Western Ontario, is currently in Ghana with Engineers Without Borders (EWB). He will be based in the city of Tamale for the next year, working on a water sanitation project.

Luke will correspond with friends, family and Western through a Weblog he setup at http://luke-brown.blogspot.com. Below is an excerpt from his recent “Mosque building and the hardness of fruit” blog message:

In an effort to integrate into my community, I decided to help out with a local community project: mosque building.

Sounds as bit strange, I guess. There is a new mosque being constructed in my neighbourhood – right next to the old one, incidentally. It’s funded by a woman who lives nearby, and being built by the men who live around it. I can’t really imagine this happening in Canada – I’m trying to picture all the men in my Canadian suburb kicking in to make a place of worship. Then again, I can’t imagine all the homes in my community in Tamale picking a day on which to sell off all their junk out in front of their homes, so I guess every community in the world has its particularities. (click here to read more).

This summer, two additional EWB members will travel overseas to volunteer their services to third-world countries. Sarah Takaki, who is currently completing her master's degree in Biomedical Engineering at Western, will join Luke in Ghana and Ricky Patel, a third-year undergraduate engineering student, will travel to the South African country of Zambia in early May. (more)

Also from this web page:

Contact

.: Allison Stevenson
Spencer Engineering Building, Room 2074
Telephone: (519) 850-2917 Fax: (519) 661-3808
contactweATeng.uwo.ca