“Mulembe” from Kibembe!

Erin James, a transportation engineer and project manager from our Denver, Colorado office joined forces with Bridges to Prosperity – a non-profit organization helping eradicate poverty caused by rural isolation with the design and construction of pedestrian footbridges – to build a bridge in Kibembe, Uganda, as part of the organization’s first-ever Women’s Suspension Build.

Kibembe sits on the bank of the Sironko River and floods for more than three months of the year, becoming dangerous to cross and eliminating residents’ ability to reach critical services. With the new footbridge constructed by the all-female group – including Erin and other volunteers from McElhanney, Kraemer North America and PCL Construction – more than 1,700 individuals, including over 300 children, now have a safe connection to a market, primary and secondary schools and medical centers.

Since 2014, Jacobs volunteers have improved community access on B2P builds in Panama, Nicaragua, Rwanda and several other locations. For Erin, who serves as the Communications Co-Chair for Jacobs’ Global Women’s Network, the Women’s Suspension Build marked her fourth B2P build. Below, Erin looks back on her experience in Kibembe.

It's incredibly difficult to come back to the life I've established in the States after living and working with people who have experienced life so differently. There are so many privileges and opportunities granted to me. Lately I've been feeling a mix of guilt, luck, somberness, appreciation, unrest and frankly, anger.

Why do I get the chance to succeed and prosper, while others in the world never have that shot? It seems like pure randomness that I was born into certain circumstances that differ so vastly from other parts of the world. The disparities in income, education, health, mobility and freedom I’ve witnessed are quite shocking, and I am more convinced than ever that I (we) need to do more to help others.

Nine other women from the contracting industry joined me to build the superstructure of the suspension bridge in two weeks' time, working hand-in-hand with local Kibembe community members who have directly benefited from a new connection between villages in their region.

If the rainy season lasts half the year and prevents you from going to class, you get 50% less education than others in the world. What if your child was sick, and the only way to get to the nearest clinic was across the river? Do you risk both of your lives to fight the swift current, hoping to get the medical attention your child needs? Or do you risk waiting it out and letting your child suffer from illness instead? These impossible choices provide the framework for B2P's mission.

Some people ask the question, "Why do people choose to live in areas that get flooded?" I believe this question comes from a place of privilege, where it may be easy for the people asking the question to readily mobilize and have enough money, education and other resources to plant roots in different places. When a home has been in your family for generations, you were born there, your family and your neighbors are the only people you’ve ever known, you don't have education to get a job, you don't have money to catch a bus or taxi elsewhere and you have family members depending on you to take care of them, it’s evident how the cycle of poverty and isolation continues to impact so many people globally.

One of my favorite local foods from the trip was the Ugandan “Rolex” (not the fancy watch.) An omelet rolled inside fried flat dough was the perfect breakfast to keep our energy up as we performed construction tasks all day. It’s believed that the word Rolex comes from “rolled eggs,” which makes a lot of sense. I tried to make the dish upon my return, but sadly, my cooking skills didn’t compare to Rose – who cooked multi-course meals for more than 15 people each day on just one gas stove with a couple of metal bowls.

We were also fortunate to share a house with inside toilet facilities and several cots and beds. Though I accumulated over 300 individual bug bites during the trip, and one or two cockroaches may have found their way into my luggage, we still felt like we were royalty in the village by comparing our accommodations to that of others’. We were constantly reminded that most of the community lived in mud houses with dirt floors and no windows or beds. Even when filtering our water, we felt an enormous sense of guilt, knowing full-well that the community drank, cleaned with, cooked with and bathed in the water from the nearby stream.