Coming out of last year's adventure to Indonesia, I was hopeful to find an experience that would push me near the breaking point in terms of mental and physical challenges. This summer, I am excited to share that I am traveling to Eswatini to build a bridge over the Ngwempisi River for the Velezizweni and Ngcoseni communities. This opportunity is in collaboration with Duke University and the non-profit Engineers in Action (EIA). I joined Duke Engineering for International Development (DEID) at the start of my sophomore year and had the opportunity to work alongside an amazing team that designed and planned this entire bridge. The bridge is based off of a tried and tested suspended bridge model so our job was to redesign the structure for our specific site, organize all logistics for the building process, and create the construction management plan among other tasks. Impressively, this bridge is going to be the longest suspended bridge in Eswatini at a span of 122.2 meters (400 ft).

I finished finals on May 6 and by May 9 I had flown home and then to South Africa. We stayed in an airport hotel for the night and gorged on crocodile and lamb, on Duke’s dime. From there we drove to Eswatini. The scenery reminded me of Texas except for the Zebras, ostriches, gazelles, etc.

Eswatini, formerly known as the Kingdom of Swaziland, is a small landlocked country largely enveloped by South Africa but also bordering Mozambique. Upon entering the country, we were delighted by the large mountains with fascinating geology defining the peaks. Tree farms and sugar cane bordered the road for large portions of the drive until entering cities. There has been a considerable investment in infrastructure as the roads were smooth, telecommunication towers precisely placed on high points of the mountains, and power lines stretched to even the most remote locations. I am surprised by the amount of English in the country. Every sign has been in English, not Siswati.

We made our way to Ezelwini where we relaxed at a hostel and ate some local food which consisted of a lot of meat and spices. The team admired the massive albino python in the hostel and then met with EIA for onboarding. 12 Duke students and one site supervisor traveled to work on this project. Each student signed up for a role: project manager (Anya), bridge design (Emily), safety (Jackie and Palo), Construction manager (Myself and Nikhil), quality control (Harsh and Keeley), cultural relations (Nimaye and Maya), and media (Diego). A few of us have been working on our specific roles since last August but a few were brand new to the idea. The students range from freshman to junior year and despite all being engineers, I knew none of them beforehand. Very rarely do we get nine weeks of manual exertion to meet so many new people. I can’t wait to get closer.

As construction manager, I will be in charge of creating our daily plan, communicating with the masons about materials and general construction ideas, acting as a liaison to the community for construction questions, and pushing/inspiring the team to work hard during the work day. I have absolutely zero experience managing a construction team. I know I will be making lots of mistakes, I am just excited to see how my engineering and manufacturing mindset correlates to efficient construction management.

As a group, we spent our time in Ezelwini hiking up Sheba's breast which had an amazing view of the valley waterfalls. A short visit to the cultural center showcased traditional Eswatini signing, dancing, clothing, and housing. The rondavel huts had a clever feature where the “door” opening was very short so people entering had to bow forcing them to respect those inside or get whacked on the head if they were an intruder.

We leave for the site on Monday! I am ready to start building!

The drive to site took us through expansive mountain ranges and a treacherous dirt road. As we arrived, boys and girls were split between two single-room structures on the homestead. 9 guys packed into a circular home where we are all sleeping on camping pads and in sleeping bags. Plenty comfortable though. The homestead has views of the river, farmland, and hilly mountains. We were greeted by our host family, the Dlemini family.

Our first day on site had little introduction before we got to work. Both sides of the bridges are built simultaneously so half the Duke team went to the left side and the other to the right. My role on site is construction manager so I started by directing job roles and familiarizing myself with the work already completed. A small portion of the excavation was complete as well as the foundation and tier 1.

At first, we were simply moving stones from one pile to the tiers to build the masonry walls but we eventually stopped and had a large community meeting with the elders. We were properly introduced and all were given Siswati names. Mine is Vusi which translates to sunrise. The community was so thankful and excited we were here. We learned about how difficult the river is to cross and saw pictures of school children wading through the water and mothers carrying their babies just above the waterline. This community desperately needs a safe passageway to cross the river and I feel honored to be able to help provide such a solution.

After lunch an excavator arrived as the rock on our right side excavation is incredibly hard to penetrate. My day then involved directing an excavator to dig the complex excavation plan. I learned very quickly how difficult telling people what to do on a construction site can be. The language barrier, relatively small margin for error, and the complex straight shapes that needed to be excavated created a unique challenge. Already though, I felt like a true engineer. I had worked the months prior creating the excavation plans and to now transform the paper plans into real life was exhilarating. A big takeaway though was the real world will never match the plans, especially with large machinery. I had to quickly learn and observe the capabilities of the machine to best direct the large backhoe. Regardless, that bucket scoops a lot of dirt at once and is very limited in its movement so our safety benches were not perfect.

After the work day, we went back to the homestead where we helped prepare dinner, bonded with the family, and settled in. Our following day on site involved pickaxing and shoveling all the parts the excavator couldn’t reach. The locals are impressively strong. I would be swinging a pickaxe at the rock for 5 minutes, become exhausted, and look over to see a 70-year-old chipping the rock away with precision and continuity. I’m learning though, and have enjoyed the camaraderie enforced by working 3 meters below ground level, drenched in sweat, and chipping away at rock literally millimeter by millimeter as a team.

When not working, I have spent my time reading, cooking, taking bucket showers, and building a floating shelf. The stars are magnificent and the sunrise is truly unreal. I am so thankful already for this bridge-building experience. Leading large teams of people towards such a complex and massive goal is an opportunity you rarely come by in school. I am feeling healthy and happy and can’t wait to continue!

Never have I worked so hard mentally and physically to complete a short-term goal in a grand project. This week was full of hand-powered excavation and would result in me being covered in dirt and exhausted from the day's work. With every strike of a pickaxe, a small wave of dirt and rock would come shooting in my face. I came to love those moments. Made me remember the times I would ride on the side of a boat in Cuba and get smacked in the face by waves repeatedly. The physical labor, while tedious and strenuous, offered a lot of time to focus on meditation techniques. My mind would go blank and my arms would just take over the repeated movements. While difficult to start, once I had locked into the swing of things, I would only stop when someone would break me out of the trance and ask if I needed a break.

By the end of the week, our complex ramp wall excavations were all well within tolerance and approved by our bridge corps volunteer. There was immense satisfaction when this critical construction phase was finished. We all entered the project running and have already completed a noteworthy accomplishment. I am so thankful for the community volunteers who show up every day and make such an impact on-site. Richard, from the Velezizweni side, has been especially noteworthy. We watched him pickaxe in bursts of one hour without a break. He is ridiculously strong and has probably saved us an entire day of excavation alone.

A highlight from this week was inserting the Duke stone into the third tier. Duke owns a quarry and is the only place in the world that uses the beautiful blue and orange stone. I brought a 6 kg stone from school to site for there to be a core piece of Duke literally embedded in the bridge forever. Now all the community members are showing up to the bridge site to see the “American stone.”

With the excavation and all of the tiers completed, the scale of this project is taking shape. Standing at the bottom of the excavation and looking up to tier three, I sense the enormous weight of stone bearing down on the soil. The structure stands proud and pronounced and will remain that way for centuries to come. Our site supervisor helped put the strength and longevity of this bridge in perspective when he said “For every day we work on this bridge, it will be used for over a year, and stand for a decade.” We are changing this geographical location forever. The stone abutments will never fully erode and the lifespan of the bridge is said to be 50 years, but with proper maintenance, can last much longer.

Motivation came from some images we saw this week. Magay, the community leader responsible for requesting EIA to build a bridge in our community, showed us images of school children wading through the river with their school bags over their heads. The water is up to their neck yet these kids look unfazed by the massive hindrance they have to overcome to obtain an education. Their eyes point forward as they meticulously cross the river for one misstep could spell disaster. Magay explained that 10 kids die per year crossing the river (EIA said 3 have died in the past three years). Regardless, nobody should face such a challenge to learn.

This experience has continued to be an incredible cultural immersion. From eating lunch with locals to playing soccer on the ridge of a hill as the sun sets in its typical magnificently burnt Orange fashion, I am truly experiencing Eswatini not simply traveling. An eye-opening experience was when I was talking with Kwanele. Kwanele was a miner, like most men on site, who spent 40 years chipping away at earth hundreds of feet underground. He spoke about the dangers from the range of jobs he held like scrapper or explosive technician. All of this back-breaking dangerous work was focused on mining platinum, diamond, gold, and other rare earth metals. Talking with him made me realize I am surrounded by the men who provide the raw materials for my phone and laptop. I live the most comfortable life imaginable simply because I was born in the US into a stable household. I feel bad owning these electronics after meeting the men who risk their lives and sanity just so I can have the luxury of taking notes on a digital platform. I am working and living in the most impoverished community I have ever been to. Times like this make me step back and recount how lucky I am and how I must, no matter what, use my privilege to make the world a safer, healthier, and happier place.

“Life is short, but it is the longest thing we will do.” - Alechia Dow

I made some mistakes this week, but that is how I will learn. We focused a lot on masonry every day as we have been continuing the massive ramp walls that connect the anchor to the foundation. All of the students were able to get hands-on experience as we slopped the hand-mixed mortar between the large flat natural stones. While the stone laying work is fun, the amount of mortar and stones we have needed to use has been astounding. Again I am working my body immensely hard as we move thousands of kilograms of stones and mix hundreds of kilograms of mortar. With all this hard work, I ripped through my first pair of gloves ever!

I was also able to get some experience with bricklaying. Watching our head mason, Sifundza, closely, I used a trowel to scoop up the brick mortar and lay the bricks one by one. Despite the bricks being perfectly rectangular, creating a plumb, level, and in-line surface proved difficult. Regardless I was excited to learn how to use a builders line and create beautiful corners. I made a mistake in the bricks by misplacing one of the cut bricks so the vertical lines are not all aligned. Sifundza told me he will leave the mistake in so that I will always be reminded of my error and know how to be better next time. The cherry on top of the bricklaying experience was as I was standing on the towers, and some thunder rolled in, we were greeted by a near-perfect double rainbow in front of the mountains and behind our bridge.

On Saturday, I was able to explore Mankayane, the closest city to our homestead. Mankayane is very small and simply has a market, gas station, and a few random stores. Maya, a few local boys, and I walked and hitchhiked our way to the small city. Taking this excursion showed us how spread out these rural communities are as we would walk for 45 minutes between homes. With the far distances between homes and the friendly nature of all the locals, trucks passing by were more than happy to pick us up in the bed of the truck.

After a fun day out exploring the few stores in the city and eating fried chicken, we met up with a fellow Duke student and Mason who picked up pizzas for the team. While relaxing for a second, we bumped into a local wearing a Duke shirt! He had no idea what Duke was but was happy to entertain us Duke students by taking a picture together. The journey back home involved catching a ride in a pickup truck with 19 people and soaking in all of the mountain sunset views.

Managing construction continues to be full of learning opportunities. I am being reassured that leading by example is the most effective way to lead and also learning how to maximize people’s talents and desires. A leadership lesson came from when a student continued to do jobs on site that required more skill, but less manual labor. I was frustrated that they were not mixing the mortar or lifting the heavy stones, as I thought this should be an equally distributed job, but I soon realized, this student was making up for his lack of help elsewhere. Simply put, he was not capable of mixing the mortar as quickly as the locals moved. When you couldn’t work fast enough, the shovel would just be taken. However, the student can lay stones very well, and is a massive help being a mason. Even though I want everyone to do the same amount of back-breaking work to lessen the load on everyone, sometimes you need to accept that people don’t need to do all jobs. Allowing a worker to spend their time focused on a specific job they do very well is much more beneficial than taking them to do other jobs poorly to ensure fairness.

Another leadership lesson was understanding the chain of command. I have been mainly communicating with the masons about materials procurement, community volunteers, and petrol issues. The masons are hired by Microprojects, which operates with EIA, and don’t live here. There is however a single woman, Magay, who initiated the project and oversees all community involvement and funds. I should have been more focused on building a relationship with her since she controlled when stones were collected/delivered and was the best contact for all community matters. My plan next week is to start utilizing her for all community communications and cut out the middle man, the masons.

Every day the team is rejuvenated as the bridge continues to grow. We are progressing strong and having fun. No better way to live life.

Construction is the epitome of the saying “The first part of a plan to go wrong is the plan itself.” We started the week down two masons, including our head mason, as they were needed on another bridge site. No worries I thought, I can take care of filling the towers and placing the rims/ building the pyramids without them. As Monday started though, all of my plans fell through as the remaining masons had made modifications to the work plan without me knowing, our truck for delivering cement was going to be delayed, the on-site mason locations were changed and the anchor preparation timeline was tweaked. Regardless, time continues to tick away so you solve the issues quickly.

Working without the head mason went well, however. I was given a lot of control to manage the operations and by the time Sifundza was back, we completed all the tasks expected. I’ve appreciated the level of autonomy he allows me on site. I regularly get to be in charge of an entire side and I am putting my input and plans into action on the site. Such a fantastic leadership opportunity.

On Friday, we all needed to renew our visas so the Duke team headed back to Ezelwini. While there, we also cut our cables. This process was heavy and greasy. We had to unwind the cables from a spool that weighed 25 thousand pounds and then carry the cables out as far as we could muscle. Once we ran out of people, each meter weighed 5kg so we would use up all our human power resources quickly, we would roll loops of cables out until we hit 162 meters of unspooled cable. Finally, we would take an angle grinder to cut the cable and then wrap the cable up into a figure 8. “As I have always said, many hands make light work.” The cable-cutting process was a great test of our teamwork abilities and a welcomed difference from moving stones and mixing cement all day.

Now that we were back in the city, we took advantage of our time by biking through a wildlife reserve and going to a casino. At the wildlife reserve, we rented bikes to explore the area. Palo, Nimaye, and I found ourselves on a single-track hiking trail that stretched into the mountains. We were constantly having to dismount to squeeze through rocks or climb up the steep slope but the journey, laughs, and cuts were well worth the view and memories. The casino visit was the first of my life and I completely understand why people get addicted to gambling. I went in with 500 rands, lost almost all of it immediately, but then clawed my way back to 600 rands. My big takeaways, blackjack is where you lose money, roulette makes no sense, and nobody wants to be your friend at the Texas Holdem table, especially when you win nearly every hand.

By Sunday we headed back to the homestead. I enjoyed eating a variety of flavors but the homestead feels so much more like home. I missed the stars, full team meals, and the feeling that we are helping people. This coming week we are going to connect both sides of the bridge to create one structure. The longest bridge in Eswatini is taking shape.

Again I am treated by the wonderfully random events that happen on a construction site which you can’t plan for. We started Monday morning off with a shaky start as we learned that our cement transporting truck needed servicing this week. Fun, we will wheelbarrow the cement bags to site and then carry the 50kg (110 lbs.) bags on our shoulders across the river. Once the day got started, the head mason told me one of the 900 kg (2,000 lbs.) cables we had cut last weekend fell off of the truck and we need to go put it back on.

Swiftly, 15 of us smushed into a truck and rode out to the fallen cable site. Thankfully the cable fell off on one of the dirt roads so we had little traffic to deal with. Our first attempt involved all of us trying to pick up the cable at once. This failed immediately. The cable had been loaded with a forklift, there was no way we were going to simply pick it up. For the next hour, we fastened pulleys to the truck to pull the cable up the flatbed while people picked up the cable in sections and pushed the cable onto the truck. At some moments, the truck would reverse as we were pushing so you had to be quick so as not to be crushed between the two large masses. Miraculously we loaded the cable in an hour with no injuries and all had a fun laugh.

The major milestone from the week was connecting both abutments by hand-hoisting the cables. Over 40 community members showed up on-site to help us pick up the cable, walk it across the river, and then clamp the cables through the anchor. The bridge had finally become one, but the challenges were just beginning. We still needed to pull the cables into the air as much as possible using human power. 20 of us crammed inside the abutment while the remaining workers stayed on the outside and in coordinated and timed movements, we all pulled as hard as we possibly could to lift the cables off the ground. In counts of three we tested the raw strength of humans. Pulling and digging our heels in as hard as we could, we fought gravity and weight like a game of tug of war. By the end of the day… We had lifted the cables a solid 40cm off the ground. While this figure seems low, I was beyond happy as we had just witnessed the community coming together to accomplish a massive feat. This bridge is about so much more than the structure. We are trying to teach the importance of teamwork and provide motivation to the community that bonding together results in massive change. Days like today proved this community is capable of greatness.

Over the weekend, I cowboy camped with fellow Duke students to watch the beautiful stars and darkness during the new moon. Waking up to a bunch of cows and chickens a few feet away was quite the scene. On Sunday morning, we heard drumming and yelling the entire night. By morning the intensity had only increased so after watching a radiantly orange sunrise, Maya, Syd, and I made our way over to the music with our brother. Turns out there was a traveling church that was performing a ritual for anyone who needed healing. As we knew all of the community members involved, we were ushered into the small circular ceremonial dwelling along with 30 other people.

The Eswatinian way of church is very loud with singing and yells, involves sticks, and is full of reverberating energy. The pastor was very surprised to see us and called us prophets. Towards the end of the intense ceremony, he wanted to pray for us. I was first and the pastor and one other man walked up to me and began shouting in Siswati. What evolved could be compared to an exorcism. They slapped me in the chest and back with considerable force, grabbed me by my hips to throw me side to side, yanked me by my arms to bring me closer to the cold concrete floor, and at one point, rammed their heads into my chest.

I am not very religious so this experience did not necessarily make me feel closer to god. This experience did however open my eyes to the selflessness of the community. During these prayers, energy is taken from one person through the shake-down and transferred to others in need. This theme of giving your energy to another community member has been ever present on the work site when locals diligently and happily offer a helping hand. All of our friends on-site go out of their way to work on this bridge project, assist in even the hardest tasks, and provide empowering words or prayers. The love people show one another is infectious. I’ll be sure to take this characteristic home with me.

We had major developments in the bridge this week. After hand-hoisting the cables as much as possible, we brought out the cable winch to pull each of the 5 cables to a precise elevation. The winch was near capacity at 29 kilo newtons so we took the process very slow. The actual winching process was relatively quick, only taking about 10-15 minutes to bring the cable up to the construction sag elevation. However, the setting up of clamps and the hoisting loop slowed us down so the process nearly took a full day. By the end of the day, the skeleton of the bridge was apparent and our end goal looked ever more clear. Unfortunately one of our team members broke her finger during the winching process as her finger was crushed between the winching rod and concrete anchor. She is okay now but a major bummer to have an injury on site.

Now that the cables had been hoisted, the challenges were just beginning. Once the cables rested for 24 hours, we needed to drop them down to the design sag elevation. We set up the auto levels at the precise height to measure the elevation and then shot across the river, looking for the low point of the cable. To drop the cables, we loosened two clamps and then whacked the cables violently with a small log many times. Precision engineering at its finest. Because of the massive span of the bridge, setting sag was very difficult and the large contracting and expanding of the cables with the heat did not make our life any easier. A few days passed before we had nailed the sag.

The rest of the week we built swings that support the decking and continued on the ramp walls. On Wednesday, the deputy prime minister wanted to meet all the bridge teams and let EIA know 36 hours in advance. We all left the site eager to meet such an important political figure but found ourselves stood up by the man because the meeting went long. We got to meet all of the other student bridge teams though which was fun. I passed along construction manager advice like making friends with the community leaders immediately because they control everything community-related.

Even though we worked through the weekend, I was continually delighted by the community involvement and excitement. One of the community members I have been getting close with, Phumlani, showed up every day so I was able to spend a lot of time learning about his DJ-ing in South Africa and the struggles of living in Eswatini. Jobs are very hard to come by here and most locals are not welcomed in South Africa with open arms so many people struggle to make ends meet.

Thankful for another great week and excited to start decking. This week we were able to cross the river without getting wet as we shuffled across the cables. We have accomplished such an exciting milestone! The bridge is growing so fast!

This Sunday was our first day off in 13 days. We are not behind schedule, we just got a little unlucky with resources being spread very thin around Eswatini for other bridge projects so we had an excavator show up on Friday and Saturday as well as our mason only being available for weekend work. Regardless, as a team, we have been pushing through and showing up to work determined and ready.

This determination has been fueled by the amount of change that resulted in this week’s work. We finished all of the swings so that starting Monday, we could start decking. Decking is very standard to any “deck” built. You stagger pre-cut 2x6 boards and screw them into the crossbeam nailers we built on the swings. I led the start of decking and made about 30 meters of progress. Working in a team of 6, we had one person simply pushing the swings closer to where we were laying boards. Four people, split into two pairs, would be in charge of lining up the boards, screwing them in, and making any adjustments to the cross beams to ensure our centerline gap stayed straight. Finally, the sixth person had the repetitive task of grabbing wood from the abutment and bringing groups of three to the end of the decking. Once we got into our flow, only the length of extension cords could stop us. Being able to walk suspended in the air was an unreal feeling.

As decking continued throughout the week, fencing was added to the cables to create a safe walking path along the bridge. The never-ending ramp wall work proceeded on both sides of the river as well. We were a little sloppy this week as one stone wall nearly fell on a bridge corps engineer but thankfully missed him. We built the wall too high with wet mortar and placed too heavy of stones. To add on, while I was redlining the abutments with our design manager, we realized our back wall of the left abutment, which we thought was complete, was in fact 30 cm too low. This reduced the amount of fill we could add to the abutment and also reduced our factor of safety from 1.86 to 1.62. While an SF of 1.62 for dead load is incredibly high, we set a standard of 1.8 and can not compromise. To fix the back wall we tore up the top layer of mortar on the ramp walls and frustratedly placed more stones. Despite the annoying setback, this was right around the time the lost Titan submarine exploring the Titanic was determined to have imploded. There is absolutely no excuse for cutting corners in an engineering project, especially involving safety, so we picked ourselves up and took care of the problem.

Thankfully, on Friday an excavator showed up to help us with filling the abutments with gabion stones. The excavator stayed on site for only 24 hours roughly but saved us HUNDREDS of man-hours. Had the excavator not shown up, I fear we would have not be done with the bridge by Friday, July 7. Besides the on-site work, I have continued welding with our head mason to build some window frames for a community member. I surprised myself that after working from 6:30 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. on site, I was elated to come back to the homestead and start welding and angle grinding.

My most significant takeaway from this week has been understanding and practicing long-term leadership. Being a leader for one or two weeks is simple. You have the energy to keep tabs on everything and go the extra mile to ensure a smooth operation. However, after working for 7 weeks now and recently for almost two weeks with no break, my leadership mental capacity has been pushed. Part of the reason is some team members are showing low motivation which drags down the hard work vibe on site but also because I am tired. I organize people to work on-site and volunteer to work the most labor-intensive tasks. When I get back to the homestead, I barely have time to breathe as I need to start planning the next day, worry about when materials are coming, ensure people are happy, and accomplish chores. With all of this mental fatigue, I realized I needed to start relying on others more. I am proud of myself for reaching out to our project manager and telling her how I feel and working through my problems with her so I felt less stressed and more reassured. Sometimes we just put our heads down to accomplish and quickly lose sight of how others can help and how happy they are to help. I am learning how to spend my leadership energy, techniques to fairly inspire and push everyone, as well as the requirements to keep our project moving forward smoothly.

I am now on day 10 of sleeping outside under the stars. I average around 15-20 minutes under a roof per 24 hours. Life is unreal out here. The nature is so beautiful and I am trying to enjoy every ounce of it.

Ever since we hoisted the cables, progress on the bridge has been moving at a lightning pace. This week we finally sealed the abutments by pouring a topping slab over the rocks and ramp walls. We mixed the first topping slab (1700 kg of cement) by hand. This immense amount of work felt poetic as we learned this bridge would not be finished easily. We had a cement mixer for the second topping slab (2,750 kg of cement) which again proved the theme of hard work being accomplished on site. Every square inch has been hand made and once the topping slab was placed, you could see thousands of man-hours packaged into a neat, but massive, structure. Besides the topping slab, many final touches needed to be accomplished before our bridge inauguration. Reveals were made out of mortar and lined the steps of the abutment and tiers. This simple addition to the aesthetics of the bridge made the final product look so well-made and complete. The reveals are my favorite part of the bridge now. We also added a large trench in front of the right abutment to channel water away from the structure and lined the sides with rip rap to slow the velocity of water and protect our structure from erosion. The fencing was re-bent to squeeze the handrail cables tighter. Tie wire was used to secure fencing to the rebar. Every stone was picked up from their pile on site and moved. No detail was overlooked. By the constant ushering of our head mason Sifundza, and the pride the student team and community took in presenting a beautiful product, we made sure the site was outstanding.

On the final night of the student team working in the country, a few of us brought our sleeping bags out onto the decking of the bridge and spent the night. We woke up to a beautiful foggy sunrise. The fog made our bridge look as if the walkway was never-ending. Stretching into an unknown ominous land now forever connected. Our Babe (“ba bay” father) happened to meet us at the bridge in the morning as well. Babe has been the sweetest, hardest worker, and most caring member of our team. He stared at the bridge with us and we could all feel how proud he was of his children and the community. Thank you babe for always motivating the team through your beautiful smile and relentless attitude towards working, especially as you always picked up the largest stone.

Our bridge inauguration occurred on Friday, July 7, 2023. We had spoken with the principals of the surrounding schools to ask if the students could have a half day to attend the bridge ceremony. The principals agreed and the turnout was incredible. Our day started by watching over 300 students excitedly arrive at the bridge midway through school and begin crossing. The high schoolers were overjoyed by the accomplishment and we all spent time talking and connecting with them. My favorite part was watching the primary students cross. Many of the kids ranged in age from 6 years old to 12 and some were very nervous to cross. As a team, we spent the better part of the morning holding hands with individual kids and walking across the bridge to build their confidence and trust. When I crossed with one kid, I watched him hurriedly make his way back to the other side after we crossed to hold hands with one of his fellow students and help them cross. To see this bridge not only providing a faster and safer way to cross the river, but empowering the next generation was heartwarming and reassuring.

After everyone had arrived in Swazi time style, we began the inauguration. With everyone crowded around tents, we watched traditional cultural dances and songs. Students presented written poems and thank you letters. Important community leaders spoke about how the energy from the project will propel future community development endeavors and thanked us profusely. Government officials used the time to highlight themselves but also shared their plans to continue to invest in these communities. The student team performed multiple times as well. One team member gave an entire speech in Siswati talking about our time in the country, how beautiful this community is, and our overall gratitude. Two team members sang a song we would rehearse while in church. Finally, to put on a show and create a lasting memory, the entire student team performed the Cha Cha Slide.

The event was full of laughter, tears, and hope. After the speeches, pictures were taken and more personal encounters with community members occurred. I made sure to talk with a friend named Sanele who provided a tractor during the build. His English was great so I spent a lot of lunches talking with him about life in Eswatini and the importance of this bridge project. Some personal time was also spent with our head mason Sifundza. We shared gratitude for the success of this project and awe over how many community members showed up for the inauguration.

When we finally had to walk back to the homestead and take a final look at the bridge, I didn’t feel sorrow, I was just immensely proud. I came on this project initially because I thought building a bridge would help change the world and the project sounded like a grand adventure. While my initial expectations were met, I quickly realized the purpose of this bridge was to help the communities of Ngoceni and Velezwelini help each other. We built stone walls and bonds every day. Mixed cement while also mixing people. Struggled together, laughed together, and loved one another like one big family. Never have I felt so tied and connected to a group of people.

This bridge is a testament to the enormous power of humans and the incredible capability of teamwork. Being able to help show the community these traits will lead to a future of community-run projects and a continuation of the many new friendships made along the journey. Our bridge will stand strong for the next 50+ years and serve as a constant reminder of the enormous amount of positive change that needs to persist and how engineering changes our world. Never have I grown so much mentally and physically. My leadership skills in managing large teams to an objective have grown wildly. How I will approach problem-solving, manufacturing, and team bonding will be so much more instinctual now. I am so thankful for this opportunity and can not wait for the day I come back.

On a more sour note, our exit from the site was terrible. For some reason, EIA rushed us and I barely had time to say goodbye to our family. This hurt. Really hurt. I am very particular about my goodbyes. For the remainder of the time, we went to Shewula mountain camp which is a community-run mountain camp run by Sifundza’s sister. Beautiful spot with what seemed like endless views. From there we went to Hlane National Park and were greeted by giraffes, rhinos, hippos, lions, birds, and beautiful nature. Saying goodbye to the student team has been tough but at least I know I will see them all again at Duke. What an amazing adventure this summer! For the rest of my time, I will be working at a machine shop until school starts up again in Australia!