A team of Dordt University students went to Africa as part of their senior engineering project, lending their knowledge and skills to do electrical work in Mozambique, as well as do preparatory work in South Africa.
Dordt senior Andrew Cox, studying for an engineering degree, is a Sioux Center native and served as the project manager and the student lead for the five-person student team during the trip, which took them to Nampula, Mozambique and Mokopane, South Africa from March 5-15. Among the group of students was also Andrew’s wife, Hannah, a junior at Dordt. The couple now live in Orange City while they attend Dordt.
As Andrew explained, it’s customary for Dordt engineering students to take on a senior design project. Students can come up with their own engineering design projects to work on throughout the year or take one from a list; as it turns out, Versova director of strategic projects Bruce Dooyema had one added, requesting assistance in designing solar energy electrical systems for chicken barns in Africa.
The March trip was done so that the students could actually take their designs and help with the installation process. In Mozambique, this work benefited an organization called Ebenezer Rapale, a Christian vocational training center that empowers its students by developing their agricultural, poultry and business skills.
The chicken barns therefore are a part of the program and help feed the students, including students who are a part of a special needs school also run by Ebenezer.
“The actual electrical system is not very big. For what we installed, there’s three 450-watt panels for two barns and then there will be three 300-watt panels for two smaller barns,” Andrew said.
Two batteries for the two bigger barns get charged by the solar panels, while one battery gets charged up for the two smaller barns.
Although that project was relatively straightforward, there was so much more they experienced in their time in Africa.
One of the highlights came the day after they arrived in Mozambique, when they attended a Sunday church service in a rural community. The service was held in an open-air hut, with the worshippers seated on plastic lawn chairs or benches and young children sat on woven mats on the floor.
What they experienced was a very interactive service filled with song and dance.
“It was about two and a half hours long,” Hannah said. “There were times you would get up and go make up a song and dance and perform that for the rest of the group. They had some different youth groups perform as well. There was a sermon at the end of it for the last 30 minutes or so.
“It was a really neat experience. Something that really stuck out to me was watching them sing and dance a song during the offering how it’s more pleasant to give than to receive. Not all of them had shoes on. You don’t know what their background is completely, but you know it’s not like we have it here in the U.S. Just seeing them open up their pockets and sing about how much they love to give to the Lord, it was stunning to me.”
Andrew added that there was a time during the service for the people to share with each other the things that had happened during the week.
During the week, the Dordt engineering students worked on the solar panels and electrical system from about 8 a.m.-4 p.m. They also received help from two electricians from A&K Electric in Rock Valley and Dooyema.
Their work extended beyond the electrical, with the Dordt students lending a hand building the chicken cages and moving the chickens in.
“That was the first time I handled a living chicken, and now I’ve handled dozens of them,” Andrew said.
During that time, Hannah put her studies as an education major and background as a former special education paraprofessional to good use, spending time at Ebenezer’s special education school. On one day, Hannah shared with the staff members what she knew.
“I was able to share some ideas and resources and techniques for them and their teachers,” she said. “If you’re a teacher in this rural area, it’s not like you’ve gone to a school such as Dordt and finished a four-year program and have your license. You really basically show up and have a heart and passion for the children and possibly some training. But it’s different from here. They wanted to know more about what it’s like here. I was able to train them and give them some info.”
Seeing that school make do with so little left an impression on her.
“This school is in a house, the classes are bedrooms. Watching the resilience of the children and the loving care of the staff really made me reflect on, wow, this system is different from what we have in the U.S. but it’s still working,” she said. “These children are receiving education, love, care, support. There were children there who couldn’t walk last year and now they’ve had enough therapy and time at this school that they’re starting to walk and move around. Just seeing the staff and the families put their trust in God. What He has in store for these kids is beyond amazing.”
Another thing to note is that it was warm and rainy in Mozambique, as the land was at the end of the rainy season. Hannah called it refreshingly green.
“It was about 85 degrees and humid every day we were there. Some days it rained, but not all day,” Hannah said.
Rains would come in heavy downpours for about 10 minutes before suddenly stopping.
When their time with Ebenezer came to an end, the group moved on to South Africa to meet with people from Blessman International, whose main campus was about three hours from Johannesburg. There, the weather was damp but a cool 60-65 degrees.
“We visited a farm where four of the chicken barns were,” Andrew said, “and we visited an after-school care program. There’s a church on site there and agricultural training for adults that’s also on site there. There’s even some sporting facilities there. It’s a very multipurpose site.”
No solar panels or other electrical work was done at the time, as the group mainly used their time there as an opportunity to see for themselves the setup they had and how they could go about such a project in the future.
“They ended up putting a few thousand more chickens in barns while we were visiting Blessman,” Hannah said. “You guys probably put maybe 3,000 chickens in one of the barns in some new cages. Everyone was willing to be hands-on and help in whatever way they could.”
One of the biggest challenges of the trip was simply getting back, as they had a blizzard to contend with in the U.S.
“We were supposed to get to the Sioux Falls airport at 10 p.m. Sunday that day there was the ice and the blizzard. So we did not make it at 10 p.m. Sunday,” Hannah said. “Shoutout to Travel Advantage because they were like our saviors in some ways.”
Now that they’re back home, they’ve been left with a lot of memories and thoughts to process. It’s certainly left a lasting impression on Andrew and Hannah.
“It was such a great experience that I want to stay connected with it. I’d be happy to do more work even after I graduate, pro bono engineering work. So, wanting to stay involved because of how meaningful and important and cool the things happening are,” Andrew said.
Hannah started donating more of her clothes and possessions since getting back.
“You don’t need much to be faithful to God and to be happy with your life,” she said. “I saw how faithful and joyful everyone was, especially when we were in Mozambique.”
