Bagel With Pastrami With Engineers Without Borders

There are two things that I'm not very good at: meeting new people and being the centre of attention. I still wasn't very good at either of those thing today when I was invited to join the lovely people at Engineers Without Borders Australia for their Friday get-together lunch. But despite my social failings, the wonderfully warm and welcoming atmosphere among the team put me at ease. Even when I wore my lunch all over my face and hands like a two year old.

After introductions, the question of the day was 'who would you want to be apprenticed under?'

People mentioned chefs, authors, and other cool and interesting people. I chose Chris Bangle, the former Chief Designer at BMW, who was particularly controversial during his tenure. Of course, I couldn't remember his name. Instead, a blind Volkswagen salesman with a similar name was all I could think of. Close enough.

Simon, the recent mechanical engineering graduate from England, told us about his travels and his plans to work with EWB. I told everyone about my route across across North America and the F150 that I'd purchased yesterday, noting the look of horror on the face of the woman who is working to reduce emissions to zero.

The guys at EWB filled me in on the dozens of amazing projects they're involved in around our region. One of the things that impressed me most was their assistance in creating local Engineers Without Borders in places like Nepal. Another example of helping developing nations become more self-sustainable (or giving them the resources to get there themselves).

My thanks to everyone at Engineers Without Borders Australia. They're a wonderful group of people doing wonderful things for people that genuinely need it. If you're reading this, then please click here and donate some money to help provide clean water and infrastructure to those who don't have the option of taking that stuff for granted.