Engineer David Patterson returns from Brazil

    ?It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.? That was how Washington County Engineer David Patterson described his three-month visit to Brazil, from which he just returned a few weeks ago. Patterson took an unpaid leave of absence from his position with the county to volunteer his engineering skills in a city called Niterói, which is in southeast Brazil and right next to Rio de Janeiro, the country?s second largest city.

    Patterson spent three months working on infrastructure in the city by building road extensions, improving the sewer lines and constructing a storm water system. Patterson?s help could not have come at a better time. In early April, just after Patterson and the other workers had completed the storm water system for the neighborhood, a devastating flood hit Niterói, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes and causing hundreds of deaths, according to the Associated Press.

    ?We finished the storm water project on Monday and all the flooding happened Tuesday,? recalled Patterson. ?They had over a foot of rain in less than six hours. Both of the streets that lead into our community were closed for two days because of the landslides. We were isolated from the rest of Niterói.?

    This trip to Brazil was not Patterson?s first voyage to South America. In fact, he has visited Niterói seven times since 2002, when he went on his first trip. Patterson belongs to The Living Word Fellowship in Kalona, which is affiliated with a church in Niterói. One of his friends from church suggested that he go on a trip to Brazil to help the people develop, and Patterson took him up on the offer.

    ?The first trip we went on we had five guys,? said Patterson. ?My friend had a backhoe business, so I told him, ?Hey, you?re my operator. Let?s bring a guy who can lay pipe.? That was a three-week trip, and we did all of the sewer infrastructure for a community there. I had never been in Brazil before. I went there and I fell in love with it. I love the culture and the people. It was an extremely fulfilling personal experience.?

For more, see our April 29 print edition.