While most college graduates spend the weeks after graduation traveling or relaxing before starting a job. Brian Droste spent his time laying the foundation for a school in Uganda.

Droste and about 10 of his architecture school classmates from the University of Notre Dame just returned from southwest Uganda last week after spending two and a half weeks working on site with the charity Building Tomorrow. Droste, the son of City Clerk Dan Droste, said the Notre Dame chapter of Building Tomorrow also helped tweak the design to make it more environmentally and economically efficient.

“We saw some issues with it and thought we could offer our knowledge of architecture and try to make it a little better for dealing with environmental issues in sub-Saharan Africa,� Droste said.

Droste said some of the considerations in the new design were steep sun angles and the way the wind blows during the year. He said the new design takes better advantage of passive shading and passive cooling to increase efficiency.

The task of improving the design was in addition to raising more than $45,000 to actually build the school and travel to the site.

“Ultimately our goal is to be able to build a school to really help out these kids and give them an opportunity to improve their future,� he said.

Droste added a couple large alumni donations made the trip possible because groups don’t normally get to visit the site.

“They really wanted us to have this experience of seeing a project go all the way from design to construction,� he said.

There were some differences between working on a construction site in the United States and one in a small Ugandan village, however. One day there was an unexpected visitor to the village who halted construction.

“We showed up to the site and none of the workers were there,� Droste said. “When we asked what was going on they said ‘Oh, they’re out hunting the wild boar.’�

He said the last thing he heard was that the boar had been injured, but they didn’t catch it.

Droste and the group spent their days clearing vegetation and termite mounds from the site, molding more than 24,000 bricks with a manual brick press and laying the school’s foundation.

Droste said the charity provides the money for the school and helps the villagers get started, but the rest of the school will be built by the villagers because it’s a more sustainable approach.

“They can really make it their school that they can be proud of,� he said.

Droste said he would like to return to the site, but doesn’t have any set plans because the school should be finished in 10 to 12 months, but could take longer.

Among Droste’s other experiences were a visit to a rural doctor after he contracted a mild parasite, a trip to the source of the Nile River in Jinja and the position of guest of honor at a nearby private high school’s graduation.

“I was really surprised by the overwhelming hospitality they have. We were treated so well that it was almost a little uncomfortable,� Droste said.

He said he was also surprised by the beauty of the country and that its horizon was unmarred by cell phone towers.

“I think everybody has the tendency to associate the entire continent of Africa with AIDS, lions and zebras and giraffes, extreme poverty, fighting, infant mortality rates and things like that. We forget the country is gorgeous, and everybody there can appreciate it whether you’re rich or poor.�