well i have officially completed my month of a combination of orientation, training, and language school... and i'm so ready to be useful! the two weeks of language school consisted of class with maria from 8-12 each morning, and a few hours of homework afterward (and of course the daily practice with our families). it was wonderful and i think we all learned quite a bit. today was my first full day in the office. since my project trip isn't for another 2 weeks, i'll be helping out with whatever I can and refreshing on my AutoCAD to assist with ongoing projects.
the office here includes tom (the director), dan (the intern coordinator), micah (structural engineer), josh (construction manager), tim (architect), and the 5 interns (introduced previously). a couple of weeks ago, micah and josh went to haiti in support of compassion intl to help with structural assessments of buildings and clean water systems. last week in the office, they gave us a presentation of their week and a half there. they went around assessing buildings needed for use right away, such as hospitals. apparently there were doctors just waiting in the airport because they had no place to work. they provided documentation and painted on the buildings that were safe to enter and we're praying that people would feel comfortable and they would be used, because they are so needed. they also held training sessions with groups of haitians to teach them to perform these assessments on homes and smaller structures since their time there was limited. for the last part of the trip, they worked to help design what is supposed to be a temporary displacement camp. that process revealed some of the sad truths about the relations between the haitian government and their people. they were most interested in getting the thousands of people off the land in the middle of the city where they currently are, which will result in an overpopulated camp lacking the land space necessary for stormwater drainage. it will likely end up pretty messy and not a great place to be living. in addition, it's far from port au prince, causing many to lose their homes, jobs and only source of income, resulting in more people dependent on the government. eMi has been talking with volunteers in the states and is looking to send another team in the next couple of weeks.
also, the projects trips for this term officially started on saturday! amos and michael (two other interns) and tim (project leader) left for the village of el tizate, guatemala. they will be gone until sunday, working to design a two-story high school that will provide Christ-centered education to the youth of the village. in addition to design they will get to have worship times with the kids, which is incredible. i'm so excited for them and praying God uses their time there to His glory!
in other news, costa rica has elected its first woman president, laura (pronounced lah-ew-rah) chinchilla. to be honest, election day seemed more like the world cup, with cars driving around honking and people sporting shirts and flags with the colors of their candidate. many say that they don't expect much to change with the new president, but i think it will still be interesting. there was one other candidate worth mentioning, with the name fishman. his slogan was "el menos malo," which translates to "the least bad." really? you've gotta admit that's pretty funny, but needless to say he didn't do too well. i went to the voting booth with my family after church and lunch yesterday afternoon, which happened to be held in a school. my host mom said she filled out the ballot with crayola crayons! she thought it was as odd as i did. and we found out the unofficial results last night, in the middle of.... the SUPER BOWL! yep, i got to watch it. the host family of another intern, ben, had alot of us over for the game (my host family included). i was the sole saints supporter until i taught my host family to say "go saints!" and then they cheered with me just because they're my tico family. they're wonderful. it was their first exposure to futbol americana and while we tried to explain how it works to them, i think it was still pretty confusing and i was very grateful for all of them sitting through such a long game!
on a tangent- futbol americana may not be popular here but i gotta tell you, the black eyed peas are. amos, a fellow intern, informed us that it's on in the background of the morning news at his house, and a kid in the street sang me a bit of the chorus yesterday. ahhh home :)
buenas noches!
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