Internship poster

Marcos made this cool poster to be displayed in the office once we leave.

Some notes;

"Pura Vida" literally means "pure life" in Spanish, but in Costa Rica it means anything from "good" to "how are you?"

Rancho Arbol de Vida was the organisation we did the design work for (another others) so alot of the photos are taken from that trip. Arbol means tree in Spanish, hence the tree in the poster.

The verse up the top is taken from Isaiah, it's somewhat of a theme for us here, and it's on the back of our eMi T-Shirts.

The photo in the middle was taken on project trip but he added all the extra people that have been part of this time for us. The photo of the 4 of us at the bottom was taken after running between bus stops during some heavy rain.

You might want to click on the poster to view it full size.

Celebrating Tico style

As many of you are aware, I turned 22 last Saturday. My host family decided that they wanted to put on a party, I'm not really into parties but apparently it was all organised. They invited the other 3 interns and their respective host families, plus the minister at the church and his family. Two of the host families ended up not coming so I thought I'd be in for a quiet afternoon. I hadn't banked on the fact that extended family would just happen to turn up as they tend to on Sunday afternoons. I'd also missed the cultural point that everyone invited would bring some friends. So 80 tortillas and a whole lot of boiled pork later we had about 30 people. At about 6.30pm, (that's getting late here- considering people go to bed at 8pm) someone got up to leave and my host mother said "wait til we sing happy birthday to Susannah" the conversation then followed something like this..
"This is a birthday party?"
"Yeah, it's Susannah's"
"Who is that?"
"Her" and point to me
"oh the foreigner"
Then they prayed for me to have many more birthdays and to find a spouse.
On the birthday front, thanks must also go to the lovely Port Arlington SUFM-ers who sent me a bunch of cards, and everyone else who sent emails/facebook messages. Fellow intern Sarah took me swimming for the morning and out for cheesecake after lunch. Plus the lovely Dan and Sarah (permanent staff) took us both to a neighbouring town, home to the biggest ox cart in the world and even organised a cake for James (fellow intern, whose birthday it was on the friday) and I at bible study last night.

What exactly I do...

Due to popular demand I thought I'd give you all some information on what exactly I do here.

Firstly, a little background information on the organisation, Engineering Ministries International (eMi) that I'm working for. eMi provides free architectural and engineering services to Christian ministries around the world. Generally this is orphanages, hospitals and schools. I'll be posting soon on a feeding centre and school in Guatemala I've been working on. They are 6 offices around the world; Costa Rica, India, Uganda, US, Canada and UK.

The way the projects (school, orphanage etc) work is that after the project is accepted, a group of architects, surveyors and engineers head to the site of the project. They are a group made up of permanent eMi staff and interns (people like me) from an eMi office and a bunch of volunteers who come from places like the US or Canada just for the week (or up to 10 day) long trip. During the "project trip" week, the site is surveyed, missionaries who were working for are conferred with about what they actually want, soil is tested, the avaliability of utilities is accessed and plans started. Then we all head back to the office or our homes and keep on working on the project. While we are still working long distances with volunteers in other countries it is very difficult. We have to polish or change the architectural plans. Most of the structural engineering design needs to be done when we get back. In simple terms this involves making sure the columns and beams are big enough to hold everything up. The water engineers need to decide where the water will come from and where all the waste water will go. The electrical need to look after power supplies and wiring. At the end of the project, reports have to be written up, detailing why we chose to do what we did. And providing all the plans and details of how everything is to be done.

While all the design is happening, everything needs to be drawn up on a drafting program called AutoCAD. Things are constantly needing to be changed and corrected. This is where red lines come in. The plans and details are printed off, and someone checks over them and marks all the problems with a red pen. Then someone else fixes all the mistakes and highlights them as they go. Then they print off a new copy, ready for more redlines. This process continues until everything is perfect. At first, I did quite a few redlines for other people. Then about 6 weeks ago, I got to redline for someone else- oh the power of a red pen! It felt great.

For those of you thinking I'm just drafting, don't fear. I do some design work too, looking at the beam design and the number of bars in them. Sometimes my boss Dan calls me and James, the other structural guy over and gives us a bit of an engineering lesson, showing how he designed where the reinforcement went in the column for example. I've also calculated loads and looked at loading factors set out in "The Code". Loading factors are what Engineers apply as somewhat of a safe guard, like if the steel is not as strong as you expected, or you get more people and furniture in the building than expected. The Code gives details of what loading codes to use in what circumstances. It's basically a big rule book. I also got to look at seismic loading, which was really fun. I even designed an excel program so calculating won't be so involved next time.

So there you go, my daily working life.

The holy week experience

I love experiencing how another culture lives everyday and on special days. So spending Semana Santa here (the week leadig up to Easter, holy week) was exciting. As 75% of Costa Ricans are Catholic, in some ways it's a bigger thing here than in Australia. Most people have the whole week off and the shops close on Wednesday afternoon. Even buying alcohol is banned for part of the week. The television was full of movies portraying the life of Christ and the lives of various popes. Town was quite as alot of people headed to other parts of the country to be with family. The neighbours visited with gifts of sweet breads and pastries. My own host family had various relatives coming to stay and cook . They asked me about traditional Easter foods in Australia, and all I could think of was hot cross buns! So they asked me to make some, which turned out quite well. After all the lead up I was expecting things to just get bigger and bigger until Sunday, but everything stopped on Friday night. The shops opened up again on Saturday and people came home. Apparently the focus is more on the crucifixion than the resurrection. Sunday church for us was a bit of a non-event, apparently most protestants down play Easter because the Catholic church plays it up so much. To make up for this, all the staff families had lunch together, exchanging "He is risen!" "He is risen indeed!" and hard boiled coloured eggs. I ended up socialising til about 8pm (considering this is bed time normally, that was a big deal!). I learnt more about how North Americans celebrate Easter too!

The week was filled with a few unexpected, pleasant surprises, involving other cultures.

Some of you will be aware I'm slightly obsessed with Jewish culture and traditions. Before I came to Costa Rica I thought it would be really cool to meet some Jews in Costa Rica, but I didn't think the chance of this happening was very high. I considered asking God to send some my way, but decided I should perhaps focus on Latin culture for these 6 months. Well Thursday night I went to a Seder at the home of a Messianic Brooklyn Jew and his Cuban wife! Turns out they actually know someone I know in Melbourne, which was exciting! The Seder was a very intimate affair, with just eight of us. I only got to go because my boss got sick and thus his family couldn't attend. An absolute bonus for me was that I was the youngest present so I got to ask all the cool questions. Plus James and I were the kids (well we were at least 25 years younger than everyone else there) so we got to search for the afikomen. To hear again how passover points to Christ was wonderful, and to know we were celebrating with millions of people around the world was something really special.

The next surprise was a concert taking place in Vienna. I spent holy week in Vienna 6 years ago and visited lots of sights which were shown throughout the concert. The conductor spoke in German, which to my delight I understood. I got a bit of a "I love Vienna moment" and sort of home sick for it all even though I'd only spent 7 days there.

He is risen! Hallelujah!

Interns

As you probably know, I'm not here by myself. There are three others doing the same thing as me (i.e. volunteering for just these 6 months). We all get along well, and compliment each other. We don't just work together, we hang out, go places and babysit staff kids together. So let me introduce my friends and colleagues.
On the left is a photo taken on the project trip in the backseat of a back seat of a van. It was very crowded! Right to left is Sarah, Marcos, Susannah and James. We all love this photo! Right is the 4 of us at orientation (horrible of me, wish I could edit myself out), plus another couple who will be joining us here in Costa Rica soon.


Sarah, is the fellow girl in the office. She works part time here and part time at the local orphanage, because she has more maternal instincts in her little finger than I do in my whole body. Sarah is also a civil engineering student, and does a lot of work with water here. She reads a lot, and always recommends books to us. The eldest of 5 (4 younger brothers) and possibly the most selfless person you'll ever meet. She'll never admit it, but her Spanish is amazing, and so is she, I couldn't imagine this internship without her.



Marcos is the one we're all convinced was accepted first, because he is so suited to this role for a number of reasons! Firstly, he was born in Guatemala, and though he moved to the US when he was three, he speaks perfect Spanish and understands the culture. When we need to find out information in a hurry, Marcos is the one who talk for us. Secondly, he's the only graduate, and thus is more experienced and knows how to use computer programs better than the rest of us. He's the only architect among us. He's very passionate about his youth group back home and loves Hillsong (moot point between the two of us lol!).

James is the closest person to me when it comes to culture because he's Dutch (second generation) and Canadian (we love the commonwealth!). James and I are both structural engineers at the moment, and thus share office space and music. He is the most adventurous of the 3 of us, continuously telling us 'if it hasn't worked out yet, it just isn't over yet' (great advice when you're in the middle of a flood, at night, when the power is off, in a foreign country and don't know where you're staying that night). He loves surfing and bikes and according to the mothers, possesses a very well written blog.

So there you go, 4 young adults from 4 different cultural backgrounds who've come together to work here for 6 months. We're all so different, yet we can talk for hours. I love them all, and can't imagine what life here would be like without them.

La comida

Every time I come home from a camp my Dad always asks "How was the food?" so I thought I'd answer that question a few months early.

Rice,beans and bananas are staples here. I eat rice and beans for breakfast, it's actually quite good. Actually, I like it so much that one of the worst thing about having no power in the morning is that I have to have bread for breakfast! They call it "gallo pinto" and add coriander, red capsicum and onion. Often it is served with scrambled eggs, and sometimes fruit or fried green bananas.

The other two meals are generally rice and vegetable mixes, sometimes with beans on the side. Sometimes the beans are blended and cooked with onion and some spices. With evening meals meat is often added to the rice and vegetable mix or served as a side dish. But eating a whole steak like I would in Australia is unheard of. "Arroz con pollo" is a typical dish for birthday parties, it's basically rice, vegetable and chicken. Tortillas are regular, eaten most meals. Green salads aren't an everyday affair, but several times a week. Locals eat lettuce with mayonnaise and tomatoe sauce, but I prefer Lizano a salad dressing used to flavour rice. Costa Ricans love Carbohydrates, so along with the rice is potatoes, bread, or spaghetti.

Beverages are great because the fruit is so plentiful (thought they don't seem to eat it too regularly). People regularly blend pineapple, watermelon, bananas, black berries, strawberries and something called 'cas' with either milk or water. When Costa Rican's aren't drinking juice, they drink coffee, which is grown in town. Needless to say my constant water drinking is surprising everyone.

Dairy is expensive here and not very common, my family typically drink milk 2-3 times a week. Cheese is this white stuff which is pretty awful. Ice cream is a once a month special thing.

I miss Vegemite, but apart from that, I've managed to adapt quite easily to this new diet.

The walk to work

Here is my walk to work. It generally takes me about 30 minutes. I leave this lovely street, which is part of the "Royal Mountain" neighbourhood and my host family at about 7am (my host brothers are in the photos running up the street). Generally there dog follows me for the first 10 minutes or so, meaning all the stray dogs in the street, come and hello.

I pass the sugar farm after about 5 minutes. At the moment they are burning cane, which means everything is filled with ash.

Then I go through a less developed area, which is beauitful. The grass is getting yellow (like Australia) because the raining season is just about to come.

Next comes this small set of shops. It's offically part of a new neighbourhood.

There are often people selling bananas and watermelon out the front.

People are always sitting out the front of these shops talking to each other. As I walk by I am greeted by many people.

Not long after the shops is the very steep hill shown, with the very big drains, which I'm sure will seem appropriate when the raining season arrives, rightnow I just use them as a footpath though.

A little while later I get close to the centre of town. This intersection is the only one with traffic lights, in the town. But no one really obeys them anyway so they are quite useless. It's normally very busy and I'll spend up to 5 minutes trying to cross.

Just before I get to work I pass through the central park, the best thing about this town. Right opposite is the Catholic Church. It's a typical design for almost every town to have the church and the park next to each other. The park is full of couples, high school friends, mothers talking, old men chatting together, or interns reading the bible. It's my favourite part of town.