Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Back from the Travels

 Beginning of the Journey: Camel Ride in Jaisalmer
 AGRA: Taj Mahal
 The Typical Taj Mahal Picture
2nd shot: Self-Timer

So I've arrived back home in Toronto! Woohoo! It was an enjoyable vacation through the few parts of India that I visited and it was definitely not enough time to enjoy all of the locations properly. However, it was quite an experience being able to travel from Mussoorie-30deg weather, to Rajastan-48 deg weather, to Goa-35degree weather and beaches =). The final destination was definitely necessary as I was able to enjoy the beaches and catch up with new friends that I met in Mussoorie. The culture is completely different from the rest of India, and I was able to check out one of the weddings in India.

What can I say? The first part of EMI is over, and I'm sure there will be many more experiences with EMI in the future. I've learned many things, ranging from professional work, to personal growth, to spiritual growth. One of the main things that has impacted me through this experience was the connection and ability to mesh with the other workers in a way I've never seen before. Every skill and every personality was complimented by every person in the office to a degree that allowed for us to stand out with the roles that we were given. The other valuable experience that I gained, was a greater appreciation for water. As we were in Mussoorie, we had constant power shortages and unstable electricity which was complained about constantly as we were running short on our deadlines. One day, our water supply dried up and we didn't have water for multiple days, which helped me to gain a perspective that I'd rather have running water and no power any time. After coming back I've seen how much of a blessing water is.

Anyway, as I am back now I'd love to share stories and/or answer questions in person over a coffee or a meal. Please feel free to contact me at jay.mooi@gmail.com and I'd be glad to go more in depth with sharing my experience!

Thanks for your support and keeping me updated with everything. I'll be sure to add more pictures of the travels to the facebook albums.

Blessings,

Jay

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Quick Update

Hello all,

I'm currently in Jaipur. We finished out travels to Jaisalmer (the furthest west in Rajastan) and then we skipped over Jodhpur due to lack of time and we're in Jaipur heading to Agra tonight. So far our trip has been very busy as we've been seeing a lot and the sun is extremely draining. The temperature is approximately 42-48 degrees Celsius and can go well over the 50s as well, or at least the locals say that. I don't particularly want to experience that. In Jaisalmer, we rode camels into the desert and stayed a night in the sand dunes. The hours between 1-3 became too hot to travel, so there was an afternoon break where we had lunch and slept each day and it continues even into this city where people don't work and take their time to relax/sleep back home. In the desert we were engulfed by a sandstorm. I survived a sandstorm! it was a cool experience as the whole group was sleeping and then all of a sudden we were hit by what felt like sand pellets and blinded by the sand lifted into the air. Being disoriented I hid under the blanket, I peered out to see Lauren sitting straight up confused and not sure what to do, so i pulled her under the blanket and we just sat there with sand in our eyes trying to breath for about a few hours. At midnight exactly, the sandstorm gave way and we opened out eyes and stepped out to see that our shoes were buried, the mattress was under a bunch of sand and our hair had so much sand that it couldn't be washed out properly even with multiple showers. Overall a great time there as the culture is a lot slower and people are genuinely friendly.

Having a lot of culture shock as the city is much different from Mussoorie where people will tend to keep their personal space and distance.

When I have the chance to later, I'll write about the culture, and the architecture/construction in India.

Cheers,

Jay


Wednesday, May 11, 2011

The Trek

The Interns at the Himalayan Glacier Mountains


 The Team - Interns + Franks Family
 
 Glacier Mountains 

 Snow on the mountain top =)

 At the Top 

 Heading Back from the Trek

Just got back from the trek with the office and ended up getting 13,600ft above sea level. I was able to go on the first hike EVER, and up the Himalayan Mountain to check out the snow glaciers that we are able to see every day from the office. It was a great experience and we were able to see God's creations. Hiking up was fun because we did it in the rain, and for the final night we slept under the stars since the weather was clear. Lucky for us we had a mountain sheep dog that traveled with us all the way up and guarded us all night long. Basically, it barked all night long waking us up every hour allowing us to see the stars. Clearest sky I've ever seen. As a reward, whenever the dog slept on us or on our sleeping bag and barked, we picked up our shoes, hit it, and told it to go away and stop barking because it was keeping everyone up.

I'll be heading to Rajastan, Western part of India tomorrow morning at 3:00am, and then traveling around there until the 20th. From the 20th I'll be going to Goa (South India) and then heading home on the 31st of May. I'm not sure how internet connections will be where I'm going, or if I'll even have internet but I'll be sure to try and keep this updated and keep up with y'all.

See you soon,

Jay

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Nearing the End

As of last Monday, we have officially completed the two projects for Bihar which were ECFC and TIM. For the rest of the week the other interns focused on completing the projects from Pune. Huberth (the indian architect), Graham (the engineer on staff) and myself went to do a one time consultation on Tuesday. A woman from the States planned on starting up an agricultural farm in the Himalayan mountains which concentrates on organic farming and other "green" eco methods. We took a 2-3 hour drive up and around the mountain to where her site was located and found out that construction had already begun. Long story short, we analyzed the site, gave suggestions for the construction and went back home to write up the report and send out suggestions from both architectural and engineering perspectives with regards to what she wants to do with the site. Overall it was an interesting experience and it was fun to go on a day trip and see other aspects of eMi2.

As for the rest of the month that I missed the opportunity to record on the blog. For about 2-3 weeks of that month we had very unstable power supply  and then for 2 weeks we didn't have internet connections at all and any reports or emails that were mandatory were sent through tethering with smart phone connections. All of this was quite bearable and not much of an issue to me really. We got our work done and then enjoyed the sun or other activities after work and little did we know that the situation would get tougher. So usually around this time, water supply becomes an issue. One day we woke up, wanted to brush our teeth and found that there wasn't any water. We then decided to get some water from the drinking tank and use that instead, all to find that no water was to be found. All of a sudden I realized how spoiled we are to have water all the time and I thought to myself, all the complaining we've been doing up until this day was kind of dumb. We would complain that there was no electricity and no internet or nothing to do, but I would gladly trade all of that for accessible flowing water. The month was extremely short and in the end  we didn't even realize that a whole month had already passed.

For the next few weeks we have a trek planned out in the Himilayan mountains. We'll be driving a bit higher up in elevation then when the car can't go any further we'll park and take our gear for a 16km hike further up. We'll camp out and then do day hikes from the main campsite. All the interns will be going, the Franks family including 3 kids and the Indian architect from the office. The trek will end on the 11th and then we will start on our intern holiday of traveling and seeing the rest of india. Unfortunately it's the hottest time to be traveling but since we're already here, we decided to man up and take the heat, literally. For the most part, we were able to find a/c train rides but there was one where we could not avoid and that will be going from the Taj Mahal, Agra to Delhi at 2:30pm which is the hottest time of the day. I'm not particularly looking forward to that train ride but I figured it'll be a great experience nonetheless.

Looking forward to seeing you all again soon! Hope you are doing well.

- Jay

Monday, March 28, 2011

Doctors for a Day - Medical Village Visit

On Saturday, March 26, 2011, 2 Architecture Interns and 1 Civil Engineer became doctors. We were requested to help travel to a village and assist with medical needs if it were possible. Obviously, being the 3 interns that we are, jumped at the opportunity to become doctors for a day since doctors are just THAT cool. We began the day with pancakes and eggs at Oaklands, the main office at the top of the hill. Then, when we were ready, we headed down to the lookout location to meet the rest of the medical team. We began our journey, traveling down the mountain and it was incredibly steep and slippery. Stephen has a picture of me sitting on the ground after a dramatic fall down a couple of rocks which I will post up later for all to laugh at. The main thing is, I protected the medicine and none of it was damaged, so I'm quite proud of myself. Here are some pictures of the views we had and things we did, more are posted on facebook for you to view if you want. 


The Mountains on our way down to the village

 Zack, latest room mate down at Tippery doing his medical thing

 Lauren weighing the kids

 Girl playing in mud as her mother screams in the background

Basically, the real medical team (aka. Zack) examined the kids and we helped out where we could. Eventually we played with the kids and just spent time with them. It was a very interesting experience and now when people tell me that they're going on medical missions, I have a better perspective of what they are working on. This Thursday or next Monday, I'll be heading out to another location, in a Tibetan region to assist again. The facility should be more developed with xray machines and all compared to this village where everyone was examined in a school classroom. It was really amazing seeing God's workmanship and the mountain ranges. Pictures, of course, were not able to capture the scenery but I tried my best. Luckily, we didn't see anything too dramatic and gross. Hopefully, it will continue that way.

J

New Pets! (Leah hum, skip this post)

Once upon a time was a Chinese guy, named jay =) Went to India to escape the life endangering insects, snakes and poisonous creatures of that little place north of the United States called Canada. Although, there was one thing that he missed. It was a small water creature known as lobsters. How he spoke of the great big lobsters and the amazing flavor that they produced once steamed alive in that big giant pot of his at home. To his surprise, one day while he was working out, God blessed him! On the floor of his house, he saw it. The shell was round and strong. The claws were bigger than the body and sharp. The legs were short and quick! But there were a few things different. Firstly, the lobster was smaller, somewhat like a crayfish. Secondly, the tail was longer and curled up over it's back. Have you guessed what it was yet? if not, it was a scorpion....... in the house.... here's a picture =(

Stephen playing with the scorpion. Took a video, we teased it to see how angry we could get it before throwing it down the mountain. 

To finish off the night, we found a few other buddies. Giant spiders that are in Mussoorie. Took a picture of the spider for you to see. The coolest thing about these guys is that they get bigger than this. This is maybe 1/2 the size that it gets. T_T suddenly I miss winter since they're hiding during winter.
 
 



Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Bargaining Tips

    Been doing some shopping and found a website with bargaining tips. Thought I'd share.
  • You should have at least some knowledge of the thing you buy. The more knowledge, the better bargain situation you'll have. If you buy cloth, you must be able to see the different qualities of cotton, silk...(not at all that easy !)
  • Never ever show any excitement of the thing you want to buy. the less interested you look, the better.
  • You can't use the rule "The salesman always start out with 10 times the real price". Some start out with 10 times the real price, other 20 times.
  • Make the other go down in price, before you even start to mention your own price.
  • Even the smallest defect, you should use to bargain down the price
  • As long as the indian is smiling, you're not even close to the real price. <= haha
  • Try to watch how the indians bargain, and learn
  • Take advantage of that you are buying, he/she is selling.
  • If you buy much in the same shop, get discount
  • And remember that the indians have years of practice, you're just a beginner
So far, all is true. 

The Haircut

I haven't written in a bit since I've been really busy withe projects and just trying to complete them. Also with the fluctuation of internet connections, it's been a bit difficult to update the blog. However, to keep you updated on the latest things that have been happening, I thought I'd write some short stuff today. 

I don't think I mentioned too much about getting haircuts in India yet. Basically, what happens is you go in, sit down and they cut your hair old school style =) They pull out the scissors and hair comb, ask how you want your hair cut (also if you want a shave) and slowly begin cutting your hair. Then they ask you if you want chai. If you say yes, they go to the chai stand next door, get a few cups and then stop midway through the cut, wait for you to drink your chai, take the cup back and then continue cutting. If they're not sure what type of hair cut you want, they ask you to bring a picture. Also, once that is finished, they give you a head massage, followed by a shoulder/back massage. Not bad eh? So I went today for the second time and wanted to get a different type of haircut since they didn't understand the first time. Here is what came out of it:

 Sides are shorter, the top is longer like usual

Still not too bad

 From the opposite side it's still not bad. . . . . 

and then.. . . 


 

BAM! he didn't know what to do with the back. . . . . so he just left it

I'll be fixing it after I get home today. I had a good laugh since I didn't know what it looked like until I got back to the office. =) Thought you'd all enjoy it as well.
Anyway onto the projects, we finally heard back from the one client to determine what we are to do with the site. We were uncertain with initiating the drawing process since the client wanted us to compress 5 programs into a small site and with a 5 storey height limit. We then requested that he search the bylaws and request clarification on the issue of site coverage and density. Originally, we had approximately 85-90% coverage for the site, and that barely fit the programs he wanted. We then heard back and like we imagined, the site coverage is much much smaller - 60%. The last week has been very busy with changing the program and building design. As for the other site, it is going well. I'm almost finished drawing up the schematic floor plans and the project report draft. So far we're ahead of schedule I believe. The drawings in total will be due at the end of April so there's quite a bit of time.Everyone is the office is sick, and I'm recovering from my sickness. Thanks for the prayers and support! Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Jay

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Home Alone

The other interns have finally left for their project trip. They left for 3 weeks to head all over India. They will eventually meet up with a client for a project but until then, they're going around making their way to the South checking up on projects that EMI2 has already worked on. Additionally, the Franks (family living next to the office) went to America, so the kids are gone and it's pretty quiet. The only people left in the office are Ivy (the EMI2 Head Architect), Huberth (the Indian Architect), and myself. That's right! Architecture party at the office.

Photo Album for Selected Pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2372881&id=122609190&l=0ea123e0c8

Photo Album for Project Trip: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2372879&id=122609190&l=3f59578b4d 

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Day 11: The Hospital

After 1 month of coughing and sneezing I decided to go to the hospital . . . I really dislike hospitals . . . One thing I had to remember was what we learned in training "it's not right or wrong, it's just different" The amount of orderly chaos that runs through the traffic of the streets also applies to the traffic of hospitals.

Procedure to get medication.
1. Registration
There is a window for registration that everyone goes through. However, there is no line. First come, first serve and whoever can push there way to the front will get served first. Logical right? Keep in mind that people randomly stand in front of this window for no reason, just staring through the glass at the receptionist which blocks the path for foreigners like me to get to the front because I thought it would be rude to push. They appear like they're registering, but really, they're not. So I stood there for a good 15 minutes trying to figure out this system.

2. Finally Register and Get Assigned a Room.
A room is given and you must go to it. It doesn't matter who is in it, or what they are doing. Your job is to push open the door and give your registration sheet to the doctor otherwise you will never be called. Not knowing this, I sat outside the door for 5-10minutes until someone else came and opened the door to give their paper in.

3. See the Doctor
Doctor asks "what's wrong" and after you reply, they start writing down stuff and tell you to go to room 1 without explaining anything to you. To your surprise room 1 is actually not a room, but it is the billing station right next to the reception where the other huge line of people are.

4. Billing
Paying your tab is the same process as registration. This is what I observed, so I pushed my way to the front to give my paper in so I can pay and get my medication, but apparently there is some sort of unspoken line. The guy at the billing tells me to go behind a few men and wait for them to finish. As I wait, other people come and do the same thing I did and then just wait where I was waiting before. Confused, I just wait for these men to finish and push my papers in front of everyone else so I can leave.

5. Testing
Surprise again, once you pay the bills, you're still not done. Usually in America, the doctor will do all of the tests and look after you, but it's a different order in India. After paying the bill, you head towards the lab, where another person will be taking your test. In my circumstance it was the throat swab. Now remember what I said about not looking people in the eye because they can get the wrong idea. I walk in say hello and smile and exchange eye contact because I can only walk straight and then the person is straight ahead of me. She, being a young female doctor, smiles back and giggles. Once again, I am confused. Smiling back at her then, I walk forward and give my sheets to her. She tells me to sit, grabs a swab testing kit and comes back. Tells me to open my mouth and by default I look at the swab and then look forward. She stares at me during this situation and tells me to say "ahh" looks at me in the eyes again during this awkard moment and smiles and giggles again. Then, I say thank you and turn to leave and she smiles and giggles and says bye!! So 2 options: first being that there was something funny about me or secondly, the thing about exchanging eye contact is true and should not be done.

6. Walk around the hospital lost while you look for the pharmacy (because it's hidden)

7. Find the Pharmacy and get your drugs.
The procedure is the same as getting your registration and billing done. Oh, and make sure you don't go at lunch because everyone is out to lunch and no one will be working because then you'll have to wait a while.

Very stressful experience and the sad news is I had to go back the following day to get results of the test and the other drugs to get rid of the throat infection.

Day 9 and 10

Traveled back to Mussoorie with the team and got back around chai time (3:00pm). Debriefed a little and then on the 10th day we had our project sharing. Basically we discussed what happened, shared our project proposal with the rest of the team and discussed potential alternatives and other methods of accomplishing the goal in a more productive/efficient way. Then took the visiting volunteers around town to buy more gifts as they were only in Mussoorie for 1 day. Along the way to Mussoorie we picked up another South American from the airport and I think that my favorite people right now are South Americans =)  I never knew that they were so much fun. We discussed where Canada is (yes, it's just above America) and how Canadians don't necessarily have to live in igloos. Water also flows the same way when flushing the toilet. 

Day 8: Robbed

Long day of travel again. Woke up at 5 to catch a flight back to Delhi. 1.5hrs long w/ IndiaGO. The flight was smooth and short and we explored the city for the day to buy gifts. Originally, we planned to go to the Taj Mahal, but realized that there was a 3 hour train ride which could potentially be 8 hours late and did not want to take the risk of being stuck in Agra over night since the volunteers were flying back out that evening. The next best idea was to go into Old Delhi to visit the biggest Mosque in India. To get there we took the Metro-Subway. The first trip there was not bad and then we made our way back to the hotel and tried to get rickshaws or taxis but no one wanted to go back to the area where we lived. So back to the metro we went. Arriving at the station at rush hour times, we ran down the stairs and found that the subway car was already there. We ran into the first car we saw and stood there pleased as we were not surrounded by any men, but instead completely surrounded in a car full of beautiful young females.

To our surprise they said to us "This is the female car, if you get caught in this car, you will be fined!" Shocked, we ran out of the car as fast as we could and tried to get into another subway car but we were too late as the doors closed while we exited the female car. Now, you may be wondering why there was a car designated to females only.. . well the next part will explain that. We waited at the right spot this time and as the train pulled up about 5 minutes later, faces were plastered on the glass of the car. The car was so packed with people that it was almost a game to take this thing. The doors crashed open and people literally were jumping horizontally, pushing, shoving and screaming as they were trying to get off this subway car. Simultaneously there were people that were trying to NOT get off the car and stay inside of it. With a river of people flowing out, their only way to stay in was to hold on tightly to any fixed element of the interior and pull back with all their might. The people standing furthest to the doors would laugh their heads off while this happened as if it were a joke. Finally, after pushing our way through the exiting crowd and making our way into the car we realized why there were two separate cars. I've never seen so many men grinding with each other as I did during that ride. We only needed to go down 2 stops and we definitely should have gone for the penalty of staying in the female car. With 8 white people, I'm sure we would have been able to get away with saying it's our first time and we're tourists.

Anyway, for all those that made it onto that first train, we held onto each other, with a few latched onto the train as the doors opened and closed. For those 2 stops we mentally prepared our escape and plotted our route of ducking and diving over and under arms, legs and children. Finally we got to our stop and I followed a posh business man in a suit out of the train. Elegantly, he panicked and with a flustered face he leaped towards the exit. Pushing, screaming, being crushed against peoples backs and chests with his face smothered he attempts to exit like an american football player carrying a briefcase. Then there was me with my arm on his back pushing him forward as if I were the football player and he was the guy blocking everyone from tackling me =) We eventually exited the sea of people after being pushed all the way to the perimeter wall of the subway tunnel. To my entertainment, the posh business man who just got bashed around stands up straight, with his hair a mess and his suit jacket around his shoulders. He fixes his clothes, fixes his hair, and then calmly walks to the surface up the stairs as if nothing had happened and like he didn't just panic for his life. Needless to say, many things were stolen on that metro ride which included my cellphone and another guys camera.

Day 7: Presentations

Presentations from 10am-5pm. Went well.

 Rough Sketch Model of the TIM building

ECFC Sketch Model on the 2+ Acre Site

Monday, February 28, 2011

Photo break

 Train Station in Delhi
 Porters that carry peoples stuff
 Train Station in Patna, Bihar
 One of the Market Places in Delhi
 Tomb at Lodi Gardens, Delhi
 Another Tomb, Lodi Gardens

 One of the Churches we went to. Men on one side, woman on the other. No Shoes allowed
 Meet the team! Lodi Gardens - Delhi

Meet the team again at the zoo in Patna!

Day 5-6: CAD MONKEY

Just cranked out drawings. Slept at 12-1ish am each night and started working at 9ish. Only breaks were lunch, dinner and washrooms. I created a few sketchup models of the site and buildings for the client to understand visually what we were proposing. I'll post those up later for you to see as well.

This is about half way through the trip and I'll write the rest tomorrow since the power just went out. The office is currently running on the backup generator which will die soon as well. More updates to come!

Day 4: Play Day

Woke up at 7:00am for food/devotionals. Went to Pastor Biju's (TIM's Client) orphanage to play with the kids since both clients wanted us to meet the children at the orphanages. We met a bunch of boys from the age range of 6-13. There were around 20 or so children and they were very disciplined. We pulled out a soccer ball and then their eyes lit up. The pastor allowed them to start playing so they all immediately ran to the soccer ball and started kicking it in every direction possible including over the fence. The nets and teams were not even set up but we threw a few kids into goal position and then when other kids with the ball scored, they all raised their hands as if they had won a huge game. It was a lot of fun playing here, and then we ended up going to the other clients orphanage. Rev. Abraham (ECFC's client) took us first to the Barnabas Orphanage, to meet the boys who sang for us, and introduced themselves and then showed us their living areas. There were about 30-40 boys at this orphanage which was also a school and the amount of mosquitoes in this building was incredible. I think all of the interns/volunteers were itching to get out of that orphanage, but at the same time still curious to know more about the children there. We went then to the Esther orphanage and met the girls. There were about 10-15 girls at this orphanage and it was a lot cleaner with less mosquitoes. They also sang for us and shared their dreams and goals. Most want to become doctors, a few engineers. Surprisingly, from all of the orphanages, none wanted to become architects.

Interesting sight of the day:
When we got to Abraham's orphanage, we stood at the gate. A random buffalo walked up to where the gate was and then stood in front of the gate and peed a waterfall it was basically the same as an over pressured hose pipe spraying at full force. But it gets better, there was another buffalo that was behind it, that came up to it and started drinking the urine as it came out. I couldn't bring myself to watch, so I didn't take a picture, but I know you wanted to hear that story so I thought I'd share.

Day 3: Surveying Again

We went back to the ECFC 2 acre site to resurvey the site. It seems like what was done before was definitely not good enough since defining certain points were impossible due to the lack of information. Therefore, from 9:00am to 1:00pm Stephen (the other intern), Ivy (The EMI2 office Architect) and myself went to the site to remeasure everything. This was actually a very relaxing and fun time and we all had a great time surveying. Interesting information: apparently this happens frequently, where the owner of the land is not exactly quite certain of where his/her land actually is. This piece of land is interesting because he actually owns the front half, and a piece in the back of the land, which is separated by 3 parcels of land which is not purchased as of yet. As we tried to mark out and measure the middle parcel which separated his two pieces of land, he shows us two arbitrary rocks/paths and said his land is from here to there. After measuring it, we came to find that the area he showed us is only 750sqft. However, he insists that the middle parcel of land that is not purchased is supposed to be 13,650sqft.

After finishing up there, we eventually went back for lunch and then started drafting up the site. We had a few tough issues which we had to sort out which was eventually sorted out by 12am. Keep in mind that meals here are long, so lunch and dinner were each around 2 hours. At 12am I ended up taking a nap while Stephen (the civil engineer) drafted up the survey by hand. Our first time seeing an engineer draw =) Then at 1am, when he finished, we switched up and I went over it in ink for the architect and retraced it onto a cleaner sheet and then finished up the TIM site survey as well. Ended up sleeping at 2am. We drafted in the dark with a flashlight due to power surges and electricity failures. Stephen got a few pictures of these so I'll post them up later when I'm able to get them.

Day 2: Surveying

There are two projects we are working on and it's for two separate ministries. The larger site is ECFC that is around 2+ Acres. The second site is TIM that is approximately 6000sqft.

The start of the day begins with going to the ECFC site at 9:00am to survey the site while a 6ft deep hole is being dug at the TIM site for soil and water testings. I ended up following the architects around to analyze the existing building while the engineers surveyed the site. We documented the existing building - the way it's constructed, materials used, methods for construction (such as Styrofoam to mold curves in the concrete floor slab), and how the workers constructed since it is still being constructed. We spoke about ideas, learned about the structure and then when everything was finished, we had lunch. Then we surveyed the TIM site and had dinner after that. This was pretty much the entire day so there's not too much interesting information here. FYI Surveying = measuring, dimensioning and checking the contour heights of the land. The interesting part of surveying the site was using an extremely sensitive hand level. Luckily the engineer brought his own hand level that was more advanced than the one we were SUPPOSED to bring. Apparently, we had packed the wrong level tool.


Day 1: Project Trip Culture Shock

I wrote a bunch of journal entries in my journal to share with Y'all (for my great american friends, I thought you'd appreciate that) I'm going to try and keep them short and just make multiple blog entries for you to follow along with instead of writing it all in one entry. Hope you enjoy!

Part 1:
We arrived in Patna after a long 7 hour train ride to Delhi and then 12 hours from Delhi to Bihar, Patna. The culture and atmosphere is similar to Rishikesh. It's unfortunate to once again be in a situation where you are surrounded by beggars who constantly ask for money and know that there is not much you can do for them. At the train station, a child approached us with one leg crawling on the ground asking for money. After giving him candy and refusing to give him money, he crawled off to a pile of bags, grabbed his fake leg and placed it on and then ran away laughing as if he had cheated us. That was a huge culture shock for the team who hadn't had any training and just arrived off of the plane the same day.

On the train, people would cough, sneeze and choke their lungs out without covering their mouths or doing any of the typical sanitary gestures that people are taught in North America. Even turning to the person sitting next to them and coughing on them as they spoke was fine. Often, the guy sitting next to me would pick his feet and then tough another guys hands as he was attempting to explain palm reading. This to me was culture shock as I tried to stay as far away as possible. Another guy on the train bought 1 ticket to which he and his wife would share. Now, imagine that you're the man and you and your wife won't fit on the same platform to sleep. What would you do and where would you let your wife sleep? Bingo, the floor! That is exactly what this man did. Set her on the floor without sheets, a pillow or blankets and then he slept comfortably on the bed. Surprised, I gave up my blanket to her so that she could at least stay warm during the night.

Upon arrival, it was easy to tell that Patna was not a developed area. What we did not know at the time was that Patna is one of the regions where people don't want to go to and don't want to help because they are so poor there. It is also known as the Christian Missionary Graveyard because many Christians prior have gone and have been killed. It has since changed a little and is not quite as dangerous but we were still told not to leave our hotel at night or when the sun goes down. Another reason you can tell Patna is not as developed is by the amount of people you see urinating on the streets. As you drive down the street, people would randomly just stop, turn, drop their pants and take a leak wherever they wanted. There weren't any designated places except the ponds or water areas. Anyway, we waited at the station for a while because the people picking us up were a bit late. The pastor drove us to his church for service and then the children came out and placed the flower necklaces that they had made around our necks. At first I was very surprised and enthusiastic to wear it. Then as I looked down there were ants all over the flower necklaces, at which point I found myself confused at a crossroad of whether or not to wear it. In the end I decided to wear it since I didn't want to offend the hosts but it was very itchy.

Part 2:
After traveling around and going to the first site visit it ended up being a very long morning. At this point we've been dropped off to eat lunch at a restaurant. Lots of people were exhausted including myself and from what I experienced that day, the system works on hierarchy. I think that since I'm one of the younger people on the team, the hosts do not listen to me as much and since I'm asian, they don't really view me as a "traveler" or "north american" When I met the clients, they would say hello to the team along with the name of the person and shake their hands while looking at them in the eye. As I was introduced, the old guy just grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the way as he said hello so that he could meet the other people who were older and looked more western. It was a tough start but I didn't mind too much since we were taught about this during our training in Colorado. We checked out the 2nd site after lunch and then went to have the programming meeting with the client. He explained that he has multiple sites around the city that he is renting out for different programs and then he plans to put them altogether onto the once site that he recently purchased that has a total area of approximately 6000sq.ft. Essentially, by the end of the meeting we understood that he wanted to build a skyscraper with multiple stories having different programs on each and a large auditorium on the top floor with an extra high ceiling. It is definitely going to be interesting to see how this project turns out.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

I'm Back!

I've arrived back in Mussoorie on Monday. The office area got hit by lightening while we were away so internet has been down for the last week and a bit. It came up again today so I'm just letting you all know that I'm safe and back. I'll be writing about the experience there. I'll make multiple short blogs so that it's not such a long read. I'll write again later!

Cheers,

Jay

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2369637&id=122609190&l=aa85a3199e

I'm placing some of my pictures on facebook for you to check out. You can go to the link above and then I'll keep updating that every so often.

Sidenote: During a message I once heard, it said that statistically it is proven that you will fall head over heels for at least 5-8 people within your lifetime! So if you're heartbroken from a second or third person that you fell in love with, don't worry! Because there's at least 3 more people our there that you can fall in love with =)

This came from our discussions on relationships for morning devotionals.

I'm off to pack now, so I will update you all in a few weeks!
Cheers!

Monday, February 7, 2011

When it rains, it rains hard.....

forgot about one of the "Do's"
If you're looking for a husband or wife . . you needn't look far! it's right there in front of you in the newspapers. There are advertisements about 2 pages each gender of descriptions of men and woman who may be suitable to you! For the males, they have name, age and job descriptions etc... For the females, there's the name, age and 3 measurements of the body. . =) For those of you who I promised to bring back a husband/wife, I can place your info in the newspaper if you want. Thought you'd find that interesting.

On to the storm: Last night was CRAZY! sparks flying outta the outlets, houses shaking and rain almost ripping through windows. I went home when the storm started and luckily got a motorcycle ride home from a buddy that works here. He dropped me off, I got home. . power is dead. . so, using my flashlight and all I could do was walk to bed! Then turning on my ipod and setting the volume similar to the thundering noise, this way I figured it would sound like bass noise . To my surprise, in the top bunk bed where I sleep, noise doesn't matter when the walls and bed are shaking. Through my eye-lids I see flashes of light and then comes the sound, each time louder than the previous, echoing through my ear buds. . Needless to say, I didn't get many hours of sleep as I woke up multiple times throughout the night. On the bright side, I've gotten used to the cold, so that doesn't bother me much anymore.

Today we started a new devotional study topic on "What makes a good marriage". So far it's very interesting, and I guess it's preparing us single people for marriage sometime soon. Maybe I'll come back with a wife, who knows =)

Gotta love the lack of law!

Do:
#1. So what happens when you played a game of soccer after church at the bottom of a mountain for 3 hours and the walk down the mountain took at least 30-45 minutes downhill? After playing for so long with about 11 of us, we decided that the walk up the mountain was way too hard and it would have taken too long! So of course we piled into the pastors truck. But what happens when only 7 can fit in the truck and 4 are left over? Get on the roof of course! haha rode up a mountain on the roof of a truck in India going at 60ish km/hr and around winding curves and weaving around speeding cars coming from the opposite direction!
#2. Get a hair cut! as you get your hair cut, they bring you chai (indian tea) and then they take a break, when you finish the tea, they continue. To finish it off, there's a good massage for head, neck and shoulders.
#3. Dirty toilet paper goes in the "rubbish bin" because the septic tanks can't handle toilet paper too well.
#4. Flush less frequently because water is precious
#5. Shower maybe twice a week if you're lucky. Water is freezing cold, and no one sweats so there's no point in showering every day. mmm smelly . . deodorant is mandatory for this office
#6. Unplug everything during storms, because the lightening strikes the tower next to the office and burns out every electric appliance that is plugged into the wall.

Don't:
#1. Look a girl in the eye, because then they will fall in love and you'll be in big trouble. It is culture for a man to exchange eye contact when he's interested in a girl. There are some schools here where the guys and girls are not allowed to speak / have relationships otherwise they can get suspended from school.
(this was explained by the bosses as they've had issues with past interns and this issue) 
#2. Drink tap water
#3. Eat/Drink from dirty street vendors
#4 Expect a lot of personal space or free space - that's what we learned in culture training.

I don't have many pictures for you guys, sorry~ I'll grab a bunch on Wednesday and put them up for you. I'm heading out on Friday for our project trip. We're heading to Patna for 1.5 weeks and we won't have internet so I'll try to keep you all updated before then and when I return. Our job tasks will be within the first week to survey the sites (since we have two, it'll probably take a full day) then. The survey will be done with very primitive tools, such as a few tape measures, a compass, and a telescope level to judge topology. We did a practice run of using these instruments and the telescope is extremely sensitive and hard to use. We'll then be dealing with the clients and trying to see what they are trying to accomplish with the site and then work out a master plan with them. The project then comes back to the office where we'll be drafting and creating a report for the final steps of the schematic design stage. Although I'm making this sound simple, it'll probably take a while. I'm also cutting it short because the lights / power in the building just went out and I'm assuming that my computer is now in the danger zone.

Thanks for all the emails and updates on your end as well. Glad to hear that you're all doing well! =) God bless.

-J

Thursday, February 3, 2011

A day in the life of India

We just finished up orientation and are now onto doing some work in the office. I thought I'd outline what a typical day would be so that you can understand a bit more about what I'm doing here.

In the morning I wake up due to the sun. I usually use my phone for an alarm and also a sense of time, but as I don't have a phone right now, I wake up usually at 7 thinking I've over slept and am late for work. Then, I get out of the cold bed since the temperature is roughly 0-10 degrees right now and the houses do not have any central heating. That means we get warmth from blankets, bottles of boiled water and sometimes the Bukari - furnace. Needless to say, I've caught a cold since I'm not used to this weather and I've learned now that I should be wearing my winter coat 24/7 and especially in the office, to keep myself warm. After waking up, I change into clothes that have been sitting in the cold over night and are what we call refrigerated. I enjoy some exercise with walking about 5-20 minutes up the steep mountain - the time varies depending on which path I take and how much I want to be out of breath by the time I get to the office. Once at the office I take about 30 minutes to 1 hr to catch my breath since the air is very thin up here.

Office time starts at 8:30am and I usually get in about 7:00-7:30 depending on when I wake up. We start the morning off with singing worship songs in both English and Hindi and then take turns leading the devotional studies / bible studies of the day. After that we get onto doing work and/or other important things as a regular office would operate. The tasks that Stephen and I have been given so far is to update/create a more formal office standard that new staff and interns will be able to follow in order to understand the office better. This will be until next Friday when we are to leave for our project trip to Bihar. There are two sites we'll be working with. One is 700sqft and the other is 1.7 acres. The project trip will be for a few weeks and once we get back we have 3 months to finish both projects. The office is made up of both Architects and Engineers, 10 people total.

12:30pm. My favorite time of the day =) Lunch is prepared by one of the woman that lives in the area. Every lunch she makes an amazing Indian dish. I had only eaten Indian food twice in Canada, and it was okay there. It doesn't really compare to here. We're taught not to say "I love that dish" or having favoritism over a specific type of Indian food otherwise the cook will only make that one dish and it may not even be that good. When these situations come up, the boss man gets very angry.

6:30pm. My other favorite time of the day - dinner time! We have a wide variety of different dishes for dinner going from lasagna to various Indian foods to chow mien. Usually the office hours end around dinner time and then we eat dinner together and after that we can do whatever we want. So far the interns haven't had much time to explore the area too much and so after 6:30pm we usually just stay in the office to use the internet. The office is one of the only buildings in the area with wireless. Unfortunately the wireless is dependent on the electricity supply and the electricity is very unstable and can send surges of anywhere from 100v to 400v and destroy equipment that is not able to handle those surges. Each desk has voltage stabilizers which keep the voltage at a consistent rate but still the power dies for long periods of time. So far this has been the routine of the day with the guys walking back to our dorms at about 10 to sleep. It'll definitely get more exciting as of next Friday when the real work begins =) I'm excited to see what's going to happen and how traveling on dirty trains, surverying and dealing with the Indian clients are going to be like. Hope you're all well and I miss you all!

Monday, January 31, 2011

Home Sweet Home

We arrived back from our trip on the Saturday evening after two long days of travel and exhaustion. We basically were sent into the city to learn about the culture and to understand better how everything works in India. Luckily for us, Anni was with us who was living in Mussoorie and traveled around India for a while. Thus, she understood a lot more about how to get around and how to not get scammed.

From the get go, we left and walked around to the taxi stop which was an easy 30 minute walk down the mountain from where we work. Upon arriving, we were swarmed by taxi drivers wanting our business, noticing that we're foreigners and charging us triple the amount. Anni bargained it down to 80 rupees which was still double the amount that we were supposed to pay, and that was our first encounter with being scammed. We then worked our way to the bus stop and got onto a bus, which has fixed prices and that was okay. However, Indian people from the mountain areas can not handle transportation and motion well at all. This created a huge issue as people were sticking their heads out the window and letting their lunch fly free from the bus. With their elbows hitting you in the head and liquid flying through the air outside the bus, it created a fun experience for all of us who were not expecting this turn of events.

The essential task of traveling to the city was to develop an understanding of the religious customs of the people as we ventured towards the Ganges river. We arrived to see people bathing in it, idols and statues surrounding the entire area and a 3-5 storey statue of Shiva guarding the area. We approached closer to observe (as it was one of our tasks) and spoke to people who were placing ashes of deceased loved ones into the water and others who were bathing in the water on the opposite side. To be honest, the water was not as I imagined it to be. The surrounding area was completely paved and well maintained, and the water actually looked clean. If I hadn't known any better, I would have assumed that the water was clean and touched it myself. The following day, it was actually within our to do list that we stick at least our toe into the water. Mm, it was pretty gross. What is more gross, is that we were actually given chai (amazing indian tea) from a man who had been working in that area for 43 years. . .from what I imagine, the water he used actually came from that river, but I don't really want to think about that since it would have been rude and offensive to not drink it. The water was boiled and placed through a filter (although, who knows when and how that filter had been washed). Yup, it was a pretty hectic and stressful trip as we were surrounded by beggars and scammed for most of the trip. It definitely gave me a different perspective of India since my original impression of India was in the mountains, with less people, more monkeys and in a clean area. It's definitely great to be back "home" and being able to relax a bit more before going out into the other city areas for our project trips.

I'm still finishing up with the orientation of culture and office etiquette in India, so I have not yet started the work. I will be traveling to the project site in February, so please pray that I will be able to put my skills to the best use and that everything will go well with the projects. From what I understand so far, we are to build a 7 storey building on a 700 sq ft plot of land. The other project is 1.7acres and I'm not sure what we're doing with that building yet. I will continue to update you all on the things we do and post pictures for you to see what I've been up to. The trip definitely had great views and we took lots of photos, so I will link you once I get them from our photographer. Miss you all!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

 Yes, we do have settlers here =)
 The Furnace - our source of life energy
 View from the guys dorm
 THE FOOD IS AMAZING!!!!!
Our kids =)

Going on a 2 day trip starting in a few hours. We're heading off to two of the cities (just the 4 interns) and we're going to spend the night in one of them. We have some tasks that we have to accomplish so it's going to be like a scavenger hunt sorta thing going on. I'll update you all again after that. I won't have internet access or anything so I'll see you in a few days. I should have a cellphone by the time I come back. Cheers~

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Arrived at Destination point!

 The "Line" onto the Airplane heading for India.
 Upon Arrival at the Airport in India
 Taxis outside of the India Airport

The flight to India was pretty good, we were switched to the continental airlines since United canceled our flights. There were over 100 movies available to watch. Likewise with the tv shows that they had available. When we arrived, we searched for our bags for approximately 30 minutes. After they didn't come out, we went to baggage claim to ask them to check out our baggage. We were told to speak to the flight attendants, who in turn told us to go back to baggage claim and speak to them. After another 30 minutes of going back and forth and also checking other baggage isles someone at the baggage claim told us that they could help. We found Stephen's guitar but apparently my bag is missing. All the clothes and water filtration systems I was supposed to bring, alongside my contacts and some food was found to be still in Chicago. So they said they would grab my stuff and send it straight to Mussoorie by tonight - 12am. 

Now for the ride. It was crazy with an accident and thus causing grid-lock. How do you bypass a grid-lock? You drive on the other side of the road of course! =) The place we arrived at though is awesome. Great toilet facilities! Huge amount of property and a great view for the office. Since we arrived at 7am, our morning exercise was chopping wood and of course it was my first time cutting wood. After doing that, I was rewarded with an office space on the loft area of the building. The engineers were placed downstairs and the architects up here. It's pretty cool being up here but the windows for the great views are down there. 





Sunday, January 23, 2011

The Family


Allow me to introduce you to the EMI Family of interns 2011 Spring.

Flights

At the Newark Airport right now. Our connecting flight got canceled at Chicago so we weren't able to do anything. UA Airlines wouldn't switch our flights at first so we had to walk around the airport from one wing to the other and all the way back to get the flights changed to continental. =) That was a great flight here. So far Lauren and I have slept straight through both flights. Stephen slept for a small portion of the flights. One more to go - the 14 hour flight to Delhi, and then a 4 hour train ride to Mussoorie and then a 1 hr car ride to the main campus!

To all the interns: Hope all your flights and travels to the offices go well! Miss you all and we'll see each other again for sure! God bless and best of luck with your projects!

End of Orientation

I'm about to fly out to India in an hour. Thought I'd update you all on what we've been doing. There was a lot of training this week and the main focuses were on strengths, personalities, spiritual gifts and poverty. It's been pretty sweet getting to know the interns here. In just 1 week we have become family with everyone, not excluding anyone. Each meal we'd make an effort to sit with new people and continuously strive to get to know each other. It's been a real blessing learning, encouraging, and now serving with all of these great people. We learned everyone's name in the first day and then got to know each person more in depth soon after. It definitely does not feel like we've only known each other for one week, instead it feels like it's been years since we've known each other and I'm sure we will continue to know each other better for many years to come.

Funny story of the week:
My room has 4 beds in it, to which myself and 3 other awesome room mates crash at night. My bed is significantly closer to the bed next to me due to lack of space in the room. Paul, aka ninja, sleeps next to me and unbeknown to me at the time, he sleep talks and can hold a good conversation in his sleep. At roughly 2am, when I'm dead tired, he sits up in his bed, grabs my ipod and the conversation goes something like this:
P: "Hey.................Hey!....What's this?" as he points at my ipod on my bed since I was listening to music.
J: "It's an Ipod"
P: "A what?"
J: "an ipod......................."
P: "Oh! can I have it?"
J: "sure. take it! here you go"
P: "Oh! Can I have it?"
J: confused I say "uhh.. yah? I said you can take it.. here just take it"
P: *wakes up from his sleep talking* "OH! SHOOT SORRY!" drops my ipod back on my bed, flips to face the other side and passes out all in 1 second.

yup. he woke me up and I had the biggest headache afterward. and he did it all in his sleep so he didn't even remember the next morning.

Here's some pictures throughout the week of our events and Colorado Springs:




Outside playing Ninja since the rock climbing place was still closed and the owner was late.



Garden of the God's - the alternative to Rock Climbing was hiking.