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!