esta semana...

If you look close enough you will actually see a lake that appears to be smoking. A few weekends ago I went to Volcan Poas. This picture is looking down inside the volcano at the crater. It was a mystic view as we were in the clouds and every so often they would clear to catch a quick glimpse of the crater. I had never seen water that was such an aqua color. Also all the rocks in the crater were of astounding colors too. The picture does not really explain it. I would compare it to seeing the Grand Canyon from above. All you see is canyon and it doesn't seem real. It felt like the view was being projected as everything seemed so flat as your mind couldn't figure the depth.

Apart from my tourist excursion I've resumed salsa dancing two times a week and am looking at possibly volunteering at a recycling center in Alajuela. The dancing is an incredibly good deal at $17-month and I'm getting an education with salsa, meringue, swing, bolero, cumbia.
The recycling center is something new that just started. It is pretty similar to the US however it is very under funded. The biggest problem is that they have to educate people on the importance of recycling. The people are already accustomed to being wasteful and won't change unless they see the benefit. The other issue they have is that they have two centers that they want ppl to take their recyclables to. Without a collection service it is going to be really hard to get ppl to deliver their recyclables. My city has trash collection three times a week so I think ppl will just put everything out at once. Supposedly San Jose has a recycling service and a large waste collection but they only go out once every two months. By then ppl have already gotten rid of their big trash down by the river. Refrigerators, cars, TVs, etc. Everything goes and it is pretty bad considering how the country is known for its beauty. I was talking with someone at work and the one thing she said she liked about the US is that we were strict about keeping the environment clean.

Other than that things have been pretty indifferent the last few weeks. Work has been steady, I am working to help habitat take more of a construction management role in their construction projects. Right now they are the owner and the architect does the drawings and estimates, while habitat contracts with the constructor. In the future habitat wants to take control of the estimate and the procurement of materials and hire out the labor force. Also habitat is going to experiment with 6-8 different house designs that they hope to make standard so they can take control of the drawing process too.

I'm off to Panama to visit friends/family the next couple days, should have more stories to tell come next week...

tuanis

hey everybody!
it has taken a bit getting settled in down here but i am going to dedicate myself more regularly to the blog. i´m still working on getting internet at work and we are close so i should be able to stop using the internet cafe pretty soon.
Anyways i´ve been in Costa Rica now over two weeks and working with Habitat for Humanity. My job is pretty interesting. with my construction background i´ve been placed in a office that deals with the construction of new houses. it is pretty interesting. the houses are nothing special. they range between 42meters squared and 51 meters squared. i haven´t done the conversion to feet yet. They used to be built all with masonry block but now they are going with mostly prefabricated walls and columns. They are doing this mostly because it goes up an lot faster than with brick and is cheaper.

i´ve been visiting a lot of sites lately as there have been international volunteer groups (brigades) that have been helping in the construction. they get all the fun jobs like digging the septic tank and all the holes for the columns, which there are 30 on each house and are about 2.5ft deep each hole. the prefabicated walls are mostly pieces about five feet by 2.5ft and they are positioned between two columns and then sections are stacked one on top of the other to make the wall. the columns are keyed so the panels fit snug and each panel is keyed so they lock together with one another when stacked. the walls are only 2-3in thick.
Pretty simple in all. Biggest difference i have noted is the lack on insulation and no strip footing. Obviously you value engineer some things out so you can build the house for $6,000.

Aside from work, i feel even more at home in Costa Rica than I ever have before. Living in the city has been kind of a change. We have lukewarm shower water and some cable channels and I don´t get rice and beans every meal. I was expecting less but i guess this will do ;) My host father is an artist and does a lot of neat paintings. he is working on illustrations for a book written about the costa rican civil war. they just finished building their new house and it is pretty nice. small and concrete but sufficient. The lot they were on used to be one big lot but they wanted to tear the house down and build two houses. One for my host dad and one for his mother. it was quite an ordeal i guess to get the lot split as the city didn´t want them to do it unless my host dad built both of the houses. i guess the gov was real leary on giving loans to senior citizens and didnt want to give a big loan to my host father to build both houses. Habitat for humanity ended up helping my family out as the bank was not going to loan them the money to build both houses. Long story short we just have to finish up the kitchen and do some painting and the house will be complete.

well that is just a tiny bit on what has been going on down here. next time i write i´ll get more into just how habitat works. they actually do a lot more than what i thought they did.

tuanis,