Dear Friends and Faimly,

I got back from Haiti safely! Praise the Lord! The project went very well and I think the design we have given the ministry there will meet their needs well. Im still a bit overwhelmed by haiti and it is going to take me a long time to process it all. Unfortunalty on our rough trip back from Gonaive I got dengue fever (at least thats what the doctor here in C.R. thinks). Im feeling a bit better today but I'll be out of commision for another week or so. Thankfull the type I contracted is the least problematic. I would appricate your prayers about it though. If Im feeling better tomorrow Ill start telling the story of haiti.

Buenos Dias!!

It is yo Nico, on the eve of the next step in the adventure. Tomorrow evening I will be in Haiti for the project I’ve spent the last month/multiple years preparing for. I will leave Costa Rica early tomorrow morning and fly to. . . Miami hooray! And meet up with the other members of the project team. Then fly to Port Au Prince. From there we drive north along the coast four hours to the city of Gonaives. With a population around half a million it’s a busy place. I learned yesterday that 40% of the population there are 18yrs old or younger. This is significant when considering the scope of the ministry we will be working with and designing a retreat center for. Maula Jean Marie and his family are native Haitians and are missionaries with Youth With A Mission (YWAM), which operates in over 140 countries around the world. WYAM generally facilitates short-term mission trips to expose youth to need around the world through service trips. They also do discipleship training for nationals and assist the local church. The massive youth population in Gonaives suffers from intense poverty resulting in a staggering depression and lack of hope. The vision that the Lord has given Maula is to respond to that depression and develop a retreat center facility to better minister to the youth of the city. I am very anxious to meet him and better understand his hopes and dreams for this ministry. I think the potential is incredible. He has asked eMi to design a master plan with several stages of development. Our primary objective is a dormitory to house youth. Also we are developing a design for a large multipurpose building and kitchen. Our team includes structural, civil, electrical and water resources engineers, as well as a couple architects (like me) from several different countries (Canada, Haiti, Trinidad) besides the US. The week we will be on site will be intense. Our goal is to develop a site survey, collect water and soil test data, design a master plan, as well as build relationships with community that this building will ultimately serve. At the end of the week we present our design to the ministry and pray that it meets their needs sufficiently. Then we take the data and master plan back to Costa Rica and spend the next couple months developing construction documents to build from.

I’m getting so excited just thinking about it. The great thing about his project for me is that it will ultimately be for Haitians, not just a place for mission groups from the US to come down for a week or two and leave. Those trips are important don’t get me wrong. The reason I’m here has a lot to do with the two week trip I took to Ecuador in high school. But Maula understands the culture and its youth and has a big heart to give them hope. Im really thankful to all of you who support me so together we can support this man and his family better love as Christ would. Every year millions of dollar of aid is sent to Haiti, which is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. However it has very little impact due to corruption. That’s why I think a grass roots project like this one has great potential because it’s ultimately Haitians ministering to Haitians, particularly the next generation of country.

On a different note I think it is important to understand the intense spiritual climate of the culture in Haiti. The impact of Voodoo cannot be understated. I know several people who have been to Haiti and felt the spiritual oppression in their souls. Voodoo is satanic, and is the official state religion. It affects class structure, politics (leaders consult mediums), the church, (which either assimilates voodoo ritual or is persecuted by it). I’m sort of nervous. Not worried because I know that the God I serve will protect us, but it will be a challenge we must prepare for. I know that this is not the most comfortable thing to talk about in a blog, but it is real. C.S. Lewis wrote that the greatest lie the devil ever told was to convince people he did not exist. I know he exists and he loves to stop people (like me) from doing the will of God. So if you could pray with me about that I would appreciate it.

On a lighter note from what I understand of Haitian people, most are very warm. They speak Creole so all the Spanish I’ve been learning wont help so much. I’m going to have to remember French from 8^th grade. Children are children everywhere and I hope I get the chance to put down AutoCAD and play. We are taking several musical instruments like me harmonicas and I can’t wait to play music. We will be living all 14 guys in tight quarters in the home of our hosts. I’m glad I brought two sets of earplugs: one for my ears, and one for my nose. I’m packing pretty light because we have a whole lot of survey equipment/design supplies to take. This is going to be a whole lot like camping.

As I look back over the last couple years I really feel like the Lord has been preparing me in advance for this. For example I don’t think that it’s an accident that my thesis for architecture was a retreat center and I am now going to be designing one. I still remember some three years ago praying about why I was in architecture school when it seemed like the only work I would do was build big homes for rich people that didn’t need them. Not a week after praying my friend Amy told me about eMi and now I’m here in Costa Rica living it. I really think I understand what David was talking about in the Psalms when he wrote, “delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you desires of your heart.” I’m kind of overwhelmed. I know even before I get on that plane tomorrow that the Lord designed me for this. He put this desire in me to use my ability/joy to be an architect to serve people. And better yet this is only the beginning. I just have to keep being obedient and delighting in him and this sort of thing will keep happening in my life. I know it is rarely easy to do something good but I’d rather struggle knowing im in the right place then be confortable and be totally lost. Thank you Jesus, “I was lost but now I’m found was blind but know I see.” You made me for this.

In that spirit I have several prayer concerns that I would appreciate you all lifting up to the Lord with me.

-Pray for unity within our team, that the Lord would encourage our fellowship as we work to his glory.

-That the Lord would give me a servants heart and see/meet the needs of others.

-For safety and protection while traveling and working.

-For strength against evil

-For understanding the needs of the ministry and meeting them in our design.

-For the ministry and its effectiveness in this community

-For the lord to break my heart by poverty and give me a vision of how to better love the poor through out my life.

-For the health of all of us (I’ve been sick a few days but am better know)

-That in our work, play, words, and actions we would love like Jesus

Thank you all so much for helping me get here and I’ll do my best to keep you all updated. I’m not sure what the Internet situation over there will be. Today Tim (my project leader) said that the ministry has Internet but doesn’t always have electricity. (That the developing 3^rd world for you) So you all may have to wait to hear from me until I get back to Costa Rica.

Adios!

Mas arriba y mas en.

nick, ben, avery, christy :interns

Hola !!! Amigos y familia cerca y lejos

It is Yo, Nicholas who has neglecting his blog duties. So a whole lot has happened in the last several weeks and ill do a brief synopsis and then go into some details. Our story pics up where it last left off. Our hero was recounting his time in an airport on the verge of a grand new adventure when . . . that adventure started and he has been incredibly busy living it. Primero Colorado for Orientation for a week, etonces a flight to Costa Rica (loss of cell phone), move in with a host familia the Guzemans, one week of orientation (getting to know Atenas, and eMi Latina staff and families), two weeks of language school which I am currently finishing this week….

So that’s it. But thankfully for you there is a whole lot more. So back to the beginning.

I spent several days in Denver with my dear friend Shelby and her novio* Chris. Denver is a pretty great city and I could defiantly see myself living there some day.

-(Orient)ation (Jody I can’t say it wrong anymore thanks)

hiking with friend Brice

On the sixteenth of August in the Year of Our Lord 2009 I was taken to orientation for eMi in a secluded retreat center northeast of Colorado Springs. I was several hours earlier than everyone else so I made my first watercolor of the trip, (view of Pikes Peek) and officially became a geek about something other than bikes. Gradually all the Nuevo interns came in and we started all those wonderfully awkward get to games and questions which turned out to be quite entertaining. As a group we were all very different but all with the same heart to use our God directed abilities to serve a world of need. The following week we were exposed to so much. The eMi staff shared with us about their lives and experiences living and working in other countries. Much of the week was focused on preparing us for cultural differences. We learned a great deal about how to humbly live in someone else’s country. As Americans we can be very American and misunderstand much about other cultures, being down right offensive. It is pretty hard to love someone if your manners are bad. We interns participated in incredible role-playing games. Each group would have to act out a particular culture and interact with other groups with different cultural traits. Conflict would inevitably ensue and we would discuss how we didn’t get along. Really interesting stuff.

Another aspect of the orientation was getting to know each other. We went on trips everyday to rock climb, hike, play ultimate, and just hang out and hear about how the Lord had led us all to this place and time. At moments I would sit back and take it all in at it is all quite overwhelming.

* Novio(a) means boyfriend/girlfriend sort of. Basically your almost engaged to your Novia. An Amiga is closer to the American definition but is different as well. Often it refers to a friend you can kiss. Depends who you ask. I was asked if I wanted a Novia in Costa Rica? My default answer when I didn’t know something was Si, which is problematic. Nuria gave me a raised eyebrow of disapproval at my unknowing answer and then laughed at me as I stumbled to understand.

Each one of these unique people traveling all over the world, being involved over the next few month (for some years) in meeting real needs in the world with love inspired by Jesus. This is such an awesome thing to be a part of. I made some really good friends in a short period of time and then said good-bye to them. Thankfully the specific team I’m a part is wonderful. Christy, Avery, Ben, and I have also become fast friends and over the coming months you will here more about them. Christy is an engineer from Texas, Avery is a civil engineer also from Texas, and Ben is a structural engineer from Atlanta. Thankfully two of the three staff guys in the office here in Atenas are los architectos so my le Corbusier jokes might find some company. Anywho we are all getting to know each other well and I’m excited to see us all grow closer.

-Atenas Orientation

Week Uno

The flight to Costa Rica was uneventful except for loosing in uno multiple times, and loosing my cell phone, other than that we all frantically studies Spanish and pondered the great unknowns of our future. Arriving late into the areopuerta we were greeted by Tom, Dan, and Tim and two of Tom’s kids and spent our first night sweating with anticipation, but mostly humidity.

The following day we got to know our lovely town Atenas: a busy little town on the main rd to the beaches from San Jose the capital. We sat in the parque central cerca la ingesia catholica and people watched, observing them observing us. Thankfully Atenas has its fair share of gringos so most people just ignore you. But if you engage them they are all very warm and friendly. They will slow their Spanish for you or speak just as fast but multiply the volume. I smile and nod a lot. A smile gets you a long way in Costa Rica. Atenas was considered back in 1994 to have the best clima in el mundo. So on most signs there is either that claim or the motto of Costa Rica Pura Vida (pure life). In the entire world, Costa Ricans or Ticos as they refer to themselves, are considered the happiest. The United States ranks 70^th . I hope to find the secrete of their happiness while I am here.

That evening I was nervously introduced (I confess I was a little scared) to my host family. My Spanish was pretty poor but we made since of each other and shared family photographs. Central to culture here is familia. It is rare for young adults who are unmarried to leave home until they are. I’m saying this partly so mom and dad wont kick me out just kidding. At the dinner table I get a lot of questions about my family back home. Also I have to learn that I am part of a familia here now. During our first week I forgot to let Nuria mi Tico Madre what time I would be home from a dinner with staff. When I got home she was so worried about me. It took me a while to understand that but I wrote as sincere an apology as I could and awkwardly recited it to her and all was forgiven with a hug. Freedom is our middle name in Estados Unidos; here you must be willing to sacrifice your freedoms rights for your family. After our hug Nurria said I was like a hijo (son) to her. Even after less than a week.

Nuria works at home as a hairdresser and commander of the house. Her husband Marvin works at the areopuerto at night as a manager of immigration. They have three ninos, Wendol who is 20 and applying to Universidad, Augusto who is 17 and very funny like David my brother, and Antonnela who is 12 and is very friendly. There is also a Japanese gal Mesumi who is staying with them and working for an organic farm. She helps me a lot with Spanish every day.

Marvin and Nuria my host parents. Marvin doesn't typically ware this outfit. He is the drum major for a band that participated in the parade for La Indepencia de Costa Rica

mi case de atenas

They live in an average size house for this town with four bedrooms (the family happily shares two so Mesumi and I have our own). We all share one bathroom, which is divided into two rooms. There is a back yard with all kinds of edibles like la chuga, tomate, maiz, squash (I don’t know the nombre en espanol) and all kinds of flowers around the house. If you plant it, it will most likely grow. However, this is supposed to be the rainy season, but we haven’t had much rain, which is muy mal. Even in Costa Rica where everything is green there can be water shortages. Please pray for rain if you can. As a familia we all laugh a lot. It is such a blessing to come home to laughter. I rarely know what the joke is unless it is about me (which is often*) but I laugh anyway. On the weekends so far we have traveled a bit to visit relatives in neighboring towns. I’m sort of a big deal, (joke) so they introduce me to lots of people. The casa de Guzman is a short five min. walk from my office cerca de centro of town.

Please feel free to ask me more questions as you pinsas (to think) of them.

-La oficina de eMi (pronounced “amy” in Espanol this was really confusing)

I haven’t done much work as of yet but I have a nice desk space and a solid computidora on which to use AutoCAD hooray! The building is very cool being in the basement, which is a blessing considering how hot it can get. We have a dress code, which is similar to Ticos. They dress very well and are pristinely groomed. Nuria asks me at the beginning of each week what shirts and pants I will ware to work and irons them for me. I must say I look quite dapper each day. Everyday for lunch we go to a different place in town and practice our ordering abilities and expand our palettes. On Fridays we only speak Spanish which muy dificil pero I will learn much because of it. I give you all more about la oficina en later entries.

So the first week was getting to know the surroundings. Living with a family is dificil in many ways but I am learning to love it, and love them.

Week Dos/Tres

spanish class at our teachers house muy rico.

-La esquela de idioma. . . muy dificil

Since I have had very little disciplined study of Spanish since my Nuevo Mexico days having a daily Spanish class is great. Unfortunately I had my quarterly migraine and had to miss the first day but since then my ability to understand and speak has gotten much better. . . well at least I know the grammar rules better.

The school is located in Atenas at the home of a family from the US who moved down here a couple years ago and teamed up with a local woman who had a school. The first day/second for me we had an assessment test and then they tailor a curriculum to where you are. Class was typically four hours long with a snack break in the middle. After class we all would go on adventures different destinations around Atenas. Our first trip was cascades with places to swim. Es muy rico. There were some great places to swim, rock climb, and a deep pool to jump into. It was pretty nice to get out of the heat of Atenas for an afternoon. We also went to the centro marcado (central market) to practice Spanish and learn a whole lot of food vocabulary. I was nervous at first but if you try people there are helpful. They tolerate gringos very well.

The dad Rob rides bikes a whole lot. I found a kindred spirit! Next week he is going to take me riding. There are some good trails around Atenas. Just riding the dirt roads around here are at times as good as single track. Plus there are beautiful views every were you go here. There are a fair bit of cyclist both rd. and mt. around on the weekends. There are some sick climbs to suffer on.

So you may be wondering Nick this is all great. Sounds like your having a lot of fun. But what are you doing in Costa Rica? That’s a really good question thanks for asking. I ask myself that a lot. The first rule of doing any cross-cultural is to get to know the culture. Live it. You cannot hope to have any impact let alone get along with people until you can understand them. My American* bias says I’m unsuccessful if I don’t accomplish some agenda ahora (now) or hoy (today). Here success is measured in relationships.

*Technically speaking all North and South Americans are “Americans” a fact I was told by a man from Ecuador on my first trip there back in 2004. We just think we own it.

I’ve started to get to know one of the hoviens (unmarried/young adult) Diego who teaches bible study to younger hoviens and we have become friends. He just finished community college and is a couple years younger than me. He likes to practice English and helps me with my Spanish. I’m excited to see how it develops.

My Tico familia ask a lot of questions about el Estadios Unidos. Most of their perceptions of us comes from television unfortunately. So they are excited to get the real scoop. Marvin has asked a lot about politics, what I think of Obama? Universal health care, etc. My political vocabulary is small but we can understand each other fairly well. Costa Rica has no problem when it comes to health care. They pay higher taxes comparably then we do for it but they have no military (which they are really proud of) about half of our federal tax dollars goes to the military. For Costa Rica’s independence day, Sep 15^th, there are massive parades of school children that march and play drums and xylophones, (which they practice everyday for several hours). There is one drum beat that is the same as “go tech go” at Virginia Tech. Anyway they are very proud that their children march for the country instead of soldiers.

On the weekends here I’ve had a several adventures. Generally the family stays home on Sunday and has a big lunch together after church (ill share some thoughts about church down here later). On Saturdays I’ve had opportunities to visit some of the families relatives in Escabal and Alayela. Their entire extended family lives within 2hrs away. I went to the beach with the language school and tried surfing for the first time. I got up once after several hours of getting slammed. It was awesome all five seconds of it before I wiped out. By the time I leave Costa Rica I will be able to surf and count backwards in Spanish. Mark my words. This weekend I went with Christy and Ben to Alayela (the closest city) by bus to watch a movie at the mall. Ticos I’ve noticed love their footware. In the wall there were 10 shoe stores. (woopty do nick) There are only 35 stores in the mall. My friend Ben is tall. He gets cat calls everywhere he goes about it. His shoe size is 13. In all of those 10 stores we found only one 13. Thankfully 12 works and he got a fantastic pair of dress sandals. You can haggal for prices here as well and he got a pretty good deal. I know when I get back Im going to do that a footlocker and get kicked out.

Any who we had some fun. Riding the bus here is fun/cheap and this country is so regal. I need to be careful not to say this is good here and bad elsewhere. Its not good or bad its just different. If I make judgments early on I can build up a perception that can hinder rather than change. It is another easy American thing to do.

So that’s a pretty good overview slash ramble about the first month of the adventure. I have another five days then I’m heading for the project trip in Haiti. I’ll defiantly keep you all more regularly posted.