Cute as a fish (Yes fish are cute :)

Here are some pictures from the swimming time at the orphanage. These kids are so cute and fun! I had to share their adorable faces!

The Lord is definitely blessing our times at the orphanage. Ali and I get to spend half the day there every Thursday, and it has become my favorite day of the week. It truly is so rewarding to work with the kids, something I haven't quite experienced before. So now, I'm brainstorming ways that I can continue to volunteer with kids when I return back to Colorado. My friend Sarah in Boulder volunteered last year with an after school type program at a family-assisted living neighborhood in Boulder. This community also spoke mostly Spanish, so that would be a great place to practice my Spanish too. Anyhow lets hope that I'll have time to volunteer and not get sucked into a crazy working schedule.
Also at the orphanage, Josh and Brad were able to help with the storm draining problems at the orphanage. Josh and Brad were able to do a mini survey of their land and scout out the best solution for the drainage. I know, its cool stuff! :)

Well here are the pictures:

I ate cow tongue- the things a person will do to stay culturally sensitive…and a visit to a finca (farm)…

Since being here in Costa Rica, I have been stretched in many ways. Not in real dramatic ways, but stretching nonetheless. One of those ways being eating meat in general. Before coming down to Costa Rica, I virtually became a vegetarian. This is because I simply don’t like eating meat in general, and I’ve found that my body isn’t too fond of meat. However, just like in many other countries, meat is a main meal item. Here in Costa Rica, a ‘typical meal’ is one with rice, beans, plantains, and of course some sort of meat. So as you can imagine being a vegetarian can become a difficult task, especially when you aren’t able to cook for yourself. My host family loves eating meat, and of course thought it strange that I didn’t. But with my desire to be culturally sensitive, I have learned this means to open my mind and stretch myself in ways I wouldn’t naturally do.

So on Sunday, my host family and I went to my host mom sister’s house located in a very beautiful part of Costa Rica. Their house is gorgeously on top of a big hill surrounded by many green hills/mountains. They also have a pretty spacious farm with many chickens, geese, parrots, corn fields, and many fruit trees. So cool, I loved it. I took tons of pictures and got to hold both of the mini parrots on my hand. They were so beautifully and creatively colored- bright green, orange, blue, and red. They were suprisingly gentle and the two parrotkets were the best of friends. It was so cute to see how attached they were to each other. Anyhow, for lunch the main menu item was cow tongue. At first I thought they were joking, but then realized this was for real. So, since I was already served a plate and everyone else began eating, I decided I had to do it. So there I went from hardly ever eating any meat to eating cow tongue. Something I had never really imagined doing.

There has been several other instances that I have been challenged with making the choice to step down from myself and be culturally sensitive. Another instance was when I was asked to take out the nose ring that I have had for almost four years now. I was asked this because the Christian church here in Atenas that we go to is really conservative in general. And since I live with the pastor and family, they brought it my attention that many people sometimes think that people with piercings and tattoos are assumed to be involved with drugs or have problems with authority. My host family of course knew who I was and knew better than to think this about me, but they wanted to bring it to my attention. So since I am down here to be a servant to the people here, I decided to stay culturally sensitive and take it out. It took a lot for me to not go against the grain of what they were saying and to not attempt to try to change their way of thinking. Through this I am slowly learning to be patient and willing to give up my “rights” as a person for the sake of not causing another brother/sister in Christ to stumble. Also, I’ve realized that we are just so lucky in the US, with so much diversity and acceptance that saving face isn’t completely necessary in light of knowing the truth.

Anyhow, here are some fun pictures from the finca (p.s. I survived from eating the cow tongue ☺)…(As you can tell I love birds!)

While in Costa Rica do as the Ticos do?

These are all peculiar things that I have noticed and pondered since living in Costa Rica.

- Saying “pura vida,” which means “pure life” can be used in response to several situations. When asked how you are doing, “pura vida” is definitely the choice response. When doing something challenging, yelling out “pura vida” seems to create new motivation. This phrase can definitely pass as Costa Rica’s motto.

- The smell of burning sugarcane is a daily scent in the air. There are tons of sugarcane fields here, where the technique of gathering the sugarcane is to burn the field to get rid of all the unwanted greenery and snakes, and when all that is gone, the sugarcane stalk remains. It’s a mystery to me of how the stalk doesn’t burn. As a result of the burning, there are often brunt flakes floating through the air like snowflakes. Oh it’s Christmas in Costa Rica. ☺

- I know this sounds kinda ridiculous, but dang do I miss carpet!! There is just absolutely no carpet to speak of here in Costa Rica. All the floors in houses are laid with ceramic tile or concrete. I haven’t seen carpet in like 5 months, and I never knew I had an appreciation for carpet until now. So now I long to just have the freedom of laying down on nice comfy carpet…

- The typical Costa Rican dish is called a “casado,” which consists of rice, beans, plantains, some sort of “salad” (usually shredded cabbage with carrots drenched in lime juice, there is no such thing as salad dressing here), and either meat, chicken, or fish. It all sounds good until you have it everyday. I really don’t know how much more rice and beans I can handle, but once again this makes me appreciation how lucky I am in the States to have so much variety of food from so many different cultures.

- Another dish that Costa Ricans can’t live without is called “gallo pinto,” which is a mixture of rice and beans stir-fried together. Gallo pinto is the choice food for breakfast. Also never underestimate the versatility of ham, otherwise know as “jamón.” Jamón comes in pizza, with your hamburger, the choice meat for sandwiches, and sometimes comes with a piece of bread for breakfast. Mmmm…but not for a person like me who doesn’t like meat.

- One method of advertising here is to attach a huge speaker system to the top of a truck and drive around town. Multiple times a day, you can hear loud radio advertisements blasting at full volume from a driving car. Must be an effective way of advertising!

- Costa Ricans are called “Ticos” because they often add the verse “tico” to the end of words. For example the word for “a little” in Spanish is “poco,” but in Costa Rica it is “pocotico.” Its actually pretty cute to hear.

- This one was hard to wrap my head around, but there are no street names or building numbers to speak of. Even in the capital city, San Jose. It truly is a wonder how people find their way. Directions are only given by landmarks and distances. So incredibly confusing. However, the two main highways are labeled luckily.

- Lastly I would like to debut the best cookies in Costa Rica, called “Chicky Blak.” Now Chicky Blak is a chocolate cookie similar to Oreos, but is only one-sided and has chocolate frosting. This cookie is great with milk, but is great general. Here is a picture of the wonder.

Project Update

There is now about one month left of my internship with eMi. I have been down here in Central America for about 5 months now. Its funny how much one can learn from being away from home, even from being gone for almost half a year.

Agros Foundation Project
Anyhow, the projects that we started this February in Guatemala have really been coming along. The design work for the project located in Nebaj, Guatemala with the Agros Foundation is just about completed! The development center will be called, “Center Ixll- Agros Foundation.” Our design package includes the master site plan for the overall layout of the buildings on site, the water distribution system, the storm and wastewater design, grading and road design, electrical distribution design for the entire site, and lastly the architectural and structural plans for the carpentry shop. We are also including a design report with everything translated to Spanish.

I have been working on helping with the structural drawings for the buildings. We currently have 5 drawings for the structural plans and 19 drawings total. I have learned a lot about how structural and architectural drawings are put together and what are needed within them. I have also had the opportunity to work on part of the truss design and design of the structural connections within the buildings. Ali has worked countless hours on translating the entire design report and all of the drawings into Spanish. Her Spanish expertise has really helped. Brad and Josh have been working on helping with the grading, road, and electrical designs.

This project should be completed by next week. Since materials have already been ordered, construction is going to start as soon as possible. I am very excited to see the outcome of this center and how it is going to impact and help the local community to come together and learn practical skills.

Casa Bernabe Orphanage
We are also currently working on the design project for the orphanage located in Guatemala City. For this project, we are completing the architectural and structural design for a new school, and a new water distribution system for the orphanage. We are hoping to finish this project as well.

Haiti Orphanage
Besides these two projects, there are also a couple of projects from previous trips that haven’t been completed. One project is for an orphanage located in Haiti. This project is a design for an entire orphanage campus with boy and girl houses, a school, recreation area, a dining hall, and administration buildings. Most of the overall design is completed, but we are working on finishing up the structural and architectural drawings.

Spring of Hope Ministries
Another project has just started near Atitlan Lake in Guatemala, called the Spring of Hope. This ministry is run by Promised Land Ministries, where they work with the locals to provide financial aid for children to get education, to counsel children and parents, to encourage physical, intellectual, and spiritual development in a child, and to train children into a trade. They have started a child sponsorship program called “Plan Padrino,” check out their website at: http://www.plmmissions.org. This ministry has contacted eMi to help them design and build a feeding center (in which they feed one meal/day, five days a week to hundreds of children), a school, a counseling center, and a multipurpose building equipped for medical and dental care. So for this project eMi is going do the overall site layout, water systems, grading, roads, and design for the buildings.

Seriously cheers for eMi!!

(Us interns with two staff members John and Sharon at their going away dinner)
(This is the view from the hill above our office...our office is on the second floor of that blue building in the middle of the picture.)

My parents and lovely sister come for a visit

A couple of weeks ago my parents and my sister came down to Costa Rica to visit me. It was great time to reunite and get a break from working in the office. It was also a wonderful time for our family to come together and spend “quality time” together, which is unfortunately so rare and few. Family togetherness is so important in Latin culture that my time here has really opened my eyes to how independent the American culture really is. For the most part, most Americans have lost sight of how rich and rewarding it is to spend quality time learning and growing together as a family. Living in Latin America where the culture is so “family-centered,” it has almost caused me to go into culture shock, which that in its self proves how personal independence is so deeply ingrained to my way of thinking and living.

Anyhow, I was so excited to see my family and get to travel around Costa Rica a bit. Ali’s parents also came to visit. The first stop was to the town La Fortuna, which is located right next to the famous Volcan Arenal. This volcano has been active for many years now and lava can seen spewing out at times. That first day everyone was pretty tired since they had caught a red eye flight that previous night. So after some resting at the hotel, we all headed to the hot springs. Now these hot springs were incredible, something I’ve never seen, first of all, none of the pools smelled like sulfur, and there were something like 20 different varying temperature pools there. Now that place was the ideal vacation-relaxing place.

The next day we were all able to go on a canopy zip line tour in the rainforest near the volcano. There were a total of 10 zip lines, in which each person had a harness much like the ones used for rock climbing with 3 carabineers. You get attached to the rope by these 3 carabineers and you have a leather glove that you use to slow down on the rope. After getting attached, you are off and ready to fly down the line. It was such an incredible experience! One of the zip lines was 900 meters long and went over two waterfalls. Also, at the top of one of the zip lines, there was an amazing view. To make things even more exciting there was a toucan sitting on top of a tree, and after a few minutes the toucan flew overhead. Which that sight in its self is so amazing to see, since you would think they would have a difficult time flying with such large beaks, but oh they can. Man, is God’s creation breathtaking! I recommend this experience to anyone coming to Costa Rica. Ali even said that it was more fun than skydiving.

After we finished with the zip lines we were able to go horseback riding. Then we got to take a look at their butterfly sanctuary, where there were beautiful blue iridescent butterflies. And to not go on and brag, but there also were poisonous dart frogs next to the sanctuary. It was pretty much an all-inclusive tour of Costa Rica’s finest.


The next day we took off to a beach town called Tamarindo, located in the north-western peninsula of Guanacaste. This was the most “developed’ beach town in the area, but I was surprised at how undeveloped most of Costa Rica really is. In Tamarindo, there were mostly dirt roads expect for one, and it had much of a surf beach town feel, which feels like home to me for some odd reason even though I’ve lived in the land-locked state of Colorado for so long. So, the next day of course Ali, Jen, and I went surfing. Tamarindo has very nice waves with a sand bar bottom, and the beach is very long and wide. During the time we were there the waves were considered “small to medium,” but they were perfect for us.

The next day we were able to go snorkeling at a nearby beach. There were many incredible fishes all around. I loved exploring and just seeing such intricate and colorful fishes that I know God had fun creating. I saw a blowfish that was in a shape of a ball with a blackish color and white poke-a-dots all over. Another fish was like a blowfish but was covered in sharp pointy spikes. He was a funny little creature to swim next to. From just the fishes of the sea and the incredible sunset we got to see that night, I just know that the Lord is a very passionate creative artist. It brings me so much joy to experience his creations.

After leaving Tamarindo, the family and I headed to Atenas, the town I have been living in. That night we had dinner with my host family. It was interesting to see the cross-cultural communication that went down between my parents and my host family. They really seemed to enjoy each other, and by the end my host family dad asked my dad to explain how presidential elections are organized in the US. Thank goodness my host family sister is a great translator. The next morning we attended the church that I have been going to, the service was entirely in Spanish, but my parents were patient and seemed to have enjoyed the experience. It was great to be able to connect part of my world back home to my life here in Costa Rica. I had a wonderful time with my parents and my sister, and I do have to say it was hard to say good-bye.














(A picture of a crazy holler monkey in a tree next to our hotel)

Pictures posted on my google account

Here is the link to where I have posted more pictures : http://picasaweb.google.com/stephdodge11
(I hope you enjoy them:)