First of all, sorry I haven't written for awhile. There have been so many things I've wanted to share along the way, and so little time to write about them. However, I know I can't give a minute by minute account if I want any sleep tonight (which I most definitely do!), so I'm gonna go ahead and hit the highlights by topic. We're gonna begin with work since that's been keeping me rather ridiculously busy over the past week.
I think I mentioned the online network that I was assigned to work on when I first got here. That's still rolling along, but on top of that I've been given a new task, one which I've been very happy to work on. Last Friday, when our intern went to get his wisdom teeth taken out, I was asked to take over drawing plans for a new collection of houses in a place named Bolombolo. It's a government sponsored project out in the countryside and the program is for 150 small homes. In addition to the homes, we're planning on also providing ample public space and new access corridors. However, the site that has been purchased for the project happens to be an incredibly steep hill with only a small portion at a slightly less inclined slope. Just the kind of puzzle I love! Add to the difficult site the fact that the government has only supplied money for the houses, and not for any of the related infrastructure, and you've got yourself into a nice little pickle.
To make a long story short, I spent all day Friday, some of Sunday and most of Monday rearranging rectangles and playing around with my 3D terrain in SketchUp until I came up with something that seemed to work. Wrapping up the drawings about 20mins before the project managers arrived, I presented my design (after a fairly extend discussion about what it's like to go to school at Taliesin). I received an incredibly warm response to my design, was asked to make a few small changes, and have been invited to travel out to the site next Wednesday. Woohoo!!
On Tuesday, I had to postpone work on my revisions to go participate in an international convention focusing on the Masterplan for Medellin up through 2030. Aw, shucks! =P I quite happily sat through 7hrs of presentations both yesterday and today while experts from Colombia, Mexico, France and Spain laid out all the various factors that affect the development of a city and basically told me everything I could ever want to know about the economic, demographic, physical and social make up of the city. What an introduction! At the end of each presentation, there was also a portion dedicated to explaining what the current proposal for the Masterplan is according to the researchers in each group. Questions and discussion would follow. Tomorrow and Friday are dedicated to workshops in which the attending parties will hash out the specifics and weave together the diverse elements that have heretofore been presented seperately. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to miss much of tomorrow's session and some of Friday's in order to keep my other projects rolling, but I'm incredibly happy to have had the opportunity to participate up to this point.
One other thing I just have to talk about because I am so enormously impressed...since half the audience was French speaking, and half Spanish, they had a simultaneous translator for the entire convention. Wow. I don't know how those guys do it, but I have a lot of admiration for anyone who can manage to listen in one language and speak in a different one AT THE SAME TIME! I can't even repeat what someone is saying to me in my own language while they're talking.
In any case, I've been having a great time and am so amazed at the opportunities I've managed to plunk myself down in the middle of! Oh, and the icing on the cake? I met a woman today who built her house out of rammed earth, right here in Medellin! She offered to show me sometime soon and also mentioned she knows the head of one of the universities here who specializes in earthen construction...
Feeling like a very lucky lady at the moment!
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