Uneventful update

Despite the extreme busyness of the last 10 days, I find myself with very little to post to entertain or inform you all of what's been going on.  Suffice it to say that the first weekend we were here, we went to church and rested up.  Last Monday through Friday, we worked appx. 7:30 AM until 10:30 PM each day.  We usually took a 30 minute lunch break, but the rest of the day was filled with running errands, setting up the site, cleaning, doing paperwork, or other miscellaneous tasks. 

My specific responsibilities have included a handful of time consuming efforts, but I tend to enjoy each of them quite a bit. 
1) I have to call the leaders of the youth groups that are coming to stay with us.  I usually call 2 or 3 weeks out, so I have already made great progress on the first two week's groups. 
2) I have done my first Friday paperwork day.  This includes quite detailed finance work, inventories of supplies, check ins with my staff and supervisor, and numerous other reports that I will send in every week.
3) Setting up the physical building has taken quite a bit of time.  We have had to move things, decorate, buy new stuff, organize, and do continual cleaning and upkeep on the facility
4) Shopping seems to need to be extremely often.  Luckily we have a walmart, sams club, and home depot around.  Unfortunately, the more times we go shopping: a) We waste more time and gas, b) It makes finances a headache for me, and c) it takes away from time to do things on site

Driving
The only fun stories I have are all about trying to learn how to drive in Puerto Rico.  It has been an adventure.  I am the most comfortable with driving in our group (and I am also most comfortable when I drive :-)  While there is not total and complete disregard for driving laws here as there are in some countries, there is a very particular style.  Here are the rules we know so far.

1) Never use your blinker unless it's a joke and is actually signaling when you have no intention to turn, or actually plan on turning the other way.
2) At stoplights, every lane is a left turn lane, a lane to go straigh from, or a right turn lane.  I have seen people turn left from a right turn only lane.  The turned across two lanes for going straight, and into the left only line of traffic.
3) You are not tailgating unless your car is physically touching the car ahead of you
4) You are not allowed to have all brake lights working at any one point in time
5) Emergency vehicles always have their lights on, and you do not need to yield to them if they don't have their siren on
6) Angry pedestrians enjoy walking out in front of you during the 8 second green light instead of the 5 minute red light waiting period.  They glare at you and throw their arms all through the air yelling incoherently.
7) Potholes line all the roads, and hitting them at speeds over 7 m.p.h. has similar effects to the vehicle as setting off a small bomb under it.
8) Drivers Ed in puerto rico must teach that if you honk long enough, you will eventually get whatever you want with the traffic
9) There is no such thing as "yielding"
10) Upon coming to a red light, it is perfectly acceptable to inch your way at least 50% of the way through the intersection, provided you do it slowly.  This has been shown to reduce commute times by up to 3/4 of a second
11) The shoulder of the interstate doubles as a convenient parking space.
12) Road signs for interstate exits are usually not put up in advance of the exit they mark, meaning you usually get about 4 seconds notice that you have to change 3 lanes and slow down from 60 m.p.h. to 20 m.p.h.
13) If you stop for directions somewhere, be ready to get completely wrong directions.  If someone doesn't know an answer to your question, culture dictates that it is more polite to make something up than to tell them you don't know.  We have been "perdidos bien feos", or very ugly lost a number of times making us up to an hour late for appointments.


We have to pay for what!?
-we got a $15 parking ticket this past week.  It said that we could pay it online to save time.  Thinking that was a good idea, I decided to pay it online.  I couldn't stop laughing after I read that we would be charged the original $15 for the ticket, as well as "a $3 convenience fee".  I want to start charging that wherever I go.
-While at Mcdonalds, Nanda did not get the mayonaise on her sandwich that it was supposed to come with.  She asked at the counter for some packets.  They instead gave her a lid to a cup filled with mayo and charged her 27 cents.


sorry for the short, odd blog.  I anticipate that I will have more stories/fun stuff once participants start coming on the trips.  Our first week begins June 19.

Prayer Requests:
- For healt/recovery/good medical reports for my grandparents and dad in the midst of a few sudden changes
- For stephanie and I as we try to figure out what our relationship looks like for the summer with minimal contact
-For energy and perserverance in all the work that still has to be done at our site
-For patience and good relationships to continue with team members.