Hello everyone,
Sorry I haven't written in a while - I mean, really updated you on things. Friends have asked me for updates and guess that it has just been 'life as usual' here, so not much to update on. Or at least, nothing really concrete. But all month many things have been changing, so as I am sitting in the Lima Airport waiting for my flight to Tarapoto, I guess I'll update you on some things.
The first thing is a work. Most employees at EMAPA Huacho don't have very long or permanent contracts - they are often 1 or 3 months in duration (sometimes longer), but this means that at certain times of the year there is a high turnover or a loss in productivity while new contracts get drawn up and signed. So, at the beginning of the month, this is what happened. The 31st of October was a Monday, and then the 1st of November was a national holiday, so the beginning of the week was pretty slow (and relaxing too, we went to the movies on our day off!). But then the rest of the week was chaotic as people moved offices, or departments, or came back to EMAPA to try to negotiate their contracts, or ask for an extension.... Juan Candia, who I am working with, received quite a nice promotion: he moved from being the head of the project planning section to the manager of the entire engineering department responsible for project planning, execution, and follow-up (and the person who used to be in that role took his old role). With this new position came a new office for him, so we are no longer working side by side in the office. And rumours spread pretty quickly around the company, so by lunch I had been approached by quite a few people saying that I would no longer be working with him and that I would now be working with the new head of my section - WRONG. They all jumped to this conclusion without even knowing that Juan and I had already talked about it, and that I would continue to support him and work with all of the different departments: still completing environmental assessments for the project planning team (as well as a few other documents that they require), but now I am also focusing on the project management for the entire department, quite a big task!
So work has changed quite a bit for me - I am enjoying it because I am getting to sharpen more skills and work on different aspects of the company (learning more about the management of things), but Juan is now so busy that oftentimes we don't get to chat for a few hours or an entire day or two, so when I have questions as to if I am on the right track or if he would like me to change things, he is not always available. But I keep myself busy. The main thing that I am working on is our 5-year plan. Every 5 years EMAPA Huacho writes up a new 5-year plan with goals and objectives for the years to come, and our current plan is up in February 2012, so we are currently working on identifying all of the new construction projects we plan to complete in the next five years and which parts of the network will need to be updated. Only problem is, no one seems to have a copy of the last 5-year plan, so it is kind of hard for me to do all of this alone - but when I do get a chance to talk to Juan, we can work things through and bounce ideas off each other, and since he is new to this role it is nice to be learning together and to be able to share ideas and talk about things. New challenges, but new opportunities for personal growth.
Another major change that has come is at home. When I arrived in Peru Liliana, the lady with whom I am living, had recently been separated. Her and Victor have a 10-year old son, Alvarro, who lives with us. But now it looks as though Victor might be coming back to live with us (or at least he has been spending a lot more time at the house), and the family is even talking about moving to Arequipa (which is quite a ways south of here) - Liliana said it wouldn't be for at least one year, but still - lots of changes at home. A bit of uncertainty, but I still have an amazing relationship with her, even though I don't see her as much. But that's okay. I've been busy with work, applying for jobs/grad school, going to the gym, seeing friends, etc.... So right now, everything is okay.
Oh yes - I almost forgot to mention that they are redoing the two streets on either side of our house. The work has been going on for about a month, and they have finished redoing the sidewalks and leveling the ground to put in asphalt, so hopefully that will be done soon, because there has been SO MUCH DUST! I live in a desert, so when the roads is not paved it's a combination of dust/sand. I've gotten used to it for the most part, but the excess amount that the construction has created has been crazy. So it will be nice when that is over.
This just goes to show that when you think you are settled in and finally accustomed to the rhythm of things... everything changes! Change is good though :)
I have to run to catch my flight to Tarapoto, but I promise to write again soon because I have been moving around quite a bit this month (to Lima twice and now to Tarapoto, to go visit the jungle/rainforest part of Peru for a week).
Hope you're all having a great weekend!
Sheila
No comments:
Post a Comment