I´ve realized that it is really bad when you think about blogging all the time, but never actually do it. As I´m walking down the road (which I do a lot), I think about what I can say or share, but when 10pm comes, I´m just not up for it anymore. Right now it´s 11:15 and I don´t know how long I´ll last, but I´m going to try to get some thoughts down tonight.
We have been here for 2.5 months now and rubber has definitely met the road! Let´s see.....
One month ago, David started working for a Commercial Builder here in Santiago as a Superintendent. He was invited to do a ride-along one day to see what projects the company was working on and to learn a little about how they do things here in Chile, and by the end of the day, they had hired him. He started that same day on a project that was behind, over budget, and at risk of a lawsuit. Within 5 days he resolved all of the major problems and within 2-3 weeks the upscale restaurant was ready to prepare to open up to the public. The restaurant owner only wants to deal with David and he basically saved the day!...He´s always been a hero by nature. By week 3 with them, they promoted him to Project Manager and now he oversees all aspects of the project at hand.
I have been praying for many years for David to have the opportunity to use his skills and to have the chance to let others see how great he is at directing people, seeing the big picture of a project, and getting the job done. Although I´ve wanted that to happen in the States, and still hold out hope for it to happen in the future, I´m happy to see him have the chance while we´re here. At the company here, they are now all calling on him to take over projects in their final stages to resolve all of the problems at hand and to ensure that all of the details are taken care of before turning the project over. He has managed to earn the respect of the company, the owners of the business they´re building, and the laborors.
In case you are wondering, I do not know how all of this will work out in the long run. I have no idea how we´ll transition out, how we´ll feel, or what it will be like for us when we get back to the states. After much prayer, I´ve just determined that I can not be concerned with that. When we got here, we had no idea how we would transition, how we would feel, or what things would be like for us. We didn´t know where we would live or what we´d be doing, so I can´t pretend to be able to project that for us when we get back. It might not make sense in my mind, but I have no idea what is on the mind of God. I expect that he has things in store that we can not imagine or anticipate, so we just have to wait to see. For now, I hope to enjoy the moment and thank God for his provision. We went almost two months without a pay check here and even then, we were starting out with preliminary salaries. We have not been sure of our outcome since we´ve been here, so there is no way that I can think ahead any further than the here and now.
One day soon I am going to just upload a lot of pictures. I´ve started taking pictures of what I see everyday when I´m walking around. Although this city is very big and there are many different angles to the city, we are living our life in an area that epitimizes the hustle and bustle of a big city. I ride the metro daily, David drives in traffic daily (a tiny Mazda 2 stick shift), and we have to pay to park every where we go. The buildings are big, the people are antisocial and walk fast to where they´re going, and pedestrians have the right-of-way.
I´m fading fast and I think I have to turn it in now. I hope to write all of my thoughts down b/c I don´t want this time to come and go without sharing it with others and documenting it for ourselves.
Good night!
