lunes 9.7.09

I woke up around 6 am. I had my quiet time and then showered and got dressed and ready for one of the best parts of the day- BREAKFAST. Mi madre made arepas (PANCAKES), huevos (eggs), cafe, jugo de naranja (OJ), and a fresh mango. It was SO good of course. I then trotted off to school to wait for class to start at 8 - Society and the Environment.


The class today was very interesting and I really enjoyed it. We talked a little about environmental awareness, and it really challenged me to be more aware of how much water, paper, and energy I waste! Claudia mentioned in class a part of Costa Rica's constitution that guarantees citizens the right to a clean environment. I am no US Constitution aficionada, so there may be something about this is ours, but I thought it was really neat that this is factored in to their constitution.

Class ended at 11 and I headed back to my casa. I continued my homework due Tuesday until lunch time. We had CREPAS (crepes) stuffed with chicken and covered in cream corn. SO YUMMY! I was stuffed! I did more homework until about 12:50 when I headed for a little walk toward the park to meet Claudia to go to the hospital for our meeting with the doctor at 1:30. I left my house a little early because I needed to stop to pick up a book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez for my Advanced Spanish class - "Cronica de una muerte anunciada." Marquez is a famous Colombian author who has written a monton of libros, including "Love in the Time of Cholera." This book is thin and has 5 chapters that are a bit lengthy, the first of which is due Thursday for class. I found the book at the print shop and had to fork out 5000 colones for it, more than I paid for most of my textbooks here in Costa Rica! Disgruntled I handed over the colones with a small and said 'gracias.' I continued my walk to the park, and sat on a bench and began reading while I waited for Claudia to meet me. The weather was beautiful ALL day today - NO RAIN AT ALL, which according to my padre here means that tomorrow there will be a LOT of lluvia (rain). She came a few minutes early, and we took a taxi to the hospital. We could have walked, but she said we didn't need to be sweaty for our meeting.

We arrived at the hospital for what I thought would be a meeting with the doctor (also sub-director of the hospital) who I will be working under. We were planning to discuss what he wanted me to do specifically and how we could accomplish it and what the timeline would look like. Claudia informed me just before we went into the meeting that I would also be in a meeting with the DIRECTOR of the entire hospital, as well as representatives from all other areas of the hospital. I was floored, and grew MUY nerviosa!

We walked into the meeting room where around a large oval-shaped table typical of a conference room sat 10-15 people, most in white doctor coats, waiting for us to arrive. I was pretty intimidated, especially since I wasn't really prepared to meet all of these important people. We went around the table and all introduced ourselves, and despite my nervousness somehow I managed a formal introduction of myself in Spanish to all of the doctors and staff who were present. They talked for a long time, and I caught bits and pieces of the conversation. They gave us some of their previous work in their strategic plan, as well as documents containing their mission and vision, and a SWOT analysis, along with lots of other stuff they thought would be useful. They currently have a strategic plan, but I think it is lacking a lot and needs improvement, so that's where I (and Claudia) come in. Claudia pretty much ran the meeting and tried to get a feel for what they wanted. After the meeting was over and they dismissed Claudia and me, they all stood up to bid us adieu, and we soon left the hospital. On the walk home we had a conversation (in Spanglish) of what my expectations were, and what we were going to be doing long-term and immediately. For next week, I have to:
-research strategic planning strategies
-find existing strategic plans and analyze their components
-find strategic plans for hospitals and analyze them
-find strategic plans in both english AND spanish
-look at all of this information collectively to determine the necessary components of an effective strategic plan
Next Monday we will have another meeting with the same group to report on all that we have found, and we will begin to analyze their current plan and see what it is missing so that we have a clear starting point for developing the new revised plan. I have a lot to do!

I came home, a bit overwhelmed, and continued working on my homework. I spent another couple of hours doing homework and then decided to go for a jog around town to perk myself up a bit. I ran only for about 20-25 minutes, but it was cool and pleasant and sunny, though a bit busy traffic-wise because people were getting off of work and students were leaving schools all over town. It was refreshing and felt good to exercise!

When I returned I continued to do homework, the activity of the day it seems, and have done so until now, minus a break for supper and to skype with mom and dad. Most of my homework was for my advanced spanish class tomorrow - verb exercises and reading a short story and answering questions about it. The class is a lot of work but it's already helping me so much and I'm glad I decided to pick it up at the last minute.

For supper we had some sort of chicken dish that tasted like it was baked in some kid of tangy barbecue sauce or something with some kind of bean looking things cooked in with it, and rice on the side. It was pretty good. After eating I continued to do homework and just decided to call it quits for the day because (a) I am tired, and (b) I have been doing it all day. What a great day it has been. I decided this morning in my quiet time that I really need to dedicate my energy to learning Spanish better in the short time I have here, and I decided that I need to build up my confidence, and in order to do so, I decided that whenever I had a thought or something to say in Spanish, I was going to say it, even if it wasn't right, just to practice and to try to speak more and more. I have done that all day, and have spent a lot of time reading and studying and learning today, and I really feel like I have learned and taken in a lot. Granted, I am absolutely EXHAUSTED, physically but more mentally tired than anything. I am looking forward to a good night of sleep and a good day tomorrow. I have more homework to finish in the morning. It's going to be a busy week. I have a lot of homework due, and for next week as well.

Hasta manana....