Habitat for Humanity - mi ultimo dia

So today is my last day at Habitat...these 2 months have just FLOWN by. I just finished presenting all the work on my two projects to most of the office. Below I attached pics (you need to click and zoom on them to read them) of two parts of my Construction site saftey project. The other part is a powerpoint presentation which will be linked to the Habitat website (i will link to it as soon as it is online) that gives volunteers an idea of the potential hazards and accidents they will face on the construction sites, as well as advice on how to limit their potential for accidents. The pocket card is a bi-lingual (one side english, one side spanish) orientation card that the construction foremen can keep in their front chest pocket or back jeans pocket. The poster is also bi-lingual and is self explantory. I was also able to present, in stumbling spanish, all of my first hand research - interviews with foremen, volunteers and habitat families; photographs from different construction sites in different stages of completion; as well as my first hand expereince building as a volunteer...analysis of that research...and my proposals for additional projects. My second project was a environmental impact analysis of the waste produced during the construction process, as well as a proposal of ways to reduce that waste, establish recycling programs, and save habitat money so that more houses can be built, with less environmental impact.

All in all it was very well received; and will be utilized in over 30 different countries throughout Central America and the Carribbean Region - and if things go well at the Worldwide Habitat conference in September (where my advisor Minor will present my work - it could be expanded down to countries in South America...and potentially translated to other languages to be used around the world. Just thinking about that is astonishing to me. I am so glad that all the work and effort that I put in over the last two months is going to have such a far reaching impact. I hope to lead a brigade of AU students during next spring break to come down to Costa Rica and help build houses for a week - and I will get to see my work being implemented first hand.