Wednesday, May 25, 2011

I ate spicy noodles for breakers...I don't know what else to call this post

              Before I get started on this post I would like to take a moment to express my sorrows for those affected by the recent tornado in Joplin, MO. As some of you may know, I lived in the small town of Joplin for two years back when I was little. My dad also lived there for a bit as a kid. My brother was born there, and the hospital he was born in is now a pile of rubble. It is a small community, but the key word here is community, everyone is very close. My family will be going back to help clean up later this summer. Our old house is ok (the twister missed it by 2 streets). Everyone we know that still lives there is fine (one family’s house had lifted off of its foundation by 6 inches!). However, please keep the family and friends of those affected in your thoughts and prayers.
                I know I have been bad at updating this recently. This is mostly because I have started work and find myself with little free time. We are supposed to work from 9-6 but I have not left the office at 6 nor come in at 9 yet. Tomorrow I move into my actual apartment (I am sad to leave A’s house, her and her family have been nothing but the best to me). I will probably start getting in later and leaving earlier now, at least until the competition I am working on gets into full swing. Yesterday, I was writing a post and got swept away from my computer to go on a site visit/client meeting/model shop visit. I will post pictures from this at some point (hopefully this weekend). The model shop was intense. Absolutely amazing. For those at my school, imagine completed slice models (ie 1:4 scale), except a whole complex of high rises…it’s amazing. It had a sweat shop feel to it, except without the borderline slave labor (the worker conditions were fine, there was air-con, but the level of activity was intense, just please don’t think this place is actually a sweat shop, keep in mind I’m sarcastic), just an old buiding with materials everywhere, lazer cutters humming, music blaring, basically imagine studio with no windows and no maylines.  
                It was an exceptionally hot day (even for here) yesterday. I went with my boss Z and he picked up another architect working on the project from another firm, N from South Africa. He had some interesting things to say about the place. Their economy is much like ours (USA) from a job market standpoint, but he commented that it is even worse because if you have graduated from school in the last 5 years and are white, you can’t find work. This is, of course, very hard for me to wrap my head around, but interesting none the less. The site, albiet just like any other construction site has its issues, but here in Asia things are done a bit differently. First of all, the workers live on the site (although the worker’s homes were somewhat out of view, I had a pretty good idea of what they were like and I’m sure you could imagine as well). Furthermore, they work around the clock, in two shifts. Most of the workers are actually unskilled and learn on the job. As one could imagine, this makes it difficult to meet the already seemingly impossible deadlines because they are literally being trained on the spot to do some rather difficult tasks (bricklaying is an art my friends). They mostly come from Indonesia and Bangladesh. America obviously has a similar migrant workforce population with the Latin and South American immigrants (no, contrary to popular belief, even in America, they are not all Mexican). However, you would never get an American migrant worker to work the way these people do. My knee-jerk reaction is one of uncomfort. To us, this seems like poor conditions, unfair hours, no proper housing, ect. However, here it is a way of life. They obviously get paid less than they would in the states (just due to differing economies) so to live on the job actually saves them a lot of money. I also noticed a clean water source and proper drainage in the glipse I got of the workers quarters. I also did not smell any open sewage, so at least they had basic amenities.  I really do not know how I feel about the workers’ situation, because this is just the mentality of work here. It goes even further than that. From what I have gathered from talking with people is that in Asia a client considers everyone his workers, regardless of the labor involved. Thus, we architects, as the ‘paper workers’ if you will are considered to be like the construction workers. Unless you flat out say it, you are expected to work just as hard as those laborers (granted we have air con). For example, yesterday in the meeting Z had to explicitly tell his clients that he would not take meetings past 6pm. In the west, unless it is a some type of corprate ‘crisis’ or you are a doctor, you would not meet with clients at odd hours such as this. Needless to say I learned a lot yesterday, although I’m still trying to piece together what exactly to make of it.
                Anyways, it’s about time I get back to work. I’ll catch up later, I still obviously have lots to say and lots to share.
Missing everyone back home. Finally sleeping like a normal human being. I hope everyone is safe and sound.
-M

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