Category Archives: work

Haiti Wrap Up

10 Monday May 2010

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So I’ve been a little reluctant to write this blog, simply because I don’t want to accept the fact that my trip is done. But here we go….

The People in HODR
I can’t even begin to describe how amazing the people in HODR were. What is great is that there are people from all walks of life, from all sorts of ages, interests, political ideologies, cultures, etc., and they’re all their with the same purpose and intent. As different as we all are, I think there is a certain personality trait that everyone has in common. Most people you know are not too excited about going to a third world country to have bucket showers and eat the same food everyday, and sleep on a wooden bunk. But everyone in HODR is happy to do it, because they see the bigger picture, and they get a personal satisfaction of what they do. During one of my talks with a fellow HODR, we were talking about how silly it felt when people in the US told us how proud they were of us for going on a trip of this sort. I honestly felt/feel guilty when people say this, because I feel like I got more out of this trip than anyone else I may have gone to help. And I think most people who participate in works like this feel the same way. Not to say that everyone was perfect; everyone has their own personality and maybe they don’t connect with everyone, but for the most part, everyone there was doing an amazing job at helping out in whatever way they could.
The People of Haiti
I’ve mentioned this in prior blogs, and it’s the fact that the Haitian people seem quite content to sit back and watch us do work. There is some resentment among the Haitian people for our presence, but I think that’s mostly based on the wrong assumption that we’re getting paid to do the work that we’re doing. I’m sure to them it sounds crazy that a person would agree to work for free; I don’t blame them. But there are definitely people who are thankful for the help that is being provided, and that’s what really matters.
If I had to describe the Haitian people in one word, I might use “loud.” There were definitely times that I could not tell by the sound or tone whether someone was in a good mood or not, because they always seem to talk pretty loudly to each other; I would have to guess the gist of the conversation by looking at facial and hand expressions. There were definitely a few times were I felt I was getting cussed out, and I guess it’s better that I didn’t know what was going on. But they are also such beautiful people. There is something about their skin tone, and the bone structure of their faces, that make them absolutely beautiful. I could probably spend a whole week just taking pictures of them.
The Situation in Haiti
The situation in Haiti is a difficult one. I wish I could say that my work down there really helped out and made a difference, but the reality is that the clearing of one rubble site is nothing compared to what needs to be done. And it’s not just about cleaning up the mess that the earthquake left behind, but instilling certain capabilities that seem basic to us, like running water or a trash collection system. Haiti doesn’t have trash cans, and from what I could tell, no system of disposing your trash. Everyone burns their trash, or dumps it in the local canal or water way. Not necessarily great for sanitation.
The other big challenge right now is communication between the UN, NGO’s, and the government of Haiti, including local government. In Leogane, for example, the mayor’s office stopped attending cluster meetings because they don’t believe their thoughts or opinions are given any attention, and because they feel they are not being told enough about what the NGO’s are doing in Leogane. Cluster meetings are basically a way for all the NGO’s to get together depending on what specific area they are working in, and to communicate with each about what is being done. I think involving the local government is a double edged sword: I think they definitely need to be aware of what is going on in their cities, but it’s also difficult to know how much to involve a local government that is plagued by corruption and which isn’t very efficient on it’s own to begin with. Interesting fact, which I’m not sure if I’ve included in a prior post, but there are people that work in the mayor’s office who have not received a paycheck since December. I guess a few of them have second jobs, and that’s how they make a living, but they keep working at the mayor’s office in the hopes that someday soon money will start coming through the pipeline again, and they’ll get paid for the time worked.
My Final Thoughts
These last couple days back home have been difficult. It’s hard to analyze what you just went through, and see how much you will let that impact what you do with the rest of your life. I don’t want my experience in Haiti to just be something cool that I got to experience, I want it to be something that changes my life for the better, and helps me achieve my goals. Hanging out with people that work at the UN and UNDP was definitely an eye opening experience. They told me they love their jobs, but it’s not an easy job. I know the life I want would not be an easy one, but I can’t tell you guys how ridiculously happy I was every day that I was there, just living life day to day, helping people out a little at a time. It’s hard to come back home and let yourself get carried away by the realities of your daily routine. It was nice talking to Abby today and knowing that I’m not the only one that feels this way: we don’t want to get carried away by our routine, but want to find a way to make what we saw our new reality. We’re actually trying to find a way to make it back there for a longer period of time in a few months. I really hope it works out.
My return hasn’t only been challenging emotionally and professionally, but physically as well. My body has definitely had a more difficult time adjusting to the weather and food back here than it did in Haiti. Not sure why… It’s finally starting to feel a little bit more normal, which is great because I can’t really afford to take any more sick time from work!
All in all, I feel so blessed and lucky to have had this amazing opportunity, and I hope it is just the beginning of something amazing. I can’t thank Abby enough for giving me this opportunity, and for allowing me to share this experience with her–it would not have been the same any other way.

Work Update: Printer Part II

16 Friday Apr 2010

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So, you long time readers may remember my rants about our printer. Well, they never end! For a while, my printer was out of commission, but that’s old news. Ok, so there’s the Toshiba printer which is the printer that most of the people in the office use, and it seems to be out of order almost every other day. So you know what that means. Someone comes to fix it. I think the repair guy is worse than the actual printer being out of order. I have never met anyone, in my entire LIFE, who smells as bad as this guy. I mean, I can smell this guy through walls!

It’s so bad that poor Amber, one of our receptionists, has had to use her bottle of sprayey, smelly stuff to mask his insane b.o.
For the sake of everyone, I hope the printer works well for a while…

Positive Outlook

16 Friday Apr 2010

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So last week was a little rough at work. The work load is getting pretty crazy, and I found myself constantly frustrated by a variety of things. Poor Jeff has to hear me vent when I get home, and last night he gave me some pretty good words of advice. Basically, I’m always going to have a ton of stuff to do, there will always be too many files on my desk, and I can’t control what other people do, I just have to learn to deal with it, and not let it stress me out or frustrate me.

I can’t tell you guys how many times someone at work told me I looked stressed or upset in the past week and a half. And I knew they were right. I could feel my face being all contorted from how tense and frustrated I was at things. And in reality, Jeff is right. There’s no need to freak out about things that are beyond my control, and I just have to learn to take work one chunk at a time.
Rama also made a good point today: we work with some pretty cool people. There are attorneys out there working twice as many hours as myself, and having to deal with people who have no sense of humor. Our office environment is pretty relaxed, everyone gets along, and we have some good laughs. And that really does make all the difference in your work day.
Here’s something I’ve come to appreciate about L&A (aka, Los Borradores):
It’s pretty much a terrible picture of everyone (sorry!), but the point I wanted to make is this: we share lunch with each other! I don’t think I’ve worked at many places where everyone I work with is so open to sharing their food and their lunch time with each other. In the words of Napoleon Dynamite: “Yeah, it looks pretty sweet.” How sweet indeed!
So, Rama and I have decided to have a more “positive outlook” on things lately. Although we had to remind each other every now and then today (“positive outlook, alex, positive outlook”), it worked pretty well. I was much happier, and still accomplished quite a bit of work. I think I’ll try it out again tomorrow :)

Still weird…

30 Tuesday Mar 2010

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I had a client in my office today to sign his bankruptcy petition, and his cell phone rang. I was in the process of explaining some paperwork, while I was also holding their baby so they could both sign instead of switching the baby back and forth (talk about multi-tasking!), but I had no issue with him answering his phone.

What was interesting was the short conversation he had:

“Hey, I’m with my lawyer right now, let me call you back.”

I’m someone’s lawyer. CRAZINESS I TELL YOU! I still can’t believe it.

Work Moments That Make Me Happy

14 Sunday Mar 2010

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It’s no secret that bankruptcy law wasn’t exactly what I set out to do. With that said, it’s been a much more enjoyable road than I had imagined. In the last couple weeks there have been several events that make me enjoy my job more than I thought I would. I hadn’t realized that practicing bankruptcy law had some similarities with the general public interest job I wanted to do: you can help people. I know some have issues with the idea that people can even file bankruptcy, especially when people max out their credit cards and then can have their debt wiped away and not be held responsible for their actions. I agree there are people who take advantage of the system. But I also think there are many people who are in need of this system in order to get things back on track, and who had never though they would ever be filing for bankruptcy.


A lot of times when people come into my office to sign their petitions, you can tell they’re not happy to be sitting across from me. It’s nothing personal, it’s just slightly embarrassing to be signing documents where you’re basically saying you have failed in the financial aspect of your life. Many of them explain the situation they’re in, and tell me they never thought they would ever be filing for bankruptcy.

Needless to say, people aren’t necessarily happy when they’re in my office, but lately it’s been nice to see that I can make a small difference in people’s lives just by the way I treat them.

Case in point: a couple came in to sign their petition, and the wife looked like she wanted to bite my head off. It turned out that she was a little weary about our office. As I’ve mentioned before, my firm handles mostly Spanish-speaking clients, most of whom are not familiar with legal issues, attorneys, 50-page documents, etc. They know about notario fraud, and they know that a lot of people these days are getting cheated out of their money by attorneys who promise to modify their loan and then never hear from them again. So I think it’s justified when a client wants to see my California bar number to make sure I’m really an attorney. And I think this wife was justified in being weary of what her and her husband were getting into. By the end of our meeting, the wife and I were chatting away, she felt comfortable with who she had hired, and she left with a smile on her face. I love that.

I also had a great moment when a client and his wife came back and told Rama and I that he talked about us to his son the night before: he told his son how happy he was that there were still honest people out there who cared. This guy is one of our (Rama and I) favorites: he’ s the sweetest, nicest, older man you can imagine! So him and his wife have offered to take us out to lunch, and I think we may just have to take them up on it so we can see them again!

Random Updates and Thoughts

23 Tuesday Feb 2010

Posted by in Guatemala, life, opinion, work

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1) So on the extradition of Guatemalan ex-president, Alfonso Portillo: it seems like the United States is actually going to issue an extradition order. But isn’t it curious that just as a US court is preparing the paperwork for his extradition, he gets sick and has to be hospitalized! Ahhhh what a lucky coincidence!


2) Some of you might remember Jeff’s car getting flooded. For those of you who have been sitting at the edge of your seats wondering what happened, wait no longer! The insurance actually considered it a total loss, so they paid off what remained on the loan, and gave us the difference of the value. It’s actually been a blessing in disguise. The only reason we’re ok with the situation is because Jeff’s been using his brother’s car (who’s in Germany, so no need for the car…), so we didn’t have to worry right now about buying another car. The money we got is probably going towards paying off some credit cards, but for now it’s been great to have some cushion money in our account and not have to freak out about having enough for rent or something.

3) On the work front, things are getting busy. The workload is endless, which is good. We’re trying to make sure cases get pushed through so we don’t just have them stacking up somewhere, but it’s a lot harder to do than you would think! What’s frustrating is that the second I think I’ve got a file I can complete and file, there’s some random little issue with it and it has to sit on my desk for another few days until I figure out where to go from there. I guess I’ll either figure out how to solve those little problems, or get used to have tons of files on my desk.

There’s a song that states: “sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers.” I was thinking about that on my way home tonight. See, the job that I really wanted out of law school, doing public interest work, would be paying me about half of what I’m making now. To give you an idea of how much I wanted this job: I actually cried when I didn’t get it, Katie (whom I was studying for the bar with at the time) brought me flowers and a card telling me I was still amazing, and Jeff dropped what he was doing to join me at Starbucks and tell me everything was going to be ok, life would keep going, and other jobs were out there. Now that I’m working and making decent money, but still barely getting by, I think: how did I possibly think I was going to make a living off of the salary they were offering me?!

This job has also introduced me to some pretty cool people (which I think will be a blog of its own). There’s been a constant stream of new people lately, but I think we’re all getting comfortable with each other and becoming slightly more like friends than just co-workers. So although it wasn’t what I was expecting, I think it’s been a blessing in disguise as well. Stayed tuned for further updates!

My Week in Review

23 Saturday Jan 2010

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I have it on good authority that this week was pretty crazy (Pat–I’m writing this on a Saturday morning, so it doesn’t count-not a drinking night). I got to spend quality time with a few amazing people, and I also felt like Jeff and I both suffered the wrath of the Storm of the Century that hit the Southland this week.

Monday:
Daniel (very good friend of mine) and I had been trying to schedule a lunch date last week, and due to my work schedule I had to put it off for today. Neither one of us remembered that the weather forecasts for the day were less than amenable to driving in the rain. After talking Dan through some directions and getting him to my parking lot, I had to physically make it down to his car so we could go grab lunch. Well…it just so happens that around 1pm on Monday, it was raining harder than it had been raining all day. Just to give you an idea of how bad it was: some of the guys from work were standing outside in the covered walkway looking at the rain and taking pictures of how ridiculous it was. And here I am, in my heels and work pants, thinking of the endless journey from our walkway to Dan’s car. Everyone thought I was crazy for going out in the rain, but what could I do, Dan was waiting downstairs, and if he had faced the rain to get to my office, I was gonna make it downstairs! Thankfully, one of the guys from the office manned up and walked me to Dan’s car with his umbrella, so damage was minimal. We made it to Tokyo Cafe, and wouldn’t you know that minutes into our meal…the sun was shining. I mean, really? Talk about timing.
Wednesday
I was at work trying to figure out what of the 10 things on my to-do list were most important, and therefore I should focus on those for my last hour of work. I looked at my phone and saw I had a missed call from Jeff which was interesting–Jeff’s not a phone person, he’s a texter. He eventually called again, only to tell me that his car had gotten flooded and he was stranded. I left my to-do list untouched, said a quick goodbye to everyone, and headed toward the scene of the crime. By the time I got to Jeff and his car, there was no sign of a flood, no rain, no water pouring down the street…just a cop car, Jeff’s stranded car, and another stranded car on the other side of the street. Not much of a crime scene, eh? See, what happened was that Jeff got off work just in time to drive down Barranca during the 10 minutes the street was flooded, therefore getting his car stuck and left to the mercy of a good samaritan who pulled him out, preventing more damage to his car than there already was (a good 3 inches of water INSIDE his car). Good timing yet again!
Thursday (almost done..promise)
We had to drive to the Riverside Courthouse, and it was just constant rain all the way there. We did what we had to do inside the courthouse (literally 10 minutes), and when we came out, the sun was shining! So I’m thinking it’s gonna be a smooth drive back to the office. Uh, right. I swear we drove through a hurricane. The water, rain, and the river that everyone was driving through was insane! Of course, when we made it back into Orange County and our office, it was barely sprinkling. Amazing.
Friday
I actually have no complaints about Friday! Naomi came and met me for lunch, which was so sweet of her. I met Naomi while I was working for a temp agency after I took the bar, and I’m so happy we actually kept in touch! It took having Naomi around for me to finally go into this little shop down the street from my school that I had always wanted to go into but never did. Mind you, I’ve worked and studied in this area for the past four years, and I just never made the time. So, thank you Naomi :)
In a long, roundabout way, that’s my week in review!

Deja Vu

23 Saturday Jan 2010

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So about two and a half weeks ago, my boss had me go to the Santa Ana Federal Courthouse and the Riverside Bankruptcy court so I could scope out the area and know where I was going and what I needed to do when I finally went on my own. Although the Santa Ana court is closer, it was a little more difficult because the bankruptcy court is only one of the many things in the federal building (in Riverside, the whole building is dedicated to bankruptcy law).

I get to the Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana, and I’m trying to walk and act like I know what I’m doing…you know, look like an attorney! (The idea that I’m actually an attorney is still shocking to me.) Anyhow, I think I walked around looking like an idiot for a good 10 minutes before I finally realized where I should be. And all was well.
My next field trip was to the Riverside Courthouse. Other than being late and basically missing all the confirmation hearings, I found my way rather quickly.
As I was walking down the steps of the courthouse to the parking lot, I had this strange feeling that I had lived through something like this before.
Ahhhhhhh, college!
My memories flew back to the first week in my Santa Rosa dorm at UCSB, with all the madness and excitement of orientation, cramming all my belongings into a tiny room, and meeting the people that would become some of my best friends. The Sunday before classes started, several of us scouted out the location of our classes. That’s right…a bunch of 18 year olds, excited about starting the college life, looking at their schedules and looking helplessly for Kennedy Hall or Buchanon or whatever it may be. See, we didn’t want to look like we did in high school our freshman year on the first day of class…so we took preventative steps and did it on a Sunday when no one could see us walking around with a print out of our schedule and puzzled looks on our faces!
And now I’m doing it all over again. I’m entering this new career where I pretty much don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m trying to be proactive so I don’t look like a lost freshman!

People, it’s called punctuality.

19 Tuesday Jan 2010

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Warning: this is a venting slash rambling blog.

Last week I began to tutor two amazing children, who are taking Spanish in school and their parents want them to get a little extra help on the side. The money’s good, and the family is amazing. These two little kids honestly make me smile every time I see them. The only thing is that with my original 9am to 6pm schedule, tutoring put me back a few hours and I didn’t get home until about 8:30 or 9 at night. That’s a long day! So I thought I would go in at 8am on the days I’m tutoring (Monday and Thursday), therefore getting me home an hour earlier :)
Anyhow, today as the holiday of Martin Luther King, Jr., my students had the day off from school and tutoring as well (if only I had the day off from work too….), but I still went in to work at 8am instead of 9am. I can’t even describe to you how excited I was at the prospect of getting home by 5:30 pm instead of an hour after that (my usual time), or even later if I had actually been tutoring. I even texted Jeff and we made huuuuuuge plans to cook dinner together.
Stoked. I was STOKED!
Some of you might say, “it’s only an hour difference, what’s the big deal?” The big deal is, kind reader, that there is a huge difference between getting home at 5:30pm and getting home at 6:30pm. By 6:30, I’m hungry, I’m tired, and I don’t feel like STARTING to figure out what to do for dinner. At 5:30, however, the evening still has endless possibilities!
So let me just tell you how disappointed I was in myself when I remembered that I had told a co-worker that I would talk to her client today at 5:30pm. See, I’ve only been on my new schedule for a week, so I thought I was still staying until 6pm when I originally gave my co-worker the thumbs up on this. I wanted to shoot myself today for being so stupid. But I gave my word, it was my fault, and so I stayed at work an extra hour (without getting paid overtime, by the way). And you know what? I stayed for absolutely nothing. 5:3o came and went, and the client wasn’t there. Apparently he had left his house at 5:20 in Costa Mesa, thinking that with traffic and rain he could be there in 5 minutes. I told my co-worker the information she needed to tell the client, and I threw in the towel at 6. It just irks me when people can’t stick to appointments. Jeff can tell you how I’m continually rushing him out of the house every time we have to be somewhere because I hate being late (even if it means feeling awkward once we get to our destination because we’re the first ones there…).
I hope this client sleeps well tonight, and never knows how they ruined my early-dinner-at-home tonight!
“Hey alex, why don’t you just go in to work at 8am everyday and stop complaining?” To which I have a very well-reasoned and logical answer: see, I keep telling myself that on the days I go in at 9, I have time in the morning to go to the gym! HA.

Where is Everyone?!

04 Monday Jan 2010

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So the commute to work the last two weeks has been amazing. I’ve been making it to work in 15 minutes, rather than 30. I figured it was because of the holidays, and was expecting the normal traffic today. I had planned on leaving early in anticipation of this, but I ended up running late and left the house with coffee in hand at my usual 8:30 am (I could have left early if I had not waited for my coffee to finish brewing, but that’s basically suicide as far as I’m concerned).

I was expecting the normal pre-holiday clutter right before Jamboree, but to my surprise, I breezed onto the 55, and into the parking lot at work without really having to stop or slow down at all.

Huh.

So…where is everyone? Are people taking extended vacations? Or is this a result of the 10% unemployment rate? Not that I’m complaining…I’ll test the waters again tomorrow before deciding to sleep in a few minutes…

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