Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Colombia Cartagena: Day 6

From time to time at the college when people hear that I am going (or have been) abroad for an international project, they say things like, 'lucky you! How'd you arrange that?' in a tone of voice that suggests I am about to go (or have been) on holiday. I explain to them that the opportunity was advertised & that I applied for it & was accepted; a fairly simple process open to all. And I also try to make it clear that this was not a HOLIDAY, that most days on international assignments are WORKING days, not holidays.

Like today, for example. Our work day began with a breakfast meeting by 7:30, in the taxi by 8 am. We started our day at a SENA training facility inside the Old City. This facility was in an amazing building constructed in the 16th century. It started out as a private home, but was later occupied as a convent & operated as such for many years (there are still many religious icons all over the place), & later converted to a Catholic school. The school went bankrupt & SENA acquired the facility. They run a little hotel of 14 rooms on the top floor as a hospitality training facility. Most of the rest of the building has been converted to classrooms.

We occupied one of the classrooms for most of the day. It was a small room with barely enough space for the 25 desks jammed into it. People sat elbow to elbow & knee to knee for the entire day. The windows were shuttered against the sun but with 20-something bodies in there we generated our own heat. It would have been warm at sub-zero temperatures I think but the ambient air was well over 30 & the humidity was probably close to 70 or 80 percent. At some point, someone brought in a small portable air conditioner which worked hard all day: towards the end of the day the pail, set up to catch condensation, reached the overflowing point & had to be carted away before it flooded the floor. Two ceiling fans spun feverishly the whole time: one of them had worn a hole in the ceiling tiles & jiggled at least an inch either way with every rotation. I'm glad I didn't have to sit underneath it as I'm not at all sure my health insurance would cover that kind of death.

The air was incredibly stifling. It was bad enough for me, sitting in a desk at the front & handing out papers from time to time & forwarding the slides on the powerpoint presentations. It was much more difficult for my colleague Brian who did the active teaching all day, an athletic event even in cool weather. We were all wiped by the end of the day.

We wound down for only a short time, then had a working supper, then worked afterwards getting things ready for tomorrow. It's 11 pm now & I still have a few things to do.

Not my idea of a holiday but it sure makes life interesting. And tomorrow will be easier.

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