Apimondia 2023 Day 1
Tuesday September 5th - to get to the conference in the morning i checked DiDi which could have a driver to me in 11 minutes for 12 Chilean kilopesos and 11 min, and then uber, which could have a driver to me in 4 min for 6,000. So i hit cancel on the didi. But i only noticed hours later i had notifications that seemed to indicate DiDi found amd called a new driver who came to look for me i think. Which is pretty dumb of the app because i had clicked "no longer need a ride" as reason to cancel.
The Apimondia world beekeeping conference is organized as five halls simultaneously going with different topics in each. The regional symposium for African was in one of the halls this morning so that's where i was for that entire session.
Despite being very clearly not ethnically African, i find i feel so welcomed in Africa groups like this, amd to hear familiar phrases in swahili, it just makes me feel so welcome and happy to be there.
The ambassador of South Africa was present and i sat behind the mayor of Arusha, Tanzania, amd talked to him during a break. I was able to ask him about my friend the former governor of neighboring Singida state (he's doing well, retired). Arusha is where i attended a regional Africa conference in 2015, amd i learned a contender for hosting apimondia itself in 2027! (It's every two years, 2025 is already set for Copenhagen) the other contender is Dubai, which i feel is a gaudy, crassly "luxurious" place, so I'm heavily rooting for Arusha. Incidentally in the expo section i came across a booth dedicated to already promoting Hungary to host in 2029.
Sitting next to us we met a couple from UK based Bees Abroad amd i learned they are distinct from UK based Bees for Development, i think I'd probably conflated them in my mind previously. i had met the leaders of Bees for Development at the previously mentioned Arusha conference amd personally i felt they expressed a patronizing attitude towards Africa that rubbed me the wrong way so it's nice to know Bees Abroad is a different organization.
I also learned there'll be a smaller regional conference in Burkina Faso next September. I probably wouldn't attend on the basis of Burkina Faso being on the US State Department "do not go" list. It's one of the recent spate of African coups, though the representative of Burkina Faso seemed to be a genuine enthusiast of "our young captain" ("the youngest head of state in the world!"), sincerely mentioning his rule as a positive ("there's been some insecurity but our young captain is quickly cleaning it up!")
After that i bounced around a bit between halls. You're probably not interested in my detailed notes on them ;)
At lunch there seemed to be no restaurants anywhere nearby. I just bought a muffin amd doughnut from one of the Cafe carts on site, which were both really good for what they were but what they were wasn't lunch. Doug apparently found a cart selling pizza but then found it indelible.
Sessions ended at 18:30. Tried to get an uber but uber told me no one was available, probably everyone was trying to get an uber. So ordered up a didi. For 8,000 a driver who turned out to be Colombian picked us up. He, like nearly all our drivers so far, was really friendly, trying to speak to us a lot, though he spoke no English amd Doug speaks less Spanish than i. But we were able to establish that he'd immigrated here five years ago, Santiago is muy lindo (very pretty), as is Bogota amd Cartagena, amd that he has relatives in Houston amd Kansas City.
Returning to the hotel, we dropped our bags in the room amd headed out again for food, being as you can imagine quite hungry by now. Another frustrating thing hotels often do is entirely cut off power to your room if a card isn't in a slot, which is fine amd makes sense except in the not-unheard-of case that you want to leave a phone charging, as i now did. So i left my phone charging amd my key card in the slot, since we had Dougs.
Just a few doors down on the corner we found a nice looking Chilean restaurant named Fuente Chilena (which means Chilean Fountain apparently though, with the fancy cursive-esque font it was written in i had harmlessly misread it as Fuerte Chilena - "strong Chilean woman"). A waiter cheerfully ushered us in with a few words of English but when asked if he spoke English shook his head apologetically. He seated us amd then departed. We were left without menus, just QR codes on the table, me without my phone amd Doug without network, amd have i mentioned at the best of times i hate how restaurants have often resorted to these QR codes, I'd much rather read a physical menu than stare at my phone.
Anyway Doug in particular was feeling very impatient, no doubt grumpy with hunger. After about a minute amd a half he got up declaring he'd just find some street food. So i got up to go out with him. A waiter amd waitress intercepted us with alarm by the door asking as best they could what was wrong. I did my best to quickly express we couldn't figure out how to order (in a helpless non rude manner, i wasn't feeling grumpy myself). They in a flutter of Spanish amd a few basic English words assured me they'd sort me out amd turned me around, though Doug slipped away and disappeared into the night calling back to me he was going for street food he'd catch me later.
I was seated, the waitstaff quickly found me an English menu amd a waiter with sufficient English was conjured up who very patiently explained the menu, quickly consulting google translate once or twice. I ordered his recommendation, a classic Chilean pork sandwich with saurkraut and mayonnaise amd generally overflowing with stuff, amd a pisco sour (classic drink of Chile/Peru). Sandwich came pretty quickly, made the mistake of trying to eat it like a burger, but stuff was falling out all over the place amd looking around saw everyone else was eating with knife amd fork. Proceeded to do so, honestly it was the most delicious thing i can remember eating in recent memory i think (not counting In-N-Out burger in California of course ::crosses self with the sign of the In N Out crossed palm trees:: ). Total came out to 12,870.
Got back to my room amd of course couldn't get in. Told the front desk I'd left my key in my room amd they made another one, but apparently that disabled both previous keys so when Doug arrived five minutes later his didn't work but i let him in.
He declared he'd had a huge delicious burger for 15,000, though he, always frugal, seemed slightly deflated to realize mine plus a drink had been substantially less (amd faster!).
Amd tomorrow is another day!
Not sure what this "poster session" is all about, guess I'll find out.