Playing Catch-Up: Retreat #1
SO I wrote this on 7-20, but we have been sans internet for a while. I have a lot to catch up on! I will do it in chronological installments, as best I can.
THE RETIRO
Basically, it was so long ago, I don’t even know if it’s worth trying to catch up on. Kinda like I still haven’t fully processed/debriefed 1L year yet, and now I’m almost a 2L. (YIKES stop that thought!) Basically, we had a 2-day team retreat, where we listened to a professional team builder/motivational speaker/whatchamacalit, while hanging out at a hotel conference room instead of the office, had nice breakfast and lunch, did some praise and worship, and then did team building activities and also talked about problems, etc, all kinds of cool stuff. I really really enjoyed it and just fell more in love with this team down here at the Bolivian FO. (FO is IJM lingo for Field Office). On the first day, our afternoon activity was a scavenger hunt all around Zona Sur (the southern part of the city of La Paz, which is where the hotel is and also where we live). We were divided into 3 teams of 4-5ppl and given a digital camera and a list of 20 or so tasks, and we ran around like crazy for an hour and half taking pictures and then came together and had a slide show (and my team won!) For some reason I feel like I already talked about this…. Did I? Well anyway, my team was awesome, it was me and Ariel and then Angel (our chief investigator), Juan Carlos (our pastor) and Dr. Villegas (our new lawyer - it was his very FIRST day of work!). It was hilarious to run around with these grown men and take all these silly pictures.
The second day was at this awesome ropes course … well first, after breakfast, we all grabbed our stuff and I went to find a waiter to ask him to fill my Nalgene with water. Of course, being Bolivia, this mission took him a good 10 minutes. Probably had to fetch the water, then boil it, then let it cool, then fill my bottle. Anyway, somehow, while this was going on and I was sitting in the lobby waiting, MY ENTIRE OFFICE managed to leave WITHOUT me. We had one car and one taxi, and I guess both groups just decided that I was with the other (which was strange, because there shouldn’t have been any open seats, but…), and took off. By the time my water came and I went outside, there was nobody there. And of course, I didn’t have my cell phone on me, and even if I did, it wouldn’t have mattered, because it wasn’t registered at that point so I couldn’t make outgoing calls on it anyway. Well, being resourceful and capable, I just hailed a taxi and jumped in, asking him to take me to Colegio Highlands, the school which I knew the ropes course was near. Well, after we drive off, he informs me that he has never heard of Colegio Highlands and asks me where it is. Ummmm, it’s YOUR city, I don’t know where it is! I know that it’s in the direction of the park that we went to for the picnic we had a couple weeks ago, because on the way there Leslie had pointed out the window and said “Highlands School is up that road a bit.” Of course, I didn’t know what the name of ‘that road’ was, but I told the guy to drive toward this park and that it was near there, thinking that maybe it would jog his memory when we got closer or that he or I would recognize the street once we got there. I also knew that the neighborhood started with an “M” and that it was nearby, so I told him that. Anyway, this was clearly not enough information for him, and he radioed his dispatcher, who also had no clue where this school was. They tell me that it doesn’t exist, and start naming other schools that it must be. NO! I was angry, because I KNOW the name of the stupid school, don’t tell me it doesn’t exist! Don’t you have a map of your own stupid city? And obviously GPS has not made an appearance in this country yet. Anyway, we get close to the park and he’s like okay, now which way? I’m like, I don’t know! Ask somebody! Oh, first I asked if I could use his phone to call someone from the office (I know Keri’s # by heart so at least I had that), but he said no, he didn’t have any credit. (Down here, to use a cell phone, you buy prepaid phone cards with a certain amount of credit on them, instead of having a monthly plan. And people hardly ever have credit, so mostly you just receive calls. Anyway..) So anyway then we pull over and ask a cop. Highlands? No, that school doesn’t exist. No school by that name here. GRRR I am getting really sick of these people right now, who don’t know their own city, especially because I know this school has to be really close to where we are driving right now! And give me a BREAK: you guys are a TAXI DRIVER and a COP!! If ANYONE should know this city, it’s the two of YOU!! I tell the cop everything I told the driver - it’s an American, Christian school called Highlands, it’s in a nearby neighborhood that starts with an M. They start naming everything they can think of that starts with an M, nothing is even close to what I remember. I am cursing myself for forgetting the neighborhood name, but I knew I would recognize it if I heard it, and they didn’t say it. Yet, they tell me that those are all the neighborhoods in the city that start with M, so my neighborhood doesn’t exist either. Yes, sirs, please, take me to the nearest imaginary school in the nearest imaginary neighborhood, thanks. Finally the taxi driver is like you have to get out and call someone, so he drives down the block and makes me get out at a sidewalk shop where they sell gum and candy and phone calls. I dial Keri and start crying as soon as she answers, in anger and frustration and also just in hurt. I mean, to get left behind, on a team-bonding retreat… ouch. Doesn’t feel so great. Reminds me of what Blake Skinner said after our team bonding cooking class with Legend… “Team-building? I feel like this has set us back about two years.” Haha. Well at any rate, Keri put Fernando on the phone, he talked to the cab driver, and apparently he still couldn’t figure it out, because Fernando then told me to go back to the hotel, and Pastor would come pick me up. So the cabbie took me back to the hotel and then tried to charge me 20Bs. EXCUSE ME? For not taking me to where I wanted to go? For winding up at the same place I started? The 30-minute drive to work costs 12 Bs, I think this should have been 6, max, if I had actually made it to the school. I don’t actually think I should have paid anything, but I was so angry and upset, I just bargained him down to 15 and then slammed the door, sat down on the curb, and burst into furious sobs.
Luckily Pastor arrived soon after with Ariel, and she hugged me and made me feel better, and once we got to the ropes course everyone felt really bad and apologized and then I felt a lot better. [A note about “Pastor”: here it is really common to address people by their title, as a sign of respect. So, Juan Carlos, who is a pastor, we all call “Pastor.” The lawyers we address as “Doctor” or “Doctora,” and other professionals are addressed as “Licenciado(a).” Just a little cultural education for ya.]
Anyway, the ropes course was really fun. It wasn’t exactly a Young Life ropes course, and it was distinctly Bolivian in several respects… for example, some of the boards looked a little less than perfectly secure, and a few nails could definitely have been pounded in a little further…. But it was SWEET. We had harnesses and helmets and everything, and we got a brief course in safety and how to properly belay. I don’t have to explain much more, I’m sure you’re all familiar with the concept of using ropes courses as an exercise in trust and teamwork, plus they’re just plain fun. The twist was that for those of us Americans who grew up going to summer camp and doing ropes courses every summer, we had to do this course BLINDFOLDED.
Haha, at first I thought he was kidding, but no, he was for real. I went first, and I was actually totally psyched, what an adventure! And to be honest, I think it was maybe easier and less scary to do it blind than with your eyes open. I had no choice but to listen to and trust my teammates, and let me tell me where to put my hands and feet, how to scale the tree, how to find the wire, etc etc. And you can’t see how high up you are, so it’s really just fun. The best part was the end, where we just let go and fall backwards off the wire. It’s as tall as a 3 story building, so it’s a fun little ride down, especially upside down.
After we all did the course, we had some more bonding and then had a motivational sermon from this awesome Chilean pastor who happened to be there. Good times. Now I really need to move on because I have a lot of ground to cover! Stay tuned.
THE RETIRO
Basically, it was so long ago, I don’t even know if it’s worth trying to catch up on. Kinda like I still haven’t fully processed/debriefed 1L year yet, and now I’m almost a 2L. (YIKES stop that thought!) Basically, we had a 2-day team retreat, where we listened to a professional team builder/motivational speaker/whatchamacalit, while hanging out at a hotel conference room instead of the office, had nice breakfast and lunch, did some praise and worship, and then did team building activities and also talked about problems, etc, all kinds of cool stuff. I really really enjoyed it and just fell more in love with this team down here at the Bolivian FO. (FO is IJM lingo for Field Office). On the first day, our afternoon activity was a scavenger hunt all around Zona Sur (the southern part of the city of La Paz, which is where the hotel is and also where we live). We were divided into 3 teams of 4-5ppl and given a digital camera and a list of 20 or so tasks, and we ran around like crazy for an hour and half taking pictures and then came together and had a slide show (and my team won!) For some reason I feel like I already talked about this…. Did I? Well anyway, my team was awesome, it was me and Ariel and then Angel (our chief investigator), Juan Carlos (our pastor) and Dr. Villegas (our new lawyer - it was his very FIRST day of work!). It was hilarious to run around with these grown men and take all these silly pictures.
The second day was at this awesome ropes course … well first, after breakfast, we all grabbed our stuff and I went to find a waiter to ask him to fill my Nalgene with water. Of course, being Bolivia, this mission took him a good 10 minutes. Probably had to fetch the water, then boil it, then let it cool, then fill my bottle. Anyway, somehow, while this was going on and I was sitting in the lobby waiting, MY ENTIRE OFFICE managed to leave WITHOUT me. We had one car and one taxi, and I guess both groups just decided that I was with the other (which was strange, because there shouldn’t have been any open seats, but…), and took off. By the time my water came and I went outside, there was nobody there. And of course, I didn’t have my cell phone on me, and even if I did, it wouldn’t have mattered, because it wasn’t registered at that point so I couldn’t make outgoing calls on it anyway. Well, being resourceful and capable, I just hailed a taxi and jumped in, asking him to take me to Colegio Highlands, the school which I knew the ropes course was near. Well, after we drive off, he informs me that he has never heard of Colegio Highlands and asks me where it is. Ummmm, it’s YOUR city, I don’t know where it is! I know that it’s in the direction of the park that we went to for the picnic we had a couple weeks ago, because on the way there Leslie had pointed out the window and said “Highlands School is up that road a bit.” Of course, I didn’t know what the name of ‘that road’ was, but I told the guy to drive toward this park and that it was near there, thinking that maybe it would jog his memory when we got closer or that he or I would recognize the street once we got there. I also knew that the neighborhood started with an “M” and that it was nearby, so I told him that. Anyway, this was clearly not enough information for him, and he radioed his dispatcher, who also had no clue where this school was. They tell me that it doesn’t exist, and start naming other schools that it must be. NO! I was angry, because I KNOW the name of the stupid school, don’t tell me it doesn’t exist! Don’t you have a map of your own stupid city? And obviously GPS has not made an appearance in this country yet. Anyway, we get close to the park and he’s like okay, now which way? I’m like, I don’t know! Ask somebody! Oh, first I asked if I could use his phone to call someone from the office (I know Keri’s # by heart so at least I had that), but he said no, he didn’t have any credit. (Down here, to use a cell phone, you buy prepaid phone cards with a certain amount of credit on them, instead of having a monthly plan. And people hardly ever have credit, so mostly you just receive calls. Anyway..) So anyway then we pull over and ask a cop. Highlands? No, that school doesn’t exist. No school by that name here. GRRR I am getting really sick of these people right now, who don’t know their own city, especially because I know this school has to be really close to where we are driving right now! And give me a BREAK: you guys are a TAXI DRIVER and a COP!! If ANYONE should know this city, it’s the two of YOU!! I tell the cop everything I told the driver - it’s an American, Christian school called Highlands, it’s in a nearby neighborhood that starts with an M. They start naming everything they can think of that starts with an M, nothing is even close to what I remember. I am cursing myself for forgetting the neighborhood name, but I knew I would recognize it if I heard it, and they didn’t say it. Yet, they tell me that those are all the neighborhoods in the city that start with M, so my neighborhood doesn’t exist either. Yes, sirs, please, take me to the nearest imaginary school in the nearest imaginary neighborhood, thanks. Finally the taxi driver is like you have to get out and call someone, so he drives down the block and makes me get out at a sidewalk shop where they sell gum and candy and phone calls. I dial Keri and start crying as soon as she answers, in anger and frustration and also just in hurt. I mean, to get left behind, on a team-bonding retreat… ouch. Doesn’t feel so great. Reminds me of what Blake Skinner said after our team bonding cooking class with Legend… “Team-building? I feel like this has set us back about two years.” Haha. Well at any rate, Keri put Fernando on the phone, he talked to the cab driver, and apparently he still couldn’t figure it out, because Fernando then told me to go back to the hotel, and Pastor would come pick me up. So the cabbie took me back to the hotel and then tried to charge me 20Bs. EXCUSE ME? For not taking me to where I wanted to go? For winding up at the same place I started? The 30-minute drive to work costs 12 Bs, I think this should have been 6, max, if I had actually made it to the school. I don’t actually think I should have paid anything, but I was so angry and upset, I just bargained him down to 15 and then slammed the door, sat down on the curb, and burst into furious sobs.
Luckily Pastor arrived soon after with Ariel, and she hugged me and made me feel better, and once we got to the ropes course everyone felt really bad and apologized and then I felt a lot better. [A note about “Pastor”: here it is really common to address people by their title, as a sign of respect. So, Juan Carlos, who is a pastor, we all call “Pastor.” The lawyers we address as “Doctor” or “Doctora,” and other professionals are addressed as “Licenciado(a).” Just a little cultural education for ya.]
Anyway, the ropes course was really fun. It wasn’t exactly a Young Life ropes course, and it was distinctly Bolivian in several respects… for example, some of the boards looked a little less than perfectly secure, and a few nails could definitely have been pounded in a little further…. But it was SWEET. We had harnesses and helmets and everything, and we got a brief course in safety and how to properly belay. I don’t have to explain much more, I’m sure you’re all familiar with the concept of using ropes courses as an exercise in trust and teamwork, plus they’re just plain fun. The twist was that for those of us Americans who grew up going to summer camp and doing ropes courses every summer, we had to do this course BLINDFOLDED.
Haha, at first I thought he was kidding, but no, he was for real. I went first, and I was actually totally psyched, what an adventure! And to be honest, I think it was maybe easier and less scary to do it blind than with your eyes open. I had no choice but to listen to and trust my teammates, and let me tell me where to put my hands and feet, how to scale the tree, how to find the wire, etc etc. And you can’t see how high up you are, so it’s really just fun. The best part was the end, where we just let go and fall backwards off the wire. It’s as tall as a 3 story building, so it’s a fun little ride down, especially upside down.
After we all did the course, we had some more bonding and then had a motivational sermon from this awesome Chilean pastor who happened to be there. Good times. Now I really need to move on because I have a lot of ground to cover! Stay tuned.