I slapped together a peanut butter & banana sandwich on wheat bread (heavenly throw-back to my high school days) for the road, packed up my bags, and crept out to the curb to hail a cab. Wasn't 5 seconds before one pulled over, and I was off to the airport. Last night I confirmed with Laura & Sebastian that the ticket I had received said "El Dorado" as the departure airport, which is the airport airport, rather than the "air bridge" airport. I directed the taxista that-a-way, and arrived a solid 45 minutes before I had anticipated. Better early than late, in Bogotá... Luckily for me, I had plenty of time to learn that "El Dorado Terminal 2" is actually the "air bridge", separate airport for domestic flights. So much for the confirmation. They checked me in & sent me on a free shuttle to the other airport. No big deal, I arrived with time enough to grab a desperately needed cappuccino before heading through security (with said liquid... oh the double standard of security!). Ate one of the 2 pb & banana sandwiches I had made to chase the cap, and sat back waiting for the flight to board.
When I got to Cali, I searched for the airport taxi stand that is typical in Bogotá (and necessary to avoid risk & rip off), but alas, I had to walk out to the curb & trust one of the taxis casually lined up. No worries, despite a broken speedometer, it was an uneventful ride. The area outside of Cali looks somewhat similar to that around Ibagué, no grand sights, mostly agricultural land. I arrived at the shopping center that I was told housed the office I was heading towards, and after taking a spin around, asked a security guard for some guidance. She sent me walking a couple of deserted blocks to a seemingly empty state-of-the-art building, where I was sent to the 8th floor to meet Carolina & co-workers.
Carolina is the Cali/Puerto Tejada coordinator of A Ganar, and she is supremely competent! It was a very interesting morning, speaking with Carolina & the Fundación Fanalca team that implements the program in Cali. Fanalca is run by a somewhat controlling, domineering woman (much like CAC), who interrupts others when they talk, but similarly she clearly has a heart of gold & has a ton of passion & competence for social work. This may be a pattern? Could it be a result of the incompetence & inefficiency that these good, strong women find themselves surrounded by? Regardless, its hard to swallow. I was taken on a rather choppy, roller coaster, messy ride through the A Ganar Cali implementation by Fanalca, with some strange highlights (i.e. she writes everything she says down on little pieces of paper, that are never to be used again).
What was immediately clear, and only become more so after the morning of meetings, is that A Ganar is implemented completely different here, and seemingly for the better. The program is going along smoothly, and not only are the indicator "goals" being met, they are being surpassed! Instead of the required 150 hours of technical training, youth in Cali receive between 200 & 620 hours of training (?!?!?!?!)... The justification for this is that 150 isn't enough to really empower youth in technical job skills. So the implementing organization, Fanalca, invests extra counterpart ($$$) so that A Ganar participants don't just receive what is required by Washington, but what is required in reality to successfully change their economic opportunities, and thus the waterfall effect that is development/empowerment. Inspirational! So apparently it isn't just a job for all people working on development projects - apparently there is passion!!!! Hurray!
We headed to a motorcycle mechanic workshop where a third of the youth are being trained, and I asked a few questions, they asked a few questions, I took a picture or two. Then we headed to the most famous hotel in the region to speak with managers there, before they interviewed A Ganar youth for internships. Such a different program than in Ibagué!
I arrived at around 6:30pm at the home of the President of the Board of Directors of the Cali chapter of Partners of the Americas. I was instantly welcomed as if I were a family member - as is the Colombian way - and fed. I learned that the President spent 5 months in Brattleboro, VT @ the School for International Training (SIT) in 1971, and we talked about winter, snow, road trips, and VT. Lovely!
Tomorrow is a FULL day, so I am sure to have pictures & updates! If only I could go to sleep now without being embarrassed... Goodnight, & love to you all.
1 comment:
Love it! and you.
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