Re: Cali -- Inefficiency @ its best!

Well, looks like this Cali trip is postponed until Monday of next week.

I arrived at the airport in Ibagué at 9:25, exactly an hour before my flight was scheduled to depart. Augusto, my taxi driver, informed me that the airport had been closed all morning, due to overcast skies. That's right. There were clouds in the sky, so planes couldn't fly. Seriously?!

I checked in, and they said there was no telling when the flight would take off, but they would keep me informed. They made announcements every 20 minutes saying that the airport was still closed due to bad weather, and that they would make another announcement in 20 minutes. Luckily Augusto was waiting for another client to land from Bogotá, so he waited with me. Finally at 10:30 they announced that his other client's flight would land at 12:45, so we went to ask about my flight, so he could leave the airport. They had cancelled it, and advised me to quickly book a spot on the next flight at 2PM (arriving in Cali at 6PM after the connection in Bogotá).

It occurred to me that perhaps it would be a better use of everyone's time to postpone the trip until next week, when I could leave from Bogotá in the early morning on Monday and have a full 5 days in Cali to learn as much as possible about implementation there. Jorge agreed, and so I left the airport with Augusto, heading back to the office. I got a call from Jorge minutes later informing me that he had spoken with Carolina, and that she thought it would be better for me to come this week, since I would be able to witness the selection process of youth. I rushed back to the office to finalize when in fact I would head to Cali. It seemed as though Carolina wanted me to witness rather small picture activities, sit in on interviews, visit a technical training class, etc. That is all quite interesting, but it is not the idea I had as to why I was heading there. I was meant to examine the program writ large - the big picture - strategies that they have successfully used to find local support, funding, evaluate local market trends & contexts, etc. Not interview a few kids who are potential program participants.

And so, it looks as though I will head out to Cali next week instead. So, sorry for the premature anticipation of blog posts. I'm something fun will happen this week/weekend that will be worth commenting on.