Feelings and emotions

A friday evening after a really busy week with work. Catching up on e-mails and Face Book and then finding some feedback from my friend Sue Dolan. She asks me some interesting questions, and maybe more readers wonder about these things, so here goes....

1. How to make comments "stick"? I know several people have tried to send comments, even my tech-wiz daugther Hilary. I thought it would simply go if you have a gmail account, but that does not seem to be so. Cassandra Mussungayi, if you are reading this... send me/us some advice, will ya?

2. Too many acronyms... I know, I know. I tried to explain them in my early blog entries, but I guess I will have to repeat the explanations or avoid using them. ACCC stands for the Association of Canadian Community Colleges. I am this year "on loan" from Niagara College to the ACCC and work as "Technical Advisor" on a development project on capacity building of instructors of SENA. And SENA stands for Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje (if you want to practice your Spanish and get an idea of this very large training institute, go to www.sena.edu.co ).

3. My work explained in "laymen's terms". I am here to get the process of implementation of the program going. Sort of getting the locomotive in motion. SENA trains 6 million Colombians each year. Half of them via "virtual" on-line courses. Many youngsters to get them interested in the trades and technical studies (see my last blog). Many "mature" learners who need to be re-trained. And about half a million in similar 2 and 3 year diploma programs as we offer at Canadian colleges. SENA has training centers throughout the country. All their training is free of tuition. Their target group of clients come from lower income families. Colombia is a geographical very complex country (you will see some of that during my blogs of the next 4-5 week when I will be in very remote areas of the country). Many communities have been excluded from training programs because of the geography and SENA is now trying to reach out to them. Many Canadian colleges also work in remote regions of the country and have assisted many training institutions around the world in such situations. The program in Colombia will target new training programs for artisanal gold miners and small scale farmers in the areas where gold mining is the main source of income generation. My role this year is to introduce SENA to a variety of interested Canadian colleges, who with the CIDA funding (Canadian International Development Agency) can work with SENA on new vocational course development and improvement of teaching techniques in training programs. Once SENA has decided on 4-5 Canadian partner colleges, they will start three years of cooperation here from 2014 to 2017. By the end of 2013 the "locomotive" should be in motion with these partnerships.

4. My feelings. I think of myself as an "activist", but one who likes to quietly work with communities in developing nations. Listening to their needs and then trying to "broker" some assistance for them. Creating partnerships is what I live for. Being here in Colombia is a fantastic opportunity to do field work again. I loved my two years with MSF/Doctors without Borders in Mozambique (1988-1990) just before Mary and I tied the knot. The past 20 years did not offer the opportunity to do more real field work. I travelled a lot always for my work, but there is a big difference between being somewhere one week or one year. I am happy, very happy, to have a chance again to do field work. I like to think of myself as a team player who looks for practical solutions. But I also like to listen every now and then to John Lennon's "Imagine" and agree with him that he was not the only dreamer. Having positive feelings is the best fuel for a fullfilling life....

5. What do I do in evenings? There is a lot of work to do in this initial program phase. During the day I work with SENA colleagues and in the evening I am busy in my little "home office". Mary and I try to catch up via SKYPE every evening, and sometimes I also get a hold of our kids Hilary and Mark. I regularly make these blog entries. I have visited Bogota already many times since I was here for the first time in 1983. I know a fair amount of people here and now is a nice time to catch up quietly during dinners. Of course I also meet a lot of new people. I try to spread out the social activities a bit because I also need time for myself. I work out every other day in the gym accross the street where I took a membership. I love to just walk around and watch the daily life. I do that a lot during the weekends. And of course there are evenings which are good for some reading or a movie.

6. Do I connect with people or am I lonely? I love time for myself as I just described, but of course it is one of the special things of being here to socialize with Colombians. There are 47 million of them and 10 million live here in Bogota. I try not to "over-do" it. I like to spend time one on one with my old friends and new Colombians I get to meet through work and net-working. It often results in discussions which go a bit deeper. But every now and then a beer with a group is of course great as well, and the city of Bogota has way more choices for going out than I can handle... As I described in one of my blogs, I do miss my life-partner Mary a lot. That was predictable. And it is good to notice that we indeed miss each other's company.

7. Do I "coast on the surface" here? In a way yes of course. I will be here longer than many people who visit Colombia, but it is still only one year. It is my"home away from home", but my real home is where Mary and I live together. As "expatriates" we always live a bit "on the surface". But I do not hang out much with other foreigners.

8. What are my impressions of people here? As anywhere else in the world there are so many different Colombians. It is very entertaining to hear my colleagues poke fun at each other from where they come from in the country. Just tonight I had some late afternoon snacks with two colleagues (Sandra and Alvaro; I have talked about both of them in previous blog entries). Sandra is from the coastal area and Alvaro grew up in Bogota. I can't really explain what they teased each other on, but it would be the same in Canada with a Torontonian and somebody from the east or west coast. I will try througout the year to share "people stories" with you.

9. Last question: how about the food? This is going to be the weak part of my blog... I love going out with people for meals, but hardly ever pay attention to the food. What for me counts is the company and the conversations. The food.... well as long as it does not kill us. Of course there is a rich variety of typical Colombian dishes from the many different parts and cultures of the country. I will do my best to make some photos of dishes every now and then (but I tend to forget that all the time). It is past midnight now.... time for a sleep rather than talk about food. Stay tuned...