Time's running

Unbelievable how time is just flying bye! I already lost kind of the feeling for time and forget what has been going on the day or two days before because there is too much going on at one day. I wanted to write after the MC was in Salinas (at the beach) but when we returned we had to go to a "Catch u later" party of a friend, who got an awesome job on Galapagos! Mauricio Grande, EL DUDE... congrats for that! Hope I manage to come and visit you!!!

Congratulation also to Rob (Leverage team Thailand), Ivan (Leverage team Spain) and Piret (SSGN Board)! It's really cool that you guys got that! I'm happy for you and wish you all the best for this exciting time!

So after Salinas we had a Global Village in a really poor area of Guayaquil last Saturday. It was kind of hard to tell the little kids (from 6 to 14 years) about Switzerland, our customs and specialities because they didn't really pay attention to what we (together with Marco (we met at AXLDS in Venezuela 2 years ago, never saw us in Switzerland and now me meet back up in latin america - how cool is that) were saying - they had more fun playing games. That's why we gave some facts about CH, asked questions about it later on and whoever knew the answer got a piece of delicious Swiss chocolate... They loved it! Finally we all had a lot of fun together. We presenters enjoyed our famous and popular moments at the end of the event when the kids came and asked us for our signatures and some even for our phone numbers... How cute!! ;-)

Afterwards I went shopping with some friends and bought my first DIESEL Jeans... for unbelievably 15$!! Well, of course their false but who cares - they look great and I just needed some more clothes then what I could bring in my little 23kg from back home...
Don't ask what I've done at the evening - the same as usally. Go to a friends house where the party takes place, chat with lots of AIESECers and their friends, drink Cuba Libre and dance Merengue, Salsa, Regetton and all the latin music till early in the morning or till there is no more "drago" (=booz=alc=cuba libre). And as always it's lots of fun, really. Latins know how to party and everybody enjoys being together! It's just great...!
Sunday I played football with the guys on the streets of Guayaquil. I felt super cause that's a thing I haven't done for quite a long time... and it made me feel so much in latin america. Cannot really describe it but want to keep that picture!

From Monday till today was individual transition and preparation for the national meeting which is coming up. I have so many ideas on how to develop the potential of this country, what could be improved and so on that we (together with my predecessor) have written some proposals. Such as having two member raisings a year and therefore 2 LDS as well. I've spent quite some time to go over the conference flow of Ecuador and we found a great but challenging solution. Now I just hope the proposals pass the legislation and my suggestions of the new conference flow will be accepted.
Ah, I'm really much looking forward to my term, my job and everything... actually I'm already so much into it that I already could say it's great working here!
Although we face our problems... Reason why I have time to write on my blog is that we were actually supposed to have a meeting today BUT: Since today is supposingly the last day of our teamtransition the session was called: One Team - One Vision.
Good stuff... with the only problem that half the team was missing!! At 9.30 the meeting was supposed to start, at 10 all the people ready were the 3 internationals from our team... And since the MCP was something like 2 hours late and had to leave after one hour and another ecuadorian couldn't come at all we decided to skip that meeting completely. I mean how do you want to work on a teamvision if the team is not complete. That's pretty ridiculous. We'll do it after the national conference. It's cool, never mind.
Really, although I don't like it at all to work under such conditions and neither the attitude some people have I consider it as an extremly valuebal experience and found my way of how to deal with it.

Still I hope that we can have some fruitful discussions, find common agreements and the right ways of dealing with each other because

I believe in people, I believe in my team and I believe in Ecuador!!!

Adaption process

...strange or normal?
I'm thinking about how fast it goes to adapt. It skipped my mind last Saturday when we were eating some burgers on the street at 10pm before going out and one girl was cold. I wasn't really cold but definitely didn't feel like it was 26 degrees - and it was! You know those things hanging up showing the temperature and time. This thing said 26 - 10.12.
This morning the same. At 9 a.m. when I left the house (I did my laundry before for all the ones that think I have lazy days...!) it was already 28 degrees and I felt like I would in Switzerland with 18 degrees.
Guess that must just be adaption. But I'm kind of surprised how fast this goes on the expamle of the temperature. Not with understanding the bus"system" that's another thing.
But of course there are things I will never adapt... Really, this everyday rice thing is just too little diversity in the food for me!! Damn I miss pasta!!
I'm looking forward to our own flat when we can do our own cooking. Luigi and me will become the pasta chiefs!!! jajaja

By the way MC flat: At the moment I doubt about the MC moving to Quito in June. We neither have an office nor accomodation yet in Quito. Pero no te preocupas - don't worry - that's a sentence you hear a lot over here!
And you know what?! - I don't :-)
EVERYTHING IS GONNA BE ALRIGHT!

What's more in terms of adaption is that I'm doing preety fine with my spanish. Of course it's far away from great but I understand constantly a bit more what people say and can more or less express what I want. The only problem at the moment is that transition is quite though and takes a lot of time so that I don't have personal time to study or take classes which of course would help to improve my spanish. But I have time - lots of time and I'm sure that I will pick it up during the next couple of months.

In the MC we said that thanks to our international team we will be all fluent in spanish, italian (Luigi), french (Dalal) , arab (Dalal) , german (me) and swiss german (me) and maybe some russian (Franchesca) after our term! How cool would that be hey?! Living Diversity rocks!!

Right, by the way, tormorrow we are heading for Salinas, a place at the beach where one of the MC members has a house. In order to change the environment of transition we thought it's a great idea doing it at the beach ;-)
will tell you later about it
que te vaya bien

Feelings....

Diesen Post wollte ich seit letzten Sonntag schreiben, doch geht es bei mir im Moment so drunter und drueber dass ich echt nicht dazu gekommen bin... Jedenfalls ist dieses Erlebnis so speziell und tief, dass ich es weder vergessen habe noch meinem Blog vorenthalten moechte.

Was ist geschehen?
Uebers Wochenende fuhren wir (etwa 8 Personen) nach Montañita. Jep, das ist der selbe Ort wo ich mein erstes Wochenende in Ecuador verbrachte. Die Sonne sowie der Strand waren natuerlich immernoch supertoll und die Stimmung in der Gruppe eigentlich auch.
Doch am Samschtigobe im Usgang heds mer denn ufd Stemmig gschlage. Ir Disco esch es Lied gloffe wo starchi Erennerige i mer usgloest hed... u met dene Erennerige send witeri cho u au e hufe Gfuehl... so vell das ech mech noem woerkli wohl gfuehlt ha ufem Dancefloor u zom Fuer gange be (es esch en Stranddisco onder freiem Hemmel). Egendwie send mer ded aber z vel Luet omeghaenged wo min Frede won ech brucht ha gstoert haend... Auso beni a Strand abe u hami i Sand gsetzt. Is Meer starrend hani mine Gedanke u mine Gfuehl freie Lauf gloh u mech nochemne Zitli besser gfuehlt - i Sand gleid u zom Hemmel ufe gluegt. Oeber d Staerne han ech mech so onendlech starch met de Heime verbonde gfuehlt - s hed rechtig guet do...!
I dem Momaent ben ech so starch bi EUCH xi mini Liebe! Glaubed mer das! U ech be dankbar settigi Augebleck doerfe z erlaebe... esch onglaublech intensiv ond zeigt mer wie vel ehr mer bedueted u wie wechtig das ehr mer send!

And then one really intense thing happend. Luigi (a guy from the MC entrante) came down to the beach as well. Without saying a word he sat himself down next to me in the sand and joined me watching the sky. All the different feelings, the mix of moods that I had been going through before disappeared in that very moment and gave space to one certain feeling: FRIENDSHIP!

Grazias mi Hombre

El Centro del Mundo

Incredible how fast the time is running... and there is always so much going on here that I didn't find time to write on my blog, sorry...
So what happened lately?
Two weekends ago (from the 21st to the 23rd of April 2006) I chaired my first conference, jajaja!!! Although I faced some problems with the language (my spanish isn't really fluent yet and not all of the participants spoke english) it was a great and learningful experience to me. Especially to experience the role of a chair, how you manage to run a conference but also to see how the people work here, what their approach and processes are. It was about goal setting of the LCP's for the next year on which figures the MC will base our planning on... Que chevere!

Beside studying spanish I fixed everything with my visa and finally got an Ecuadorian ID! Feels really good. And guys, never complain about the swiss bureaucracy anymore please! You should see that here! You have to run from one office to the next in order to get it done. For example: since the government is not really trustworthy and they would corruptly keep the money you pay there, they give you a ticket with which you have to go to the bank and pay. With this ticket you go back to the other office where you obviously have to que again... And this went on and on. It took me two days to get it done... in Switzerland it took me 30 minutes...!

On Thursday the 27th of April I travelled to Quito to attend the SDL (seminar desarrollo de lideres = LDS (Leadership Development Seminar)). My role was pretty much one as a delegate and observer due to the fact that it will be me who hast to organize this conference next year. It was excellent to get to know some of the people I'm going to work with and finding out more about the way the run conferences. It's pretty amazing to see their passion, spirit and drive. That really fascinates me. And they have a much much stronger dancing culture than we do in CH. Well, I mean in the plenary as well as at the parties!
My personal highlight of the conference was to walk over burning coal...!
Before doing so we had a session about concentration and psycological strength. So we had to imagine of being in front of the firewalk, run and reach the other side. Although we were mentally prepared and willing to do it we all were still afraid - but we ALL DID IT! It was such a great experience and felt so great afterwards!! Really empowered and encouraged that it's possible to DO ANYTHING if you just want to, if you're just really really willing to do so. It's up in your head - you decide where you go, what and how high the goal is that you want to reach!

After the conference our transition (passing the knowledge and takingover of the new team from the outgoing group) started.
We did a little sightseeing in Quito and visited the centre of the world -

EL CENTRO DEL MUNDO!

On the picture you see me with one foot in the northern the other in the southern hemisphere!
The orange mark is the 0º line which is called equator...
...and I was on it!
Jipeee-ai-eeeiiiihhhh!!!!

:-))


For more pics klick here:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?Uc=1sed448x.99mbm77d&Uy=23ww15&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&mode=fromshare&conn_speed=1