Gentleman vs. Discrimination

Ladies and Gentlemen - and all the rest

The other day I made an interesting observation that I want to share with you:
It is a morning like every other else in Guayaquil beside the fact that today I'm going to ESPOL (the university where the official MC office is) instead of the Universtity Catholica where I usually go. That's why I have to take 2 buses instead of just one.
Point of the story is, that when I jumped out of the still driving bus (that's how they do it here) and walked to the station where all the buses start form heading to ESPOL there was a huge line of people in front of the bus. But then I realized that there wasn't just one que, there were 2 - in one stood only girls and in the other all the guys. Not knowing why they do so but instinctively identifying myself with the boys I qued in that line and waited till the busdriver openned the doors. And what do you expect, of course, first all the ladies got in the bus and then the seats that were left over got filled up with the guys...
Well I didn't really know what to think of that. I mean is it fair? Cause girls that arrive at the time when the girls line is getting in will get in before the guys that are waiting for much longer already... Is it the ecuadorian way of being a gentlemen? I don't know, cause that's acutally the only busstation where that happens. And there are only students. Sure, I'm not talking about getting up in the bus for an elderly lady or a women that is pregnant...

The same thing happens here in discos. In all the places there are prices for girls and boys. Girls often get in for free whereas boys have to pay 10 to 15$. Why is that?! It's not that girls wouldn't go out otherwise. Well, fair enough if all the drinks are for free once you are in - but otherwise (and that happens) men have to pay entrance fee AND the drink for the ladies afterwards...!

And then somebody is blaming that women don't get the same salary for the same work!
Well, I say, please get the same salary for the same work - that's nothing more then fair in my point of view - but then pay also the same entrance fee and every second drink for your gentleman please!
Otherwise we will never get equal rights - equal treatment...!
Don't be afraid or don't call my bold mtfkr who doesn't know how to treat women. Again, I'm not talking about the gentlemen stuff of openning the door for her, helping her into her jacket, telling her compliments and buying roses for her etc. Things that MEN DO FOR WOMEN and that DO NOT HAPPEN THE OTHER WAY AROUND! (I know that there are a few femal exceptions that I beg you sorry now that I'm generalising - I know you exist and I appreciate that a lot ;-))

Don't tell me now that I'm in a latin country - I know that! So what?! Is that latin correctness??
Don't tell me now that they are more traditional - that's not true! They are in a huge process of change and just like a big city and it's different people - part of the globalisation as well...
Don't tell me that men like doing so - the ones who have the money might not mind - but the majority doesn't... so what about these poor guys?!

People all around the globe - you know what - I had the same discussion alraedy back home - and it's just the same as over here.
The beautiful species just wants to have it all! More money, more rights but not loosing anyting.
More benefits but not ready to paying for it or doing the same things that the male species have to do for it.
I don't know, I don't hope any of my readers (especially female ones) are gonna hate me for that, I just wanted to bring the topic up, sharing my observations with you and listening to your opinion.
And if you don't understand CHALLENGE YOUR WORLDVIEW and give it a go - it's worth it ;-)

Above everyting, never forget that I love the female species
which might explain a lot...

Zur Niederlage der Schweiz

Ja es ist hart dass wir draussen sind. Doch um diese Niederlage ein bisschen besser ertragen zu koennen soll man es ja bekanntlicherweise mit Humor nehmen.
Here we go:

Im Prozess gegen Saddam Hussein wird das Urteil verkündet.
Der Richter sagt: "Ich habe eine gute und eine schlechte Nachricht. Welchewillst du zuerst hören?"
Saddam: "Zuerst die schlechte."
Der Richter: "Du bist zum Tode verurteilt durch erschiessen!"
Saddam: "Und die gute?"
Der Richter: "Die Schützen sind Streller, Cabanas und Barnetta"

:-)

My address

Chicos,

in the last post I wrote about friendship and about receiving mails, postcards and phonecalls and then I realized that I've never given out these contact details. That was pretty much because I was never sure where I'm going to stay on the long run. Our plan is still to move to Quito and the ddl we set for searching something in Quito is untill IC. But that might change - as everything here. You're never sure what's gonna happen... That makes it kind of interesting too. Anyways, I don't think that we're going to move to Quito soon, neither do we have the money to rent a MC flat here in Guayaquil, which is a big pitty. So I guess I'm going to stay in my family for a little longer.
And that is why I finally give you my contact details.
Which - by the way - is not an obligation that you have to write, call and send me packages everyday - just in case you feel like once in a while or are coming by for a flying visit :-)

My homeaddress:
Familia Vera Alvarado
Ciudadela Luis Morejón Almeida
Manzana A2 Villa 5
042344071 Telefono de Casa
Guayaquil - ECUADOR


Telefon: +5932344071
--> that's the landline, so please keep in mind the 7 hours difference there is (over here it's now 10 and in Switzerland 17.00 ya) as well as the fact that I'm not home a lot of time...

My cell phone: +59384164408
--> very important: you cannot write me SMS, Ecuador is on an other frequency and I will NOT receive your SMS. But you can call me, that works. One hour costs about 15 CHF (just that you have an idea).

La Amistad

Letztens hatte ich eine interessante Diskussion mit Dalal ueber Heimweh. Ihr geht es naemlich im Moment nicht so gut. Ich fragte sie wie sich das anfuehlt und sie meinte dass sie einfach alles vermisst, waere lieber mit ihrer Familie und Freunden als hier, wuerde lieber kanadisches Essen speisen als taeglich "arroz con pollo" und lieber in ihrem Bett schlafen als bei einer "fremden" Familie und viele weitere solche Dinge.
Keine Ahnung Leute ob ihr das versteht - ich hoffe es jetzt mal, dass ich unglaublich viel an euch denke, sei es auch nur in kleinen Momenten, wie beispielsweise letzten Dienstag. Wir waren Pizza essen (Martes loco - da gibts 2 fuer 1) und sassen draussen an einem Tisch als ich zum Himmel hochschaute und diesen hell leutenden Stern sah - nur diesen... Die leichte Brise die ich dann spuehrte war ein „Hallo“ von Chreschi...
Und so bin ich mit euch verbunden - ueber Gedanken und Erinnerungen, ueber Sterne und in all den Momenten die ich mit euch teile – und glaubt mir das sind viele!!!
Aber ich denke nicht dass dies Heimweh ist. Klar vermisse ich euch, vermisse es mit euch zu quatschen, auszugehen und ein Bierchen zu trinken. Doch nicht so dass ich lieber zu Hause waere als hier. Denn mir geht es grundsaetzlich sehr gut hier und ich bin gluecklich. All die Eindruecke und learning points nehme ich mit grosser Freude auf - ich profitiere so viel und kann mich hier auf unterschiedlichsten Ebenen weiterentwickeln. Nur schon das Arbeiten in einer anderen Kultur ist extrem herausfordernd. Ich koennte euch viele Beispiele erzaehlen. Und ja, da gehoeren Frustrationen dazu - beispielsweise so wie vorhin gerade mit dem Datum fuer eine Konferenz das extrem zu diskutieren gab. Nach einer langen online Diskussion hab ich ein Datum fixiert und ueber ein Spam allen mitgeteilt. Der LCP des OC hat dann aber ein anderes Datum kommuniziert – warum (um das lange komplizierte Ergeignis kurz zu halten) – weil er mein Mail nicht gelesen hat…!! Grrrr
Als ich dann alles geloest hatte, musste ich einfach lachen und sagen - wieso nervst du dich Junge, ist doch alles halb so wild.
Und ich weiss ich wachse und reife daran. Ich weiss dies alles als eine wahnsinnig intensive Erfahrung zu schatzen und freue mich daran.

Jedenfalls hab ich nach dieser Diskussion ueber Heimweh mit Dalal das Buch, welches ich von meinem Schwesterherz zu meiner "Birthday & Catch u later" Party erhalten habe, angeschaut mit all euren Photos und lieben Wuenschen. Klar ging mir das nahe - aber ich glaube was mir wirklich nahe ging und gleichzeitig gut tat ist die Verbundenheit – ist eure Freundschaft zu spueren und zu wissen dass ihr ebenfalls an mich denkt, dass ihr das gleiche fuer mich empfindet. Auch wenn nicht jeden Tag ein Mail im Posteingang ist, ein Telefon oder ein Brief kommt – so sind wir, wie einige auch geschrieben haben, auf einem Level verbunden, wo die Zeit und Distanz keine Rolle spielen…

Thanx for that – gracias por tu amistad – por siempre

onglaublech...

...aber wohr - ond ech freu mech sooo fescht foer Euch beidi MICHI & SARAH!!

Waer so garn debi om das echli meh met euch z teile aber ech chome jo baud...

Woensch Euch alles Liebi ond Gueti ond vor allem EWIGI LIEBI

mini Froende - en jongi Famelie - eis Gloeck

aaah, ech ha so Freud :-)

http://www.aliena.de/fun/baby/stickybaby.htm

Meeting up soon

Dearest friends all around the globe - we have the chance to meet up soon...

!!! IC here I come !!!

Let me know if you will be part of it too. I know (the ecuadorian reality helped me to understand even better) that realities are different and unfortunately not all the great AIESECers out there are able to attend IC and I'm really sorry for all of them, really. On the other hand I'm so much looking forward catching up with everybody who will be there...

I'm so excited!

(-: cu soon :-)

WE WON!

On Friday the 9th of June 2006 Ecuador played against Poland. The custom over here is that everybody gets off, really, it's kind of a public holiday!! Everybody gets the time off to watch the match. And so it was, at 1p.m. the life was just normal, busy streets with lot of traffic and people. At 2p.m. when the match started - hardly anybody on the street anymore. And it was damn difficult to get a taxi. First of all there were hardly any, these ones were busy or asked an incredible high price. But finally we managed to get home and watch the match - of course wearing an Ecuador T-Shirt...
The match was a thrill and we could cheer twice cause - and won - 2:0!! Afterwards we went downtown to check out the party - and it was crazy! Everybody dancing on the street, screeming, jumping, hugging, yelling around... I was with some other internationals - one was blond too - and people stared at us, screeming: POLASKE!!
we go: "Nono, suizo - SI SE PUEDE (the cheer of Ecuador) SI SE PUEDE - Ecuador!!!" Sometimes we felt almost in danger but at the end everything was cool and we are waiting for the next win of Ecuador!
Their condition is really good - in the selection they won all the games, even against Brazil with 1:0. So, my tip for the final is Ecuador vs. Switzerland!
If that happens, the round is on me!!
Now, to a great WM, to fairplay and that football might connect cultures!

visualization

we all know that pictures often can say more than words - and it's high time anyway that I'm sharing some more impressions with you.
So on the following link you will find 4 different albums:

1. NSM 31.5.-4.6.06
   The visual output of 4 days conference in Loja with the highlights of the election and the red light district party
   --> visit this album only if you're older than 18 and understand the culture of @!
2. Esmeralda 26.-27.5.06
   a weekend with friends at the beach. Unfortunately I miss a lot of pics since I didn't take it to the party - but my friends have lots more and I'll organize them.
3. Fiesta y Global Village
   Every Friday one of the internationals cook for everybody in Roxana's house and here we go with some impressions about that.
   Furthermore there are pics from the global village that took place in a very poor part of Guayaquil, with a lot of happy kids and our famous moment - cause the kids came and asked for our signatures after the event - how cute!!
4. MC Transition
   some impressions about the transition time

and here is finally the link:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=1sed448x.4nkfkcl5&Uy=rj0inr&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=959543155486_773498127305

Career Plan

Juhuu, what a step in my career! Yesterday I found out about my salary... :-)

There is absolutely no money in the cash that we can get paid what we've been promised. Which is just a shame to me because @EC has never transmitted the honest version of the situation to us...

Of course it's not about the money and I always knew that I won't become rich over here, which was never a goal of mine. But financing my living, that's what I wanted. The hope is our big selling team now!! Go for it guys, we need food and clothes... After all I think the whole experience is gonna be much more extense in this way... we'll see.

By the way career plan, lately I've been thinking a lot about applying for PDU or not. It kind of sucks not to have a career plan where it could be stated whether to do it this or next year. And my PGS is pretty much self made and not structured as it could be after a session. And unfortunately I don't have a mentor that I could bother with all my questions!

But I have a sister - the best one you can imagine!! She is more then just a couch, a mentor, a listener, a supporter, an empowerer and encourager ever could be - she is all in one and way more - and she is always there for me!!

Thank you very much for calling me today!

Exactely the right timing!!!

I'm so proud of you and your "sehr gut" in the exam

-

but you know,

to me YOU WILL ALWAYS BE MY BEST!!!

FOREVER LOVE

NSM 3: General sharings

The takeover party just rocked with the theme: Red light district! Luigi and me got elected as the couple of the evening but unfortunately not elected...
But aren't these just hot chicas??
It's ok, the other election was more important :-)



On day 3 and 4 of the conference we created the plan by analizing the strategy map with all its critical success factors, looked for the causes why this isn't the case for Ecuador at the moment and came up with initivatives to work on it. It was a really good approach and the people in the teams I was facilitating worked really great. I'm telling you, there is a lot to do in PD...!!

General things that were new to me:

• Daily capture:
  This takes place in the morning plenary and a person who disturbed the conference, fall asleep or did anything bad is asked on a chair in front. Then he or she gets asked questions. If their right nothing happens but if the answer is incorrect they get punished. Well fair enough if the questions are useful although most of them are damn difficult or just stupid so that they cannot be answered anyway.
  Punishment 1: A bottle of water
  Punishment 2: Flour over the head
  Punishment 3: a egg to top the whole thing up.
  When I saw it the first time I was really shocked because to me that's just over the top and way too hard because it's not really a test about if someone got the session yesterday when you ask how many people from Quito are present at the conference...

• Time management:
  Normally the job of the chair is to manage the time. Yes we all know punctuality is a different thing in latin america. But the time management of the agenda was so bad that we had to skip sessions such as evaluation of the day, a lot of breaks and cut down time on others. Which to me is just to bad. They are really useful sessions which are just left out... Reason why is especially because the morning plenary takes way too long when we do dances first, then every LC plus MC does Roll Calls (not only shouts) and the silly punishments of the chair usually took ages (20min and more)!
  When you start the morning plenary already late I don't get it why they do all the roll calls and therefore have to cut down on really important sessions such as local planning or area meeting. At the last day I only had 45min to meet with my PD guys instead of the 1.5 hours that were planned in the agenda. Of course I didn't manage to do all I wanted to do meaning discuss about some hot topics but could only agree on priority of the hot topics which we are going to discuss first online...
  I will really stress it out in the MC that if we create an agenda with a timing that it is for something. Otherwise we don't need to do it, right?!

• Comming to the point:
  What I'm used from back home about talking is when you have to say something you express your opinion and come pretty directly to the point. Time is money, right?
  Over here it's different in the way that people talk much much more around the point. Often with a huuuuge introduction they come to the point underline it with I don't know how many examples and do a fade out. Or often they don't come to the point at all. I've met people at the conference who got up and spoke for quite a long time without saying anything...
  You can even go for questions like: Tell me your priorities from the following 4 topics. And you might expect an answer such as: TtT nr. 1, Mentoring nr. 2 and so on. But what you get is answers like, well in my LC mentoring started... blablabla
  Sometimes this is kind of difficult for me to deal with, especially if there is a certain time pressure you have to deal with...

• Breaks
  As I was saying before they often didn't take place at all. We just had a dance or two and that was it. When the so called coffee breaks took place it was just a break - without coffee and cake. The inkind raising is not really well introduced here which is pretty much a fact about the selling knowledge of @ers and the attractiveness of the conference as well as the market in Ecuador...

Well, this sounds as if I was just neglecting and complaining about what is going wrong. But believe me, I don't. I'm just noticing about all the differences there are. It's interesting to find them out - that's one big reason for being here. But not only to know cultural differences, I want to understand them and live them. I'm part of this now and I accept a lot of it. Still I have my personal values, my point of perspective that I won't (or cannot) give up just like that.
I consider it as both sided learning...

Legislation output:

Since my proposals about having two memberraisings and 2 LDS a year came through it was about creating a new flow of the conferences in @Ecuador. My idea about this big conference called "singergia" died already on the first day as it's written in my post "NSM 1". But I forgot only the idea about getting newies for all the 4 days but not the option of a 4 days SDL with a 2 days conference for newies (aiesecitos how they are qutely called over here) only on the weekend to use at least a certain sinergy. Fact is that I just wanted to reduce work for every LC so that the amout of conferences they have to organise with SEMOFO and @XP doesn't double, have a bigger conference that is easier to sell and get more people together so that they start to understand the big local differences in this country by experiencing them.
But people didn't want it. They prefer organising 4 local conferences each year. Main reasons for this decision was that there is no site in Ecuador for 200 people for 4 days at the price of $30.- and more a conference shouldn't cost - people wouldn't come since it would be too expensive. The capacity of people is another reason for letting the idea down because they think an OC would be overforded by this huge event. Furthermore they were afraid that the quality of each track would suffer and the sessions not well organized and delivered...

Summary: I'm happy about the legislation of my proposals and accept the new conference flow but already have some ideas that I want to work out (such as a feasability study, SDL with a one day national learning activity, forum or whatever).

The process of change takes time - a lot of time...
does anybody have some to lend me - I need more...!

That's how we demonstrated our theme of the conference "PASS THE PASSION" and know the MC 06-07 won't stop doing so!

NSM 2: MC Election

Well after we all accepted the fact that we don't have more people and won't cancel the conference we started... The Faci Roll Call just rocked - "pump it"!! And the whole thing about the creation of the magic about our theme "PASS THE PASSION" was really great. What we had to say is that the few people that were there were relly cool and highly motivated. So that after the oppening and agenda explanation we started with our first session, the impact of AIESEC. Facilitating in spanish It was me who presented the first part of it - the impact of AIESEC in me - and I did it all in spanish! Of course I expressed myself and the impact that @ had on me with easy words but I managed and people understood me. Overall they were happy with the session and I was proud about the fact that I'm already able to facilitate in spanish. The rest of the day was normal conference that doesn't need to be explained here. But what I want to share is the MC handover on the 2nd day. So far the incoming team was just elected and the general assembly on the 2nd evening of the conference gave their vote for the new MC. But the process of the legalislation is different in the way that the whole incoming team had to present themselves. So we all spoke about who we are, why we are in Ecuador (the internationals) and what our vision for AIESEC in Ecuador is. The biggest difference though is that the proposer as well as the speechers in favour of the motion say thank you to the outgoing MC and wish luck for to the incoming team. There were a lot of emotional speeches and it was a really touching moment. And since Friday, the 2nd of June 2006 I'm not MCVP PD elect anymore but MCVP People Development 06/07 of AIESEC Ecuador!! I'm so excited about it! There is a lot of work in my area and I will give my best to improve everything around the area of people and I'm pretty positive about it, then I see the potential of this country, the will and motivation of the people in short: Yo creo en Ecuador!! And with me some crazy peoploe, called the MC of AIESEC in Ecuador: Dalal (MCVP X), Luigi (MCVP CD), Franchesca (MCP), Chiripa (MCVP L&P), :-) y Carlos (MCVP ER) As you can imagine, after the election I went outside, took a moment for myself, watched the sky and the stars and got connected with you - the people I wanted to have close, my friends who I wanted to share this great moment with!

NSM 1: Cultural Shock

I don't really know where to start because the last 5 days were extremaly exciting and so much happended that I want to share. In order to keep the confusion low I'll just do it chronological. Thuesday, 30st of May: Catching the bus from Guayaquil at 11p.m. to Loja. 8 hours travel where I unsuccessfully tried to sleep well. Wednesday, 31st of May: Arrival in Loja being pretty tired. Preparing the Faci (=MC incoming and outgoing) Roll Call. Then the whole day LCP premeeting. Important part of this premeeting was the discussion of the proposals. After quite a long discussion we found agreements and except one all the proposals got the YES of the presidents. Which means, my proposals of 2 recruitements and 2 LDS (Leadership Development Seminar) got through. I was pretty happy about that... how cool?! In the evening we went to the site Thursday, 1.6.2006 START OF THE CONFERENCE AND CULTURAL SHOCK!!!! Yes right, in Ecuador or latin America in general people aren't so punctual. So when I've heart the first time, that the plan is that all the delegates arrive in Loja at 8a.m., travel to the site (which is one hour away), arrive at 9 a.m. and the agenda starts at 9.30 I already knew that this is kind of impossible and we will start late. Wouldn't be a problem - if the people came late, but they didn't come at all!! We had 48 applications and at 9.30 not a single delegate was there - only OC, Faci and LCPs. At 11.30 a.m. we had about 12 delegates and decided to start. To me - and to all the others as well, this was a really shocking and hard experience. We felt so bad about that. I mean, what kind of attitude is that?! All the participants applied for all the 4 days of the conference and then they just don't come!! They could have applied for only 3 or 2 days...!! Incredible! And most of their reasons for missing was that they had university!! Even the people form Loja (the hostplace) didn't come because of uni!! In that moment I realized that I have to forget the idea of a 4 days conference for newies together with the LDS (such as DO-IT) because if @ers don't have the committment to come 4 days to a conference where we do the national planning, which is to @EC of highest importance, if not even @ers are prepared to miss 2 days of university - how can we expect that from newies, people who don't have a big understanding about @ and might not see the need of a conference attendance and how much fun it is...! Good bye sinergia! Although it was really disappointing for all of the people who were there I consider it as a very valubal experience. It shows the cultural and even local differences really clearly to me and makes me aware of this totally different environment that I'm in. On the other hand I also see that I desperately have to work on the @ culture! As much as I respect the cultural difference - and believe me I do - but this kind of attitude is just not acceptable. People need to learn that a word is a word, means something and that they have to stick to it. If you apply for 4 days, then you have to come for 4 days. Where is the proplem in planning if you are able to come 4 days or 3 or 2 or not at all?!?? What makes it even harder to understand is the fact that they have to pay. I mean whoever applied for 4 days has to pay for 4 days no matter if they come or not. And the people here don't have that much money that the conference fee of $30.- doesn't mean anything. It's quite a lot of money - especially in Ecuador...! Seriously, I don't understand. What can I do about it? How will it be at the next conference? Will I toghether with the MC be able to have an impact? ...a lot of questions and sorrows go through my head...