Professional Visits...or not...

The team was split up this morning to head out on our occupational visits. We have to do this sort of thing in between the fun so that our employers will actually think that it was worth them letting us come. Today’s visits were: Tong and Catherine visited a school; Bert met with a priest; I met with a labor advisor and a union negotiator; and finally Chris and Carla were supposed to visit an engineering firm…more on that later.
Tong y Catherine hablamos (collectively written):
We spent the morning at the Instituto de Enseňanza Secundaria Los Cristianos. Guadalupe Gonzalez, an English teacher and friend of Marcos Cabrera, showed us around. She also invited us to participate in two of her English classes. In the first class, we played a game called Lie Detector in which students tell three things about themselves- two that are true and one that is false. It turns out that Catherine is a pretty good liar since the students couldn’t guess which of her statements was a lie. Next, we did a question and answer activity with the students. We spoke a little about us and our impressions of their island. The best part was when Tong got to teach a five minute lesson on functions. Both of us were very impressed with the caring that the teachers showed for all of their students, many of whom come from diverse cultures. A poem on the wall seemed to sum up their approach:
If your god is Jewish,
Your car is Japanese,
Your pizza is Italian,
Your gas is Argentinean,
Your coffee is Brazilian,
Your vacations are Moroccan,
Your numbers are Arabic,
And your letters are Latin,
How can you say that your neighbor is a foreigner?
Bert hablar:
I met with Father David Evans, a Roman Catholic priest currently serving in Los Gigantes. He is a former Anglican priest from Zimbabwe. He had become an enemy of the state there and had to leave four years ago. As part of that move, he “went to Rome,” applying to Canada, England, and Spain. The church in Spain offered him the position in Tenerife. He and his wife have two daughters, one of whom is married to a doctor in Fort Lauderdale, FL, the other married and living in the Cayman Islands. We had a great time talking about a variety of subjects, professional and otherwise. In fact, we’re continuing the conversation on Wednesday morning. This time he’s bringing his wife, Patricia, to be our adult supervision.
Nic hablar:
After a short walk to the office of Marcos Cabrerra, I was taken upstairs to his sister’s office where I met with Roberto, a former teacher turned labor advisor. Roberto explained to me the process of human resources as it applied to his position. He was very knowledgeable about all the activities that are controlled by the government. He talked about social security, taxes, wages and pensions. I learned that the majority of the workforce in the country is controlled by labor unions and there is a great need for managers to handle these issues. The whole morning was so interesting to me that we ran way off schedule and my second visit had to be cut short. Once we figured out that we had talked for a couple of hours, Roberto realized that he was supposed to take me to another office so that I could speak to Jesus Cruz, a Rotarian and owner of a HR firm, about labor union negotiation. Jesus gave me a quick run down of the processes that his company follows and what bargains were routinely located in each negotiation. By far, this was the best professional day so far for me as I was able to gain a better understanding of how the European HR systems work.
Chris y Carla hablamos (collectively written):
We helped Pedro purchase a new laptop. Once this was completed, we went to a building that is comparable to our Bi-Lo Center and attempted to bargain with security to allow us to go on a tour but they would not allow us.
We all reconvened at the Villa Cortes where we met Mark, a Rotarian and the general manager of the hotel. We learned that Mark has traveled the world in the hotel business. He has lived in Barbados, Venezuela, Mexico, Lanzarote, Switzerland and Tenerife. He is actually a Swiss but has lived here for the past five years. We were led straight away to lunch out on the patio that overlooked the pool and the beach…it’s a hard life over here. Mark ordered Paella and drinks for the table. We were all a little hungry but a little paella cured that quickly. After the Paella and the dessert (which was interesting because we all ordered strawberries and the waiter came back out and said that all of the strawberries were gone...Mark gave him one look and said - no there are some strawberries and out they came...I love Rotarians), we were sent on a guide tour where we visited one of the suites and got a behind the scenes tour of the hotel from the pastry kitchen to the banquet halls. Mark was a gracious host and allowed us to stop and take pictures along the way of the beautiful views. After the tour, the group (sin Bert) decided to take a stroll through the tourist district towards the casas. Catherine has wanted to ride a camel since we got here...and the camels were only on Lanzarote...Somewhere along the walk today, Catherine got to ride her camel. We didn’t have to be back until 6:30 so we took our time and enjoyed the 45 minute stroll along the promenade filled with 180 shops and some amazing coastline. We all finally made it home and washed up for the Rotary Club meeting.
Pedro drove us to the hotel where Tenerife Sur Club meets. We had the privilege of having a world renowned expert in volcanic science give us a private presentation on the volcanoes of the islands. Dr Nemesio Perez, who is apparently very famous to people in the volcano science world, spoke to the group about how volcanoes have formed over the years and certain methods that they use to predict the next eruptions. The ideas were very interesting and we were all very pleased to have someone like Dr Perez take time to come speak to us. After a break and some food and drinks, we had to earn our keep. Bert began the presentation and we all followed along as we have become accustomed to doing. The presentation went flawless as always and we were presenting with the club’s banner…Bert forgot our banners to reciprocate. A few business matters were discussed and the meeting was adjourned.
Since it was still early, some of the Rotarians decided to take us out for some drinks in town. Pedro, Ingolf, Paquita and Nelson led us to the center of town where we enjoyed each others company in the cool night air. Tong and I had a paper airplane race, Catherine typed her blog portion (see above) on Chris’s computer and we all let Chris download our pictures for backup. Pedro made the comment that the crazy Americans are always working even during their time off. This quote summed up our professional visits day or at least my portion of it…