Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Columbia, Bogota: Day 4

Today was a very solid working day. We had hoped we would get some time to work in our project groups, get some planning accomplished & some thoughts down on paper, but it didn't work out that way. Compassionately, I will spare you the blow-by-blow story of meetings & powerpoints & discussion of point-by-point complex tables.

So instead I will give you a step by step guide about how to visit the Canadian embassy, which is what we did in the afternoon. Now, it is quite likely that Canadian embassies are not exactly the same the world over so the knowledge I am sharing with you here may not be generally transferable. But if ever you find yourself in Bogota, with some reason or requirement to visit the embassy, you will be ready!

Here are the steps:

  1. Make an appointment. The embassy is not a casual drop-in sort of visit.
  2. Dress up. Most of the women in our group changed into a dress & changed casual shoes to heels. Most of the men wore a suit jacket, & several wore ties as well.
  3. Bring your passport! This cannot be stressed enough, it seems. We were each warned at least half a dozen times about this & amazingly we all succeeded in bringing it along the first time ;-)
  4. Once you arrive at the embassy you must hand your passport over to the fellows at the front desk. Once they have gathered all the passports of those in your group, you will be led to wait a little while they .... ? Probably look up your name in some big secure database.
  5. If your name is not redlined in the big secure database, after 5 minutes or so you will be called up to the counter. You will be required to look into a webcam 'orbit' still camera before you are handed back your passport along with a visitor's card on a lanyard.
  6. Once you have all been fitted out in this way, you will be led to the other side of the entrance area where your purse will be opened & checked. You are also checked for cameras & less friendly technology. You are told to turn your cell phone off.
  7. Now you are ready to pass through the turnstiles. Each person had to be told (but not you, dear reader, because now you know!) that you need to wave your visitor's card in front of a little sensor in front of the turnstile. That will make the little access light turn green & allow you in.
  8. Next you are guided to an elevator by a security guard, smiling in a friendly way all the time; nevertheless, he doesn't leave you out of his sight until he sees the elevator doors close.
  9. On your designated floor you get out & are met my someone from the embassy at a locked glass door (bullet proof glass?)
  10. She lets you in & leads you down to a meeting room where you are seated & served tea or coffee. In case you ever need to know: cafe con leche = coffee with (hot) milk; cafe tinto = black coffee; te = tea, & tea aromatica = herbal tea.  I recommend the coffee: Colombian coffee is truly the best I have had anywhere in the world.
  11. Be ready for an interesting & informative conversation. At this point in our meeting schedule we were half-expecting another powerpoint showcasing the superlative work of the Canadian embassy in Colombia but instead the 2 aides showed an impressive familiarity with our project plans & goals & offered some really useful advice for moving forward & locating additional future (& present) partners.
  12. Leave the embassy  absolutely no later than 5 pm. Leave at least 15 minutes earlier if you can. We pushed the meeting a bit past 5 (feeling badly about that now) & were tied up in rush hour traffic for almost an hour.
That's about it! I kind of wished there had a been a souvenir; that we'd got to keep some part of the vistor's badge (they were of course all collected & carefully counted - twice - before we left the room) or some sticker or a ballpoint pen... I did get the embassy aid's business card though.

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