It's been another long & busy day. We started work at the same time & in the same classroom at SENA, but it seems the staff must have started that badly underpowered air conditioner hours earlier because the room was actually almost cool when we first arrived. Gradually our students trickled in & we spent the next 6 hours delivering workshops, drinking coffee, & sweating. This is not a pattern one could keep up indefinitely.
Fortunately, however, the Soccer World Cup started this afternoon & Brian decided that since nobody would be able to focus on pedagogical workshops under such conditions, class would be dismissed at 2 pm so people could get to where they needed to be to watch the game. By 1:35 the classroom was empty.
The World Cup is incredibly popular here. They call it the 'Mundial' - the word means 'worldwide' but it is understood that it refers to world cup soccer. The popularity (bordering on frenzy) of the Mundial makes our Stanley cup finals look like an entertainment afterthought. It seems every other man is wearing a Mundial-related garment. There are Mundial posters, souvenirs, trinkets, ads, marginally-related menu items, etc. everywhere. This morning, each table in our hotel restaurant was decorated (?) with a strange fake-gold Mundial piggy bank though I have no idea who would put money in, or why.
The streets were pretty quiet in the Old City where I went walking after class. Outside many of the tiendas (little shops), a handful of men stood on the street, clustered round a TV set & watching the game. Younger men sat on the city wall in groups of 2 & 3, huddled close together so as to share a smartphone display of the game. I walked past a blind man sitting on a park bench, listening to the game on an ancient transistor radio.
As it turned out, Brazil won the game today so everybody here was happy. Apparently Colombia didn't have a chance at this level of the games but they all cheer for the nearest Latin American team. We didn't have time to celebrate too much: still 2 workshops to go plus some certificates to get ready.
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