I somehow manage to get into very peculiar situations.
So I'm an official AIESEC member now (though only a trainee), and I'm getting all these emails about meetings, parties, activities, and stuff going on. One of them arrived a few days ago, urging everyone in AIESEC to participate @ some big meeting about United Nations, volunteers, and CONRED on Monday the 7th @ 9AM in the ASF office in the third level of the Geminis building. Since my schedule is not really THAT tight these days, I thought "yeah, I can make it, no big deal". So off I went - I reached the Geminis building at the precise time, climbed right up to the third floor, and began looking - no sign of ASF office. I asked the guards - no one knew. I called Liz to ask her if she knew any more info about the place of the meeting - she didn't. I kept on walking through the hallways for about 20 minutes, going into every office to ask about the AIESEC meeting. No one knew. I walked into a lab where people were taking blood samples, I walked into a bank, I walked into some strange corporate meeting, but no sign of the ASF office anywhere. I went back to the first floor to look for a building directory... there was none. "OK, one last look", I thought, and went back to the third floor. I then noticed a mean-looking man with a kevlar vest and a moustache staring suspiciously at me, and surreptiously following me arround. I acted nonchalantly, as if strolling down the park, but it was obvious he thought I was some kind of delinquent.
Not wanting to be unceremoniously kicked out of the building, I walked into the first escape route I found - a stair case leading down to the second floor. What a surprise I got to see that my so-sought office was in the SECOND floor of the building! And that is wasn't ASF... it was AFS!!! Man, their business must really go the drain if they give everyone their address this way. So I avoided the mean-looking guy by going into the meeting I was actually supposed to. I was led by a white-bloused, nice-looking receptionist into a room with (gasp) FOUR other people around a meeting-type table. "Hmmm, not too much of a big meeting", I thought. Everyone was looking at me, so I summoned up my social mask and introduced myself in the manner I thought most appropriate: big smile, hand-shaking, talking out loud, and all the time acting as if I was proudly representing AIESEC. It didn't take me long to realize I was the only AIESEC member coming to the meeting. There was this old, tall, bald guy from AFS, a brown, red-shirted guy from URL, an executively-dressed guy from Fundación Solar, a big fat thin-bearded guy from Fundaeco with his shirt so low I could practically see his nipples (not that I wanted to), two old big ladies from CONRED and who-knows-where, and this strange guy who I didn't like sitting next to me because 1) he seemed gay, and 2) he came from the "Anti-AIDS" program, which made 1) even more suggestive.
There had already been other meetings of the sort with these same people, so I was the only "newbie" in the place. I acted quite attentively and silently throughout the first part of the meeting - desperately trying to get a hang of what was going on. It seemed that each person represented a different institution, and these people were there to discuss the creation of a central entity for volunteer institutions all around Guatemala. Once I had understood the facts, however, I began to say stuff. I'm not sure why, but I had lots of ideas and I just blurted them out as they came. Funnily, they came out well, and my ideas were really taken into account. I proposed action, activities, and reinforcement of the existing institutions even while more institutions were being added to this new group. The details are not that important, but I ended up placing AIESEC itself as the co-leader of the Coordination Committee, confirmed AIESEC's presence in two new meetings this week and the next, and offered myelf to help with the project's main database. Oh, and I also got to drink two cups of coffee with sugar and coffee-mate and eat two muffins.
But it doesn't make much sense. It hasn't been a month since I've entered AIESEC, and honestly, I know virtually NOTHING about the organization! Sure, I know the concept, the goals, the theory... but I haven't been involved at all. So how can I represent it? I think it's funny/weird that I, a newbie, came to represent AIESEC @ this important meeting. Yeah, important - it sure seems important - a big government-supported institution (CONRED) is involved, the project requires involvement from lots of people, and it has really long-term goals. And I practically aided in creating the organization's main structure. Not that I didn't like it, but it's... weird.
Well, Naty congratulated me on going to the meeting, so I'm glad I went. She's nice. Now I've gotta figure out who to give the responsibility about this project to, cause I don't have enough AIESEC experience as to represent them in such an important project (i.e. I don't want to). Nah, just kidding. The project actually looks nice, but I want to focus on other stuff like language classes, abacus practice, music, parkour, and well, the stuff I really like.
Yeah, I know, this is a boring entry. What did you expect? Witty remarks on the people at the meeting and on the muffins? Nope, none really came to me today. I just thought I'd like to remember this event in case I forget. So yeah, you just read an awfully boring blog entry. Oh, too bad. Deal with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment