Yesterday was another crazy day with the Team Welcome Ceremony and the second Opening Ceremony Rehearsal.
So we've worked out a shift pattern with the guys and we re going to try to stick to it. The next challenge is to get advance information from the Chef de Mission, who is quite laid back about everything and then suddenly needs us to do 20 things in the next half hour or when we re no longer available...Super difficult to preempt problems and we go from periods of low to high activity in a matter of minutes. So we're trying to find a way around this.
Near disaster yesterday to illustrate :the Team Welcome Ceremony. Every Delegation gets a 45 min Welcome Ceremony to officialise that they have arrived and are now part of the Games. Smaller teams like Haiti ( mine) are grouped with other delegations for time sake : with 209 countries to welcome over 6 days, there is quite a tight schedule. And naturally you'd think that every delegation would be looking forward to this, as there is a gift exchange, their anthem played and their flag is raised. You'd think everybody would make sure they know what is happening when and who be ready well ahead of time. Well, think again!! Although my team were bossing them around like crazy, delegates decided to take a shower 15 minutes before the start and we literally almost missed our slot by about 5 seconds, with me (!!) and the last athlete sprinting across the village tying up his shoelaces on the way, CRAZY. Welcome to Haiti :-).
So the project managers in me and Nathalie are climbing the wall. But it does make some great anecdotes, right!?! The evening debrief between the 4 of us is turning into the best storytelling experience ever. I won on Monday when i explained that one Haitian, not residing in the Village, came to London without booking an hotel (!!!!!!!!) and so i was looking for one ( bearing in mind he has a very tight budget) frantically calling one place after the other with rising panic, when i glanced at his computer and realised he was updating his profile on matrimonial sites.....
The least you can say is that it takes you out of your normal life and shifts all your references around.
I'll write up the second rehearsal in the next post, or this is going to become a book.
So we've worked out a shift pattern with the guys and we re going to try to stick to it. The next challenge is to get advance information from the Chef de Mission, who is quite laid back about everything and then suddenly needs us to do 20 things in the next half hour or when we re no longer available...Super difficult to preempt problems and we go from periods of low to high activity in a matter of minutes. So we're trying to find a way around this.
Near disaster yesterday to illustrate :the Team Welcome Ceremony. Every Delegation gets a 45 min Welcome Ceremony to officialise that they have arrived and are now part of the Games. Smaller teams like Haiti ( mine) are grouped with other delegations for time sake : with 209 countries to welcome over 6 days, there is quite a tight schedule. And naturally you'd think that every delegation would be looking forward to this, as there is a gift exchange, their anthem played and their flag is raised. You'd think everybody would make sure they know what is happening when and who be ready well ahead of time. Well, think again!! Although my team were bossing them around like crazy, delegates decided to take a shower 15 minutes before the start and we literally almost missed our slot by about 5 seconds, with me (!!) and the last athlete sprinting across the village tying up his shoelaces on the way, CRAZY. Welcome to Haiti :-).
So the project managers in me and Nathalie are climbing the wall. But it does make some great anecdotes, right!?! The evening debrief between the 4 of us is turning into the best storytelling experience ever. I won on Monday when i explained that one Haitian, not residing in the Village, came to London without booking an hotel (!!!!!!!!) and so i was looking for one ( bearing in mind he has a very tight budget) frantically calling one place after the other with rising panic, when i glanced at his computer and realised he was updating his profile on matrimonial sites.....
The least you can say is that it takes you out of your normal life and shifts all your references around.
I'll write up the second rehearsal in the next post, or this is going to become a book.
j'aurais bien aimé te voir courir comme une dératée avec ton athlète dans tout le village.
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