Once upon a time there was a bunch of people from all over the world that went in Alexandria for a training project on New Media. Here’s the very true chronicle of what happend there how it appeared through the eye of a young and smart italian event organizer.
The workshop started on the 22nd November 2007 with the arrival of ( almost all) the ladies participants of the workshop. The “almost” refers to the fact that for some of them arranging a direct flight to Alexandria was kind of impossible, and despite the Travel Agent ( chapeau, Gennaro) and I spent the last weekend playing Risiko! with the airlines, some of them had to fly from Morocco or Algeria to Italy, then Greece, Singapore, Greenland and, in the end, reach Egypt after a 24 hour long trip. I wonder if it would have take less riding a horse. Anyway, the night of the 22nd we had a welcome party at the French Consulate and, although of course everyone was a little shy, for what concerns me the martini helped. At the consulate we met the Consul, and it was kind of cool for me, since I’ve never met one in my life. From this experience the idea I now have of Consuls is that they are some kind, elegant and middle – aged women who speak French (but of course I’m sure the cathegory it’s much wider than that). Anyway, getting into the Consulate wasn’t precisely a bowl of cherry: first of all, it was rainy and windy and we had to walk from the hotel to the Consulate (on super cool white platform shoes that, before arriving at the consulate, had uncannily turned brown), and the umbrella I borrowed from the hotel (swearing to look after it no matter what) couldn’t really protect me from the rain that actually wasn’t falling perpendicularly but horizontally. Then, as we got in front of the entrance door, we had to wait ten more minutes before getting in because there was this soldier guy praying on his knees on the floor right next the door so we couldn’t open it without hitting him in the head. And, believe me, hitting a soldier guy with a gun between his knees while he is praying it’s not the best idea ever. In the end we finally got in, and there were welcome toast, and hooray CFI, and hooray COPEAM, and some more hoorays and in the end we were a little more relaxed. I must admit that I was very curious about how the girl would have been,because even if of course I spoke with them at the phone, and I received their emails, still looking at them chatting side by side on the Consulate sofas, being – at last – able to associate a face ( a real one, of course I’ve seen their passports, but there’s no need to explain why passport photos aren’t that trustworthy…for example, in my passport photo I look like an alien while in person I’m one of the most beautiful girls I’ve ever seen ( hahahahahah)) was really exciting. The morning after, Paola ( who is my senior colleague and also COPEAM coordinator) left, leaving me as the only representative of the association, and also a little worried…two weeks can last a second or for ever. Wonder how much will they last for me.
