Work Day Fifteen - End of Week 3 - Successes and Disappointments (Sucessos e decepções)

End of the third week with one more to go!  This morning we worked through the master presentation which includes the bulk of the material we've generated over the last 10 or so days and finalised the remaining changes we think are required.

We then, for the first time, reviewed in detail the end to end presentation we've built to deliver to two special interest groups - potential funders and the NGOs - which summarizes much of the 80-odd slides in the master deck into 15 or so slides - no mean feat!

After that we reverted back into working on our individual components for the rest of the morning, taking a slightly later lunch break than normal.

In the afternoon we had a key meeting arranged with the Secretary of the Social Development and Work function in the Uberlândia Council.  Here, that's a council function as well as that of the Federal Government's - I am not quite sure yet how they split it - and the Secretary is an elected position, halfway between what we would recognise in NZ as a Chairman of a particular Council Committee and the salaried council servant in charge of a particular department. The meeting started off being scheduled for 2pm, was moved to 3, then got pushed to 3:30.  We arrived at the council building around 3:15, where Karen met up with one of her fellow workers before we moved upstairs to wait for the Secretary.  When we got up to the top floor Gustav, one of our interpreters, was there and we'd brought the others with us so it was time for a team photo with all the interpreters (as they worked different shifts we hadn't all been together at once before, but now the exams are over they can be more flexible).

Karen and associate

With our interpreters - Izadore, Gustav and Mariana

We had time (plenty as it turned out!) to look around the building which in fact is in two large blocks joined by short walkways.  The roof line was particularly interesting as it is in corrugations of tiles - in NZ corrugated iron is a favourite roofing material but I don't think I've seen corrugated tiles before. Also of interest was that the ends of the corrugations are open to the outside, so that the temperature inside will be influenced very strongly by that outside.  We thought this might be a way of keeping the block cool, with the cooler air coming in from below and exiting through the roofline. The centre is like an atrium with a very large empty internal space and the offices built around the edge. Quite an interesting building.

Corrugated tiled roof

Internal atrium

Roofline open to the outside

Entrance to Secretary's office

Unfortunately the Secretary was delayed at a prior meeting (I gather this quite often happens) and he arrived back around 4:45 and had to see someone else (his 3pm meeting) first.  However I think it was around 5 we were ushered into his office, having accepted a 15 minute meeting now against the option of a longer meeting next week.  We had a good discussion and in fact he gave us longer than planned, delaying his next meeting (with the Mayor) by a few minutes whilst he finished off our questions.  He was very interested in what we were doing and after he left one of his assistants interviewed us about what we were doing and how we were enjoying Uberlândia and so forth.  I believe that may go into the internal journal.

In the Secretary's office, he is second right, listening to Laerte translating for us

 After that we returned to the ONG CASA office to review the stakeholders presentation with Laerte.  There he gave us the disappointing news that the presentation to the business association was not going to happen as the Mayor was attending the association meeting for another reason so they had to bump us.  He also warned us that the planning for the meeting on Tuesday was behind schedule so the invites would only go out over the weekend.  We discussed the value of a short notice and acceptance period, meaning many might not attend, versus delaying it a week or two.  He's going to discuss that as part of a SEDE team meeting on Saturday but I fear we may lose that one too.  On the positive side he seemed to like what we've done and it will be of use to him in the further promotion and development of SEDE even if we aren't here to do it.

Another latish evening, getting back to the hotel at 7:50 in time for a very quick change to assemble for an 8pm dinner group.  We went to a Mexican restaurant in the city. The chef was introduced to us after we'd placed our orders - he was a real Mexican so I think they wanted to impress us we were getting the genuine article. The food was good when it arrived but the service, particularly the bar service, seemed a bit slow.  Half of the group still hadn't had their drinks by the time the food was served.  Fortunately the beer drinkers were well looked after and fresh bottles appeared in an instant.  I tried one that had been recommended but was quite hard to find - Devassa.  It was good. It had a great "politically incorrect" icon on its label and the top of the cap. You'll see what I mean.  Kiwi readers should understand the irony of this against our advertising code.  

After a good meal some of the party went on to a bar/night-club called London which actually looked (and sounded) pretty good but I decided to be boringly sensible and returned to the hotel with another team member who also wanted an early night.

And that was our day!

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