A Big Week in Aruba

This "assignment" I have here in Aruba has been developing as the days go by. I have been working with this client since last year to help them get their operations up to OSHA standards [that's it in a nutshell...the details would bore anybody but me. I, however, find them, uh, titillating].


As a matter of setting the groundwork, the guy that I'm working with here in Aruba, my counterpart, announces he is leaving his Company to take a job in Europe. YIKES. That could have blown up my project. But, instead, his boss gets the idea that they want to outsource his job for a while [6 months to a year] while they mount some sort of search party to find his replacement. So she calls the president of my company and says they want me to be the outsource-ee. After my inital panic attack at that thought I make an agreement with everyone that I'll come down here for 2 or 3 weeks to see if I want to completely nuke my family dynamics for a few months [and to let them see if I fit in]. I'm a home body. I don't like to travel mainly because I'm a big pussy about it. I even get lonely at the deer camp for a couple of days. Fast forward...

One of the things I find out about this job, late in the game, is that I need to be ready to teach a five-day class to a room full of brand new 22-year-old-wet-behind-the-ears-never-seen-a-refinery-fresh-out-of-the-auto-parts-store-wide-eyed-scared-to-death-future operators.

They give me this list of myriad topics that I need to cover. Admittedly, some of them I could do cold, but some of them are going to take some research into not only how they do things here onsite, but also I need to look into Aruba law on some of them. Then I look at the schedule and I see that I'm the first class on the schedule...and it's a 6-month schedule. [these guys are basically going to get all the training in 6 months that we, in the States, give people a two-year Associates degree for]...but I'm the first. I immediately fall into my normal stress relief mode [cussing] but since I don't know any Papiamento [the local language] it falls on deaf ears...literally...because everyone has that "better you than me" smile.

Before I go on, let me make one thing perfectly clear...this is NOT a third world country. These people are smart. They are savvy and well travelled [which makes sense because when you live on an island that is 22 miles long by 8 miles wide you gotta go somewhere on vacation]. Everyone speaks 4 or 5 languages, literally [Papiamento, Spanish, Dutch, English, and many speak French or Italian]. I met a 7-year-old kid last week who has mastered 3 but was a little embarrassed because she thought her English [#4] needed work.

Meanwhile, I'm working to get ready for this class and I'm barely keeping up. I'm literally printing out the next session while the guys are on a 15-minute "bio break". And all this time, the boss is coming in and handing me notes..."can you do a day-long class on this topic next week?" or "we're shifting the schedule and I need you to do this now instead of Friday." But, on reflection, it's pretty much the normal stuff that happens at home with these training endeavors except here I don't know any one and have no idea who my resources are to help me get something done. I can't even get the internet turned on in my bungelow.

Any way, the week is finally over and I can breathe. Did not wake up until 10 a.m. this morning...very late for me. If I did that at home, the kids would be holding a mirror under my nose to see if I was breathing. The outcome is that we have a schedule that has me in country for 5 weeks and home working at World Headquarters in Houston for 3 weeks till Christmas. Sorta makes deer season look a little iffy.

Well I have to go to "town" [if I can find one] and deal with a cell phone issue.

OUT