I had already sent a WhatsApp message to my future colleague the day before. She still hasn’t opened it. It’s only when I leave the metro station that I receive a reply. While walking toward the village, I send her another WhatsApp to share my location, and I notice that the woman walking in front of me receives a message at the same time. I ask, “Valentine?”
Indeed, it’s her.
We go together to the break room, and since our shift doesn’t start for another hour, we treat ourselves to a coffee. I briefly tell her about the previous day and try to prepare her for what to expect. Since I still haven’t heard anything from the Bahamas, we take our time and walk a lap around the village. More and more athletes are populating the streets, and none of the safety regulations that apply to us seem to matter to them. Several times, we have to jump out of the way on the sidewalk because a cyclist wants to pass. At least some of them ring their bells.
We go to our service center and update them on the current situation. The Bahamas have already gained a certain level of notoriety because it’s not just me having trouble communicating with them. As it turns out later, Valentine lived on Martinique for a year and manages their pronunciation much better than I do. It’s all just a communication problem. To mitigate this somewhat, I ask the office responsible for teams from North America and the Caribbean to share some information with me. However, I’m sharply rebuffed because they only communicate with the Chef of the Mission. It was worth a try.
After a few hours, we receive another message, and Cora asks us to come to her room. She comes to us with a list of questions, and we’ll try to work through them one by one. This takes some time, but we learn a lot about the process and begin to understand who to turn to with problems. Of course, all of this was explained to us during our visit two weeks ago—I don’t want to contradict that: a small brochure as a guide, a map, and the most important phone numbers would have made things much easier and wouldn’t have cost the world.
The next problem: Roy gave me an envelope for the rental car, and I understood that I was supposed to return it. Actually, I was only supposed to bring it closer to the village, to a parking lot I’ve never seen and that isn’t marked on any map. Fortunately, they refuse to take it back because they need a receipt from the mission supervisor.
Valentine also offers to drive, but unfortunately, she has lost her driver’s license. Spontaneously, she chats up a policeman in front of one of the large security vehicles. After taking her details, he sends her a copy of her driver’s license via WhatsApp a few minutes later, which she can use to register for the driver fleet. I’m impressed and wonder if this would have worked in Germany.
The next day is my day off, and I realize I needed it. Over the past two days, I’ve walked 20 kilometers each day, and it’s been quite exhausting otherwise. I stay in touch with Valentine, and she managed the car situation well in the end. Tomorrow, it’s her turn to brief me. I’m looking forward to it.
