Oops, I did it again....

Cried, that is.  Not boohooing or anything but tearing up so that I had to rush away to the restroom.  Again it was while I was working in registration and here's the story:
Registration opened Monday morning and we were swamped with people all day long waiting in line.  We were supposed to close at 5:00 in order to have time enough to make it to the opening ceremony.  At about 4:45 some French members came to register who had tried registering on-line but there credit cards were not accepted by our Paypal system and I sent them e-mails to inform them that they would have to pay when they got to Hammamet.  Well they came to the registration desk with the same credit cards that they tried using when they registered on-line and they wouldn't work.  They got so pissed off and they were yelling at me & Mary.  I tried to explain to them that there are some credit cards from Europe that have a chip in them for security reasons and they won't work in our U.S. Paypal system but they wouldn't listen.  They stood there arguing & yelling for almost 30 minutes.  I told them to use their credit cards at the ATM to get cash and they still wouldn't listen.  They finally left when we told them there was nothing we could do for them, we weren't going to sit there and listen to them yell and we were closing. 

The next morning here they come again to try the same credit cards.  Once again, they wouldn't work.  I guess some of them must've borrowed credit cards from others, some left, got cash and were able to complete their registration but this one guy got so mad I thought his head was going to pop.  By this time I had Nikki, a co-worker who speaks French to help out and she told him that he should be nice to me because it wasn't my fault.  When I finally completed his registration he said thanks to me.  I looked at him and said, "Thanks? ---- You could apologize".  Unfortunately, since he was French, he didn't think he was wrong and he walked away without saying another word. 

Later that morning, a woman from Turkey got really mad because people were butting in line by coming around to the end of the counter to my right.  I've learned over the years not to look at anybody but the person I'm registering because if I give anyone eye contact they will try to get me to wait on them.  While I was registering her I said, "I apologize for the line-cutting, I know you've been waiting a long time and it would make me angry, too".  That was when she started yelling at me and when I told her I couldn't control the people she said, "IT'S YOUR FAULT".  I replied, "Yes, everything's my fault"!  Then I got up & walked back to get her Congress bag and that's when I cracked.  My eyes started to fill and I knew that I wouldn't be able to hold it back.  I took extra-long getting the bag, asked Mary if she had a kleenex and when she saw that I was about to lose it she told me to go to the restroom which is what I did. 

Call me a baby if you want, but I can only take so much!  I guess I get emotional when I'm sleep-deprived.  I didn't think I'd have a problem with jet lag because the time difference is only 7 hours but I haven't gotten to sleep before midnight the whole time I've been here.  The first 5 days it took me well over an hour to fall asleep and part of the reason is that my room is on the corner of a building on the main walkway made of stone and the click-clack of high heels drove me crazy.  I've slept good the past couple of nights and registration has slowed down so I'll be fine.  

We always get a bonus after Congress for all the hard work we do.  This year I'm going to tell Edson I deserve a double bonus......

Pictures from Tunisia

olive & orange trees outside my room                 Pedro next to an ashtray/trash bin posed like the President's picture posted all over.

Me with the flower seller

The flower I bought from the guy.  It's a rose with little individual flower-of-the-valley-like buds wrapped in a leaf and smells very good.

                   

Someone get me outta here!

Remember my famous last words on my blog from India last year? “P.S. The Congress site is voted on two years before the actual date and last year in Turkey, Tunisia and Quebec were the contenders. Unfortunately, there are politics in JCI and “the family” instructed their National Organizations how to vote so next year it will be in Tunisia which is destined to be worse. Needless to say, I was rooting for Quebec….


There was a shouting match the other night between a few of our guys and Ikbal (Leandro, our Meetings Director who’s from Brazil pronounces his name Ickyball), the Tunisian Congress Director over several issues. The first was the registrations of the Tunisian members. He wanted JCI to accept post-dated checks and we have refused over and over again but he won’t take no for an answer. He has lied repeatedly to us about the number of his members that will be attending and we’ve tried to reason with him. Undoubtedly, he has already collected their money and his members will be screwed because we will not bend on the issue of cash or credit card only. The next thing was the fact that instead of holding the opening ceremony at the same expo center we’re at, they have arranged to hold it at a gymnasium (which is far more expensive) that has stadium-type seating with no backs on the seats & is a 30 minute drive so all the delegates must be shuttled by buses. Also, for the closing gala they signed a contract for almost 600 more dinners than necessary and are only serving fish. They weren’t going to even have water until Arrey went over there and negotiated to lower the dinner number and add water, soda & wine. The kicker is that the Tunisian organization assured us all along that they had all these sponsors, monetary help from their government & the Ministry of something or another. When it came right down to it, they had no help and no money so JCI is getting stuck with all the bills. Before we even left St. Louis we had already paid over $300,000 in expenses. It’ll probably end up costing us over a million dollars. We’ve had to cover our backs at every turn. Leandro has volunteers stamping the meal tickets for the registrants with a JCI stamp so the hotel can’t screw us by adding more to our bill.

For the first time in the 7 years I’ve worked for JCI the Congress is being held in a dictatorship. It’s quite evident since there are posters of the President plastered everywhere – reminds Pedro of Chavez & Venezuela. The food is not so good. There are these sandwiches called chawarmas that are like big pita pockets with chicken & cabbage & stuff that I thought wasn’t too bad but after I had two within 2 days, I’m done with them. There’s a buffet just like any other resort with the same stuff on it every day. I’ve been having 2 hard-boiled eggs & 2 slices of toast for breakfast every morning and chicken & (hopefully) potatoes for lunch. Once again, I’ve skipped dinner a few times and had cheese-peanut butter crackers that I brought along with me. We did go to an Italian restaurant here at the Medina which was pretty good but I ordered tortellini and it ended up being ravioli with nothing inside. I can’t wait to get to Italy for some good food………

Another Journey

I flew out of St. Louis at 8:15 AM Tuesday morning to Washington, DC where I had a 5 hour layover. I don’t mind having such a long layover because I’d rather not have to worry about missing my connecting flight. I left DC on a flight to Rome that was totally full. I chose a seat on the end of the middle section of seats hoping that the flight wouldn’t be full and I could move around & spread out. No such luck. I had planned on sleeping on the 8 hour flight but once again I failed. There was a 3-4 year old little boy with his mother sitting behind me talking very loud practically the whole time. They had their earphones on watching a movie and had to talk loud to hear each other. I couldn’t believe that the lady didn’t realize the lights were out and everyone was trying to sleep. At least there wasn’t a screaming baby! I won’t even embarrass myself by disclosing what happened at the Rome airport.  Let’s just suffice it to say that had my connecting flight to Tunis been any sooner than 2 hours, I would’ve missed it. Upon arrival in Tunis I followed the herd to the shuttle that took us to the terminal. When I walked in the door, I saw our guy Materne from Togo standing at a counter to get a visa. I was never so happy to see someone I knew in all my life!  I’ve made another decision and that is that I will not be flying alone anymore on these long flights where I have to catch connections.

Materne & I hooked up with the other girls who had arrived earlier & boarded the bus that would take us to the Hotel & Residence Diar Lemdina in Medina Mediterranea, Hammamet, Tunisia. It is in a resort area that is a huge complex. We are sharing rooms this year and they are 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, living room & private patio-like an apartment. Very nice! Reminds me a lot of the resorts Jim & I have stayed at in Mexico, with the decorative tile and lush landscaping but there’s also a bazaar right in the resort. There are tons of olive trees & orange trees throughout.  By the time I got to my room, I had been awake for over 24 hours, I was dead tired and slept very good.

More later....