While there we met with Gustavo Moreira. He invited us to come to Santiago to collaborate with a local high school on a community project!

We are still in the planning phase for the project and the trip, but will fill in the details as we know them!

They DID not get to practice on stage, nor even hook up the equipment before hand! We went down to the Melia (a very short block and a half from where we are) the day before and met with staff. The ballroom was being used for something else (a different conference or meeting) and would not be set up until after 10 o’clock at night! So we peeked in the room, and left.

We arrived for the plenary sessions at just nine am the next morning! BUT there were issues with power (we have an intermittent power outages), some of the computer equipment (for the conference) had not arrived, the registration system was not set up, and it appeared that the equipment for the translations (each person could have an individual ear piece) had not arrived. The flooding has really disrupted travel! (Don’t worry I am checking on the airport today, as well as time it is going to take to get there.)

I have to interject here that Juan Gomez who is coordinating the conference, was absolutely, utterly, fantastic!

So we waited, and the kids found an empty room and practiced! I was so nervous I couldn’t sit still.

It finally started about 10 am! We heard Juan Gomez speak, and then Dr David Macquire from ESRI talked to us about the ESRI’s products. He spoke for two and a half hours, and we had a break and then he spoke for perhaps another hour.

We then ate lunch which was a buffet style catered lunch….FABULOUS …(in fact we didn’t even know we were going to get the lunch until just before…because we hadn’t registered…we didn’t have a ticket…etc)

They were expecting 400 people and in the audience yesterday there were maybe 150. Travel within the DR is limited because there is a lot of flood damage, and many people couldn’t make it!

During the opening presentation Ishmael Chivette (ESRI) worked through some brief overviews with the software….he spoke in Spanish….and he did a great job! Joked as he worked, and presented in a lively manner. We all decided we would take his classes this am….if we could get up!

In the middle of David Macquire’s presentation part of the ceiling fell in on several attendees! (It was not the vent itself, just the very soggggggy roof tiles….probably felt like getting hit with a bowl of oatmeal thrown at you from 40 feet!) Provided quite the entertainment!

The kids got to stand on the stage for the first time at 3:00! (Remember they were to present at 3:30!) We hadn’t had a chance to check to make sure the equipment would connect, or even project….(can u say I was having cardiac arrest…..) although we had asked about the specs of their system the day before….so we knew it should work!

So after eating lunch, we took our equipment, and prepared to present! I was so proud of the kids! Half an hour before the presentation….not knowing whether the equipment would even work or not….just walked it…walked up on stage..(no one else was in the room, except for the people fixing the large hole in the roof) and set up. Plugged everything in, pulled everything up….no issues. (I was so nervous I thought I was going to puke, but they were great! I don’t remember EVER being that nervous…it may have been better had I actually had to get up on stage! Thomas and I had decided that we were not going to present anything….as we wanted it to be entirely the kids presentation….and boy has that worked…but more about that later…!)

The only thing that I had to help with was how to get the laptops to project on the screen…I just had to show them where the fn f7 (on my computer) but I think it was fn f4 on theirs….was to toggle the projection to the screen and then to turn it off again!!!! Oh, and Luis was checking the battery power and noticed it was not charging despite being plugged in…..(more brownie points) so I had to bend the plug a bit to make it a stronger connection with the 1960s power strip…..THAT is it…they did every thing else!!!

They were ready by 3:20…seated on stage…people milling about…and Juan came in to let us know that they were going to wait for a while to start, because the workers hadn’t finished setting up a stand under where the roof had fallen.(During lunch they had shortened the room….by moving the chairs forward, and were placing a display (ESRI) under the spot where the roof had fallen in so that no one would be under it…..the stand was not set up yet)So we waited…the kids on stage, sitting in chairs…some people in the audience….some people milling about! Me fiddling with the camera, and the video cam….

¡Esta finalmente TERMINADA! Esto fue grande. Cada persona pareció estar muy interesado en lo que decíamos y estaban muy enfocados. Soy aliviada que se a terminado y feliz. Esto era una gran experiencia y siempre la recordaré. Esto ha sido la cantidada más grande de la gente a la que he presentado alguna vez. Espero que esta voluntad empieze algo…. Ahora es tiempo para conectar  y esperar que alguien se impresione. ¡Realmente estoy contenta ! ¡Espera hasta mañana!