I needed 10,000 sheets of pre-punched, 3-hole, letter-sized paper. That wouldn't be too difficult to find in Canada, but in Bogota it was nearly impossible. We asked our sponsor for an address of a place and they sent an address and some contact info. I got into a taxi with the address and was a little worried when the taxi driver said over the radio that his passenger only spoke English. I almost expected to be driven to some back alley. Half an hour later I was there, safe.
The first issue when I got there was that I didn't speak Spanish and nobody at the store spoke English. We ended calling the woman who gave us the address so she could be a translator for us on the phone. It was a little embarrassing, but it got the job done. Next I was told that I would have to wait for half an hour for the paper to be punched, it didn't come pre-punched! I went upstairs and watched as a guy used a drill-press to drill the holes in my 10,000 sheets. Not only that, but it took him an hour and a half to do it!
Okay, so that was done and they even helped me carry the 40lbs (2 boxes) of paper to the curb. Next I had to get back to the site.
I had forgotten to bring the address with me, but I knew the name of a well known landmark across the street. It has been tried, tested, and true landmark for all of the other team members so far on the project so I figured I would be okay. I'm not sure if it was my accent or what, but I gave the name of the landmark and the driver started driving. About 5 minutes of going the wrong way I realized that the driver had no idea where he was going. I told him "Norte El Dorado" and this kind of surprised him.
After arguing a little, he stopped the car and told me to get out. I owed him about 5,000 pesos but didn't bother paying. I was now in a back-road with 40lbs of paper and no idea where I was. It took about 5 minutes before another taxi came buy. I decided to talk to him this time before getting in. As soon as he realized I only spoke English, he drove away.
Another 5 minutes past and I finally managed to get another taxi. This time I jumped in before talking and then just said "norte" (north). He started driving to where our site was, under my directions. Now I don't actually have the city memorized and had never really paid attention to directions in the car. This was incredibly frustrating.
I made us take sooooo many wrong turns. I think the driver was getting a little frustrated. Eventually we passed the right road by accident, took a U-turn about a kilometer away, and then passed the road again. The driver pulled over and pointed to his watch as if his shift was over. I refused to get out this time and we continued. We made another U-turn about another kilometer away, and then finally got to where we needed to be.
We stopped at the gates outside the complex and a security guard came up (I had never actually been stopped here before). He asked me for my I.D. and I gave him my company badge. He noticed that it didn't match the IDs for the rest of the people working there (we are on a contract for that company). Once again the lack of Spanish was a problem. He eventually radioed to someone and gave them my name. They radioed back that it was okay (I never actually gave my name to anyone so I don't know how they knew me). After an hour and a half with this taxi, the ordeal was over!
I never want to put that much effort into getting paper again.
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