To make certain the installation of products is done in a professional manner, at times it was necessary to work alongside a technical rep. We organized a few contractors and asked them to get their crews ready to learn new methods of installing product.
There were some major contracts out in Puerto Rico at pharmaceutical plants and the technical supervisor and I flew down to meet with the installers; he, being from Canada had a very limited Spanish vocabulary. I forgot to mention in Puerto Rico the official language is Spanglish.
The contractor was to pick us up at the hotel and drive us to the site which was about 12 miles away on the coast. Half way on the road, the truck came to an abrupt stop and we ended up on the side of the Interstate. The driver was asked what the problem was and the answer was the fuel pump had been acting up for a few weeks. All discussions were conducted in the local lingo.
Off he goes to the nearest gas station to get some fuel and pour on top of the pump to see if that would help; he tried again and the truck would not start. He then went back to the gas station to call one of the other drivers and get a different vehicle to get us to the site. About an hour later, we were on our way to the meeting. By this time we are about 2 hours late.
We started off by meeting with the building owners along with the architects and contractors. Everyone there spoke Spanglish and their American English was very limited. Simultaneous translation is difficult especially when Spanish is spoken very rapidly, but it was done. I was mentally exhausted by the simultaneous translation.
As it was my project, I relayed all the information in Spanish to the workers and supervised the installation as required. All went well and the rest of the week was fine.
On our way back to the airport, the shuttle was overloaded and the driver was lost between the hotel and the departing hubs. The passengers were angry as they were late for their check-in time and the driver was getting more frustrated by the minute; then his wife called and asked him to get home immediately as there had been an accident and she could not handle it by herself. The poor man was sweating profusely, driving carelessly and we almost lost the bus on a curve.
Eventually he was able to find his way and all were delivered to the required hubs as we saw him rushing out of the area in a panic. We ended up at the wrong airline; our flight left before we could check-in and had to wait for another flight to get home. We were charged extra for changing our flight schedule and no excuses were accepted at the counter.
We did not go to the beach, we did not have a drink with an umbrella on top and we did not go dancing salsa at the hotel bar or anything fun. But, hey, we were down on the Lower Antilles for at least 6 days of hard work and plenty of Spanish food. What could be more fun!