My Experience at the Pan Am Games
Posted on Monday, November 9th, 2015
“My name is Alejandra Luengas-Santos. I am 20 years old and currently attending Police Foundations at Algonquin College.
I have lived in Ottawa all my life, mostly in suburbs located in the Nepean and Barrhaven areas. I have always been fortunate enough to grow up in safe neighbourhoods, not having to worry too much if I stayed out after dark.
When I was 4 or 5 years old, watching Cops and America’s Most Wanted, became a family pass time. I guess that’s where my interest in law enforcement began. I never could see myself working 9 to 5 in a cubicle. Choosing Police Foundations was an easy decision for me. Apart from education, the program offers a lot of opportunities for work and volunteering.
One job that caught my eye was a summer job working security at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto. I figured it would be a great starting block to see how I could manage living on my own. It wasn’t until the day that I had picked up my uniform that I realized Toronto would be my home for most of the summer. It was exciting to live in a bigger city but I was also anxious because I wanted to get my first shift over with. I was very glad not to have gotten lost. The first couple of days I felt a bit homesick, but I just kept myself busy and explored my new surroundings.
Before being hired I was not familiar with the competition and how it involved all the best summer sports athletes from North and South America. Since I took the housing all my shifts were placed at the Athlete’s Village and knowing Spanish and Portuguese allowed me to serve as a translator.
I am a bit of a language enthusiast. I enjoy the history behind languages, the different scripts, and actually learning how to speak and understand them. In the village there was no shortage of practice. I even rescued some people when their phrasebook Spanish got them into full-on native conversations.
The athletes all seemed very friendly with screeners often giving out pins and cracking jokes. When they found out I spoke Spanish they would try and talk for a bit instead of rushing through the screeners. They would usually ask where I was from, if I had family outside of Canada or how my shift was going.
I was not a good small talker to begin with, so these situations forced me to overcome it. This helped me in meeting new people at work, but the one person I saw almost every shift was this guy named Raj, who lived in Toronto but was originally from Bangladesh. Patrols with him were always entertaining. He easily sparked up conversations with the athletes – usually with an end goal of obtaining a pin or backpack.
One of the most interesting conversations we had on our shift was hearing how two Brazilian basketball Paralympic athletes served as police officers before playing for the national team. One was from Rio de Janeiro and the other from Sao Paulo. Both were shot multiple times and as a result became paralyzed from the waist down. Moments like this humble you and make you realize your life is not the boiling pot you imagine it to be.
Being able to work in Toronto truly was eye opening and it made me appreciate even something as simple as being able to take a step.”
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