TCM BELGIUM PLUCKS NEW EMPLOYEE FROM THE SKY: MEET VERA DEVRIENDT

Vera has been working at TCM Belgium for several months, and treated us daily to her delightful infectious smile, before Corona made her appearance. Since then, she has been trying to bring her warm vibes to us through Teams. Vera's friendly attitude is one of the reasons why we were very keen to attract her to the TCM team, but of course that was not her only asset.

Bye Vera, before you found the job of a lifetime with us , you were used to it high in the sky to hang out! As a flight attendant with Brussels Airlines, you have undoubtedly encountered many fun, interesting, but also stressful situations. Corona will not get you down easily.

What has been one of the most fun situations you've had the opportunity to experience?

There were so many great moments, but the best memories still hang on the birthdays I got to celebrate with my colleagues on the move. The collegiality splashed off those evenings, and it was so heartwarming!

Also, the hospitality that you felt from the local people in those moments touched me greatly. For example, once we were partying at a typical African disco in Cameroon on a weekday Tuesday. Suddenly at 4 a.m. all the lights went out except for 1 spotlight. The owner, with clearly supernatural abilities, came walking in singing with a gigantic cake that he had conjured up at that hour. It was delicious.

And what was one of the most stressful moments?

I remember very vividly the moment when the captain informed the crew after takeoff in Brussels that we probably had a emergency landing had to make. One of the front wheels had been hit and was leaking. Fortunately we had a lot of time to prepare for that landing, but we also had to use some fuel first in order not to land too heavily. So we spent a long time flying over Brussels, and people knew we were traveling back to Brussels because of a technical problem, but fortunately they didn't realize the seriousness of the situation. The captain braked as long as possible on the rear wheels, so that at the last he could just put the nose on the ground and we rolled on quietly. All's well that ends well, but when I got into the car after that flight, all the adrenaline ebbed from my body and I felt incredibly tired.

We also once had to countries in Kinshasa at the time of riots. For safety, everyone had to turn off the lights in the plane so they couldn't shoot us out of the sky. It was a bizarre feeling, landing in darkness and silence. After landing, life went on as usual, as if nothing had happened.

The attacks in Zaventem in addition, were obviously a very stressful period, even though I was staying in Manchester at the time. You then want to return home, to family, as quickly as possible, but that was not possible. We were stuck there for several days, the people there were very compassionate though. To kill time we booked a Manchester Stadium tour, my colleagues and I all still had our uniform coats on and the tour operator noticed that. He asked us where we were from, and everyone started clapping when we answered we were from Belgium. That was a very emotional moment. You realize then that the attacks have not only affected Belgium, but all of Europe. I deliberately stopped going to the airport in Zaventem for a year, as did many other colleagues. It felt as if my home had been attacked.

You've also been able to meet a lot of cultures thanks to Brussels Airlines. Has that made you look at life differently?

What did you learn from that period?

 I did mostly long-haul flights to Africa and America. On those flights you get to know people from all over the world, you view of the world becomes literally and figuratively much larger. Brussels Airlines also gave us courses on various cultures and how to adapt to them. adjust.

On African flights, for example, I was often told 'je voudrais de l'eau à boire'. For them there is water to wash, and water to drink. I also remember a passenger who came on board with a long robe, a kind of mitre, and a staff. He stopped by me with a smile from ear to ear and announced that he was going to explore Belgium with his "tribe. He also brought a soup kettle for 30 people (no idea how he got it on board!), and everyone was welcome to join him. Very strange but very intimate. Those people have a whole family institution, our society is rather individualistic.

You are from Deurne, but as a child you were actually a globetrotter. Before your dad's work, you lived in Iran and the Philippines.

Can you tell a little more about that period?

 My papa was a gendarme, my mama came from a family of expats. She was so tired of staying in Belgium, so she secretly enrolled my dad in the exam to become a commercial attaché. She was convinced of my daddy's abilities and she was right, too, because my daddy passed that exam.

From then on, our lives changed completely. At the age of seven, I went to Iran with my parents and brother. That was an enormous adjustment, not only because of the new customs in Iran (strict regime, women had to walk covered up and were not allowed to put on makeup,...), but also because, as Dutch speakers, we were sent to a French-speaking school. I did end up in that French school in a melting pot of cultures. There were no other Belgians, I had Lebanese, Spanish, Nigerian,... friends. We also went skiing every weekend (in Iran yes ) with French, Swiss and Dutch.

Then I lived in the Philippines from age 10 to 19. My parents preferred an Asian destination because of the culture, climate, and friendliness. And Filipinos are tremendously friendly people! I had such a good time there that at age 18^the begged to stay another year before having to return to Belgium. At that point, I had been living in the Philippines for half my life, had made many friends there, and spoke a word of Tagalog (indigenous language, but most Filipinos also speak English) on my own initiative. There was a big gap between rich and poor, but before I left, the middle class was also rising strongly.

Did the "lack" of a permanent base make for good adaptability?

That definitely had an impact, you can't move to a foreign country and just cling to your own values and customs. You're there as a stranger guest, and have to adapt to them and not the other way around. I also learned a lot of diverse norms and values through my Japanese, Brazilian and Korean friends. You became somewhere forced to expand your world. For example, I learned to eat kimchi with the Korean friend, and escargots with the French friends, even though it was not wholehearted .

When I started to speak some Tagalog, I could follow conversations more easily with local friends, and I also asked them to speak Tagalog to me. We also went to a French school in the Philippines, and there, too, it was adapting to the French, though less drastically. For example, I know the Marseillaise by heart, but don't ask me to sing the Belgian national anthem.

It is also a requirement at Brussels Airlines open-minded to be, there is no place for homophobic or racist beliefs. A lot of colleagues were LGBT, and you had to be accessible to passengers from various cultures.

Read the sequel.

May 25, 2021