So it's *not* just Pakistan

We had a meeting today with one of the agencies responsible for roads and other transportation infrastructure in this part of the country. The meeting was organized by the director, and he suggested that we all meet at his office at 9 am. No problem-o – we bundled into a taxi and got there a couple of minutes after nine. We told the receptionist who we were there to see, and a slight look of alarm flickered across his face. “He just stepped out”, he told us, his face the picture of radiant obsequiousness. He led us up to an office and told us to make ourselves comfortable, and that the gentleman that we were there to see would be back in 10 minutes. So we sat down, he poured some tea, and left us to our thoughts. By 9:30, the PM and I were exchanging some stories, wondering what, exactly, the Vietnamese version of “10 minutes” was. By 9:50, the PM got up and went to speak with some other people in the office about information we seeking, and I was getting seriously drowsy. A few minutes after 10 am, a man resembling a shorter and thinner version of Jabba the Hutt lumbered up the stairs (having just arrived at the office for the first time) and said that he was sorry to have kept us waiting. We then went into his office, and proceeded to have a largely useless 20 minute meeting. However, after that meeting, we went back to the people with whom the PM had been speaking, and had some very productive meetings that lasted another 45 minutes. And the PM tried to recruit one of the secretaries to be a translator for us – she’s very bright and speaks excellent English. Good technical translators are actually very difficult to find. Regular translation isn’t as difficult, but the technical engineering or social sciences language makes it a little more tricky.

One example of just how important it is to have good translators can be found in the following tale, relayed to me by the PM. He was working on a job in Russia, and the original contract in English had said something about how the contractor would introduce free additional labor as necessary. The translation said that the company would introduce group sex as necessary. While I’m sure that particular provision was intriguing to some, it was, perhaps, not quite the best way for the project to proceed. After three months, someone finally told him about it.

I interviewed a guy today for a position on this project. His English was so-so, and I found it a little difficult to communicate with him (could be a problem later), and I’ve noticed another thing here that I saw in Pakistan. Anything you ask, the answer is always “no problem”. This doesn’t necessarily have any bearing, however, on the outcome of the issue in question. I needed to know if he had experience doing specific tasks, which was tricky to communicate. So I went to the simpler method and tried clearly telling him what would be expected, and each time he smiled and said “of course, no problem!” I still have no better idea of whether or not he can really do the work than I did before we sat down together, much like with the guy I interviewed yesterday. The selection process should be interesting…

The one thing that I definitely won’t miss about Vietnam is the awful mattress that I have to sleep on here. If it were just “firm” that would be fine, but not only is it hard as a rock, it’s also lumpy. I was reminded of this as I (apparently) rolled over onto my left side this morning, and felt those few springs that stick up above the others surrounding them stick into my left kidney. I rolled the other way and tried to ignore the fact that I was now, technically “awake”. After 45 minutes, I decided to just get up and head to the gym, where I upped my pace on the treadmill today. But now it’s the afternoon and I am seriously dragging for lack of the extra hour of sleep I had been counting on. I know, I know – my life is so hard.