It is now the evening of Monday, April 30. Having caught up on a number of lingering
items both physical and mental, it’s a good time to address the final points of
my trip and put this blog to bed. And,
of course, start to write new e-books about Armenia and Vietnam.
It is a joy to actually have daylight extend past 8 p.m.
again. There is little variation in
daylight hours in Hanoi….sunrise is uniformly 6 a.m. plus or minus 15 minutes,
and sunset 6 p.m. plus or minus 30 minutes.
While winter days in Columbus are short and dreary, the extended summer
nights make up for it. In Hanoi,
unfortunately, it is relatively rare to get out of the office, back to the
hotel, and changed before darkness descends.
That tends to make one stay close to the hotel…the streets are confusing
enough in the daylight!
I received quite a few comments on my training classes (2
days of product development, 3 days of sales skills, and 1 day of sales
management). Evidently, the training
“norm” there is to put everything on PowerPoint (already off to a bad start!),
hand out copies to each student (3 to a page), and sit while the “instructor”
reads each slide to the students. Of
course, there are 2 or 3 quizzes each day to make sure students don’t nap too
long. It truly sounds like the same
educational philosophy that prevails among our politicians.
Anyway, I spent more than half of the time in each course on
group work, and a significant portion of the remainder in discussion, calling
directly on those who didn’t volunteer. And
the students truly responded. While I
have slim hopes for the success of this immediate project, perhaps there will
be some innovative teaching or mentoring approach invented by one of my
students in the future, and it will spark others to learn better. Too bad I’ll never truly know, but that would
be a true measure of success for the effort.
The training rooms were absolutely sweltering, especially
for the sessions held offsite. We couldn’t
get the A/C working properly, and the fans were only able to go at about half
speed. I found out later that particular
building is programmed to have air conditioning start on May 1, regardless of
the ambient temperature. My jacket and
tie lasted less than ten minutes into the first class.
It was better in the bank’s training center…perhaps word of
my aversion to heat and humidity preceded me.
By then, I had also learned to get to the classroom by 7:30 and set all
five of the A/C units down to 16 C. That
kept it reasonably bearable for the day, even when all 32 bodies crammed into
the room. Interestingly, I wasn’t the
only one glowing in the 114 F heat index we experienced on my final training
day.
One side benefit of training is that the cafeteria in each
building prepares and serves lunch for all participants, saving us a bit of
money and a lot of time hunting around for a decent place to eat in unfamiliar
neighborhoods. Sticky rice and bun cha
are daily staples, augmented with several additional dishes such as shrimp, sautéed
Viet cabbage, green beans, pork, chicken skewers, and the like. I was constantly being asked if I would like
a spoon, but managed to reasonably master chopsticks by the end of the
trip. My slowness at eating did seem to
unnerve a few others in the class. I
also found it notable that nobody consumes beverages during a meal….and
after-meal drinks are either hot tea or tepid water, regardless of the
temperature in the room. At times, I had
to walk a couple of blocks to find a grocerette with sodas in the fridge.
As on my first trip, my tipping habits threw some locals for
a loop. The local advisor told me to
never tip a taxi driver, but several whom I did tip got to recognize me and
more than gave me extra service later in the trip. Of course, we’re typically talking about
bumping a taxi fare up by about 50 cents, which makes a tremendous difference
for someone who might make $10 on a good day.
Restaurant servers, while still not expecting to be tipped, seem
progressively less surprised when it does occur. A minor benefit is that it also avoids
receiving a bunch of 2,000 dong (10 cent) notes in change.
Employees of and guests in the hotel continued to be
thoroughly impressed by my work ethic – I never went to meals without my laptop
with me. Everybody assumed I was
working, while I actually spent 90% of mealtime chatting online with
Nancy. Several guests also told me that
the laptop at meals was the first hint that I was American.
The final day of the project was rather laid back. It started with a meeting at the IFC office
(the IFC-head of this project flew in from New Zealand for the meeting) where
we finally agreed on what went wrong, what needed to be fixed, and a sequence
of tasks for fixing the project.
Unfortunately the project will need to be extended if it is to succeed,
but any intelligent being knew that a year ago.
The political games being played with the original schedule at the IFC
and Bank level were ridiculous…they actually wanted me to complete all of my
marketing training, mentoring, implementation, and analysis in one trip lasting
six weeks. Two trips totaling eight
weeks were already too short.
The remainder of the day (10:30 on) was spent with the SME
department head, Huyen, as we went over all of the pending and completed tasks
in minute detail. There was a nice break
in the middle as she took all of us from the meeting to a local restaurant for
lunch….fried tofu, pan-roasted catfish, 6-inch stuffed shrimp, salads,
etc. The highlight was watching the chef
deliver oven-roasted rice cakes….they are made in thin clay containers, and the
cakes are liberated by the chef tossing the container in the air, striking it
with a stick, and catching the rice cake before it hits the floor along with
the clay shards.
Huyen also arranged for one of the bank’s drivers (they have
dozens…profit margins on loans are quite fat) to pick me up at the hotel at 9
p.m. to depart for the airport. Much
appreciated….and easier than grabbing a cab.
So I am now finishing this final blog post on the afternoon
of May 1. Were I still in Hanoi, this
would be the end of a 4-day weekend….Monday, April 30, was the anniversary of
our retreat from South Vietnam (Liberation Day), and today is international
Labor Day for those jurisdictions that recognize the importance of everyday
laborers over financiers. Of course, I
would not have gotten paid for either day off, one of many reasons why it is
better to be home. If the project is
extended, there may be another trip to VN in the fall…but this time Nancy will
be coming with me and we will make side trips to Ha Long Bay and Ho Chi Minh
City. Until that possible re-start of
this dissertation, thanks for reading, and know that you have missed going to a
beautiful country and fascinating culture.
