Blog January 28, 2011 from Ed and Charlene

 From Charlene:

Ed’s chest cold improved with the help of a Zpack.  We both have pretty well adjusted to the 12 hour time differential.  I can call the states in the morning when it is evening at home; and at night when it is morning.  My dear friend Marcia calls in the evening, I am usually in my night gown and she is in her Nanuok of the North winter wardrobe visually demonstrating the trials of living in the Northeast.. 

While the Northeast has been pounded by incredible snow, the weather in Laos is glorious.  Temperature is about 78-80 during the day and cools in the evening.  Seeing blue sky and tropical flora is pretty cool. 

After Monday’s run in with the law, the week flew by.  Ed has been focused on developing a streamlined approach to the project planning, and has made great progress.  Through some advance excel spreadsheets and reports, significant duplication of time can be reduced through a systematic approach that relies on a defined product list.  I have been parsing out the annual business plan with focus on meeting goals and future initiatives.  DDD has developed an incredible infrastructure, with many talented people.  People from SE Asia as well as expats who have come and worked here for many years are part of the DDD community.

Friday, Ed and I took a long lunch break and rode our bikes north of the office for 4-5 miles.  Along the road, which for the most part is paved, a few new mansions have been built.  One gigantic compound that has gained much notoriety amongst the natives is surrounded by a stone wall that simulates the Great Wall of China.  The scale of the house is beyond belief - 75,000 to 100,000 square feet.   The ”Great  Wall” surrounds the compound, with terra cotta warriors standing guard along the wall.

 There is no discrimination where the mansions are built.  Next to them sit the traditional homes built on stilts with no running water. Not far down the road from the Great Wall is another themed mansion  -it’s a mini Taj Mahal.  Again, the size is huge, complete with reflecting pools, the iconic dome with spindles on each corner of the house.  Laos is a land of vast differences.

As I drive to work on the main road, I love to see the small shops-the one that I love the most is a basket weaver.  Outside the shop is a huge display of absolutely beautiful baskets -not basket for decoration, but baskets for everyday life . 

We have altered our itinerary a bit, as we have delayed the trip to Phenom Phen until mid-February.  So on Monday, we move to our new apartment we have rented for the duration of our stay.  I am very much looking forward to staying there, though I don’t plan on cooking dinner frequently, it will be nice to have COFFEE I can drink.  Between not drinking alcohol at dinner in order to drive the motor bikes; and not having coffee, I have given up all my vices!!!  I am excited about shopping at the market, and really getting into the Lao style of life a bit. 

From Ed:

Sabay Dee is hello in Lao.  It is the friendly greeting we hear over and over from everyone each day.  The people here are shy and unassuming, but very kind.  People offer to help at every opportunity.  I can honestly say that I have not met a single person that I do not like.

The Laotian culture puts a high priority on politeness, and people shy away from being confrontational.  It is often difficult to get them to offer criticism or admit to disagreeing with an idea, because they are so concerned not to offend.  This can be a challenge in business.  Working to bridge this cultural gap can be very rewarding (In American business, we are so used to in-your-face honesty where if someone doesn’t like something, they tell you).  Dealing with these kinder and gentler folks  is a part of working successfully here (or anywhere), and the team building and communications lessons we learned in the last few years at Stanpak have been a big help.  

I am pleased with my first week's work.

The weekend and back to work - January 22-23 Blog

Saturday morning we left the hotel and walked into the colonial city center.  As we explored, we found the open air farmers market abounding with fresh produce-full of color and excellent quality.   Overwhelmingly, the people are gentle and content-there are no vendors hawking their wares or any constant nagging to buy anything.  This is very refreshing after traveling thru Egypt, China, Mexico, etc where the vendors are relentless. 

So we continued our walk, exploring the little avenues lined with shops, we finally reached the river and walked along the Mekong for a mile or so.  A modern park has been built along the banks-as it was Saturday there were many families picnicking end enjoying the company of family and friends.  Vendors were selling balloons and ice cream for the little kids.  Street cart vendors with barbeques were grilling meat and wrapped rice-the smells were great though we opted to eat in an Indian restaurant that was air conditioned.  After a late lunch we headed back to the hotel by tuktuk.  Jet lag finally hit, so we pretty much slept thru until dinner then early to bed.  Sunday was a great day, finally having enough sleep we ventured out to rent motor bikes for our transportation for the duration of our stay.  Traffic is crazy here, so we need to be focused and very careful.  But it is so much fun to buzz around on the bikes-no one goes very fast so that is a good thing.  Ed’s chest cold got worse, so we went to the Pharmacy and bought a Zpack.  It has helped, but will take  few days to clear.  Sunday dinner, we joined two DDD managers for dinner at the French restaurant by Namphon fountain. 

Monday, we rode our motor bikes to the office.  I was asked to get involved with writing/editing their business plan.  So that is my initial task.  Reading their 40 page document gave me a sound understanding of the business and its mission.  Leaving the office, I was following Ed and I was not clear when to make a right turn.  We were stopped at a red light, but there was a green arrow for a right turn, as I indicated to Ed that he could go as the arrow was green, he proceeded straight into the waiting police.  Not one word did the police understand of English and not one word of Lao did we know-BUT it was clear when the police man wrote $10 US on paper did we understand each other.  I apologized to Ed-I owe him $10 (at least)!  We went out for Thai food in town in the evening with the ex-pats from DDD.  We are settling in.

Starting our and our first few days

We took off from JFK 2 hours late because of a snow storm.  It is perhaps a good thing to have a last taste of cold nasty weather when you are heading to a warmer climate.  It makes you appreciate where you are going.  This was our first time way up front in the plate.  Cathay Pacific gave us the same price for first class as we would have paid for business class, so we flew first class.  There were 6 suites (that is what they called them) on the plane.  We there were 2 seats in the suite, so though Charlene had her own suite, she could join me at a table for dinner, before they both folded flat for sleeping.

We over-nighted in Bangkok, and flew on the next morning to Vientiane.  Once we got our visas, we stopped off at our hotel to drop off our luggage and went right to work.

I have been working for the past two months on new software reporting and quoting tools, which I showed them for the first time.  Everybody was excited, and I think I hit a home run.  We met with Mai, the South East Asian manager for DDD, and with Philippe, a French ex-pat who is their CFO.  I also met with Sambo, a tiny young gal with giant ability who is taking on the task of Director of Project Management.  We went out for a casual dinner after work, but not before we got a tour of the operation.  We saw a young group of 30 or more trainees learning touch typing, and large production rooms filled with Lao workers, diligently working at their computers doing data entry and correction.  

Perhaps the most amazing application for data entry had a screen divided in two, with one side showing European professional soccer games; and on the other side a data entry screen into which operators were entering links to document and reference every player and their contact swith the ball.  It captures data on traps, passes and goal shots, tracking plays and activity.  This information is converted to data and statistics to be used by coaches and fans, and probably bookmakers.It even bookmarks the video, so you can see each contact with the ball.

It would the equivalent of capturing every baseball game and tracking every pitch of every pitcher and what hitters swung at, hit, fouled or missed them.  Capturing this kind of statistics about your competitor could give a team a real edge.  And imagine, those capturing the data on the soccer games first had to be trained in data entry and then on how the game is played.  It was amazing.

Also amazing is that after traveling for over 24 hours and dealing with a 12 hour time shift, we were able to work till 6, and have enough reserve left to go out for dinner.

Today is Friday, and we met with more high and mid-level managers in the DDD family. We put in a pretty full day, only stopping for lunch and to look for more permanent housing for our 2 month stay in Vientiane.  Charlene was afraid we would end up in some primative apartment with little security in a strange backwater location in Vientiane.  They showed us a few rough ones.

We finally settled on a beautiful luxury apartment  in a gated complex overlooking the Mekong River and a park. It includes a beautiful resort swimming pool, tennis court and gym.  The appartment has a big master bedroom with a separate dressing room, multiple bathrooms, a big living room, dinning room and modern kitchen with granite countertops and beautiful cabinetry.  Charlene was, to say the least, relieved.  The time shift is finally catching up with us, and we plan to eat in at the hotel restaurant, maybe watch a movie on TV, and get to bed early.  We have a lazy weekend ahead to catch up on our sleep, shake off the jet lag and explore Vientiane. It is 80 degrees, and I will not be shoveling snow.

Charlene and I have volunteered to help with an NGO called Digital Divide Data this winter.  DDD trains disabled landmine and polio victims in Cambodia and Laos, considered otherwise to be unemployable by local custom.  They train them on employment skills, English, and computer competence; provide them employment at 3 times the going wage; and provide them with time off and tuition to gain degrees from local colleges. Students who complete the programs are very employable, and often go on to start their own businesses, which allow them to employ successive classes of graduates.

This effort is sustained by selling computer services like data conversion to institutions in the US and Europe.  The do not really compete with our businesses because they are able to provide services so cheaply that they do projects that would otherwise be considered impractical to do -- jobs like digitalizing the last hundred years of the Harvard Crimson. DDD was written up by Thomas Friedman in his book, The World is Flat, If you want to learn more about them, go to http://www.digitaldividedata.org/  ..... 

We will be going to Vien Tien in Laos for two months in January.  Our focus will be on coaching project managers and reviewing processes for improved performance, better quality control and better communication between operations, project management, sales and the customer.  That’s a long way from home and a long time away from home, but it should be a great adventure -- sort of a delayed Peace Corp tour. 

We hope to share our experiences with you thru this blog.