Log: Iain Smith in Pakistan
(The ordinary type is for ordinary people. Italics are for the sad people interested in the exotica of higher education.)
4 June (Lahore
Yesterday we took off on an Emirates 777 bound for Dubai ; and then, from Dubai , heading to Lahore London Science Museum
I have flown only once internationally with BA – Kate and I did that in 2006. Their food was terrible; and Kate and I on the return journey had some difficulty in getting red wine with breakfast at 10 a.m. over Afghanistan
Joan and I incidentally once flew to Trinidad with British West Indian Airways; on the return journey, their water tanks ran out: so there was no tea or coffee with breakfast and the loos were in bad shape. Joan was annoyed about that: given their inability with water tanks, I was more worried about the state of their fuel tanks. Worse than flying with Air Tajik: which I have done a couple of times.
We are off to do 5 days of leadership training to newly appointed heads; then two days with the Advisory Board of The City School
How strange and odd that appears to me; and, I think, to Joan. Working with an organisation that is (I think) about the size of a big Scottish education authority and in a country with an abysmal record on public sector education; but TCS are doing moderately leading -edge things that (at least nowadays) rarely, if ever, happen in Scottish education. Reflect again on Brown’s Report http://www.gordonandsarahbrown.com/uploads/files/EFA_Report.pdf
Great document
I am quite worried about what I can do. Last time in Pakistan
37 years ago, when I first did management training, the trainees, insofar as they had complaints, thought I was far too young.
Our 7-hour journey to Dubai Lahore
A driver (with SMITH/FORREST on a board) awaits us as we clear customs.
We are taken to a completely new TCS guesthouse, spacious and elegant and in a compound with a guard at the gate. Four hours sleep and we have a very pleasant lunch, produced by our personal cook. We also have a personal housekeeper who does some ironing for Joan (and a car and personal driver). Rose arrives and we do some last minute adjustments to the course: the way they have printed the course booklet has altered my original pagination and we have to match that with the tutor guide to running the course. But the internet system is not working: a technician arrives from Head Office, is eventually joined by 3 colleagues (as he finds the problem hard to crack) and they work at the system for about three hours (all this remember is on a Saturday afternoon.).
With our computer systems restored, I reclaim my computer to write up this log and Joan to keyboard the changes we have made earlier this afternoon.
Dinner is good: curried mince with chillies and daal and rice. We suffer the fifth power cut in 12 hours, something so typical of Pakistan
Tomorrow we are both going to check out our teaching premises for the week. For me that involves getting the 600 miles or so down the road to Karachi
5 June (Karachi
This morning I was up at 7 a.m. Lahore weather showing 41 C for the day, Karachi
Then off to Lahore
At the airport I looked for a wall socket for my computer (its battery is almost gone) and could not find , But I did find four free computers with complete internet access: easily got into my Strathclyde e-mail. No Microsoft Office but they did at least have Notepad (on which I am writing this). Installed by a combination of the Civil Aviation Authority and the Ministry of Information Technology, Vastly superior to the expensive and useless IT facilities for passengers at Glasgow Airport
Mid-flight down essentially the Indus to Karachi , I read James Hunter on “A Dance called America
“Although there were few stronger influences on Highlanders than their attachment to their homeland, there was nothing in this same people’s history, therefore, to suggest that, should circumstances suggest such a course, they were congenitally unwilling to travel to faraway places. Rather the reverse.”
Checked in an hour ago, after spending some time at Darakshan campus (where everything seemed well set for tomorrow - and we only did some fine tuning). On a Sunday afternoon, we have a resources manager, an AV technician and a janitor at our disposal. We ran through some of the Power points, some of the videos (which are available as streams off the LTS website, although we have back-up recordings as well) and we check the elaborate sound systems. All works well; and we have multiple back-ups of everything. We then have a 25 minute drive trough quiet Sunday streets, passing the Saudi Consulate – very elaborately guarded, with a sandbagged machine-gun nest sitting on its roof
Our residence (although described as a guesthouse) is not run by TCS and is more a small hotel for professionals (rather like the Nizhat in Lahore
It has wifi (so my e-mail system is working), a.c. and fan, a fridge and mini-bar for soft drinks, en-suite shower and toilet room and very friendly staff. And it has a laundry service. And I discovered an electrical mosquito repellent was part of the service.
The place has a solid perimeter wall and, of course, a guard.
Safia and I spend on hour on last minute preparation for Day 1 (tomorrow) and a bit of time on Day 2. Then we order a carry-out meal for 7.30 – which is the only evening meal service they offer.
In the small hotel compound there is an aviary – with three of four small parrots, two flightless birds who are sitting on 3 or so eggs and a baby rabbit!
Up in Lahore Lahore
We had our first power cut in late afternoon – Karachi is worse than Lahore
Safia and I have decided that Day 2 is too heavy. So we do a mental edit over dinner, I keyboard the changes after dinner, put the results on my pen drive and tomorrow we will overwrite the relevant folder in the course centre. I also e-mail the files to Lahore
Interesting discussion about dongles. Dongle-based web access is common and comparatively cheap in Pakistan UK Pakistan
Mon 6th June Karachi
Up early and find an ample supply of very hot water (very unusual). Check the weather. 100F (37C) for us and sunshine; 109F (42C) for Lahore Lahore Karachi
Breakfast is a very acceptable onion and chilli omelette, and there is a copy of “Dawn”, the (excellent) Pakistan Peshawar
Off to work at 7.45. 15-20 minute drive in our chauffeured car: a good way to start the working day. We start with a video-photomontage of course photos of March accompanied by the stirring sounds of “We are the Champions of the World”; a subtle (sic) play on the fact that they are selected to be “change champions” within their organisation.
The day is hot and, worse, very humid; so we cram them into the one air-conditioned room we have, rather than use breakout rooms.
The quantity and (for the most part) quality of work they have done since we last met is impressive, indeed humbling. All achieved by having left them some support structures (local coaches; self-help groups) while we were away.
At 4.30, we agree to re-convene at 8.30 tomorrow; and Safia and head back to the guest-house. The gun emplacement on the roof of the Saudi consulate is deserted, but there is a workman (?) on the roof who is most clearly wearing bullet-proof armour.
At 5.30, Safia and I debrief on the day and plan for the next day or so.
Review Points (Safia)
- Class more responsive.
- They were interested in Phase 1 evaluations.
- Team-building inventory is good in that it does not allow high scores in everything,
- Lexicon activity good.
- Learned lessons about delegation.
- They have been busy implementing and being coached between Phases 1 and 3.
(Iain) 1. “Champions” video-clips are good idea.
2. Some a little confused how to score inventory and example of scoring might be useful.
3. An addition on the direction for the plenary report would be useful.
4. Not sure about after-lunch slides.
5. Reports on Phase 2: all of them showed work, some of them showed very good work, some light on leadership.
6. Idea of conflict inventory as a private activity for the log is good.
7. Support from Darakshan staff at all levels is very good.
We did some forward planning and alter some timings and some content. I update our files and put them on a pen drive for tomorrow.
We head out for dinner at 7.45 to the Café Flo, a very good French restaurant that I been to once before. I have crab with a garlic and caper sauce; fillet of Dorado with shrimps and squid; profiteroles: all washed down with coke and fresh lime-juice. The day has been so hot and humid that I am verging on the dehydrated. I drink the water as if it was wine (the reverse of my normal Glasgow
Back at the guest-house I phone Joan. Then a little walk in the compound. The parrots are asleep, clinging to the wire-netted walls of the aviary; the big birds are still awake but very placid; and the baby rabbit is happily playing with the eggs in the nest. Truly a remarkable eco-system. Will the chicks be in danger of being imprinted Lorenz-style into believing that they are baby rabbits? The coke has obviously gone to my head. To be more accurate, I probably am (mildly) dehydrated. I set aside a litre of water and some RHT powders; and switch on the mosquito burner. Time for bed.
7 June (Karachi
(Looking back on the meal last night, I was struck by the price structure of the menu. This was a very expensive restaurant by Pakistan New Zealand Pakistan
And I found it strange to be in a restaurant where smoking was permitted. (When I went outside to smoke a waiter pursued me to find out whether the meal was OK.)
Even sitting at breakfast away from the bedroom A.C., I can feel the humidity. Have a quick read of Dawn: no mass murders, only a few single ones (so that is OK). Dawn reports that defaults on income tax payments s are reckoned to run at 8% in the UK , 22% in USA and 68% in Pakistan Pakistan
At the centre by 8.00 a.m.: start promptly at 8.30 a.m. We have a very interactive whole-group session assessing videos on classroom practice, some of which I stream down the internet from the LTS website in Glasgow Pakistan than in Scotland ; and I doubt whether they have ever been used on a formal training course in Scotland
We spend the rest of the day on issues relating to conflict resolution, with some theoretical input, but most it revolving round some small-group exercises.
Lunch is a choice of pizza or spiced chicken legs, followed by a custard and cream –type desert and some green tea: all cooked freshly on the premises. Amazing.
The day is indeed hot and humid and, even at break times, most of the participants stay much of the time in the air-conditioned classroom.
We spend the last 30 minutes working on their professional logs, an idea we started off in March and which, after initial apprehensions, they seem to have grasped with enthusiasm.
In terms of visitors (remembering that TCS in some ways can be thought of as a bit like Edinburgh in the sense of teacher and pupil strength - except that it is geographically dispersed - and that, to use the Scottish jargon, it is an education authority split into 4 divisions), I reflect that I have never seen the like in Scotland . Of the 4 divisional heads, one is my co-tutor here, a second visited us for a half day yesterday and a third spent an hour with us this morning. The Director of Education has not visited us – because she is stuck up in Lahore University of Strathclyde
Safia and I meet at 3.30 p.m. to conduct a review/planning meeting.
I.S .points:-
1. The classroom videos worked well.
2. It was right not to use computing labs: the whole class together worked well.
3. Using mostly recordings, as we did, is superior to using the live video-streams (although both work).
4. The 3-scenario role-play could have instructions improved
5. The “passive” slide is good; the two “criticism” slides less so.
6. The “tricky questions” session is good and robust; but needs a short introduction and rationale.
7. Log time was used productively.
8. More material should be moved from the main body of the text into the “supplementary materials” appendices.
1. The 3 Entwistle slides worked well.
2. The classroom videos were taken very seriously.
3. Some participants focus on what TCS (i.e. Head Office) as an organisation should do, not on what they could do.
4. The relationship between pages 23 and 24 could be clarified. Does reading p23 come before doing the p24 exercise or is it vice-versa?
5. They had all done the homework we set yesterday.
6. The “tricky questions” exercise worked well.
We re-vamped the timetable for the remaining 3 days, and planned some marginal editing of the PP slides (Now done)
I do some work back in the guesthouse, while listening to Tom Morton on Radio Scotland
I total up the cost of my Marlboro Red here in Pakistan UK
Safia and I are taken in the car to a restaurant Peri Peri, a franchise specialising implausibly in Portuguese chicken dishes. Hummus as a starter is disappointing, but a piquant roasted chicken breast is good.
A salamander wanders across the bedroom floor. What delightful creatures they are: and how much longer have they been a part of the evolutionary tree than we humans.
Off to bed and a further chapter of A Dance called America
8 June 2011
The weather forecast is stable for us but predicts some rain and lower temperatures in Lahore
I find that one of our participants up in Lahore
I have enough leisure at breakfast to read “Dawn”. 4 items catch my attention.
- A family of 12 killed in a car crash, all in the one car. Even allowing for the fact that one was an infant, it must have been a very crowded car. In typical Dawn English style, it is explained that 11 were killed outright. The infant was taken to hospital “where she expired her last”. Common story, sadly.
- A cyclone due to come into Sindh and the
Punjab in the next 24 hours. The fishing fleet has been told to remind in port. Does not match the BBC forecast; but let us see. - The Pakistan Poverty Alliance Foundation (entirely funded by the government with World Bank money - £1b in the last decade) is resisting attempts that its accounts should be audited.
- A letter from someone (admittedly a member of staff of a government education College) protesting about the low standards of a BEd and Med in a university. (Government colleges and are subject to detailed regulation over such courses; private colleges and universities are not. The latter are however subject to a general regulatory regime by the Higher Education Commission, roughly a hybrid of SFC and QAA.
When no one appears at 7.00 a.m., I venture into the kitchen and find the waiter/breakfast chef there, still asleep on his bed. I get toast and cheese and juice and tea, and apparently Safia gets her omelette, albeit a little late. Our car and driver turn up and we sweep through fairly quiet streets.
Sweets turn up from two participants: this is our standard punishment when mobiles go off in class (“Bring sweets for everyone tomorrow”).
We use the Dylan Wiliam materials from Learning and Teaching Scotland (unlike yesterday’s materials, I guess they are used a great deal –certainly the ideas have permeated much of the Scottish system, especially at primary school level); and they are received well.
At tea-break, one head asks me about medical education: her son is training to be a doctor in Pakistan and she is appalled by how little he is interested in research; she wants to send him to a good postgraduate medical school in the UK London or Edinburgh
There is a lengthy power-cut in mid-morning which slows the cooking of lunch. Meanwhile we plough on with sessions on time-management and dealing with in-tray priorities. The late lunch is sweet and sour chicken, fried chicken legs, rice and kolfi. Beautifully cooked and well-presented.
The short afternoon goes on with the same themes. There is a real buoyancy about the place. I end with the bad news and the good news; “Bad news is that no one’s mobile went off today. Good news is that your kind tutors will supply the sweets tomorrow.”
Lots of smiles and farewells as leave. Two departing comments I find particularly memorable. Safia and I will long treasure them:-
“The sessions are getting better and better and we do not want the course to end”
“It was really entertaining. I have never done any academic studying before and thought it was a serious thing. But I was surprised by how entertaining it was”.
Safia and I meet at 3.30 p.m. to conduct a review/planning meeting.
SC
- The formative assessment materials went well; but perhaps need added material outlining the way in which they are distanced from past (and current) assessment practices.
- The time management materials were challenging: basically because these are people who are weak on delegation skills.
- The in-tray prioritisation exercise could be strengthened by numbering the items; and the 2-stage questions do not make overall sense.
- The fact that the Lahore participants gave themselves (mostly) 4 out of 10 on where their schools were at with formative assessment whereas the Karachi participants gave themselves (mostly) 7 out of 10.
IS
1. The FA stuff went well.
2. The time management material started well, went through a rough spell and then came good. A tweaking of Step 1 is called for so that not all the item listed are important.
3. The in-tray exercise is good, needs more than 45 mins (we gave it 60) and needs its reporting format sharpened.
4. Some of the comments at the end were encouraging:-
“The sessions are getting better and better and we do not want the course to end”
“It was really entertaining. I have never done any academic studying before and thought it was a serious thing. But I was surprised by how entertaining it was”.
Nafisa takes me out to Avari Towers Islamabad
Good meal: steamed prawns and garlic prawns. My drive takes me home through the hell-hole of Saddar, the place of which Dawn (rightly) said “It is more dangerous to breathe the air of Saddar than to be a heavy smoker”. With its workshops and bazaars and filth and street sewage water, it is choked with chaotic traffic. There are two ways of looking at Karachi (which in 1947 was a well-ordered city half the size of Glasgow ; and today is a sprawling choking slum 25 times the size of Glasgow
Do some last minute work, and talk to Joan: alone in a blacked-out house in Lahore Arabian Sea . The prognosis sounds OK: winds of up to 90kph but not until Sunday. Safia, Nudrat and I are all due to fly up to Lahore Lahore forecast is 40C and some rain showers but humidity lower than Karachi
Midnight and time for bed. What fun it all is.
9 June (Karachi
I look back at my meal last night. Nafissa my host is a Diploma graduate of the University of Strathclyde Nottingham .
Last night as I prepared some slides for our half-day on marketing schools, it occurred to me to produce a part-example of a marketing matrix. Some of you might be interested and/or amused by my example:-
BBC TV says that Karachi
At 6.45, I go down to see whether the waiter/chef is up and about. He is.
Look at the aviary before breakfast: the two bigger birds are allegedly Grey Partridges, I have been told. Raised to be eaten. The morning is cloudless and sunny, and the humidity feels lower than last night.
I take some RHT (last night I was reading in the Hunter book how emigrant Scottish children were killed by sea-sickness i.e. by the consequent dehydration: on one voyage to North America , out of 50 under-5s, one survived the voyage.)
Safia tells me about her daughter who was sitting ‘O-level Business Studies. She phoned her daughter (in Islamabad
We have a good solid day at work: delegation and marketing schools are the main themes. Our colleagues in Lahore
I get home, have a sleep and a shower; and switch on Tom Morton as I key in the review conclusions and write one or two other bits.
3.30 : Review Time 9/6/11
IS
- Step 2 on delegation should be explicitly related to Step 1, and should have the instruction; “TICK AS MANY BOXES AS YOU WANT”
- 30 mins in pairs on Step 2 worked quite well.
- Participants eventually did mostly get the message “Delegate if possible; but minimise risks by having some checks”
- Delegation Planner worked well; but does not need 45 minutes.
- Marketing reading may be too long (I am not sure).
- There should be a less elaborate modelling of Marketing Matrix : fill 5 boxes, not 20.
Boston
SC
1. A willingness to delegate functions related to T+L but not visits to RO, meeting with RAC etc is worrying.
2. Agree with IS on Step 2
3. p57 should begin “Select an item from page 55”
4. Marketing reading is not too long
5. Both matrices worked OK, although with some confusion.
Going outside for a cigarette, I meet the owner. We have an interesting conversation: in his view the cyclone will miss Karachi
Out to dinner with Nudrat, Nafissa and Safia. It is a Thai restaurant and the highlight for me is a dish of baby lobsters (illegal of course in the UK
Friday 10th June
The call of the muezzin awakes me at 4.15 but I manage to get some sleep for another hour or more. Turn on BBC World News (a channel that used to hard to get in Pakistan Syria
I have a slight stomach upset; but nothing of any great alarm. Take some RHT.
The Lahore Karachi
“Dawn” has several stories about an unarmed youth who was gunned down by the Rangers in a Clifton
“Dawn” now promises the cyclone on Sunday.
I reflect on what I know about Pakistan
At work, while the participants are preparing, from 8.30 to 10.30 for their 11a.m. presentations, I go through the Brown Report “Education for All” and extract what he wrote specifically about Pakistan
· In Pakistan
· Tests of Grade 3 children found that only half could answer very basic multiplication questions and 69% were unable to add a word to complete a sentence.
· One-third of schools are judged to be in a satisfactory condition, 30,000 need major repairs and over 30% have no drinking water or latrines.
· Bangladesh and Pakistan
· In the 1960s, countries like South Korea and Taiwan were no wealthier than countries such as Pakistan and Ghana Pakistan
The presentations go well and they keep us engaged. Safia is chair, and I am timekeeper. The campus have found me an old-fashioned school bell and I use it to tell each of the 8 groups when their 14 minutes are up. I joke that I was trained as a teacher so long ago that it is only form of educational technology in which I have any training. What fun! (The presentations are all done on PowerPoint. When I first started working in Pakistan
We give some advice of Phase 4 i.e. working on their action plans between now and November with the help of coaches and self-help groups. Then we dish out the evaluation forms and there are speeches and we are presented with flowers and with presents; and have to watch a sequence of course photographs set to music.
Off to the guest house, and then to the airport. There Safia and I rendezvous with Nudrhat and Tanver, all of us heading for the Advisory Board meeting tomorrow in Lahore
The 7 p.m. P.I.A. flight is 90 minutes late, so I do the evaluation scores while we sit in the airport. Meanwhile Joan is doing hers in the guesthouse in Lahore Lahore – something which had given Rose, as a Lahore Karachi
Ratings 1: strongly disagree 6: strongly agree
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Mean | ||
1. | The week achieved its aims and outcomes for me | 2 | 4 | 28 | 5.8 | |||
2. | The organisation was satisfactory | 2 2 | 5 | 5 5 | 2 26 | 5.7 | ||
3. | The sequence of the week was consistent and coherent | 2 | 8 | 24 | 5.6 | |||
4. | The tutors were approachable and helpful | 1 | 2 | 31 | 5.8 | |||
5. | The tutors helped me to learn | 1 | 3 | 30 | 5 5.8 | |||
6. | The physical surroundings were satisfactory | 1 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 15 | 5.3 | |
7. | Meeting other colleagues on the modules was useful to me | 1 | 1 | 12 | 20 | 5.4 | ||
8. | I will be able to use the ideas learned in my job | 1 | 4 | 29 | 5.8 | |||
9. | The week helped to develop my skills and knowledge | 1 | 7 | 26 | 5.7 |
N=34
Ratings 1: strongly disagree 6: strongly agree
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Mean | ||
1. | The week achieved its aims and outcomes for me | 1 | 7 | 23 | 5.7 | |||
2. | The organisation was satisfactory | 2 | 10 | 20 | 5.6 | |||
3. | The sequence of the week was consistent and coherent | 1 | 9 | 22 | 5.6 | |||
4. | The tutors were approachable and helpful | 5 | 27 | 5.8 | ||||
5. | The tutors helped me to learn | 1 | 6 | 25 | 5.7 | |||
6. | The physical surroundings were satisfactory | 6 | 9 | 17 | 5.3 | |||
7. | Meeting other colleagues on the modules was useful to me | 1 | 9 | 22 | 5.6 | |||
8. | I will be able to use the ideas learned in my job | 5 | 27 | 5.8 | ||||
9. | The week helped to develop my skills and knowledge | 1 | 7 | 23 | 5.7 |
N=32
At 8.30, we board the Airbus: a reading from the Koran, safety drill and we climb into the turbulence of the thermals rising from the cooling Sindh desert. I could do with a G+T but settle for a Pepsi: and for a mild chicken curry and some yoghurt. 89F as we descend into the “cool” of a Lahore
I exit from Lahore Dubai
To the guest house: some Murree beer in the fridge (the first alcohol I have had for a week; and the first I have had in Pakistan
11 June (Lahore
I awake deliciously late at 8.30, and do some work tidying up evaluation scores, log-writing and reading papers for today’s meeting. It is hot and dry; but not with the severe heat that Lahore Dubai Christchurch Canterbury University
Joan and I go off at midday to meet Rose and Safia, essentially to discuss where the present PDSL programme might go and how to proceed beyond it.
We go out for dinner in Yums, a rather good and popular Chinese restaurant that Joan and I have visited before. 12 of us altogether. Good soup and good seafood. I am a little uneasy when we begin to talk Pakistan Pakistan
Back to the guesthouse. Robin and I crack a can of Murree beer, before he retreats, beaten by a lack of sleep and travel fatigue. My Facebook site is full of messages and photos. Explore for the first time the use of tags on Facebook; and get it hopelessly wrong. I am not a “technological native”.
Reflect on the fact that Nudrat, the Regional Director of Southern Region (who is a Canadian citizen of Pakistan origins and ethnicity), spent many years working for the Hudson Canada
Approaching midnight. There is a strong but very warm night wind. Lightning flashes and thunder rumbles overhead. The rain begins to cascade down. Have a last cigarette outside, where there are two guards on duty- one with a useful looking Kalashnikov.
The power goes off: but 20 seconds later the trusty diesel generator splutters into life.
Good to get a mixture of e-mails and Facebook comments from my pals Anne and Jane, and from my niece Rebecca.
Time for bed. Rose has given me some serious bedtime reading about a proposal for work in Abu Dhabi
Sunday 12 June 2011
The morning is still and fresh (relatively speaking i.e. probably only about 35C).
Breakfast, put on a tie (which I forgot yesterday) and off, having done some keyboarding of, and dispatched, the minutes of the earlier meeting yesterday.
Breakfast, put on a tie (which I forgot yesterday) and off, having done some keyboarding of, and dispatched, the minutes of the earlier meeting yesterday.
As I then key in (in a separate document) a record of yesterday’s Board proceedings, I note one of Safia’s gems as worthy of a wider audience: “The leadership programme is more about developing emotional intelligence than developing cognitive intelligence”. (A good observation, not least from someone operating in her second or even third language).
9.30 and we head off to the resumption of the Board meeting.
Here go a lot of notes the day which I will again mostly excise before sending this out. They are really solely for the benefit of Joan and me. What TCS is doing is sometimes overly ambitious in terms of timescale, but impressive nevertheless.
Nudrat exits at 4.00 p.m. to go on leave. She leaves with a dramatic flurry in front of the projector screen. One can see the genetic pool that has made her daughter one of Pakistan
5.30 p.m. and we finish. News of the big explosion in Peshawar
Then to the Firoz mansion. Built around an atrium design within the last 10 years.
Dr Farzana’s father was said to be the second-richest man in Pakistan Karachi
We have juice, tea and sandwiches with Jahangir (Dr Firoz is en route home from Jeddah). He gives us presents of elaborate boxes of sweets in honour of his twin daughters, now about 4 months old. Tells us a funny story of how one of the twins went missing one day: Granny had taken the child to the office without telling the parents. (Well, I guess it is funny in retrospect.)
Back home. Robin and I share a last can of beer before dinner; and I discover he lives in Lewes on Price Edwards Road, a few yards away from my brother Alasdair.
Outside there is a lovely moon, although most of the stars are shrouded by a combination of the pollution haze and the ambient light.
The guards have doubled.
What a wonderful but tragic land this is.
13 June
Heavy rain showers, 39C and moderate humidity are forecast.
It is already hot at 7.00 a.m.. Coleen and I breakfast together, watch the grim news from Peshawar
Coleen is in the Board Room. Her (unknown) co-tutor has not appeared, nor have her handouts; the room is too small; she needs break-out rooms but has none; she would have been much better off on the Ravi campus. (Later things get better and she has a good day of training).
It is 8.30; and 90 minutes before I am due to meet Rose. So I settle in her office and do some work reading documents for our meeting; and writing up notes from yesterday.
Two arriving staff recognise me outside and I am greeted like a long lost friend. I drink some water and settle down to work.
Discussions with Rose and with a new guy from TCS HR. Eventually we come to an agreement. I e-mail a few pals:-
“I signed a contract with TCS today to work for them for two 28-day periods between 1 Sept and 20th Dec. In practice, probably the month of October and mid-Nov to mid-Dec. Some low pay; but flights from and to Glasgow, dedicated car and driver on 24/7 call and a wonderful house to live in (where I am now). Best of all, working in an organisation of wonderful women.”
I have to revise a work plan, which I do.
Then I get paid for the work we have done over the last few weeks.
In the evening off to a very good Italian restaurant: Cosa Nostra . Missing only chianti. Hosted by the legendary M.D., aka Dr Frazana, She is in a good mood. Superb meal.
Car back. An hour at home. Dish out 3000 rupees variously across guards, drivers and domestic servants, feeling like an 18th century Hebridean gentleman, Then at midnight Robin, Joan and I are off to Lahore Airport
June14 June
Long wait at a civilised Lahore Airport Dubai
Later, fly over Rumania
Listen to Johnny Cash and Rod Stewart on the magical Emirates ICE system as we head in the direction of Amsterdam
Down into a sunny Glasgow Glasgow Lahore for me were a joke; but the two husbands to look after Mrs. Forrest in Glasgow
Did we achieve anything? Hard to say: but we certainly tried.
Three things about going to Pakistan
In increasing order of importance they are:-
i) personal security: of Joan, me, Donald, Kate and those others who have made this journey. It is the easiest to deal with. We and TCS do moderately sensible things and (therefore) are mostly moderately safe.
ii) Logistics: travel, money, teaching materials, locations etc. Hard to cope with sometime. But, with checklists and the CPA (Critical Path Analysis) that constantly ticks in my brain and in those of my pals, we mostly cope.
iii) The interpersonal dimensions. For a wee introspective Hebridean with distinct Asperger tendencies, I find that hard. But rewarding as I work at it.
But the positive. Working with people who are very hard-nosed; and who believe that one way of being hard-nosed is to invest constantly in their own training and that of their colleagues. Sometimes they get that a little wrong. But their broad direction is right. I have been reading on the way home the observations of my ex-colleague Donald Christie on the Donaldson Report. I wish that more people in Scottish education could learn from TCS in Pakistan
Iain Smith
15 June 2011
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