Exotic

I am currently working very closely with 3 people from one of my company's vendor. They are world travellers and exotic in my eyes they are Indian. There are 2 men and one woman. They are extremely smart and challenge us every day, they are soft spoken, and I sometimes still don't understand everything that they say. Their work ethic is amazing. After our 8 hrs in the office, they go back to the hotel and work MORE. I really do enjoy working with them daily.

I think it is so interesting how interested we are in each other's cultures. While some of the group has been to the states before, none of us have been to India. We had a pizza lunch on Friday and were enthralled with the stories of the culture, the roles of men & women, the economic differences. Even the story of their trip over, a 4 hr flight to Dubai and then a 14 hr flight to the state was interesting to hear about. It has also been very interesting learining about the way they eat. No beef, no pork. Lots of fish, some chicken, and lots of vegetarian options. Oh yeah, and everything here is bland- they use SO much more spice.

I know it has to be frustrating at times- the lack of public transportation, some of the cultural and dietary differences. Outside of work, there is no rental car to hop in & drive around. In the town they are staying in, there is no public transportation save taxis. And that adds up fast. They do get rides to and from the office from the security guards here, but on their off times they are on their own. I do know that there are other folks at the company that are making sure that they go to different places, get taken to dinners, so that they don't just stay in their hotel. But it doesn't fill ALL the time. They have gone to the movies several times and shopping at the mall, you can only do that for so long.

Working so closely with these new friends, it hits home how sheltered we can become to others traditions, beliefs, and ways of life. It is an experience that I would not trade for anything.

A unique position....

I am currently in a unique position at work. For the last few months I have been working with a fellow team member on creating new directions or procedures to some of the transactions that we process at work. These transactions just so happen to be in the transition, moving to a vendor rather than being processed in house; oh yeah, and the vendor is off shore.

And no, this does not mean that I am training my replacement..... at least for a long while.

The unique position I am in is being a subject matter expert. We eased into the training, not throwing the most complex work at them from the start. Well, at the start of week 3 of the training, it is now more difficult. These are procedures that I labored over for weeks and thought were comprehensive- holes were found. And this is after I went over each procedure with the leader of the project.

While we can't write down each and every scenario for these transactions, I had moments of panic. I have even asked myself, fhve I done anything right? While I know that I have done many things right, and that I could not have forseen some of these snags, you always have doubts.

I have been working with one of the vendors-S is a very smart cookie and a pleasure to work with - it has put my decision making on point. I am the first to admit, I have always looked to someone to affirm what I am thinking or wanting to do is the right thing. Now I have someone asking ME how things should be done.. I have to stop doubting my knowledge and just go with my decision. How did I know I was right for this role? That would be when we went over quality samples and I was correcting our in house quality specialist. It made me feel pretty damned good.

It will be interesting to see what the next 3 weeks will bring, and what will happen when we end up going back into our regular office.