For those of you following my trials and tribulations, you probably I went for an interview in Myanmar this week and traveled between Yangon and Mandalay all on the company’s dime. About two weeks ago, I went for an interview in Bangkok thinking I was applying for a teaching job but they ultimately ended up offering me a job as superintendent for their 10 schools in three different countries and director of institutional development. Needless to say, they were impressed with my answers. They flew me to Yangon to meet the managing director (known as MD) and I gave a few workshops to 20 of their staff in Yangon and about 30 in Mandalay. The rest of the time I was visiting their schools, talking with various office staff and eating one meal after another with MD. I learned a lot about Buddhism and he probably learned a little about Judaism. We spent a lot of time talking about basic human characteristics and virtues.
Going for an interview for an executive job, I have discovered, is a little more intense than I am used to. I am now typing at 4 am because I am finally just settling down. I have been in intensive discussions, observations and air flights for two solid days at the moment and looking forward to two more. The first day I flew to Yangon at 8 am, met with MD for three hours, then had lunch with him and his chief executive. In the afternoon, I went with his driver and personal assistant to visit his 4 schools in Yangon and sit in on classes, speak with the managers and have discussions about the nature of education in his ‘centres’. Yesterday morning I presented a 4 hour workshop to all of his teachers and managers in Yangon about how to use the Singapore curriculum they are using, then lunch and a quick flight to Mandalay to see his large comprehensive international school of 1000 students. It turns out that part of my portfolio may be to run this school for a few months while the present principal is off to visit her sick mother in Singapore. Other parts of the job are to be the director of institutional development which is to oversee schools in Singapore, Vietnam, Myanmar and possibly Thailand, and look for other business opportunities. Is is edupreneurship, as he calls it, at its best.
Now, about Yangon. I certainly have not seen much of it, but my first impressions when I came in from the airport is how much I appreciate Thailand. Every time I leave and I get to see other countries, I appreciate how rich a country Thailand is. For example, the cars in Myanmar are literally all old. It appears as if it is impossible to import a new car. The men wear a long skirt called a Longyi, not just the doormen at a fancy hotel as in Bangkok. The women are all wearing some sap from a tree on their faces in huge round gobs which apparently acts as a cooling effect and moisturizer.
The tourism infrastructure is obviously lacking, as the electricity apparently goes off at least five times a day, the buses are squelching black fumes and the passengers inside are filled to the raptors literally sticking out of the windows and doors. Mandalay is very similar. In Mandalay, I saw farmers actually moving down the road with their oxen and wheelbarrows, people cycling by the thousands and farmers tilling the land as they have been doing for millennium. From my short view of the last Myanmar’s king’s palace, it is extraordinary. It is huge, surrounded by a river and everyone is now preparing for the water festival or New Year next week. Viewing stands are going up along the river bank and cars will be going by with everyone spraying water on each other. A kid’s dream!
Myanmar seems rather scary in a sense. There is censorship of telephone calls and Internet, articles are cut out of foreign papers that have anything to do with Myanmar, electricity goes off about five times a day, the transportation system is archaic and it is very difficult to travel anywhere. You also need wads of cash because there are no money machines anywhere and you can only use cash for everything, but the bills have to be new. They will not accept old looking money. Since I did not bring any money and there are no atms’s MD handed me a wad of 100,000 whatever the currency here is called, but I have not had a chance to use it yet since I have been with him full time for the last two days.
I think I will try to go back to sleep now but can’t turn off my brain.
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