Yangon-My first official assignment

I just got back from my first official visit as "Dean of RV academies" We have a small school in Yangon Myanmar so it was a good test to see how things would work out. I must say, I was very pleasantly surprised at how I was treated. The school is in a posh hotel and as I came in they welcomed me back by name. Do you think that would happen at the Royal York? The bellmen and front desk personnel certainly remembered me from last April.

We now have a library and computer lab. As I was visiting, the librarian would not let me open a door by myself. The same thing happened in our office where we have about 20 people diligently working away at various and sundry tasks. Although it was difficult to be treated this way, I finally got used to ( about 5 seconds, I surmise)

The Myanmar kids are fantastic...respectful, possess very good English skills, enthusiastic and hard working. Nothing has changed on that front since I visited last spring. However, now that I have the title, the principal had me speak to the parents. It is amazing how adept I am getting at making power point presentations on the fly. I ran around for a few hours taking pictures of kids and teachers and then incorporated them into a slide presentation to talk about the school, the strengths and the challenges we face in the coming year. I love having a translator because it gives me time to think and I can watch the audience reaction. It also lets me know how many colloquial expressions I use all the time. For example, I said to the parents we had to pull our socks up. The translator certainly had no idea what I was talking about.

The questions the parents asked were hard hitting and to the point, but because I am a male, white, with gray hair, they seemed, at first glance to be accepting of what I have to say.

I also had to deal with a difficult parent in a private meeting at the principal's request. This was interesting since I was the one historically who usually caused the problems for principals, not solving them. Hopefully I succeeded. When I left Friday, no kid had dropped out yet so I guess I survived unscathed and hopefully did some good.

Whenever I met with or heard business people talk about travel, I have always been quite envious. Now I see what Daniel was talking about. I rolled out of bed in the hotel, went downstairs to the school, worked until 5 or 6 and then had supper and went to bed. I was in Yangon for a week and did no site seeing. I did walk around the downtown which is one big market but that was it. I did not play golf, visit any Temples or travel anywhere. Next week I go to Mandalay and I will be sure to book it over a week-end so I can do some visiting.

I am now back in Bangkok, getting ready to interview some teachers tomorrow and give them an orientation to teaching and our program. What is great about this job is that I have a diverse number of tasks which is fun. I know I will never be bored.