Work it out

Working in Pakistani company looks something like that:

A) fixed time means nothing more than approximate time to show-up to the office (anyway management is coming much later and it just a thing of respect to be at your desk before your boss)

B) verbal communication practically mean nothing until it's put it written, for example in e-mail with other 2-3 random people who might be involved in on or another way (most likely your boss, his boss and etc.)

C) deadlines are for those who can't manage their own time. If you think you are good at that - you will re-plan deadlines according your need...

D) there is a crucial thing to know before starting to communicate with respectful Pakistani: 'Yes' means No and 'No' means No. Confusing? For me too...

E) if your relations are not developed with colleagues yet, it's better to approach them by Mr. If you writing e-mail it is strongly advised to use as much as possible advanced and super polite English words as you would be writing letter to President of country (Even your colleague is sitting across the table).

F) I don’t even dare to talk about ‘F’ point…

About new beginning: be part of it

Well well well... guess who's back again! As most of the bloggers I'm not going to apologize for not posting for a quite long time. Because (!) I have a reason for that.
As you know from my last post (end of September) I decided to dedicate one more year for Karachi, Pakistan. Since that decision my life was little bit messed up: a) traveling back home to Lithuania, b) flying back to Karachi with small adventures in Istanbul, c) business trip to Dubai, d) finally settling down in Karachi and working your ass of for better results.
It might sound strange, but I'm one of those people who don't really like traveling. Sometimes I write traveling as my hobbies in various applications just to impress people with my open mind-ness. True. The life "in luggage" is hell for me.
Besides changes in my career and living place (honestly, I expected today be employed in one of the successful companies in Lithuania) I had to say goodbye to few people who were living with me since very beginning. From the moment they left Karachi I realized that: "Oh f...k, I'm here already one year!".
I don't want to make this blog entry as a report "what's new in Andrius life", but just to give you an overview about my current situation.

So back to basics: mentally I'm prepared to stay for another year in Karachi and go through the same cycle: work, home, dinner at home or/and going out, meet new interns, goodbye to old interns and etc.
The main difference is that this year I committed to myself few things which I skipped last year. Yeah yeah - know: as an AIESEC'er I had to set expectations, goals and etc. - didn't work as I was too much concentrated about my job (I didn't have that much time and opportunity to travel around and get to know country). So this year I promised myself that I will push this environment closer to my needs.
First thing I need to do - meet more foreigners (sorry, but there are only few Pakistanis with whom I can really build meaningful conversation) and expand social circle. Secondary, I will work more on my eating habits (less and less fast food). And finally I will make sure that sport and exercises will be my regular activity. Can't promise attendance in sport gym, but I have ideas how can I use my surrounding for keeping "shape" (girls, you know what I mean!).
Dear reader, you just had an honor to be witness of my commitments to myself. Feel free to criticize, comment, use psychological pressure and keep reminding me about it. You are part of my commitment... Cha!

I also have good news for you. Very soon (so soon, that I almost can smell it) I'm going to get a brand new smart phone (brand name and model is unknown yet). So it means that I will be able to shoot you with: mini, smart, funny, shocking, deep and philosophical blog post. Sounds fair? Think so...

That's all for now.

My Path II

The moment of truth has come.

I’m sitting in office (19:10) and just got to know that my flight tickets have been confirmed. Yes, in 9 hours from now I will be taking off from Karachi International airport and the same day will be landing in Baltic land. Yes, I'm excided and nervous at the same time.
My visit to Lithuania is a bit unexpected, but because of that not less pleasant. As you might predict, I’m coming for very temporary visit, as after few weeks I’ll be heading back to Karachi where I’m going to prolong my “Experience Pakistan” journey.
After all discussions and reflections I finally decided that for me will be best to stay for another year in Pakistan and strengthen professional experience as business development head for CIS countries (Commonwealth of Independent States).
Looking back at my behavior, attitude, fluctuating mood, food poisoning experience and more and less pleasant interaction with local AIESEC chapters I finally can choose what is good for me and what is simply against my nature. I believe that second year of staying in Karachi will be full of new friends discovery, higher living standards and more other pleasant things (maybe traveling abroad, inshallah).
So, to summarize my short entry of today: I will be in Lithuania from 25th of September (historical date) till 11th of October. I’ll try to use this time as efficient as possible. If you are interested to see how the person looks like after almost one year staying in Pakistan – get in touch via e-mail, sms or phone call (my old phone number will be valid from 25the of Sept. afternoon).

And one more good news for my loyal blog readers: the fact that my experience in Pakistan will be continuing, you will have a chance to keep reading my progress (hopefully not regress) living in divers and full of contrasts country.
God bless you!
With love, Andrius

My path

1, 2, 3, [...] 10. Almost 10 moths have passed since I started to work for one of Pakistani company in Karachi.

Coming to Pakistan and joining this particular company was one of my best decisions ever (after joining AIESEC). This company helped me to realize what kind of sales person I am. I used to think, that I can be or I should be a good sales person, but working for different companies in Lithuania I was struggling with realization of my goals and ambitious. Finally when I joined Wavetec, a company which operates internationally, I realized that my strength in sales is to work in distance. Unfortunately I'm not that kind of guy who can go from door to door and offer services or/and products to the customers or B2B.
Even my company is quite old (nearly 20 years) but only ~10 years started to focus on new product portfolio which turned Wavetec in one of the leading electronic queue management and information display systems (LED) supplier in Pakistan, Middle East and Africa is on the way.
I started to work in this company as national sales executive and was given few accounts to handle (RBS and Standard Chartered Bank). However I was disappointed with my role because I still was not confident in product knowledge and had limited freedom (for example, didn't have car to visit clients and etc.). So after several discussions with HR and CEO was decided to move me to international sales department (after 2 months working on national sales). And from that day on I started to enjoy my job. I was accountable to one of the directors of the company and both of us were working on African region. As it was new region for company, I had to pass quite boring and sometimes annoying tasks: researching about markets, calculating market potential, preparing documentation, browsing hundreds of websites and looking for potential distributor in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Libya, etc. African region is complicated... In some cases it reminds me Pakistan culture. Whenever you start approaching company which might be potential for distributing your products, they get so excited about the idea of partnership, but when it comes to financial questions - seems that they swallow their tongue and disappear. Africans, the same as Pakistanis, never say no (or at least they tend not to say that). Such attitude makes communication, believe me, really complicated.
However, after 5-6 months working for African region I learned a lot about our products, about company policies, logistics, supply, payments terms, pricing, product integration into different market segments, such as: banks, telecoms, hospitals, governmental institutions, etc. With this confidence and experience I was given a new region to handle. Central Asian market is considered as one of the growing ones (despite financial crisis, etc.). Countries like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Russia, Kyrgyzstan and other -stan countries are rich of natural recourses and it is their one of the driving keys. International companies and banks are opening head offices in above mentioned countries and it is a sign for us step in as well. Because of my Russian language skills I was given responsibility to develop business in that region. Responsibility is huge. I have authority to make decisions about distributors, make marketing materials, travel to particular countries and meet my partners, I have my own budget with planned incomes and expenditures (I took budget template which was used in my MC term. Senior management was impressed - thank you, Rytis!).
I started to work on Central Asian region in beginning of July. According my plan I'm already exceeding expectations - business opportunities looks very promising. Well, but the time runs really fast and my internship is going to the end. 2 more months left to go. And here comes dilemma I need to solve: should I stay till the end of financial year (2010 June) or should I go back to Lithuania.
Seems that company likes me and they trust in me whatever I do. They are listen my suggestions and willing to support me. However, the country and city I'm living in makes me a bit depressive. I believe if I would manage to deal with my fluctuating depression - I could stay for another 7-8 month.
The fact that I became more and more aware of company structure and work flow makes my role more respectful. Even I don’t have associates but people on the same line treats me equally and sometimes I feel that they act as they are accountable for me. It is really good feeling being respected for who you are and for what you do. It is one of the motivations for me to stay.
The time is still running. Decision is coming soon. Stay tuned!

P.S. Question / Answer session as always in ‘comments’ sections : )

Fighting Against Nature

After 8 months and 20 days living in Karachi I experienced mason for the first time. Actually it was first time I experienced a proper rain in this country. Last weekend I felt that whole nation was praying for the rain but forgot to mention for how much.
And so it started to rain on Saturday morning and continued till late night. The result was awful… Whole streets were flooded, cars stopped in the middle of the street as water was going up to the window (~1 meter high). Children and adults were going out and playing in dirty water which was taking away everything down the stream.

Our apartment where interns are living almost got flooded. Luckily we took actions on right time and managed to arrange some kind of barriers to re-direct the water stream which was coming from the roof. You should see our stairs: it looked like entire waterfall : ) Everyone got wet, dozens of towels and other clothes were wasted just to protect water coming to apartment. We were fighting against nature for few hours until rain stopped. I was joking that a men won against nature. Again. : )

The outcome of this small storm is that we are living without electricity for more then 24 hours (actually this morning when I woke up it was ~36 hours). Our fridge is F#@%ed up, we have no fans working and the time goes by so sloooowly.
I couldn’t wait for Monday morning to go to my office as it makes me feel closer to civilization: uninterrupted power supply, internet, air conditioner and etc.
Well, one more adventure has past. Look forward for another…

The greatest pleasure in the world

As in any big city around the world you can find everything starting from poverty and finishing with amazing luxury! Karachi, the biggest city in Pakistan is not an exception.
Pakistan, as a country exists only ~60 years. In such short time of period Pakistan managed to gain reputation of suicide bombers, terrorist, Islamic fanatics and etc. I heard that in New York City they have more crime acts per day when anywhere else in the world… However today I’m going to leave aggressive topic aside and introduce you with the greatest pleasure in the world which is valued by all nations and in all historical times. Because of all kind of spices, fruits, seeds and other products we had wars and colonies appeared in different continents.
It is quite difficult to understand while being in your home country, that simple rules, behavior or attitude can not be applied here. For example, there are people who always take care of hygiene. Unless you will be eating all the time in the most expensive restaurants, you won’t get a fork and knife in casual street restaurant (a simple place for eating traditional dishes) – everything is eatable with your own hands and usually from the same plate. It is amazing how people still alive. The places where I’m going for lunch during my office time would not be even allowed to start business because of not existing hygiene. 6 months have past and I’m still alive and actually feel just great.
There are few types of restaurants (here I use word ‘restaurant’ as a word describing place for eating). First type is restaurants, expensive ones where you can feel like at home (or even better). In Lithuania sometimes is quite problematic to call waitress to be served or to give order, differently from Pakistan, where each table gets at least three people serving you. Sometime it gets annoying, but I believe that after one year I’ll be missing that back at home (despite that I’m not going to such restaurants too often). In these restaurants you can get any kind of food: traditional stakes, pastas, Chinese food, spicy and regular dishes, snacks, drinks (non-alcoholic), deserts and etc. Everything is served perfectly fine on white tablecloth, with A/C and etc.
Second type is family restaurants, the place where people can come with their family members, friends (I mean girls and boys), sit, and chat and have good time together. Probably this type of restaurants are the most common and most popular. You get tasty food for a reasonable price, there are always enough place to sit for big group of people and they can arrange order from other restaurant which is on the same street (for example if I want some specific juice which are not available in restaurant I am, they will arrange it for me without any additional charges). As per my knowledge, these types of restaurants are mostly crowded in evening after work or sunset when people have more free time and can relax. That is why these restaurants are located in busiest streets and they can offer table inside or outside. While passing one of these restaurants by car or by walk you will meet from 5 to (unlimited) number of guys and small kids running right after you being ready to jump under the car just to convince you to choose their restaurant. You can call them ‘club promoters’. Believe me or not, but their strategy is working (more or less). As soon as you put your soft ass on the plastic chair to be served – their job is done.
The third type of restaurants I wanted to introduce you with is with the lowest quality in terms of service and hygiene. I’m not proud to say that I’m going everyday to one of these restaurants to have my lunch. The best they can offer is a traditional dish for really cheep price. Usually there are one or two guys serving tables. What is the most amazing for me is that they don’t need to write down your order – they always remember what and how much you ate.
Imagine a guy with very oily and dirty shalwar kameez, caring one rag with which he cleans all sh*t from the table (most probably all day long). With the same hand bring you a plate with your ordered food, taking with bred with hands and giving to you and etc. People are throwing cigarettes, small papers or any other useless stuff right on the floor or under the table (and its stays there till the end of the day). Homeless cats with broken tale or leg are common view as well. If you have a good mood today, you can throw a piece of chicken for poor animal.
In such places you will never see women. As once my colleague from office said: “they most probably would forget eating and keep staring at me”. I think she is right. In these restaurants are coming people from lower class, workers and etc.
Depending how strongly you want to feel Pakistan culture you can choose your lunch/dinner place.
Bone appetite!

My 3 concerns living in Pakistan

Many people are impressed by the idea to live and work abroad according your specialization for a fixed period of time. Going abroad you get both: cultural and professional (work) experience. The only one question is how relevant this experience will be in your future..? If you are lucky - after internship you will find job with similar product or in the same business sector (field). If not - well, at least you will have nice stories to tell to your future grand children.
But... lets talk about present and lets analyze why it is not easy being an intern in Pakistan (some cases might apply and for other countries as well).
First of all each foreigner faces with language barrier. Coming to Pakistan I didn't even know that Urdu language exist as such. Having such obstacle to communicate with local people you have two options: a) ignore the fact that you need to learn local language and require that everyone around would respect you and speak in English (or any other language you know), or b) start learning and speaking local language and in this way show your appreciation to the country, culture and etc.
In my case, I chose option A. I find Urdu language not that difficult to learn (in terms of pronunciations), but I feel being "fun object" each time I try to demonstrate my achievements in learning new words. People accept my efforts with loud laugh. I still don't understand that; why they laugh at me? That's what demodivates me. I know Urdu just to survive: communicate with Taxi or Rickshaw drivers, prices and etc.
Not knowing language really makes your life poor (sometimes). The hardest moments are during the lunch, for example. When I'm going to have lunch with local friends from my company, I know I can't force them to speak English (even topic is not relevant to me) as they are not that fluent in English language. So sometimes I have 30-45 min of silence surrounded of loud Urdu speaking people.
But it is not the worst thing to be silent all the time. The most annoying thing comes when someone sitting at the table with you suddenly realize that I'm speechless and all over the sudden approach me with following questions: "so, how do you like food (4 to 6 times per week); so, how do you like Pakistan (less and less I receive such question - progress); so, how do you like your job?". Well, being a polite person and trying to stay politically correct I swallow my angriness and start building conversation around the question I received (again!). In that moment I feel pathetic because someone decided to talk to me...
However, I have to be thankful to them for taking care of me and keeping company for me while eating as I would not feel totally comfortable in 'desi' (local) food coffee surrounded of strangers.

Another thing is to live with other foreigners. From the first view it looks fine as all current interns in Karachi are from different countries and we all speak English. But being all the time together (living, eating, going out, partying and etc.) we become like a family. I don't really like that concept and trying to balance between. Naturally, living in big group after some time sub-groups starts appearing. It means that each person is trying to find another person with the same interests, hobbies or mindset. So here starts fun part. Each sub-group is gossiping about another group. The fact that other people not interacting with you in the way you would like to, gives even more spark to strengthen your micro group. As you know, people are coming for a fixed period of time. So as the people are changing, the migration from one group to another keep rolling. Here I'm trying to keep balance (again). Let happen what meant to happen : )
Seriously, I don't support such idea. Before coming to Pakistan my goal was to change my life style dramatically. But if I would judge people according my previous values - it wouldn't be fair as I came here to learn new things, to appreciate differences (especially in people) because I don't have such things back at home. Of course I used to interact with interns, but as in all AIESEC, interns are usually entertainment for local people (if I have time and nothing to do - why not to hang out with interns, as they attached to their living place anyway). Well, maybe it is not that bad as I expressed myself, but still - you got my point.

Living in Pakistan is paradoxical thing... All Pakistanis are proud of their country. The worst thing what you can say to them is: India is better then Pakistan! After this phrase most probably you would become enemy No. 1. Quite often I receive questions: how do you find Pakistan? Is it the same what you used to read in news papers back at home? Do we look like terrorist? Well, politically correct answer would be "No". Luckily, I haven't experienced anything bad, never have been in dangerous situation or so... But the fact that some riots are keep happening somewhere in Pakistan doesn't change my mind. Obviously, being in Pakistan my understanding about the culture and society enhanced dramatically, but I can't deny fact that government is not doing its best to protect people. I don't care if attacks were organized by Pakistanis, Afghans, Indians or NATO! As long as it is happening in territory of Pakistan - doesn't make me feel better. But who am I to judge them.
There are places where we (foreigners) feel absolutely fine, but there are many places where is not recommended to show up (recommended by Pakistanis). So far I'm following advices, but my curiosity keeps growing. One day! Inshallah...