The weather was cold but everything else was warm this week. On Wednesday we celebrated Men's Day. From what I understand this was a Soviet holiday that they still celebrate. The women of the office made traditional Uzbek Osh. It is known in Russia as pilov and elsewhere as pilaf. It is similar to dirty rice but with different spices. There was non, which is the round loaves of bread you see everywhere, marinated salad of cabbage and carrots as well as some sliced fruit. It was very nicely done and wonderful to eat.
When I awoke on my birthday I had to trek through an inch of snow to get to Cottage K4, where the workout equipment is located. Yes I did start working out again. That is a good thing as I have more energy even though we still work dark to dark daily.
My birthday was fun. I did post a picture of me and my cake that day. I know most everyone saw it because of the number of FB posts. The ornaments on the sides and the shavings on top were chocolate. The cake was similar to a spice cake. It was triple layer with cream between the layers. The balls were also made of cream. It was very delicious. It was cool that a bunch of guys from all over the world wanted to celebrate with me.
When I was getting ready for bed I noticed that my phone had lost it's signal. I thought, that might not be such a bad thing as I figured there would be some FB posts wishing me happy birthday and commenting on the picture I had just posted. That was a good call. When I enabled my phone service again after I woke up the day after my birthday, there were 40 texts queued up. Most FB posts, others just texts. Lesson of the day: If you are ever on the opposite side of the world of most of your FB friends on your birthday, put the phone on airplane mode or you will not sleep well.
We ended the week by actually making schedule two days in a row and on Saturday produced enough to catch up to the number required for the month. Baring a catastrophe, we will make the February number.
Today we had some fun. We started out with a little time in the plant. It was good that we did. There were some mistakes in the system, which lead people to believe that we were out of a part to build the Matiz. When we did some digging we found enough for a couple of weeks. We have been fighting to clean up bad data from the day we arrived. After a couple of hours there, we went to the cottages to drop off our stuff and pick up one more guy. We packed four into the back seat of a Lacetti. That is a car the size of a Chevy Cruze. You do what you have to sometimes. When we got to Andijon, our driver dropped us in town. We told him to enjoy the rest of his day and we would find our own ride back to the cottages.
We started with a money transaction. Our Korean friend had done it before and had a broker. He spotted us on the street and approached. We made a deal for 2350 cym per dollar. That was good enough for me so I changed a hundred. Remember the exchange rate published by the government is 1648. The variance is certainly worth having a broker on the street.
Next we headed into the Yangi Bizarre to do a little shopping. We went to see our favorite fruit vendor. She remembered us, as I expected she would. We bought our fruit with only a little negotiating. She did charge the first guy, who did no negotiating, 500 cym/kg more than the other two, for the same apples. She gave another guy a tangerine, in compensation. I guess she saw him coming and knew my Indian friend and I were not as much of a push over. She just put the lower price into the scale without saying a word. I told him as we walked out what had happened. He was not surprised. It was a difference in reality of about a quarter.
There was a crowd around us when we were doing business with her. Hard to understand why three Americans, a Korean and an Indian negotiating with a young Uzbek female fruit vendor would draw a crowd. One of the older ladies, maybe her Mother, was pushing me toward our vendor friend. It surprised me. When I looked at her she held up her left hand and with her right index finger and thumb stroked her left ring finger. I think the message was that I should be marrying this young girl. I put my arm around her and tried to let them know I already had a wife. The guys really teased me about what I was really in the market for today.
After the fruit purchases we went to get some nuts. The almonds are so good. We keep them in the office for folks to munch on during meetings etc. The merchant we generally do business with quoted us a price higher than our Indian friend was willing to pay. He is without question the best negotiator of the bunch. The guy started at 22,000 cym/kg. The counter offer was 16,000. We ended up buying a total of 3.5 kg for 17,000 cym/kg. It was a pretty brutal negotiation that could have gone either way. I am pretty sure when we first purchased these highest quality almonds we did pay 22,000. At any rate, we now have plenty of nuts, for a while. My friend who was taken by the fruit vendor did no better here. He paid 22,000 for a kg of raisins. The next guy got them for 16,000. Some people like the sport better than others.
After the fruits and nuts we all wanted some beverages. One loves the juice. One needs the coke. One got some tea and some beer. For me, a couple of bottles of a dry red Uzbek wine. Once we had all of our purchases, it was time for lunch. We were surprised to meet up with a guy from the plant, who had been sick much of the week. He joined us for lunch. UZ Turk was really packed today. I had something like chicken wings and some salad. Another guy had a spiced meat loaf. Our Korean friend had a barbecue chicken wrap that was excellent. Actually all of it was really good. It is an excellent place to eat.
Our friend from the plant, who is from Asaka, was in town for a haircut. I told him I really wanted one too. He called his barber and worked me in, even though it is a very busy day. We put the other 4 guys in a cab to the cottages and the two of us headed to the barbershop. When we stepped inside it was hot and humid. My glasses fogged up immediately upon entry. I felt a little disadvantaged as it was a new place full of people that I could not see. I got my glasses clear by using a shirt tail. Once I could see, I found myself not in a barbershop full of men but a salon full of women. The room was entirely pink with red and burgundy decorations. It was about 10 feet wide and 60 feet deep. The air was thick with the chemicals women use in such places. There was a manicure station and four stations for hair stylists. The only guy in there was working on a lady in the very last station. I waited near the door as my Uzbek friend went to speak with his "barber". He asked us to come back in 30 minutes. We agreed and went back outside. We just walked and talked. He and I know quite a bit about each other as he and I often lunch together. We did use a public bathroom. It cost 200 cym and you do not breathe through your nose in there. Real, real, real bad....
When the time came for us to return, we did. To our surprise, the guy we had made the appointment with just 30 minutes earlier was gone. There were no less than a dozen women in the shop. Many of them worked there and a few were customers. They were talking to my friend and he was translating, for me. He said they were excited about an American being in the shop. He said to me that he had told them I was married. He said one asked if I wanted another wife. It has really been a long time since I received two proposals for marriage, in one day or one anything. I gracefully declined, again.
A young lady offered to cut my hair. I agreed. She was meticulous. She used an electric clipper and a comb. There was no guard on the clipper. She did a good job but it took a long time. When she was done she brushed me with some talc and then washed my hair. Then she sat me in a different chair and blow dried it. Once dry she rubbed my head with some product called stick up. My friend said to give her 10,000 cym and she would be happy. She tried to give me 4,000 back. I refused and thanked her. Katta rahmat is the way you say thank you very much, in Uzbek.
I will post pictures again soon. Today the Internet was so slow I could not do my banking and I wrote this in MS Word hoping to be able to paste it into the blog writer. When you think your computer is slow you simply have no idea. It is time for me to head to bed. Since we have no gas I expect it to be a little cool in here tonight and a clod shower tomorrow. I have the window closed for the first time since I have been here. I tell you all this so when I tell you to be grateful, you understand why. You and I are blessed in so many ways that we do not even appreciate. Take time after you read this to think about how good your life really is and be grateful!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Another Busy Week Living in the Ooze
In case you didn't get it, the way to pronounce UZ is with a long oo sound, just like ooze.
Our weather took a nasty turn today. It is 40 and raining. Rotten for the only day of the week we have a chance to see daylight. The only real change this week is that there are fewer of us. One guy who took a lot of pictures left. I'll post good ones, when I get a chance. My boss also left. He has to take care of his relocation from Korea to his new house in Florida. He'll be back in early March. Needless to say this leaves me and my traveling partner in charge of solving the myriad of problems this sprawling plant has, in the supply of material. We have already begun using the problem solving techniques we know from our experiences in North American plants. Each failure is another opportunity to make positive change. Our mission is to teach these techniques to the folks here and attempt to make permanent improvements. We will not be getting bored anytime soon.
Today, Sunday, is the exception. We only went to the plant for about three hours. Our main goal was to understand what held the body shop for so long this morning, at the end of the shift. We also wanted to be certain that the crew unloading sea containers was on schedule. We learned what we needed to, devised an improved method of tracking performance and checked on the warehouse. Then we left and headed to UZ Turk. I had a fresh salad in addition to the lamb chops today. The salad was tomato, cucumber, onion, parsley and a couple leaves of lettuce. It was dressed in vinegar and oil with orange wedges on the side. I liked it. The lamb chops were delish, as usual. They seemed to have everything on the menu today. The English speaking waiter, the one that was chastised last week, seemed concerned that the boss was not with us. We could have not told him he was on vacation and let him think he really quit coming but we didn't.
After our lunch we headed to the Yange (pronounced Yangee) Bazaar. Yange means new. This is where I had purchased dried fruit and almonds, in the past. I got some more of the dried fruit and I also bought some apples. My Indian friend also wanted some apples and bananas. We chose a young lady vendor as her fruit looked good. When she told him the price of bananas, he negotiated her down. He never just pays the price asked. In this case he paid about 300 cym less than she asked. For reference, that is about 8 cents. He gave her an extra 500 cym just for the fun. She did not want to keep the extra money. When he refused to take the change, she offered him an orange. He would not take it either so she offered it to our driver. He agreed to take it. I took her picture while she was unaware. I will post it on FB later. She seemed pleased when I showed it to her. We will purchase from her again and she will know what to expect.
This week will be incredibly difficult. I realized today that one of the things they are doing is really messing things up. I called on an expert to help me understand what I was seeing. I was hoping for the best but fearing the worst. I got the email back, my fears were confirmed. Our most important assignment this week will be to get the folks screwing things up to understand, fix it and stop screwing it up. This one may impact my sleep this week.
Remember, be grateful.
Happy Valentines Day
Our weather took a nasty turn today. It is 40 and raining. Rotten for the only day of the week we have a chance to see daylight. The only real change this week is that there are fewer of us. One guy who took a lot of pictures left. I'll post good ones, when I get a chance. My boss also left. He has to take care of his relocation from Korea to his new house in Florida. He'll be back in early March. Needless to say this leaves me and my traveling partner in charge of solving the myriad of problems this sprawling plant has, in the supply of material. We have already begun using the problem solving techniques we know from our experiences in North American plants. Each failure is another opportunity to make positive change. Our mission is to teach these techniques to the folks here and attempt to make permanent improvements. We will not be getting bored anytime soon.
Today, Sunday, is the exception. We only went to the plant for about three hours. Our main goal was to understand what held the body shop for so long this morning, at the end of the shift. We also wanted to be certain that the crew unloading sea containers was on schedule. We learned what we needed to, devised an improved method of tracking performance and checked on the warehouse. Then we left and headed to UZ Turk. I had a fresh salad in addition to the lamb chops today. The salad was tomato, cucumber, onion, parsley and a couple leaves of lettuce. It was dressed in vinegar and oil with orange wedges on the side. I liked it. The lamb chops were delish, as usual. They seemed to have everything on the menu today. The English speaking waiter, the one that was chastised last week, seemed concerned that the boss was not with us. We could have not told him he was on vacation and let him think he really quit coming but we didn't.
After our lunch we headed to the Yange (pronounced Yangee) Bazaar. Yange means new. This is where I had purchased dried fruit and almonds, in the past. I got some more of the dried fruit and I also bought some apples. My Indian friend also wanted some apples and bananas. We chose a young lady vendor as her fruit looked good. When she told him the price of bananas, he negotiated her down. He never just pays the price asked. In this case he paid about 300 cym less than she asked. For reference, that is about 8 cents. He gave her an extra 500 cym just for the fun. She did not want to keep the extra money. When he refused to take the change, she offered him an orange. He would not take it either so she offered it to our driver. He agreed to take it. I took her picture while she was unaware. I will post it on FB later. She seemed pleased when I showed it to her. We will purchase from her again and she will know what to expect.
This week will be incredibly difficult. I realized today that one of the things they are doing is really messing things up. I called on an expert to help me understand what I was seeing. I was hoping for the best but fearing the worst. I got the email back, my fears were confirmed. Our most important assignment this week will be to get the folks screwing things up to understand, fix it and stop screwing it up. This one may impact my sleep this week.
Remember, be grateful.
Happy Valentines Day
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Early Spring in Uzbekistan
We were in the 50s most of the week. It cooled off on the weekend. It is almost spring. The fields have the beginning of green. It rained once and cleared the air a bit. I'd say we are about 3 weeks ahead of Kentucky. Maybe even a week or so ahead of Louisiana. There will be cotton growing along the silk road soon. By the way, the traffic I hear out my window is actually on the Silk Road, connecting China and Europe. Pretty cool stuff.
This week was another of solid work. We did the usual breakfast at 6:30, cars at 7:15, work the morning, lunch at 12:30, work the afternoon, dinner at 18:30, catch the 19:00 bus back to the cottages, then read, watch a movie or whatever. I stayed up too late all week. I never got up to work out. It is so easy to get into the habit of staying up and sleeping in. It is not good for me. I will get back to the morning workouts.
Friday we went out to eat instead of eating at the plant. Uz Turk, as has been our place, was where we went. This time we ate downstairs. We had a bigger party than usual. The Plant Manager, Supplier Quality Manager and a couple of drivers joined us. The "pizza", which is actually a thin bread with cheese on it, was really quite good. I also tried a pepper salad. It was spicy yum delicious! The Supplier Quality Manager and I split our entrées. She got a chicken kabob and I of course got lamb chops. The chicken was delish too. The thing about the place, they don't have what is on the menu. My boss love fries so he ordered 4 or 5 servings, for the table. The waiter came back to tell him they had no fries. One guy ordered something, the waiter came back because they were out, so he chose another thing. Then the waiter came back because they were out of that. He said I'll just have lamb chops too, figuring that would solve it. Than the waiter came back to my boss and said they didn't have enough lamb chops for everyone who ordered them. My boss lost it a bit and told the poor guy off. He read him the riot act about how we work hard all week and expect good service when we come. We all knew it wasn't his fault but so goes the life of a messenger. That end of the table shared their chops with him so everyone ate fine.
The Supplier Quality Manager was not happy either. What she had ordered was not in stock but the waiter did not get her to understand. He was pointing to the chicken that was available on the menu. She said no, I'll just have what I ordered. He brought what they had and she was displeased. I saw it coming from a mile away. Imagine the barriers to communication. The Plant Manager and one other guy are from India. The Supplier Quality Manager is from China. The two drivers and the waiter are Uzbek. There were four English as a first language American at the table as well. We are a diverse bunch, especially when you consider the Koreans, the Mexican and the Belgian, none of whom attended this meal. Many of these folks have worked in overseas assignments for years and have traveled the globe. Our moves to LA, VA and KY are pretty short, in comparrison.
Saturday we stayed too late to eat at the cottages. My boss held to his promise not to return to Uz Turk, at least for a day. We went to a place called Uz Antalia. It was cool. Next time I'll get a photo of the outside. I'll upload some pictures of the inside and our HUGE shish kabobs (2 foot long I think) onto FB later. It was the first place we've been that served alcohol. Most had a beer, which we had sampled in the past so there was no risk. I surprised them all when I asked for vino. I had no idea what would come but the young lady brought a slightly sweetish dry Russian wine that I liked. We had a really good time.
Today, you guessed it, we went to work. If you haven't already figured it out, our department is actually the bottleneck of the plant. At 16:00 the computer system went down, like it does every Sunday, to begin the Asia Pacific weekend batch. It is a huge set of jobs that generates requirements and ship schedules for material required in all of the plants, in this part of the world. We quit for the day and went to the Asaka Bizarre. I got some apples and went in on some almonds for the office. Then we went to Karzinga, which is a convenience store. I bought a bottle of wine for 4000 UZS (~$2.00) and a can of Nescafe for work. It was 17,500 UZS. I didn't believe the clerk, When he turned the calculator toward me, I pushed it back and shook my head. They are kept behind the counter so I could not see the price but I saw that some had stickers. I had the kid get me one with a sticker. I was stunned, 17,500. I paid it.
Well, that is it from here for now. I'll get the next bunch of pictures up soon. Don't forget to be grateful.
This week was another of solid work. We did the usual breakfast at 6:30, cars at 7:15, work the morning, lunch at 12:30, work the afternoon, dinner at 18:30, catch the 19:00 bus back to the cottages, then read, watch a movie or whatever. I stayed up too late all week. I never got up to work out. It is so easy to get into the habit of staying up and sleeping in. It is not good for me. I will get back to the morning workouts.
Friday we went out to eat instead of eating at the plant. Uz Turk, as has been our place, was where we went. This time we ate downstairs. We had a bigger party than usual. The Plant Manager, Supplier Quality Manager and a couple of drivers joined us. The "pizza", which is actually a thin bread with cheese on it, was really quite good. I also tried a pepper salad. It was spicy yum delicious! The Supplier Quality Manager and I split our entrées. She got a chicken kabob and I of course got lamb chops. The chicken was delish too. The thing about the place, they don't have what is on the menu. My boss love fries so he ordered 4 or 5 servings, for the table. The waiter came back to tell him they had no fries. One guy ordered something, the waiter came back because they were out, so he chose another thing. Then the waiter came back because they were out of that. He said I'll just have lamb chops too, figuring that would solve it. Than the waiter came back to my boss and said they didn't have enough lamb chops for everyone who ordered them. My boss lost it a bit and told the poor guy off. He read him the riot act about how we work hard all week and expect good service when we come. We all knew it wasn't his fault but so goes the life of a messenger. That end of the table shared their chops with him so everyone ate fine.
The Supplier Quality Manager was not happy either. What she had ordered was not in stock but the waiter did not get her to understand. He was pointing to the chicken that was available on the menu. She said no, I'll just have what I ordered. He brought what they had and she was displeased. I saw it coming from a mile away. Imagine the barriers to communication. The Plant Manager and one other guy are from India. The Supplier Quality Manager is from China. The two drivers and the waiter are Uzbek. There were four English as a first language American at the table as well. We are a diverse bunch, especially when you consider the Koreans, the Mexican and the Belgian, none of whom attended this meal. Many of these folks have worked in overseas assignments for years and have traveled the globe. Our moves to LA, VA and KY are pretty short, in comparrison.
Saturday we stayed too late to eat at the cottages. My boss held to his promise not to return to Uz Turk, at least for a day. We went to a place called Uz Antalia. It was cool. Next time I'll get a photo of the outside. I'll upload some pictures of the inside and our HUGE shish kabobs (2 foot long I think) onto FB later. It was the first place we've been that served alcohol. Most had a beer, which we had sampled in the past so there was no risk. I surprised them all when I asked for vino. I had no idea what would come but the young lady brought a slightly sweetish dry Russian wine that I liked. We had a really good time.
Today, you guessed it, we went to work. If you haven't already figured it out, our department is actually the bottleneck of the plant. At 16:00 the computer system went down, like it does every Sunday, to begin the Asia Pacific weekend batch. It is a huge set of jobs that generates requirements and ship schedules for material required in all of the plants, in this part of the world. We quit for the day and went to the Asaka Bizarre. I got some apples and went in on some almonds for the office. Then we went to Karzinga, which is a convenience store. I bought a bottle of wine for 4000 UZS (~$2.00) and a can of Nescafe for work. It was 17,500 UZS. I didn't believe the clerk, When he turned the calculator toward me, I pushed it back and shook my head. They are kept behind the counter so I could not see the price but I saw that some had stickers. I had the kid get me one with a sticker. I was stunned, 17,500. I paid it.
Well, that is it from here for now. I'll get the next bunch of pictures up soon. Don't forget to be grateful.
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