The Repairman Cometh

On Saturday I realized my refrigerator wasn’t working.  I called a maintenance service and they sheduled an appointment on Monday.  Slightly ahead of the appointed time the repairman arrived and quickly diagnosed the problem.  He had the required part in his van and within half an hour the fridge was working again – no fuss, no muss.

I couldn’t help but imagine how this would have played out in Baku, Cairo or Dubai.  To begin with, the repairman wouldn’t have shown up on Monday.  After staying home until Wednesday I would have finally risked a quick dash to the grocery store, at which point the repairman would call and tell me he was standing on my doorstep.  There wouldn’t have been just one repairman either.  They always come in twos or threes.  An “engineer” to decide what to do, another guy to do the work and a third one to carry the tools – a plastic shopping bag containing a screwdriver, a hammer and a tube of silicone sealant.  After disassembling my fridge, the engineer would have told me “Fridge not working, madam”  and at that point they would probably have insisted on taking it away to their workshop for a week or more, or at best left for several days while hunting down a replacement part somewhere in the local souq.  When the fridge was finally fixed it would be covered in black fingermarks and there’d be a crack in the tiles on the kitchen floor but I’d be so grateful to have it working again I wouldn’t dream of complaining.

Maybe repatriating isn’t so bad after all.

Spring Cleaning your Life

It’s Novruz, the Spring festival, a time for new beginnings.  It’s also #Follow Friday on Twitter.  So I’m giving a quick WOOT! to three expat women who have announced this week that they’re trying something different, taking a new direction.

@Global_Girlonln aka @ExpatArc aka Danie Barkhouse who’s just launched a new website for women on the move

@expatexpert aka Robin Pascoe who has traded in her suitcase for a computer and has officially embarked upon the “Third Act” of her life.

and

@chompermom aka Leighann Garber, perhaps the most adventurous of all, who is embarking on a repatriation to the US to try and establish a new life for her family, single handed.  Read the full story here . . .

Anyone else out there who’s spring cleaning their life and would like a mention?

Motivation, Right Brain Thinking and Expats

I almost didn’t write it down.  At the FIGT conference Diane Endo was giving a presentation on the challenges of Midlife Transition for accompanying spouses and partners – pretty much a custom-made topic for me at the moment.  She mentioned the name Daniel Pink and said he had a lot interesting stuff to say on motivation.  For some reason I made a note of his name, although at the time I thought “Oh no, another motivational guru!”  But yesterday I went to his website and this led me to this video of him speaking.  I was fascinated.  What he was talking about was the SCIENCE of motivation – cold, hard facts – not airy-fairy theories.  It’s quite a long presentation, in two parts, but don’t be put off – he’s an entertaining speaker and his subject matter is compelling.

You may wonder how this relates to expats.  Two ways occured to me. 

His main point that cash (above and beyond a fair amount) does not motivate employees should be food for thought for those involved in putting together expat packages.  Many of the “soft” benefits discussed at the FIGT conference – intercultural training, spousal career advice, educational counselling, for example, might actually be cheaper, or at least more effective in ensuring assignment success than hardship allowances, locational uplifts, annual bonuses, etc.

During this next presentation it occured to me that a lot of the skills he talks about encouraging, as they are so necessary in today’s business world, the right brain abilities of artistry, empathy, inventiveness and big picture thinking,  these are exactly the traits held by successful expats and commonly found in TCKs. 

Families in Global Transition Conference 2010

I’m way overdue a blog post or two on the Families in Global Transition Conference which I attended for the first time earlier this month.  I’ll write in more detail on some of the topics which particularly interested me, but to start with here is a quick overview of the three day event.

• I was very impressed with the quality of both the speakers and the participants.  Many had seriously professional qualifications and significant expat credentials in terms of the countries they had lived in.  In other words, they knew both the theory and the practice.
• The various sectors were well represented – corporate, military, missionary, diplomatic, education, academia, relocation, coaching and a good number of accompanying partners/trailing spouses like me.
• All the sessions were professionally put together and presented.  Participation was encouraged and many of the conference delegates also contributed valuable information and experience.
• Everyone was just as friendly as I had been led to believe.  All the speakers were very approachable and willing to share the content of their sessions.  Many had detailed handouts.
• I got to meet two of my expat heroes for the first time – Ruth Van Reken and Robin Pascoe – both autographed their books for me.
• A surprising number of people were, like me, attending for the first time.  This tells me that this is an organization which is growing – always a good sign. 
• The conference itself was very well organized.  There was a wide range of topics and things moved quickly; definitely no time to get bored!  Group sizes varied – some sessions had all 200+ of us together in the main ballroom, some were in groups of about 20 or 30 in smaller rooms and some were in intimate circles of 10, sitting at a round table.  This encouraged a variety of participation levels, which was refreshing.
• There were several social opportunities which encouraged people to get to know each other on a personal as well as a professional level.

In summary, I enjoyed it immensely, felt I learned a lot and will definitely return next year, when it will be held in Washington, DC.  Maybe they can persuade Obama to speak about life as a TCK?