Don’t Call a Meeting, Schedule a Tea Time

Here at the University of Botswana they have a great appreciation for committees, meetings, protocol and procedure.  Meetings are always very formal.  An invitation is sent out, along with an agenda ahead of time.  Of course, this is generally a moot point as no one ever arrives on time.  Fortunately I am a quick study.  It only took me one time to arrive at 8:59am for a 9:00am meeting where I sat in the conference room alone until one other person finally arrived at 9:36am to recognize the importance of never being without a book. The chair of the meeting didn’t even arrive until 9:42am!  By about 10:15am four of the six people who were supposed to be in attendance had finally surfaced.

As the meeting finally began to gain some traction around 10:40am, someone pointed out it was tea time.  Tea time!?! You just arrived twenty minutes ago! Why should I reward you for being 72 minutes late by interrupting this meeting for tea?  The funny thing was I was the only one who had this opinion.  When Ms. 72 Minutes Late suggested tea time the other faculty willingly stopped mid-sentence to commence with the tea preparations.

The Batswana love their tea, and nothing will stand in the way of it.  In the U.S., like most people, I don’t have time for tea, or meals for that matter.  I barely scarf down breakfast in the morning as I am frantically responding to emails on my iPhone while rushing out the door to work.  Chances are, if I remember to bring a water bottle to work with me I might down a liter by the time I finish my 10am class, more so because I talk so much I get parched as opposed to making a concerted effort to hydrate.  I seldom eat lunch before 2pm.  Normally around 3, when things start to slow down and I finally realize I’m hungry I eat something at my desk while answering emails, talking on the phone and being interrupted every five minutes by either my department chair or a student.  I think the last month I was in Texas every time my boss entered my office I was eating.  This became such a frequent occurrence he would even mention it, “Sorry, I know I come in here every time you are eating but do you know….” I’m not a perpetual grazer, but if I don’t eat at my desk chances are I will roll out of the office around 6 or 7pm not having eaten anything all day.

My eating habits, or general work habits for that matter, would never be considered acceptable here.  My colleagues wander in to the office around 9:30 or 10. I normally see them standing in the hallway between our offices chatting with one another as they all arrive until tea time at 10:30.  I don’t dare knock on someone’s door between 10:30 and 11 as I will be interrupting tea time and told to please come back later.  (On a side note, I’ve never seen anything quite so bizarre as entering an office where three men the size of NFL line backers are gathered around someone’s desk drinking out of tea cups embossed with flowers on the sides.  The matching porcelain teapot, sugar bowl, saucers and miniature pitcher with creamer completed the set.  Wish I had gotten a picture of that scene AND the look on my face.)

Tea time concludes around 11 and then I believe people get back to work, though I can’t be sure.  My favorite time of day is between 1pm and 2pm, the lunch hour.  I stay in my office and work because no classes are taught during that time and the entire building clears out.  Not a soul to be found aside from myself and the security guard.  It is quieter in my building during lunch hour than at 8pm on a Saturday night.  And that’s not an exaggeration, I’ve been in my building at 8pm on a Saturday night and there was plenty of noise and movement at that time.  That was a surprise.

You would think since everyone returns from lunch at 2pm and the work day ends at 5pm that would give everyone a full three hours in which to work.  Not quite.  The afternoon tea time goes from about 3:30 to 4pm.  However, by the time you finish tea time at 4pm, there is only an hour left in which to work, and you can’t get anything done in an hour, so you might as well go home.

Recently a fellow American friend (he works in Namibia) and I were chatting about the peculiarity behind the inability of Southern Africans to show up to a meeting on time, yet you can practically set your watch according to when tea time begins.  He suggested next time I needed to hold a meeting that I should schedule a tea time instead.  I may just have to try that approach.

A “short” “200 meters” is “no problem” because “Who knows? This is Greece.”

In many places I have lived and travelled, I find there to be certain phrases unique to a geographic location which I dread hearing.

When I was in Sierra Leone I remember the phrase, “No problem.”  That is probably my all-time least favorite phrase.  Even today, no matter where I am in the world, if someone says, “No problem” I immediately cringe and wonder whether they are giving me lip service. The culture in Sierra Leone is such that people don’t like to say “No.” So rather than say no to a request they avoid saying yes.  “No problem” doesn’t exactly guarantee the affirmative; it simply implies there is a possibility.  Here’s an example: “Can I get a side of fries with my burger?” “No problem.” The waiter didn’t say fries were impossible, but he also didn’t say fries were available.  If this same question was asked in the U.S. using the resources of the Sierra Leonean waiter the answer would have been, “Fries? HA! We don’t have fries!  We don’t have burgers either.  Really, nothing that is on the menu is here.  I’ll tell you what, here’s some cassava, enjoy it while you can because there is no guarantee we will have that or anything else tomorrow.”  In case you were wondering, yes, I did order a burger with fries.  The waiter told me it was “No problem” and then came back with boiled cassava.  When I asked he said that was the only ingredient they had in the kitchen that day.

I admire the Greeks; they have a very laid back attitude about everything.  Of course, of late all that has gotten them is a $300 billion debt and a lot of resentment from Germany. But the Greeks’ laissez-faire attitude prompted one of my other least favorite expressions, “Who knows? This is Greece.” The “This is Greece” part of the equation is meant as a stand-alone explanation to justify the lack of a real answer (i.e. “Who knows?”).  I remember entering a train station to purchase a ticket, having been told there was a 3 o’clock train.  When I approached the ticket booth I asked when the next train would arrive.  The clerk told me, “Well, one came through yesterday.  And I know there should be another train on Sunday.” Confused I said, “Well, it’s Friday.  Is there a 3 o’clock train today?  Or is there any train scheduled today? Going anywhere?” His response: “Who knows? This is Greece.” The next day I caught a bus.

During the year I lived in London I learned that the British have no concept of distance.  To them everything is 200 meters away, whether it is within arm’s length or on the other side of the globe.  Seriously, ask a Brit, “How far away is the U.S.?” and he would probably tell you, “Jump in the water and start swimming.  You should run right into the Statue of Liberty in about 200 meters.” I remember going to Scotland with a friend, in the middle of a blizzard no less, and wanting to visit Urquhart Castle on the banks of Loch Ness, where the monster lives.  We took a bus to the village of Drumnadrochit and then asked directions to the castle.  We were told to follow the road about 200 meters and we couldn’t miss it.  Remember, this was in the middle of a blizzard, so there was snow EVERYWHERE! We walked for what seemed like days and when we got to the castle we saw a sign reading, “The Castle is closed for construction.” Having walked 1.2 miles uphill we were now forced to turn around and head back down to the village, having not seen anything except endless snow and sheep.

Today I identified my least favorite phrase here in Botswana: “short.” Sadly, I am not as smart as I thought I was because it took me a full three months to realize “short” translates into at least five times as long as I would anticipate.  It finally hit me today as I was sitting in a meeting.  I was asked to attend a “short" meeting about hiring an adjunct lecturer.  The meeting was scheduled at 9am and I told my boss that I could attend the meeting since it was supposed to be “short” because I had an appointment with a student at 10.  The student did not show at 10am so I remained in the meeting.  At 11:37 the meeting concluded.  The “short” meeting lasted a full two hours and 37 minutes!

 
Tomorrow I have another faculty meeting to attend in which I am supposed to introduce myself to the rest of the faculty in my college.  I was told to prepare a “short” statement about myself.  I am debating whether I should abide by the Kelly-approved definition of short and give a two minute overview.  Or should I adhere to Botswana’s “short” introduction?  I will have to give this some serious thought.

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like ChristmaWHAT?!?!

When I teach back in the States I prefer the fall semester to the spring. My reasoning is that fall is all about holidays, so the students (and I to a certain extent) always have something to look forward to, lots of little milestones and goals to reach. Labor Day doesn’t really count because that is only the second week of school. But then, the beginning of October marks the start of fall and everyone looks forward to Halloween. Even if they aren’t dressing up the students can enjoy the candy and the parties.

Once Halloween is over everyone can see the end in sight. Less than a month until Thanksgiving when they go home for a long weekend, watch football and eat turkey. In reality, if I haven’t covered the material I want the students to know before Thanksgiving break I might as well forget about it because once they return all they are thinking about is final exams and getting off campus as quickly as possible.

Here in Botswana we don’t have the “pre-game” holidays as I like to call them. There is no Halloween or Thanksgiving. Instead we jump from the start of the semester August 1st and then straight through to Christmas. As such, we have to prepare for Christmas early in order to have something to anticipate with excitement. Believe it or not, now is the appropriate time to start prepping for Christmas. Keep in mind; it is 65 days until Christmas. But, everyone is really getting into the holiday spirit. You see trees, lights, music. Even some of the neighborhoods are decorated. This is my street in fact:

Do you believe me? I hope not. If you haven't seen it before that is 34th Street in the Hampden neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. I did my undergrad at Johns Hopkins which is about two blocks from 34th Street, so it was always a favorite sight of mine and all my classmates around final exam time. If you are EVER in the Baltimore area between Thanksgiving and New Year's you absolutely MUST make a trip to 34th Street.

Truthfully though, Botswana is preparing for Christmas. I was shocked when I went to the mall today and saw this:

And this:

I appreciate the effort, though these decorations pale in comparison to what most of us have seen in other countries. But here is what I find funny: Not long ago I wrote a blog post about the strange things my students ask me. In one class I was discussing North Pole, Alaska and the year-round Christmas theme. The students were familiar with Christmas; however, many did not know about Santa Claus and were shocked when I told them there were presents involved. Thus, why the decorations? And more importantly, why install the decorations more than two months early? NOTHING runs on time here, and certainly not early, so why would the decorations be up so early? Yet another question no one can answer for me…TIA.

Meetings, Conferences and Research in Sub-Saharan Africa

For the last three days the Faculty of Business here at the University of Botswana has been hosting a research conference.  To say the least, this was a very interesting learning experience.  At first glance, by looking at the program, I expected the conference to be very similar to other international conferences I’ve attended.  But this was quite different from any other I’ve attended in the U.S. or abroad. First of all, here in Africa time is no object.  Meetings typically don’t start on time, and despite this being a conference with a schedule, time still did not provide any barrier.  I foolishly showed up promptly at 8:45am this morning for the first session which was scheduled to begin… at 8:45am.  I was the ONLY person in the entire building!  Fortunately, I brought a book which I proceeded to read until others wandered in close to 10am.

The research was also quite different.  All the attendees were from southern Africa; primarily South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and a few other surrounding countries.  Since all the attendees were from Sub-Saharan Africa their research naturally examined hospitality and tourism issues in these countries.  So, from that standpoint I learned a lot about the industry in this region.

However, the research was not what I expected at all.  Most of the research did not actually involve data collection.  Instead, it was more of a compilation of literature review, and findings from other authors, not the people who were actually presenting.  Some of the presenters did interviews or collected surveys, but were not particularly scientific in how they analyzed their data.  I was very surprised because we put such a high priority on statistical significance, large sample sizes and being able to demonstrate the value of our findings.  If a researcher in the U.S. wanted to publish a paper using qualitative data (i.e. interviews) there would have to be some serious explanation as to why the method was appropriate, that the measurement was valid and reliable, and that some real, tangible results were generated.  Here that is not the case.

The other thing I found interesting was that every paper included multiple authors.  And when I say multiple, I mean a lot. As in six or seven people!  That is practically unheard of in the U.S. unless it is a $5 million grant funded by NSF trying to find a cure for cancer, necessitating half a dozen scientists to run lab experiments.  Generally, any publication in a U.S. or U.K. journal with more than three or four authors is considered highly irregular and frowned upon unless it is truly groundbreaking.

While I have some mixed feelings about the conference, as a whole I’m happy I attended.  I definitely learned a lot about hospitality and tourism in Botswana and the surrounding countries. I’m also thankful I had this experience at the very beginning of my stay here so that I have a slightly better idea of what to expect in terms of research productivity and collaboration while I’m here.

My favorite reason for attending conferences, aside from the social aspect of course, is that they always give me new ideas about what I want to work on next and gets me excited about my new projects.  I will say this conference has given me a lot to think about and I am definitely looking forward to starting some new assignments right away.