Off The Wall

And so day three has arrived... Woosh woosh woosh, the best way to describe the sound of the ceiling fan. I wake up after a little less then seven hours of sleep, adequate for a mid-summers day. Today is going to be quite exciting. I have three meetings with three very different companies; a pharmaceutical company, a sweets company and a telecommunications company. The goal? To create a business relationship with AIESEC whether that be through the creation of internship programmes or fundraising for the up and coming national conference at the end of July.

I meet up with Sheharyar (call him Shery) and Anum and we drive off to the first meeting. The nice cool office building is a very comfortable break from the sticky heat that is everywhere outside. We meet the senior manager of human resources and pitch AIESEC. So much fun! I love going to these meetings. I think the three of us did really well and hopefully this will go somewhere. On a cultural point when we greeted the man both Shery and I shook his hands and said hello though he (in my perception) barely acknowledged Anum. When we discussed this later in the car we came to realise how differently we saw the situation. I had realised it was a cultural difference but was also a little shocked… had he completely ignored Anum in a more western country he would have been assumed a complete sexest, unacceptable. Shery and Anum had seen the situation as being polite. He didn't quite make eye contact with her and was in fact showing her respect as a woman. Wow how cultures will never cease to amaze me.

I observed something very similar in the following two meetings, once we actually started the meetings Anum was very much involved and spoke a lot, it was just the initial greeting in which she wasn't so much heard as 'respected'. A strong reminder of how easy it is to misunderstand each other and how we must constantly remember that different cultures teach very different types of socialisation.

At the sweets company we were given a type of ice cream and several sweets. I'll admit they weren't exactly my choice for sweets but I ate them anyway (afterwards I was happy to get some food and something to drink to wash the taste out of my mouth). I don't think Anum and Shery could understand why I ate them if I didn't like them but in my mind it seemed rude not to.

The darkness seemed to spring over the sky tonight but it came with something special, a very impressive storm. The heat finally at a comfortable level it was quite nice to sit outside and observe this storm, there were no rain drops just lots and lots of lightning. I've never seen the sky light up so much from lightning, there was most definitely 30-40 flashes per minute and sometimes much more then that. Definitely the most impressed I've ever been with the visual effects natures weather department!

Learnings of the day: