Not Moving - Again

Last week I started to hear rumors of a English teaching job in a city called Pure Water, which is about a 16 hour bus ride from where I currently live.  With all the recent frustration at work, between my American work mate not getting his visa and having to let my Uyghur work mate go, I was ready to throw in the towel and give up on the whole idea of being a business women.  I kept joking “Maybe I should just move down there and teach English instead, it would be a lot less of a headache”.   Eventually some of my friends suggested I at least talk to the school and find out a few more particulars of the job.

I called the head of the school’s English department a guy named Allan and was pleasantly surprised to hear that he was up in the capital city, but just for another day.  I tried suggesting several times and location, but he was very busy while in town and we were unable to work out an opportunity to chat.  He told me on the phone they were very excited to have English teacher and if I would send him my résumé they would start to draw up the contract.  Whoa- that was moving too fast for me, I hadn’t agree to anything yet, I still had a lot of question and wanted to meet them and see the school first.  I suggested my making a trip there in hopes of talking to him and the school’s leaders.

One of my Uyghur friends heard talking to the guy on the phone and got rather mad, “You shouldn’t have to pay for your bus ticket to go down there.  If they really need an English teacher the school should be offering to fly you down for an interview.  It’s a government school after all and they have money”.  “While I still haven’t actually promised to take the job, so I will buy my own ticket, that way I don’t feel any obligation toward them”.

16 hours on the bus… and no one to meet me at the station.  I went to my friend’s house who lives in that town – they were the ones who had told me about the job in the first place.  Mid Monday afternoon my friend took me over and introduced me to the staff of the English department and Allan in particular.  The head teacher was quick to say they could process my paperwork and have me ready to start class by the beginning of September.  “I have a few questions first” I said. They all seemed pretty simple, like how will the classes be scheduled, when is winter vacation starts, and what is the salary.  For each question Allan simply replied “you will have to ask my leader that”.  This unproductive conversation went on for over 20min before I was being ushered upstairs to meet the leader.  The lights were all off in the hallway as we approached the office door, and sure enough our knock went unanswered.  “It appears the leader is not here right now , so I will show you the apartment.  There is a local teacher living there right now, but we will make him leave before you come.”

The apartment was fully furnished with table chairs, bed, coach, hot water heater, fridge, washing machine and tv.  As I walked around and mentally checked things off my “must- have- list” Allan continued to dial the Leader’s number.  “You will have to meet the leader tomorrow,” he finally admitted rather dejectedly.  “I leave tomorrow afternoon, so can I make an appointment to see him in the morning?”I asked hopefully.  “Yes, I will call you in the morning when he gets in” Allan promised.

The next morning it was ten a.m. and I still hadn’t heard from the school.  I decided to head over there anyway and try to remind them of my presence in town.  The gate guard stopped me in front of the school demanding to know who I was going to visit.  I gave her Allan’s name and his position in the English department only to be informed that he was currently not at the school.  I tried calling him, the gate guard rang his number… a teacher who overheard our dilemma also gave him a call, but all with the same result – his phone was power off.  I sat at the gate of the school for half an hour chatting and waiting for him to come back.  Eventually I gave up and told the guard lady to have Allan give me a call the second he returned to the school.  

Hours went by and still there was no phone call.  Eventually my friend called the English teacher one more time before I left.  This time his phone was on, and he had a hundred and one excuses explaining how the leader had been called away to an important meeting and his phone was out of money.  All of it seemed like the Asian backhanded indirect communication style that never says ‘no’ outright.  They said they wanted and needed a teacher but their actions were communicating anything but.  It seemed that maybe they didn’t need a teacher that badly after all.  For some reason after making a 32 hour round trip tour to see his school I left without even know what the job’s salary was per month.  

I really do want to move down south... but this didn't seem like the best situation, so I will keep plugging away and trying to get my business off the ground.

No New Business Partner

Several times last year while we were opening our business I used this blog to vent my frustration over the process.  In fact I’m sure it often felt like post after post was nothing but a retelling of our company woes.  Sadly a year and a half later the story hasn’t changed and the sage continues.

Last October the friend who had run the gauntlet of opening the company with me decided to move back to the states indefinitely.  This was a bit of a blow as I struggled with how I would be able to run the company on my own.  Thankful another good friend in town stepped up and said that after he and his wife returned from having their baby that they would love to buy out her half of the shares and join me in running the business.  I was thrilled with the offer… it was like a light at the end of the tunnel, if I could just hold down the fort for a few month I wouldn’t have to do this alone. 

Sure enough in March this couple came back and jumped right into the processes of formerly changing the paperwork to remove my original business pattern’s name and show that he was an investor in the company.  He had originally planned to bring in more money from the states and increase our companies overall invested capital… right now Fusion is only worth $5000 USD.   He was advised by one branch of the government, in an early step, not to bother investing more money, but to just buy my friends original half of the shares out from her.  He was told it would mean a lot less paperwork and hassle for everyone.  In this short of case it is always wise to trust the guy behind the desk, and so we started signing and stamping multiple copies of paperwork that allowed for the transfer of ownership.

After three months of his own running around from office to office adventure my new business partner was waiting outside of the country for us to send him a corrected visa invitation letter ( the first one had his middle name spelled wrong).  The invitation letter allowed him to go to a consulate and get a work visa to enter the country.  After obtaining the work visa there are still five office visits needed to switch it to a residence permit.  He flew through the first four offices with record speed, indicated that there seemed to be no complication with the process.  Ever sheet of paper was in order and handed in at the final location… they printed him off a slip and said “come back in two week to get your visa”.   As he left the office he breathed a huge sigh of relief, the effort, struggle and running of the last few months was soon going to be totally worth it.

Less then a week later they called him in and said “our company did have enough invested capital to host four expat visas”.  My workmate tried to argue that there weren’t four of us, only three they one girl had gone home to get married and never planned to work here again.  He also reminded them of his original intention to invest more money, but that a different level of government had advised against it.  The officer offered to consider his case a little longer.  On Monday he sent someone to stop by our office to make sure we were working.  I was leading a group on a culture walk about town, one of the services our company offers, and he was doing in person negoistating translation work between an American and their landlord.   We were both busy out making money, but in this country it is only appearances that matter and since no one was in the office it did not look like we were doing anything.  They called my work mate and demanded that he come back to their office the next day.

The next morning my business partner wasn’t alone as we traipsed into the office ready with our fight faces on.  It had been a stressful night worrying about what they would say, practicing our answers.  We had enlisted the help of two local friends to come with us… one of them even had good connection with officers who worked at their level of the police station.  The women behind the desk looked at us blankly, “we didn’t call you to come in.  Maybe you should try this other office”.  While we were sure the phone call had come from them, if they didn’t have our application red flagged for some reason we didn’t want to be the ones to draw unnecessary attention to it.  Instead we all jumped on the bus, hurried across to town to the office she had mentioned.  They seemed equally as surprised by our visit and insisted they didn’t have a problem either.  In fact they tried to send us back to the first place again.  We were ready to give up for the day, while our friend kept making phone calls on our behalf.  

Day two saw us bright and early once again up at the office ready to plead our case.  The top officer called us into his office.  He didn’t seem interested in talking to my business partner… instead he began to focus his questioning on me. When he found I wasn’t great at speaking the national language, he quickly sent for a Uyghur translator and continued to question me on the company’s activities and why we weren’t making loads of money (Which was rather unnecessary considering I could understand what he was saying in the first place).  After ten minutes we were told rather briskly that we could leave, our questioning was over. 

We exited the police station and found a patch of shade to stand and debate how the mini interrogation had gone.  We didn’t have to wait long before the police guy called us back and confirmed they were going to turn down his application.  My friend was not being given permission to work for his own company.  The labor department agreed, the foreign investment bureau had given their stamp of approval, the local police station for both his home and our office building seemed fine with him coming on staff. All along right up to the very last step the answer had been a resounding ‘yes’… and suddenly he was saying “NO” load and clear.  

A merida of emotions swept over all of us, anger, frustration, resentment, sadness, disappointment and more. It have been an indescribably long week and  I am still not sure what sort of effect this visa rejection will have on me or my company long term… but we will continue to work hard and do our best. 

I've Seen that Look Before

This afternoon an expat came by our house to get advice on opening a business. Thankfully we had kept detailed notes last year throughout our painful process. We spelled out to her the need to first find an office, name your company, write a business proposal in a different language, apply for barcodes, wire in money, ect.ect.ect. We showed her sample documents of everything we got approved and stamped by the government. We told her stories about the officers who only wanted bribes and try to make your life harder so that you will pay them, we told her at what offices she might meet a helpful person. We filled her in on the rules that we know have already changed.

The more we shared of our rather painful experience the better we felt about our ability to thrive out here in many awkward situations. The more crazy stories she heard the more the colour drained from her cheeks and the more she took on this rather freaked out facial expression. I’ve seen that face before, in fact I think my roommate/business partner reflected it back at each other for months last year. Scared, intimidated, overwhelmed, drowning, ready to run, or throw-up, or throw in the towel, or forget the whole plan ( a face can really reflect all of those negative emotions in a few seconds).

Reviewing the process made me so thankful to be where we are today.

Even After You’re Opened Everything Is A Hassel

My roommate is the hero of story to come. She conquered the following situation on her own, in a second language on little to no sleep. She deserves your comments of praise.

We have been trying to figure out how to do our end of the month finance, accounting and tax stuff. Trust me when I say that grade 11 accounting in no way prepared me for being a business women overseas in a country that presumes the need to keep two sets of books, (which sounds ober sketchy – but it is the only way to get things done). We have done more than 10 jobs this month, but we were only given 5 registered receipts and couldn’t apply for anymore until next month. Even our accountant told us “only print this type of receipt when absolutely necessary, don’t waste them on little $20 jobs you do”.

Why? Because for every official government receipt a company issues they have to pay taxes. That same amount has to be directly deposited into your company account. In order to take out money from our account we have to have an official receipt that has been issued for our company expenses incurred, but of course no other business wants to give us receipts because than they would have to pay tax (vicious loop).

To this point most of our clients have been fellow expats, who, as long as they are not running their own business, don’t really care what the receipt looks like. We could print them out a nice invoice in English and sign it and they would be just as happy as if they had gotten an official registered receipt stamped with our company's red chop. While this works it is less than honest on the tax front and also makes us look like we are not really busy working.

While we have a great brand new printer, copier, scanner deal that we bought for our business, it sadly cannot meet the needs of a business in this country. In order to issue proper government honoured registered receipts, you must print them on old school tractor feed paper – the type that only works with an ancient dot matrix printer. My roommate went to the computer market, learned the word for dot matrix, bought a second hand printed (forced the guy to give her a real receipt) and than lugged the 50 pound thing all the way home.

My roommate is a smart girl, and knows her ways around computers. She tried installing the printer software on her old computer with XP, didn’t work. She tried installing it on her new computer with windows 7, it also didn’t work. She tried trouble shooting and down loading what she needed off line, but none of that worked.

She dragged the whole unit and her lap top back to the market and demanded “I can’t install your printed, I want my money back”. This, in a country were returns are unheard of, and once the money is in your hands you NEVER give it back. The guys at the shop figured she was just a dumb foreign girl who knew nothing about computers so they offered to help her out and install it for her. Two of them spent over twenty minutes apiece trying before announcing “Oh, it’s because your computer is way too old”

“It says it is compatible with XP and this unit has XP, I tried it on my one with Windows 7… but that didn’t work either”.

“Oh of course not, that operating system is too new”. These guys were starting to sound like Goldie Locks now all my roommate need was to find one that was “just right”. They kept trying, their boss came and tried and in the end their conclusion was “Your Computer speaks English, this printer doesn’t. You need to get a new computer”

“Yeah right” thought my roommate “I am going to buy a whole new, none English speaking computer, keep your cheap chunky second hand printer, just so I can owe the government more money. I don’t think so”. She left the shop, free of the burdensome printer’s weight and headed to the opposite end of the market, hoping to find a seller who could help her.

But the guy from the first shop, who was still put out about having to give her money back, followed her down the hall “Don’t sell to her. Her computer only speaks English and all she will do is hassle you with her problems” he yelled behind her.

Resolution: our accountants promised to print our receipts for us each month, but they couldn't help this month since their own out-dated dot matrix printer had broken down.

Business and Boyfriends

I have a policy some days about not answering telephones numbers that I don't know. I have done this too many times in the past and ended up in an awkward conversation with a student wanting to practice their English by reading their textbook aloud to me over the phone.

I was distracted the other day and answered the phone without checking the number. I was really glad I did when I realized it was someone from a government office inquiring about how our business was developing. I proudly announced that all of our paperwork was finished and that we were ready to get down to work. I quickly jumped into my long sob story about going home for just a few weeks to attend my brother's wedding, but having to stay sooooo much longer after I got sick and needed surgery. He seemed to feel sufficiently bad for me to not be to concerned as to why we still hadn't done much business. The conversation turned to lighter matters and he told me I needed a boyfriend to help when I am sick. I tried to laugh off the comment as I began to feel ill at ease about the direction the conversation was going. His follow up question was of course "do you have a boyfriend?" I once again chuckled and mentioned that my business partner would be back soon so we could take care of each other and continue to develop our company.

After successfully ending his chitchat, I sat in the living room recounting the odd discussion with my friends. Before I had even reached the tail end of our bizarre conversation my phone rang a second time.

"Hi" said the voice on the other end. "My name is ____________, I work for the same department of the government as the gentlemen who just gave you a call."

"Hello," I said as I quickly reviewed relevant business words in my head, expecting him to have more specific questions about the speed at which we were developing.

"My co-worker just mentioned to me that you don't have a boyfriend. What about me?"

The total lack of professionalism and inappropriateness of the conversation struck an angry cord in me. "No, I don't have one, and I don't need one either," I said curtly. "I have guests over right now and must go. Bye". I hung up the phone with force and quickly marked his number in my phonebook as 'Do not answer'.

Biography Quote

I am currently in the middle of reading a famous Uyghur biography. This individual also took a chance in starting their own business. One particular quote caught my attention and reminded me that the struggles we faced last semester with all our running around are just par for the course. "These critical governmental procedures required me to work with the bureacuracy myself, though it is something I would have much rather delegated. For many of these additional stamps, I was required to revisit the same bureaus at least fifty times, waiting and waiting for my turn. Each stamp of approval peeled away only a fraction of the bureaucratic layer. I thought that anyone else would have given up on this project just because of the bureaucracy."

The Office

I realized that I have written a lot about the process and the hassles to opening my own business, but I have never shown you the results. So the following are a few shots to help you feel more like a part of it all.

Our office building (which is located right beside the cities Grand Bazaar – making it convenient to everything)

Inside the office (it is small but cute). The carpet we bought for the floor was much too big for the room. So we cut it up – an act that many would consider disgraceful (you never cut a carpet). We saved a lot of money using the extra pieces as seat covers for the coach. Also noticed how proudly all of our certificates are hung on the wall by our desk.

My Business Card

It is finished!

On Friday I officially finished opening my business. I am the co-owner of a fully invested, fully foreign owned fully set up and ready for operation company. I have run the gauntlet of over 90 office visits and passed the test, collected all the needed red stamps and even put in my visa application to be the first worker for this new company. It is finished, the battle is over, Fusion Translation Consultation Station is up and ready for business!!!!

135) All of those who have been thinking of my business partner and I over the last few months

136) That all the paperwork is submitted and approved

137) That the process is behind me.

138) The Lazy day I had to day (I literally did nothing all day)

Remedial Stamping Classes

I have been told it is all in the wrist work, but I think I need to practice stamping our companies red business stamps. We were at the bank yesterday trying to open a new wire funds accounts, which took longer than necessary based on my workmates and my inability to evenly press down and mark our name. We tried to improve our sub-par stamping skills by practicing over and over again on the back of an extra sheet of paper, before stamping the official document. Some practice stamps were too heavy on the ink, making all the words blur together as one, others were faint making the numbers hard to discern. Despite our remedial review, the bank called us back this morning and asked us to come in and do it again. We have a long way to go before we are pro business women in Central Asia.