An (Almost) Interview

July 9th

Today we almost interviewed our first Chinese company.

This morning while Mollie took an Swahili tutorial to brush-up on her language skills, I called the various phone numbers we managed to find for 10 different Chinese companies. Some of these numbers were from their websites, some from the public records of construction bids, some from posts advertising jobs at the firms, and some we got from Chinese people we've spoken to.

Of the 10 companies I called, 3 of them had disconnected the numbers we'd found, 3 were busy or not picking up (we called them back later and connected with some... more on that), and 4 I actually talked to.

Of the 4 I spoke with, 1 wanted more information before she would give me an address or name or information, so we emailed our letters of introduction and information about our project. 2 were drapery sellers (likely import focused, but we want to check and see if they make anything locally) and were happy to have us come by their main shop anytime. And 1 was a Chinese state-owned construction company where a really helpful Kenyan man gave us directions to their office and said we could come by today to chat. It looked like our first interview was a go!

We packed up our things and walked up to where the office was located. After a bit of wandering, we found the place—a construction site for a new residential building the company is making. The Kenyan man was very welcoming, and we could see both Kenyan and Chinese workers building on the site. The man gave us a sales flyer about the site and the name and number of an administrator who could answer our questions. We talked to the Chinese manager, who had been in Kenyan 5 years, but he was very firm that only the administrator could answer our questions. The Kenyan man pointed us in the right direction, and, after chatting with a middle aged Chinese construction worker from Xi'an who had been working in Kenya for a year and was heading home soon, we set out around the corner to their headquarters.

The headquarters turned out to be a residential complex where it looked like the mid-level personnel stay, with one or two apartments possibly used as offices. There were some Kenyan businessmen standing and chatting with large rolls of plans, and a young Chinese man chatting with two Kenyan drivers, but the man we were to meet was out and his phone busy. We chatted with one of the drivers and the young Chinese man briefly—the driver had worked for the Chinese company for 5 years, and said the Chinese weren't any different from other employers, just their English was harder to understand at first; the young man was from Hunan and, after hearing I worked in Nanjing, told me that the local weather there was a furnace, Kenya's weather was better and London had great weather—and then were shown out of the compound. We got in touch with the administrator a few hours later, and of course he was free right then, which was when we were getting ready to go eat dinner in our hostel a ways away.

Ah, the never ending glamor of research!

But now we have an appointment tomorrow with the administrator who can hopefully answer our questions. Fingers crossed, our first interview will truly take place—tomorrow!