Lady Gaga’s song “Fashion” provides the
title of this week’s blontry. There were three major events this week at the
campus. The final of the three was a student fashion and talent show. So based
on the primacy/latency principle it became the focus for the title. This week’s
line up is strategic planning with a guru; a published app; and the
aforementioned fashion/talent show.
Dr. Ram Charan is one of the world’s
premier management consultants. He works with leading companies all over the
world. For some time he has been a consultant to the K.K. Modi Group (the Indian
partner in our Joint Venture). More recently he has agreed to be on the
Advisory Board for the Indian university we are starting in Chhattisgarh. Along
with that he has been providing guidance and feedback about our joint venture
and how we can improve it. He led us through a series of activities to help us
know how to best find out what our customers (employers, people who pay for the
education) as well as the users (the students themselves) want and need. The
day was fine, very good even, but I wondered,” is this guy really worth what he
gets paid?” Then, during the last hour and half of the day, BAM. He started “riffing”
and brilliance came out. It was amazing to listen to his insights. I’d say he
is an intuitive genius. I understand how he commands the fees he does.
Item two for your consideration. One of
our students published an app this week. This is a huge step for him and for
our program as well. It is exciting to see a student excel; to take what he is
learning and run –sprint really – with it. His success has led a lot of
discussion with other students and faculty about the creation of a technology/business
incubator. It’s not clear what form that will take exactly but it seems to be
responsive to what a lot of our students want (see above paragraph). For
whatever reason, we seem to attract a fair grundle of students with an entrepreneurial
bent.
Finally (yes there are some pictures)
was the fashion/talent show on Friday afternoon. It was a loud, raucous,
joyous, fun couple of hours. Singing and dancing took the lead in the talent
show, although the MC was displaying some skills of his own. The centrepiece of
the program was the fashion show: guys and girls in native outfits; what passes
for “formal wear, and casual. It was great listening to the students both
supporting and teasing each other. A lot of fun; the still photos below don’t
really do it justice.
Now with her thoughts on the week, here’s
Rae.
Saturday we went to the mall and
discovered that there is now another place for a burger, I’m talking beef. Turns out that Johnny Rocket has just opened
up. Burger King is also here now, but
they don’t serve beef, following in McDonald's footsteps. Burger in the US to me means beef, but burger
here pretty much means anything on a bun.
Anyway, here’s a photo of me having a BURGER.
Last week I received a new calling. I was released from the District young women
while I was in the US. So, I now serve
in the primary presidency. Our primary
is pretty small, 0-7 kids and they range from 3-12. Because there are so few kids and their
numbers vary so much we usually just meet as one group. Last night about 9, the primary president
sent me a text asking me to cover primary as her little girl was sick. Phil said he would come and be my helper, even
if he was asked to sub for another class, which happens often. We ended up having 6 kids, only one that was
actually in our branch. Three visitors who
are expat kids from another branch and two were children of investigators. It was quite a balancing act keeping all ages
and knowledge levels engaged. The three
expat kids were extremely versed in the gospel, and had all the answers, and
two basically knew nothing. It was quite
an experience, and I kind of wanted a nap when I got home. Just because I wanted one, doesn’t mean I got
one.
I think I’ve talked about people who carry
all manner of things on their heads. About
three buildings down from our church there is a building under construction. As we drove past that building on our way to
church there were four or five women loading bricks on their heads to be
carried to the construction site, Ugh.
As Phil and I discussed this, we think that each woman had at least a
dozen bricks on her head. Another
example of human labor being cheaper than any kind of vehicle or
machinery. It’s interesting to see all
the things people will do for a few rupees.
We didn’t stop to get a picture, sorry.
Namaste.
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