them to the end of the hall, but where they'd be out of sight of our guests. I went back for the second trip, left the second armload with the first, and went back to where Kelly could see me, nodding to her when she looked at me.
She ended her current story, and told them that we had some gifts for them. Paul wasn't particularly surprised, and didn't say anything – nor did John or Leo. But the girls did protest – but it didn't do them any good. When it suited her, Kelly could be almost as uncooperative as I could.
Once the fussing was over, it didn't take long to get everything handed out. Paul was delighted with the carved nameplate Kelly had gotten him, and the Barong Tagalog I'd picked out. The boys were in awe over the wall plaques I'd brought back that showed all the different types of weapons – mostly knives with blades of varying designs – that the Philippines had seen. The girls were all delighted with the embroidered blouses and seashell jewelry we'd brought them. Finally, it was time for us to give them the silverwork that we'd gotten them in Baguio.
Kelly and I took turns handing out the last gifts. Jan was absolutely overawed by the filigree bracelet we gave her. For her part, Robyn was speechless after she'd opened the box that held the white gold and silver earrings Kelly had helped me select – each of them an incredible work of art. Susan could only stare at the gift I handed her: a ring with an incredibly detailed floral pattern, fastened by a fine silver chain to an equally detailed bracelet. Last was Sandra, who started crying when she saw the delicacy of the silver mesh necklace Kelly had handed her – nearly two inches wide ('Five centimeters!' the salesman had assured me), the bottom side was fringed with incredibly small silver links, each smaller than a grain of rice. The four of them took a few minutes to ooh and ah over each other's gifts before the all decided that it was time to give Kelly and me a hug and kiss. I could tell from Kelly's reaction that the kisses she'd gotten had been as 'personal' as I'd received – I didn't expect that either one of us would have to worry about washing our tonsils for a long time to come. By this time, Paul had figured out that all the girls were more than 'just friends'; he didn't bat an eye at what went on. The boys seemed pretty sure that all the girls were just crazy, and didn't pay any more attention to them than necessary.
When they'd all sat down again, Kelly resumed telling them about her adventures; I picked it up after a little while, so Kelly could rest her voice. A bit later, Kelly took over for me, for the same reason. We spent the rest of the evening going back and forth as we replayed the highlights of our trip – except for the side trip to San Fernando. By unvoiced agreement, Kelly and I skipped around it; at least, until we knew what was going to happen with my idea.
By the time late evening came around, we'd covered about half the trip.
Kelly was talking at the time, and saw the boys getting sleepy. She finished what she was talking about, and gestured toward them, saying that if everyone wanted to come over that weekend, we'd finish, and have photos to show them, too. Everyone – except the boys, who were too sleepy to be paying attention – agreed, and we set a time for mid-afternoon, with the promise of a cookout for supper.
Things broke up soon after that, with each of the girls giving Kelly and I another kiss before they left.
The next day, I went in to my office to take care of the few items that my secretary hadn't been able to deal with while I was gone. When she saw me coming in the door, she surprised me by getting up to give me a hug before welcoming me back. She was in awe at the craftsmanship and beauty of the bird brooch I'd gotten her in Baguio, and hugged me again in thanks.
A couple of hours later, Kelly came in after she'd taken all the film she'd used (over fifty rolls of 36 exposure!) to be developed. She got a greeting similar to mine, and had brought her own gift: a beautifully embroidered shawl that my secretary, Sarah, absolutely fell in love with.
Kelly and I quickly got ourselves organized, and started working on the first draft of the report my client expected. Sarah took care of organizing our receipts and expense claims, Kelly went through the forms that I'd completed (I'd taken the time to gin up a form that covered the details my client was after), and I transferred my notes from the electronic organizer Kelly had given me and got them into my computer.
The rest of the day went by relatively quickly, with all of us thoroughly engrossed in our respective tasks. When Kelly and I finally left, Sarah again thanked us for the gifts before giving each of us another hug.
The next day, Kelly and I arrived together to see Sarah proudly wearing both the shawl and pin we'd given her. She fairly beamed at us as we went back to drafting our initial report.
Kelly finished before I did, and came in to bring me a cup of coffee and a kiss as she watched me work. I looked over at her and said 'Why don't you see if you can get us an appointment with the Bishop? Preferably for some time after we get back the pictures you took – say, next week?'
She got a happy smile on her face and kissed me again before leaving to make the call. Since she was in the room next to mine, and the door between was open, I could listen as she was quickly put in touch with Bishop Ferguson, and made arrangements for us to meet with him the following Tuesday. From there, she went into let Sarah know that we'd be out of the office for a while that day, and for approximately how long.
She came in to see if there was anything else she could do, and I told her it would help if she could get started on getting the report ready to print. She agreed, and asked if tomorrow afternoon would be okay for the meeting with my client. I told her that would be perfect, and she asked Sarah to get it set up.
Kelly knew what was needed, and by the time I was finished with what I was working on, she had things set up and ready to roll. All that was left was for us to clean up any errors from a spelling and grammar check, and we were ready to print. I told Kelly that we'd finish things up the next morning.
As I'd said, the next morning was mostly used for us to go over the work we'd done – we spell-checked it (unsurprisingly, it kept throwing up on Filipino words), then ran it through the grammar checker – which pretty much did the same. We carefully (!!) went through the mistakes it thought it found, and corrected the very few genuine errors. That done, we printed out a copy so that Kelly and I could each proofread it one last time. Satisfied with the results, we printed the final copies and got them bound. We loaded them into my car, and went to lunch; our appointment with my client was for 1:30.
Once at my client's office, we handed over the copies of the report, reminding them that it was a preliminary copy – but adding that we didn't think the final version would have any significant changes.
That dealt with, we all went into one of their conference rooms so that I could go over the report with them; Kelly was there to keep notes for us (her and I), and help me keep track of where I was in the report.
It took nearly two hours to get through it – my client had a lot of questions about what I'd found, and why I'd made the decisions and recommendations I had. I explained it all to them, and they were more than satisfied with how I'd come up with the things I had. When it was all over, they thanked me for my work, and said that they'd had a couple of other things occur to them while I was gone.
I asked what those things were, and they told me. First, they'd realized that they weren't quite sure how to go about deciding on whom to send, if they built the factory: the first people they'd considered were older, and married; they weren't sure that those people would appreciate being sent halfway around the world to a culture they'd never been exposed to before. They'd gone on to consider a few of the younger candidates, but they'd then realized that they didn't know if the younger staff would be able to handle the culture shock of it. Second, it had occurred to them that with such a remote site, they might have trouble keeping up with inventory, quality, and so on. Finally, they were having trouble deciding if they wanted a local person – a Filipino – or an American to be the primary person to handle the job of dealing with local officials and the public.
I told them that I'd be happy to provide any help I could, and they asked me – straight out – what they should do.
'On the first problem, I expect that you're right – your older managers, or anyone with a family, would probably have problems with moving there.
I can't emphasize enough how different the country, culture, and people are from here', I told them.
Kelly discretely indicated that she'd like to add something to what I'd said, and I let her. She told them 'This trip my first time anyplace outside of the United States, and I can assure you, Dan is correct. Even with his help, I went through a considerable culture shock – and I was looking forward to this! If you send someone that doesn't particularly WANT to go, I think you'll be setting yourselves up for a lot of trouble and expense.'
To what she said, I added 'By that, I think Kelly means that someone that isn't particularly interested in being there is likely to ignore the culture they're in, causing resentment not just against the factory, but your company, and even the United States. Of more direct impact, they will probably get tired of being there before long, and want to come back here – not a cheap proposition. Of course, that would also apply to any younger managers that you might be inclined to send. While it might be more expensive initially, I have a suggestion that would save you a lot
