Thanks
I find it very interesting... difficult at times, but I even found the UK quite stressful after working in Tokyo and having the benefits of their almost futuristic like infrastructure, so I think it is just me
Uzbekistan is about 15 years behind Europe which by coincidence is the span of my entire career, it feels like I have the opportunity to start again from scratch, but with the wealth of 15 years experience behind me, something when I first started, I could have only dreamed of
We had a recession in UK from 2007 – 2010, so for this period I did a lot of freelance work for some of the bigger firms in the UK and US to pay the bills, a slower pace of life that I started to get used to, so now it feels very busy indeed; now that things have improved and my old clients have started knocking on the door, I am rebuilding a team like the one we had in India, but this time in Tashkent.
Bureaucracy is very time consuming here, just like it was in the UK at the beginning when getting approval for credit card processing took an age, whereas now you can get it there in 24 hours; I have seen it all before and appreciate it takes time.
Uzbekistan has only had its independence and newly found infrastructure for about 10 years now, whereas the UK has had 300 years worth of practice, so from that respect, considering they have turned the country’s entire economy around so quickly, you can’t help but be a little impressed
I find all this registration between the different towns laborious when I am used to travelling all over Europe without even having to think about it, but of course with the country so close to Afghanistan etc. I of course understand and agree that a little inconvenience for the safety of an entire country is of course understandable.
My mother is from a small island called Mauritius and a lot of the land marks I asked about as a child, I was told was from forefathers of India, but one trip to Uzbekistan and you quickly realise where they must have come from first.
The first time I came to Uzbekistan, we seconded a taxi for 2 days and saw all the main mosques and historical buildings of the 12 teachers, I knew nothing about the 2,000 years worth of history or your close connection with India until 6 months ago; I am slowly but surely falling in love with the place, but I do miss home for sure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aCcmpEM_KQWith reference to programmers here - you will find two types, those who have all the theory in their head with little experience or those with lots of experience who are self taught and have no concept of working as part of a team; both of course have half of the required pre-requisites for an ideal coder, but they need a lot of training to work to European Standards. They are very bright and I have all the confidence in them to make the effort to teach.
With reference to designers, most designers here are either self taught or from the world of print media and most have little or no experience of slicing and making CSS files, we therefore have to teach this as to ask a coder to do CSS in the UK is not too different to ask a brain surgeon to peal potatoes, it is just not complicated enough and is of course simple enough for any designer to learn.
I have no doubt that it will take time to develop a team, but once we have the right team, the company will take shape and be the catalyst it should be to allow all team members to develop best practise solutions as part of a valued team that they would otherwise never have the opportunity to do on their own.
By achieving the above, it is almost impossible not to please the clients in the process.
I hope you find the language pack of use.
Darren Thompson
