Back to basics working abroad

By ESTELLE SARNEY

Turning down building applications from royalty was not the done thing when New Zealand engineer Jan Stanway arrived in Bhutan on assignment with Volunteer Service Abroad.

Things got a bit heavy in Stanway's office in the capital of the tiny Himalayan kingdom.

"I had some of the royal family's representatives sitting on my desk ordering me to approve their plans, but I couldn't allow them to put up a dangerous building when I wouldn't let anyone else. I figured if anyone could afford to construct a building safely, they could."

Stanway held her ground, and the plans were redrawn. It was not the only ethical challenge she had to stare down during her two years in Bhutan, and her commitment to ensuring every building plan she approved was safe quickly won her respect and the backing of her employers.

Her skills were needed because although the Bhutanese are masters at building wooden structures, there was no experience to support their recent move towards concrete construction. By the time Stanway left Bhutan a year ago, a building permit system and a professional engineers register were being designed.

Now back in Wellington with engineering firm Connell Wagner, Stanway says she gained as much from her overseas experience with VSA as the Bhutanese construction industry did from her.

"Engineering in New Zealand can be quite specialised, but in Bhutan I had to go back to basics and figure out how to teach a lot of different things," she says. "I now have a better feel for how my buildings are working, what's critical and what's not."

Getting out of the rat race had its appeal too. Stanway could walk to the end of her street in the capital of Thimphu (population: 40,000) and be hiking in the Himalayas. Her partner spent three months with her, and while she missed loved ones and some New Zealand food, she made the best of her situation.

"It helped that the Bhutanese have a good sense of humour," says Stanway. "Occasionally things became so bad, ridiculous or outrageous, I would just laugh, and they would laugh too."

The 31-year-old was one of about 100 VSA volunteers who are on assignment in Africa, Asia and the Pacific at any time. The organisation is trying to attract more young volunteers, pitching its one or two-year assignments as an alternative overseas experience.

"You can go and work in a pub in London and live in a flat with 10 other Kiwis, or go to Tanzania with VSA," says Carolyn Mark, its recruitment and training manager.

Volunteers do need to have a skill, which usually means a tertiary qualification and at least a couple of years' work experience. Partner agencies overseas let the New Zealand branch know what skills are required, and VSA advertises for applicants to do the work.

"People tend to go into positions that are more senior to what they are doing here," says Mark. "They are challenged professionally and personally, but the success they achieve adds to their confidence, and to their CV."

Companies such as engineering firms value this kind of experience so much that one, MWH in Wellington, is offering volunteers to VSA. The knowledge they bring back is useful to the company and helps it when tendering for overseas projects.

Alternatively, a VSA assignment can lead to a career in Third World development. Fiona Moffat, 34, a production editor at the University of Otago Press, spent a year in Laos producing brochures promoting ecotourism and local handcrafts. She was so inspired by the experience that she is now doing a postgraduate diploma in development through Massey University and would like to return to third world countries to help in book development and literacy.

Moffat lived in a remote part of Laos where there was no hot water, no telephone and the electricity was on for only two hours a day. But the people were wonderful.

"An experience like that changes you," says Moffat. "I went to transfer certain skills, but I was blown away by the skills the people had in their own lives."

Mark says not all living conditions are so basic and most places would be similar to a Kiwi bach.

Most volunteers have periods of homesickness, so they must be emotionally self-sufficient to get through. Life won't always go smoothly, so tenacity, perseverance and a positive outlook are necessary, as are flexibility, adaptability, and respect for other cultures.

"They need to understand that they are not going in to take over as an expert," says Mark, "but to work alongside and combine their skills with those of local people."

VSA

email: vsa@vsa.org.nz