*****
There have been many times that this quote came back to me when thinking about how I was recruited for UNICEF originally, in 1980. I write about it as a means of warning prospective candidates against following in my footsteps.At the time, I was working as a consultant for WHO, encouraging countries to participate in the IDWSSD. Even before being employed by UNICEF, I was having to learn to speak in acronyms – and for the uninitiated, IDWSSD stands for ‘The International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade’. Look it up if you want to know the details. . . . .
One of the countries involved was Bangladesh and I arrived in Dhaka with strict instructions from WHO not to start the work until I had been assigned a counterpart from government. I came equipped with ‘War and Peace’ in case the process took some time but, as I already knew that UNICEF was deeply involved in water supplies in Bangladesh, I took myself off to chat to the Chief of WES in UNICEF, a jovial and immensely active national officer. From him, I received a crash course in what made Bangladesh what it was at that time. Humbling when you know what they had suffered to get to this point.
What really, really took my interest was that 50% of Bangladesh is under water for three months of the year. When put in these terms, you ask yourself where on earth do Bangladeshis find a place to live ? Abdul and I had a fascinating discussion on this which was triggered by my asking why the transport facilities of DPHE (The Department of Public Health Engineering) included 30 brand new boats ?
Abdul noted that on delivery, three of the boats had been carelessly dropped on to their respective cradles during unloading, leaving him with a real problem. I suppose that three boats each punctured below the waterline is problematic, but he still had 27 other new boats. . . . . . I asked – purely out of curiosity – what material was used in their construction ? “GRP” was the answer which flummoxed me completely. “Did the new boats not come with repair kits ?” elicited a short answer, “Yes, but the instructions are all in Japanese !”
A good answer, that was. However, before being sent abroad for my British company, I had built a Mirror Dinghy from a kit and it had required the use of GRP in part of the construction. While this didn’t make me an expert, at least I knew some of the basics so I suggested to Abdul that if, at the weekend, he brought a couple of DPHE engineers to the boat yard, I could demonstrate how to repair those three boats.
Never look a gift horse in the mouth is what they say – here was the possibility to regain the full complement of boats at no cost to UNICEF ! Naturally, Abdul grabbed the opportunity with both hands and promised to have a car sent to where I was staying on the following Friday – it being the official day off in Bangladesh allowing staff to attend the Mosque.
Sure enough, the car arrived at the appointed time and we drove to meet Abdul and three DPHE engineers who were all dressed for the Mosque. As I was going to be doing the demonstration, I think they probably thought that they wouldn’t get their hands dirty. . . . . .so I asked for the repair kit which contained fibre-glass blanket, paint brush and two tins of liquids. We were also provided with some clean tins into which the liquids could be poured in preparation.
Despite the repair kit being covered in Japanese characters (obviously the instructions), I was able to explain that the bigger tin was the basic ‘plastic’ to which should be added a small portion of liquid from the smaller tin. In English, this is usually known as hardener as it causes a chemical reaction which heats the mix and starts the hardening process. Details, details.
From experience, I knew that once the two liquids were mixed, it was imperative to work quickly. Accordingly, I mixed the two liquids and, having already cut the fibre blanket to the appropriate size to repair the hole in the boat, I applied it to the hole and ensured that it covered all cracks.
The first repair looked to be going quite well but I was concerned that if none of the engineers handled the next repair, they would be unlikely to be able to undertake future repairs if/when they became necessary. I pretended that I had sprained my wrist and claimed that I was unable to continue – could one of the engineers please take over while I supervised ?
There was obvious panic among the three but eventually, one of them agreed to take over, holding everything at arm’s length to avoid splashing his clean clothing. The result was effective if not very pretty, but if it kept water out of the boat, there wouldn’t be a problem. From memory, I think the third boat was repaired by one of the other engineers but it had to be hastened as the mix was becoming very hot. Thus, the third boat was made water-tight too (even if the repair was rather crude).
The whole process had not taken more than an hour or thereabouts, leaving DPHE with three scarred boats which would float and not take on any water through the repairs. They might not have looked pretty, but they would certainly do the job for which they had been bought. Abdul delighted as he had avoided having to employ a Japanese-English (or Bangla) interpreter.
*****
These rough and ready repairs must have taken place in mid to late 1979, following which I spent an intense few months in Kathmandu, working with the Nepal government on the preparation of their Water Decade plans.During this time, I was told by my WHO Geneva supervisor that, on my return to Delhi, I should contact John Skoda for ‘a discussion’ and it was strongly suggested that I arrive for the meeting with squash racquet. I was further told by my supervisor that it would be advantageous if I could manage to allow John to win the match. . . . . . . When so instructed by one’s supervisor, one follows instructions, right ? The upshot of the encounter was – with considerable skill on my part – I was able to let John win, and he suggested that I apply for the vacancy of Chief, WES, Bangladesh which was taking applications at that time.
*****
I have often wondered since then why my application was successful. Was it that there were no others interested in the post ?*****
Ken Gibbs can be contacted via kengibbs1941@gmail.com
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