Welding, Diving and Candra

Today we toured the workshops at STP. The most interesting part for me was getting to see the underwater welders practicing their skills.It's a bit hard to see in the picture, but there is a student diver in the water standing on a platform and welding a piece of metal. A career as an underwater welder has sometimes been of interest to me. Not that I would ever really do it, but looks exciting and pays incredibly well. However, it is also very dangerous.




Our team spoke to the students following their dive and of course, we took photos. I got to hold the special welding diving helmet. It was very heavy.



In this blog and my Facebook photo album I've mentioned our project assistant a few time - Candra. She serves as our translator, schedules interviews and arranges for things we need throughout the project, takes notes, helps us find lunch and generally takes great care of us. We would be lost without her.

Candra is an excellent translator. I'm amazed at this skill - it's a talent, really. She spends a large portion of her day translating our questions to the locals we are speaking with, listening to their response and then translating it back to us. I have to imagine it is exhausting work to use your brain muscles for this and there have been days we've needed her to translate for 6+ hours.

She has also helped us with very basic things. This morning she went with us as we dropped off our laundry. She spoke with the woman who runs the laundromat and gave us information on pricing and when things would be ready.

I knew we would have a translator working with us on our project, but I did not expect such a dynamic person who can do such a great job translating and a great job at truly being our project assistant.

There have been many nights she has worked long and late hours to translate documents for us. Sometimes it seems she's a step ahead of us and by the time we ask her to do something she has already taken care of it. I just can't say enough good things about her.

#IBMCSC #CSCIndo8 #IBMIndo, 

Important Update

It took two days, but the hotel found Diet Coke for me!

That is all.

#IBMCSC #CSCIndo8 #IBMIndo

Field Work

Today we went out into the field to meet some of the external stakeholders for our project with Solo Techno Park (STP). We were picked up at the hotel and taken first to ATMI and second to a tenant of the incubator.

ATMI is a two-fold business. They are a manufacturer of all sorts of things that involve metal and they have a vocation school - St. Mikael's Catholic SMK. Vocational schools are referred to as SMKs and from driving around town there seem to be a lot of them. On the vocational school side of things they have their own students, but they also take in STP students for the applied part of their schooling. Following graduation ATMI employees a number of STP students and vice versa. Also, instructors at both organizations seem to overlap. The second prong of ATMI is actual manufacturing of metal supplies - cabinets, hammers, medical beds, baby incubators, etc. It was quite an impressive tour.

After visiting ATMI we had lunch at a great outdoor restaurant. Several people from STP were with us and besides yummy food we had a nice break from the hot morning walk through the ATMI workshops. I got cracked chicken - which is a lot like a chicken fried steak. My co-workers, Donnacha and Aban, both got some sort of bird with its head still attached.

In the afternoon we visited with a tenant from the incubator. He is producing motorcycles that are refitted to be used by people paralyzed or injured below the waist who cannot typically operate a motorbike. With motorbikes being a major mode of transportation this could be a very practical vehicle for some people to have.

By the time we'd finished our visit at Invarunner our heads were full and our bodies were hot and tired. As soon as we got back to the hotel we went to the reserved meeting room for the CSC to work in. The three of us, along with Candra our PA, tried to process some of the day and make a game plan for the rest of the week. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but I think we are starting to grasp our purpose.

#IBMCSC #CSCIndo8 #IBMIndo

Getting Down to Business

As I write this morning the Islamic call to prayer has begun. It's beautiful to hear. I've started looking forward to hearing it throughout the day. At the prompting of some friends on Facebook it has also given me pause to pray,

Tuesday was our first day to be full-time on our projects. Our group is meeting later than others. Many are working 7:30-4:00 or something similar. We are working 8:00-5:00. So, I was able to have a nicely leisurely morning around the hotel. I spent quite a long time at breakfast visiting with team members as they came and went.

Monday after work I stopped at the hotel's club member desk to get help with logging into the internet. I joined the hotel's club prior to the trip because it is part of the Sofitel group and figure I'm here long enough I might as well rack up some points. As part of being a member I can login differently and get higher data speed on the internet. While the women at the desk was helping me she was also asking general questions about my stay and how things have been. One question she asked was if there was anything lacking at breakfast that I would enjoy having. I told her breakfast was great and mentioned one of the things I enjoy most is cheese. A note here...there was cheese at the breakfast buffet and so I was happy. Move to Tuesday morning's breakfast. I go around the buffet and gather what I want and sit at the table. Soon after a personalized cheese plate with four different types of cheese was brought to my table. The service at this hotel is incredible.

My Solo Techno Park teammate, our project assistant and one of the STP head of marketing and training.

This week for work we are gathering data through interviews with staff members and other stakeholders - such as alumni, current students and businesses who hire interns or graduates. Today, we had interviews with the head of marketing and training and the head of the incubator. The morning session went really well, I feel like we gathered a lot of good information and had a good conversation. (Another note here...we have a project assistant who does translating for us along with many other things. She spends a large part of her day switching between Bahasa and English so everyone is able to communicate. She is amazing and I will write more about her later.) The afternoon meeting was fairly frustrating. I think several things led to this. Boiling it down it had to do with communication issues and getting things translated to the STP employees and back to us. There was a lot of conversation that we were not "in on." I think the topic was so complex that it was difficult to translate our questions to them and to translate their ideas and thoughts to us. We still got good information from them, but it just made for a long afternoon. After we were finished with work Bapak Sumadi, the head of STP, gave us a ride back to the hotel.

One thing I am struggling with are the names of the people we are working with. The three main people we are working with all have names that begin with S - Sumandi, Susilo and Sutrisno. I'm struggling enough with the language and having a difficult time remembering their names. Candra, our PA, mentioned to me the other day that she thinks Bahasa in pretty easy to learn. I told her yesterday the words have too many syllables for me to be anywhere close to understanding anything that is said. I do hope by the end of the project I am able to recognize a few words and maybe even some phrases.

A group of four of us went and had Italian for dinner. It was a nice change from the local cuisine and so tasty! The smaller group also led to better conversation. It was a great way to cap off a long, but productive day.

#IBMCSC #CSCIndo8 #IBMIndo

THE BIG KICKOFF!

The day we've all been waiting for was finally here. Our day to kick-off our projects and getting to know our clients we will be working with for the next four weeks. The entire team met in the lobby before leaving for the equivalent of Solo City's City Hall. I must say we clean up quite nicely.

At City Hall we took part in a program that included greetings from IBM Indonesia, Pyxera, our local NGO and most importantly, the mayor. Originally, we were going to be greeted by the vice mayor. However, the mayor decided last minute to postpone a trip to China so he could welcome us. Pretty cool. He seemed quite personable and I look forward to seeing him more while we are here.

The other big part of the kick-off was hearing from our four clients as they described their businesses to us and what their needs are. When the kick-off was over my team (Donnacha, Aban and me) had a casual lunch with Bapak Sumadi, the head of Solo Technical Park (STP). After lunch he drove us to the campus. We were given a tour and then went to the incubator building where we have a room set up for us for the next four weeks.

We had brief meetings with three other employees of STP - who we will be working with closely. They introduced themselves to us and vice versa. We asked them a few questions and got an initial schedule set up for this week as we learn about and discover them as a business. It's important we spend the first week focused on consulting - getting to know them and finding out from them and their stakeholders what the business is like and find out what they enjoy and think works well and what doesn't seem to be performing as greatly as it could.

On the way back to the hotel the person driving us back graciously took a detour to take me by a convenience store so I could buy some Diet Coke for my room. Sadly, but not surprisingly, there was none. I'll keep trying.

We went to dinner as a group and had more delicious Indonesia food. Then, we went to a performance of an Indonesia opera. We were the special guests of the mayor and had front row seats. Of course, we did not understand a work of the opera, but we could still pretty well understand the story of love lost and love won. It really is fascinating how culturally diverse theatre can be.

#IBMCSC #CSCIndo8 #IBMIndo

Overwhelmed with All the Feels

Wow. That is the best word I can put around yesterday. There are better words that can be used – gracious, exhilarating, warm, joyful, welcoming. However, I was so overwhelmed and dumbstruck that “WOW” was about all I could mutter.

The day started out fairly normal. We flew from Jakarta to Solo City. Uneventful.

Then, we arrived at the airport and things started to accelerate. We were met at baggage claim by four representatives from our hotel. We were presented with leis. They were beautiful and smelled amazing. The scent reminded me of the white ginger flower from Hawaii. When we arrived at the shuttle to the hotel they had cool, fragrant towels waiting for us and a cooler full of water and Coke.

When we walked into the hotel we were greeted by a large contingency of their staff dressed in their batik best. Quickly we were given a traditional Javanese snack and ginger drink. Then, we were treated to a traditional Javanese dance. It was beautiful and the dancer was gorgeous and graceful. Everyone we encountered during our greeting time was warm and had gracious smiles. We were given our room keys, went to our rooms and our luggage was delivered within a short time. The hotel is amazing. It is so full of Indonesia heritage. It seems every inch of it is covered in Indonesia art and history – even in the rooms. Stunning, really.

We were given a brief tour of the city around the hotel and had dinner at the street stalls. I had noodles and they were quite good. I think the area around our hotel should be pretty easy to navigate. I just need to find some Diet Coke to keep in my room. I am really missing my Diet Coke and anything diet soda-wise is near impossible to find.

Our sub-team had a brief meeting to review the statement of work for the organization we are partnering with. Then, several of us met by the pool to deconstruct the day – which was utterly amazing.

#IBMCSC #CSCIndo8

Nearing the Start

Saturday was a day full of both work and fun - although even the work part of it was fun.

Late afternoon we took a tour of the Indonesia IBM office. Conveniently, it is just about a three minute walk from our hotel. After going through security we saw some of what IBM does here in Jakarta. The pride they have in being IBM is evident throughout the office. Also of note is this year IBM is celebrating 80 years in Indonesia.

At the end of the tour we met with our in-country IBM host. Santi is very enthusiastic, intelligent and amazing. When she started talking about our projects was when my excitement really kicked in. It sounds like Solo City has been prepped for us and is expecting a lot from our visit. They really want us to make a difference and Santi made that very evident to us. I had my WOW moment...I'm here in Indonesia working on a project that ideally will be positively affecting people throughout the country. I think most, if not all of us, on the team are wondering if we are truly up to the tasks. Internal questions begin...wondering why we were selected? What skills do we bring to the project? Will we be able to deliver an end product that they are happy with and is sustainable?

Following our briefing we had our welcome dinner at a traditional Indonesia restaurant. Everything was served family style so we could sample many dishes and I enjoyed each one I tried.  Pictured to the right is a fried fish with its head and fins still attached.

Most of us then went to a rooftop bar where we could see Jakarta for miles. It was beautiful and another fun bonding time for our team.

So, we dipped our toes in the water today. Tomorrow we'll step in with both our feet.

#IBMCSC #CSCIndo8