Time is Starting to Move Faster

Some days don't seem like there is anything interesting to write about and then the next day explodes with excitement.

Wednesday was a fairly quiet day in the office with no meetings and Aban, Donnacha and I working on our projects. Toward the end of the day we met to come up with a timeline for the rest of our required meetings and the time frame we needed to work in to meet all of our deliverable. Things got really real at this point.

Besides working on our projects with our host organizations all 13 of us are working on our community service assignment which takes place this coming Saturday and Sunday. We are all taking place in leading a three hour workshop for women and people with disabilities who have SMEs (small and medium enterprises/businesses). Our sub-team is presenting on success stories of others who have small businesses. During the evening before dinner we met to create our plan and decide which stories we are going to share.

Thursday ended up being a really neat day for me. Our STP team had to split up because of conflicting obligations. Donnacha and Aban stayed at the STP office because we had a meeting that really needed to take place and had been rescheduled several times.

We also had a tenant, who lives an hour away, to visit. So, while the guys stayed at the office I went with Candra and three STP employees from the incubator to visit a tenant who has created a natural, water-based wood finishing product.

Besides making the wood finishing product he has a batik business. The batik is different than any other batik we have seen because it is natural made. All the dyes are made from plant materials that he grows on his property and are hand painted..

Most batik is stamped onto one side of the material and is made with chemical based dyes. The batik was beautiful and quite expensive compared to most batik. The owner was very gracious and gave me a DEEPLY discounted price on a lovely piece of batik that is over 3 meters long. I'm still trying to decide what to do with it.

The tour of the facility was very interesting, the owner and production manager were very warm and welcoming and the drive was good, too. It was a good time to talk to one of the employees of the incubator and pick his brain about some things, I also saw some interesting things while riding in the car. I saw a memorial for war veterans from the was of independence from the Dutch in the 1940s, a cemetery, lots of lush greenery and fruits and two goats being transported by scooter.

I must say the guys were quite jealous when I returned with my batik - especially since the meeting was delayed enough that they could have gone along.

After our evening team meeting a few of us just had a really good time at 11 12 Beer Garden. It was about a 20 minute ride for our hotel. They had a good selection of beer and a live cover band.

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