A blog series about my in-country assignment to Makassar for IBM Corporate Service Corp.
Pizza!
That's what we had last night, after almost a week of eating Indonesian
Food. My tongue is literally on fire! But we also had chocolates and
(they) had alcohol.
It
was a productive day yesterday, I think. We had a meeting with the Vice
President of the Local Hospital. At first he was pretty upset because
we came without interpreter. What really surprised me is that not a lot
of people in the island do know/recognize IBM. They always associate the
brand with computers and machines. I know I am not the most techie
person but I am working for IBM, and I am proud! We have to explain that
IBM also does consulting services and we are volunteers who want to
help their hospital to Go Green - or should I say Go Greener.
Before
the meeting we tried to understand the hospital's organizational chart.
It was fun doing charades and trying to understand functions with the
help of Muslim employees of the hospital.
Click Read More to find out what happened during the day...
We
have such sweet employees taking care of us in the hospital - they feed
us with really good food and even gave us a space to work on as our
"office".
It looks like a gift, I know!
Tadah! I love that Jasmine Tea Drink!
Here's another "gift"
Lunch - healthy, complete meal :)
After lunch, we stayed at the lobby and found these interesting banner and sign:
Back
in the hotel, we went to the supermarket to buy stuff for Nitu's
supposedly surprised birthday party. I was thinking of buying those
thing that they put on their forehead, but we couldn't find or didn't
know where to buy - we are in Indonesia anyway, and not in India.
Anyway,
I had fun grabbing those party plates and napkins. I was with Cheryl
who, I think is an expert in organizing parties. We met up with Vivek,
Sabine and Tom who left the cashier with some good alcohol and beer.
Now
it is time to buy cake! What is a birthday party without cake? We have
to consider that Nitu is a vegan so we thought she might not eat
anything with egg - cake included. We thought of just buying rice cake
and get a nice fancy cake for the team. But we found out that she does
eat cake! So we were ready to order from the supermarket's pastry corner
but we found out that you have to order in advance - at least a day. We
played charades and asked if we could just at least buy that Happy Birthday tag, but the guy who assisted us couldn't seem to understand. I never realized language barrier could be this exhausting!
Then
we saw this nice cake store outside the supermarket - and we agreed to
get a chocolate cake. It looks fancy (perfect for birthdays) but to be
honest, I have tasted more flavorful cake than this one. But it is all
good, Nitu loves it!
These two lovely ladies also took a picture of us! Now I got more pictures in the cyberspace.
We also bought balloons to decorate our new team room (the room which was originally assigned to me which doesn't have any bed). ABV (Australian Business Volunteers) also
provided us with refrigerator and microwave - and they also gave us our
own broadband stick because we don't get good connection from hotel's
wifi.
ABV also gave us these.. just incase of food poisoning.
Now it is time to party! Look at Nitu's face after we presented the cake!
It is an Indian tradition that the celebrant will serve and feed all the guests with cake. It was fun taking a bite from that small piece of cake she was holding. Jessica (USA) even sang her traditional family birthday song! It is so funny!
There came the pizza! Everyone was so excited! Even I, forgot to take pictures!
And
what is party without alcohol..? Well, it is still a party. :) I don't
really drink but I had a glass of beer for Nitu. Sabine (Austria)
grabbed this from supermarket. It looks like a mouthwash but I haven't
tasted it.
Then
here's something from Brazil! We thought of bringing an alcohol drink
from your country (but I wasn't able to bring any - because of that duty
free thing and baggage allowance). Anyway, this has a hint of lemon -
that I felt that it was slicing my tongue. It is good and kind of strong
for me. I wish I could have told Marcelo (Brazil) to also buy Havaianas
for me.
Here are the princesses
Cheers!
Later tonight, we will have karaoke night - and hopefully we get to plan our weekend activities!
