Day 4 - Karaoke Special

Day 4 - Anna's last day and Karaoke

We had a workshop today at Hotel Bhumi Asih - "Restoring Social and Ecological Livelihood in Mangrove Ecosystem in South Sulweisi". Best part was that talks were in Indonesian Bhasha and both Sabine and myself could not understand much but sweet part was Irma was trying to explain us something in Eglish regarding all what was being spoken. She is so lovely. We don't have a translator but she was trying her level best to make us undesratnd all what was being discussed. Hats off to the people here - they are so considertae and helpful.
To give a high level overview of the undrestanding I got from the Irma is that Coastal Regions are not developed and we have different agencies which have come here to talk about it and work over it. YKL is facilituating the same with the help of Oxfam and CIDA.Women in the Costal region, they are not well educated and they get married off beofre 17 and have children. They are not made to study as they have to work in the kitchen only. Also, the income of the household is on daily wages rather than on monthly basis.After this, Irma got busy with other things and I had no option but to just see the people around and after sometime I see Anna, Kevin and Medi outside the conference room. Felt as if the saviours have come. We went out and they said that they are trying to get the translators but they seem to be busy and then we all decided that its better to come back to hotel as we cannot understand + there is no broadband.

So back to hotel, wrote some blogs.Meeting at 4 in our Team Room 312. It was a good discussion. All the 5 teams spoke about their expiernces and customer issues they have been facing till date. Also, teams discussed if in which way they can help each other as in we needed the help for the Business Plans and Financials. Also, we spoke about our trip and finally we decided that we are going to Tana Toraja. To give the overview, please read but will let you know more details after my trip---> The Toraja are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk ("the way"). The Indonesian government has recognized this animist belief as Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors"). The word toraja comes from the Bugis language's to riaja, meaning "people of the uplands". The Dutch colonial government named the people Toraja in 1909.Torajans are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as tongkonan, and colorful wood carvings. Toraja funeral rites are important social events, usually attended by hundreds of people and lasting for several days.

For the dinner we went to Red bowl nearby and I got a good fried rice with strawberry milk shake.. Yummy ..Then as was discussed last night we went to Karaoke. Frankly saying, I never heard about it or had seen it. So, I just went along to check it out but it was so fun.I have no clue about songs, music but even I could sing and it was good. Loved it. Saw Sabine - Jessica, Anna, Vivek, Tom, Ruth, Marcelo, Arun and somewhat of me too - everybody was smiles , laughing aloud and singing...Wow, just loved it. Wish I could sing like Sabine. She is just into music. I suppose, if you give music to her, she will not even want food. She lives music. One can see the sparkle in the eyes of both Jessica and Sabine when they dance, sing...Wow...For all those who don't know Karaoke, it is : Karaoke is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music (a music video) using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol, changing color, or music video images, to guide the singer.
Ok, bye bye to day 4 and to Anna S also. She will be leaving tomorrow early morning for her next Assignment to Malaysia. All the best Anna. Miss you. You have been great and Thanks to you for everything. You manage it so well.
Keep Smiling.. :) Tomorrow I will be going so now will write back on Monday..Hectic weekend.... See you.. Keep checking out on me...