Friday, September 30, 2005

Gender

Early in the morning, I, Catherine, Sun Jie, Yulia, Pearl, Ginny and Mai went to China Town to buy things for tomorrow's potlatch. It's my first time to go there. There were lot things to buy there and cheap. Then we stopped by Daiae (?) for another shopping. Tomorrow I will serve Russian salad (?) along with Yulia. Don’t ask me to prepare Indonesian food. God knows….. :D.

We went back to dorms and almost late for another class, I was late 5 minutes though. Today’s class about gender was interesting. Hye Sung, Prakash, Me, Tamara, and Catherine presented our view about gender and how it’s affected the leadership. Prior to this, there was a discussion group. Me, Maita, Tashi and Adriana. I think my point of view toward woman and the leadership is clear. Leadership and equal opportunity should be based regardless gender. I don’t think I have a problem with that except that I think I realize that in certain aspect I’m a kind of gender bias. It surprised me when Adriana had argument that there are no such gender characteristics. I mean certain characteristics in which associated with certain gender. Hmm... Despite my position regarding the gender in which I think it’s not problem but then when it came up to the characteristics / treat associated with the gender, I think my arguments are gender bias. My arguments are weak. It’s just one click and then I think Adriana is right. She explained about socio construction toward the gender. When woman and man are born, they are obviously not inherited by certain characters dealing with gender. But the society then formed or constructed certain characteristics associated with that sex. Just like race, white or color, there were no such characteristics inherited with color or white skin. Hmm.. It makes sense. Thanks… (seems like she’s excited to discuss about it and might have references about this gender)

One more I think impressed me was when Nilu disagreed on my last sentence of my presentation. I said that, I’m not pretty sure if I could do this if I were a woman. A kind of angry in her face but true. Yeah, I think it was a mistake of mine. I supposed not to say that. There are a lot tough woman and even tougher than me. They can even make better than me. Though, in the community I live it’s little bit difficult to find that. Again, she was right and I think yup... that’s right…

But there just one point disturbing me. When I as a man tried to accept the perspective that there’s no any woman or man leadership, woman and man are equal and there’s not should be any difference toward the gender. But somehow I think Catherine and Zarina’s point of view this morning were still gender bias. Hmm.. I understand that in certain community even in United States here, there is still a perspective of male superiority. Again I disagree with that but somehow Catherine and Zarina’s view are still trapped on that frame. It’s not easy then.. I have to admit that I need to read more about the gender issue references to understand the whole concept I think.

Mahalo for the good day…
***

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Exciting Days

day after day is getting exciting. Almost two months here.. Hawaii….
And almost one week, I didn’t post anything.

So far this week ok..
Last Saturday, Miyuki invited us; me, Adriana, Su Youn, Hye Sung to have dinner in her beautiful apartment. It was great man.. I really enjoyed it. Thanks Miyuki.. I enjoy your jokes too.:D you are funny man...

Oh ya, I got my Hawaiian ID on the last Monday.. Finally got it after planning for weeks. I missed the Scott’s class though. L

Today’s was great. We had another Visioning & Personal Action Plans class. I had some discussion with Adriana and Sun Jie and it was interesting. It was always interesting to find something great in somebody’ else. Sun Jie had a plan to continuous his study for PhD and after that gets a good job with high salary. He wishes to get married with a career woman and hopefully they are successful with their careers. He always wants his partner should pursue good career. Distance is never a problem for him. He even doesn’t mind if his partner is far from him and no problem at all if they only can meet once a week. His reason is simple when they are apart for a while and meeting each other then, that must be great. That’s what I caught from him. Hopefully, I’m right. But I think he is a little bit tight up with the frame of going to school, get a good job, have high salary, getting married and have double income. Well.. Good Luck man.. God Bless You.

Adriana was talking about long distance relationship of her friends. It’s not easy because they have to choose; career or being together. The consequence is one should sacrifice his/her own career. Yup, it’s not easy. Adriana wonders what to do next too. Going back to Europe so that she can be closed with her family for a while and working with NGO? Doubt how to start working with NGO? No probs, man.. Just do it and then what things to do there are just coming. Bravo.. No worries.. Just do it..:))

But well, it must nice working with the NGO concerning for Gypsy. I wish to know much about it.. It must be fun to work with kind of that dynamic community and there must be lot things to do with it. Hmm...

Me? The plan is clear. I just need more details and write things down to be a “blue print” of my life. Going back, completing my ongoing project, set up the organization to be self-dependence. Hopefully, after completing my tenure (time of service) the organization can run as it is now and hopefully it is even better. Then, I think it’s the right time then to build my own business. I need to be financial secured. I like working for the community, to serve and to help but I want to do that free without expectation to earn my income from the activities. It’s a kind of what Lhobsang has been doing. Besides, having my own business can give me more freedom to do whatever I want to do in life. Isn’t that good? Free from financial matters. It’s always disturbing when your income is determined by somebody else. And the good news is I had experiences to build a business and it still runs now. It’s not my own though. What I need now is just to make another detail plan for setting up a new business of my own. I’m thinking about handicraft export-import, internet cafĂ©-printing house-computer fixing or just go back to the event organizer of Nias and Sumatra folk arts performance or might be set up a reconstruction consultant firm? Hmm., but it seems that the last one is the last choice though there is opportunity for that. That’s couple things in my mind and hopefully, I’ll have a clear clue here..


YellowNet. Building this internet cafe gave me hundred lesson learnt
Oh ya, next plan is to prepare for 2007’s master degree. It could be in Europe or here in United States. I prefer to study in Europe anyway, in Netherlands. Europe must be an interesting one.


By accident I went to the corner of the University Avenue and I found a book store there. I bought three books there and I think I’m kind of interested in that book store. I’ll go down there again.
00000000000000000000000000000000

Friday, September 23, 2005

Drawing the Future

Visioning the Future and Action Plan Today’s session was just great. I like it. Visioning the future. I and some friends choose to do the activities in the Japanese garden. What I like is I have time to vision my future. Though still in unwritten vision and not as a blueprint yet but it gave me really time to think about it again.
To be honest, I used to do this. It was when I was in undergrad I tried this and it worked. There was a book really influenced me if I’m not mistaken the title of the book is “Superself” written by Charles J. Givens. It really worked man. One thing I obviously remember is when I put my goal to achieve GPA of 3,8. I arranged the plan and did the work as recommended by the book. Though I didn’t exactly have as I wrote but got 3, 7 in which that was not too bad. :)) Since then, the book was one of my favorite books. Then, it was in 2000 or 2001 (I’m not pretty sure) that I joined a business owner training for almost two years. Some great books were introduced and I really like them. The books are Personality Plus, The Magic of Thinking Big, How to Win Friends and Rich Dad Poor Dad. The point again is all the techniques offered in the books really works. At least, I don’t have any doubt about what I’m going to do in my future, how to get them and when. Yes, this really drives me to be a combination of Choleric and Melancholy. I left my Dream Book in home town. But we learnt from this morning session is just like that. Except that we had a lot time to do for creating our Dream Book. This morning’s session took 45 minutes. We draw on a big paper (what do you called that kind of big paper here?) Sorry, I don’t speak English: D I think it’s effective to create the dreams on the Dream Book. We can add some pics there, writing onto it or other creative things. We can carry it every where too…
I think I need to discuss this stuff to Nick. He’s open minded, that’s what my impression on him.
This morning’s session includes personal evaluation, strength and weakness.
Here’s some pics of friends drawing their life in the Japanese Garden...
Lhobsang



Adriana


Pearl


Aleyama


Miyuki





Thanks for asking the poem.. :) it’s all about..
u know..
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Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Other Pics in Moloka'i

Moloka'i Ranch



Bungalow we stayed in


You look sexy Jay..


Coconout Group Celebrated the victory


Great day always..


Josh, you look cool man...


No funny stories today? Ah C'mon Miyuki. Smile...


We love Moloka'i..


You like this style, heh?


Getting wet mam? Welcome to Moloka'i..


Basu, too much problems in this world. So what? Enjoy the life..!


Can you guess who I am? I bet you can't


Peter, u next..


This must be delicious man...


Do I have good smile?


The Winner


We have nice smile, right?


This doesn't look like Gene


Thanks Sir.. Moloka'i is just beautiful


Inner View


Home Again.. but not neccessrily sailing


Bye Moloka'i
Mahalo

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Something Left and Still

Here's something left in Moloka'i. Finished after getting back but I just have the time to post it now. Still some pics not post yet..



Moloka'i is always blue


The place that's available for a visit


White Sandy Beach., Su Youn


Jamal


Me



Moloka’i
September 5, 2005

Waiting for the bus to go to Moloka’i airport to Honolulu. Here’s in middle of the pacific ocean, Moloka’i. Moloka’i Ranch. The weather is extremely fine, windy and bright. I’m accompanied by Kitaro’s music. Moloka’i, a wonderful island.

It’s always beautiful here and for me everyday is just brand new days and exciting all the time. Today we had Hawaiian games. Again what I see here was not only the beauty of this island but also the spirit of these Hawaiian people preserve their own cultural heritage forms. One of them is Hawaiian Games. This reminded me my childhood memories which full of playing games. I enjoyed my childhood. It’s more like as enjoying as staying here these days. What inspiring me here is that the folk games still alive here in Moloka’i. They have huge efforts to make it exist. In my childhood, I and friends played some of the games.

Here, we played 5 games today, I played 4 games only because the last game missed. I went to lodge for packing my bag. The games we played were Ulu Maika (Lawn Bowling), O’o Ihe (Hurling Spears), Pohaku Ho’oikaika (Stone Lifting) and Haka moa (Chicken fighting). The last of Huki huki game I did not join it.

It’s clear in mind how we used to play folk games when I was kid. A lot games. When I grow now, in my reflection all the games we used to play were educative. We enjoyed them until the coming of the new technology; TV and all the electronic toys. Couple months ago I went to visit my village and all the games we used to play seems gone. The kids there were not familiar with all those past games except for one game; “jumping over the fence”. (It’s hard for me to explain this in English). Almost all disappereared by the coming the “stupid box” (TV) and all the electronic game things.

Moloka’i inspired me to formulate the new ways to enliven the games we used to play and encouraged me to find ways to make it true. Thanks Moloka’i and East West Center for this valuable opportunity.


**************************************************
Moloka’i,
September 4, 2005

Sunday.

After lunch we had a discussion about visioning APLP community. Our group members were me, Sheena, Jaylon, Chamroen, Lhobsang, Hanh and Miwa. We thought about the possibility to form APLP community. Well, we discussed about the catalyst and the possible barriers of the network.

But here’s the great moment after buffet dinner at the Moloka’i Lodge. Talent Show... Prior to Talent Show we had Story Telling session to continue our previous night story telling. Again, story telling always gave me new things about the friends here. It always gives me new sight, new input about who they are. Take an example of Su Youn in which I think I am closed to her. Last night’s story telling made me see her again in different way. The way she dedicated herself for elders every Sunday in church and the children is fabulous. Yes, she’s a sincere heart to serve. Catherine for her family values and her experiences with the elders in Japan when she worked there, Basundrha for her PhD in biochemical engineering, Scott for the confession of his father’s “effort” to make the story of him as he was from Scotland and everybody just believed it until Scot proved it wrong. How Scott felt the comfort zone due to the wealthy of his father but found that actually his father was from an orphan house and it means that it was very hard to trace back where his grand and grand father from. That’s why family was important to him. How Monique told about giving birth to her first kid was amazing. The story was inspiring. The point is just if the woman can give birth; a life, that means that woman can solve their problems and face the life with optimism and always with new hopes. I think she just need to write down the way she told her experience to inspire the woman in the world. I like it so much. It was great. How Cristina Monroe acted as a superwoman (or wonder woman) was interesting confession about her past life. She has a high spirit of life. Yes, I can see it. How Nick solved the problem when he was in trouble after drinking was amusing and how Gene realized that he was American when he was in 5 or 6 grade. He shared his valuable experiences as flight attendance and how he met Lhobsang was great story, Myron for his international experiences, Anne for the feeling of being not “Chinese” in the China land. For me all these stuffs are great..

************************************
Talent Show.
Another story of the wonderful night. “China Link” performed three Chinese songs in which I think all were very romantic songs. I like all the songs. And then me.. Well.. Here it is. Wow.., I felt like a million bucks man.. I played guitar (thanks for Karin and Erin for that great guitar) and the song was “Patient” of G&R. it was about being patient and about hearts and feeling. But you know, I think you all my friends encouraged me to play it. It was my first performance before 50 people from 22 countries man.. lol. But I felt like I was good. Yeah, it was just wonderful. I like the way they appreciated it. I used to play guitar but never had this kind of appreciation in my life for playing guitar. Cool.. Thanks to you all my friends... it means a lot for me..:)

Then, Karin sang a Swedish song. It was beautiful. I think her voice just like Roxette (the group band from Sweden). Her voice was great. I like it. She should be a singer. And she’s just great. Gene,J well, I like this man. He has a very good sense of humor. He made the night joyful. He played his clarinet or flute? That was great. Jinli danced the song. Basu with her Indian song, Zarina with her Kyrgyzstan song. It’s about love song and the mountain. Kyrgyzstan is surrounded by mountains. I like that song. It was unique. Never heard that before. Hye Sung, So Youn with the Korean song accompanied by Gene’s clarinet (flute?). I was invited to involve too. Thanks Hye Sung and So Youn. Hye Sung had a very good voice. The staffs had a very good humorous performance. Scott was great in mocking Americans in humorous way. The night was closed by Thailand dance led by Ginny, Mai and Pearl.

Jinli appeared with her dance performance. It seems that this girl is not only smart but hides a great talent for arts. And it seems that Moloka’i revealed her talent. Adriana was great. She’s a good MC. She has a hidden talent for that. She can be a MC or moderator of events. Hmm.., she has something that never known. She called herself as a little wolf that doesn’t want to be tight up, anyway. :) u'r inspiring man… oh ya, she is a good swimmer too. Karin was the organizer of the event, Erin was just shy to have a performance. The way she played the night before was great. She just didn’t want to show us. Jaylon was creative for today’s activity.. I like that activity for self reflection about what people think about us individually and write down on paper which sticks on our back. Su Youn and Hye Sung; two sincere Korean girls. Sheena led the group of us. She’s a kind of humble one. Sun Jie with courage., it’s little bit hard to explain this buddy. He’s funny anyway.
Prakash and Abhay; I like these buddies. Maita, Nash and Jamal, smart guys from the Philippines. Peter; we had jokes about italiano, cappuccino, mafioso and stupido :D you made me laugh pet. He’s full occupied with electronic equipments just like Pearl. Nilu, you are great buddy. Nilu, thanks for telling me that I’m a handsome one and about the inner beauty. Well, no many told me that, Blaine is a good man. Typical man easy giving hand to people needs. Zarina, hmm. She’s friendly and active. Kitty, thanks for all the pics you took, a typical good girl. Tamara, you got a great Macarena dance, man… Miwa, a good girl. Hopefully, your story keeps you away from losing another passport. Pearl Wu; I need to know you better, Yulia; humble girl, you still don’t like ice cream? C’mon, past is past. Lhobsang; someone special, Chomroeum, peaceful man.. Josh, calm one, mai; a beautiful flower from Laos, Denny; a potential one and a good cook, Hanh; a potential academician love reading very much, starla; strong spirit for life, your muscles are strong too, shafiq; the sportsman and a good friend, Miyuki; you have special sense of humor and I really enjoyed the jokes, Aleyamma; no doubt a smart one, we just did not have time to talk. Basu; smart one, Cher; your story was amazing. I like to hear more. Tashi; Bhutanese need you, Myron; you must be a good man, Anne; I understand the feeling of being Turks tan in China..

Thanks man…………

Mahalo...

Monday, September 19, 2005

...................................................


****************************************
seperti matahari, aku ingin berdiri
dan seperti bulan aku ingin berdiam di tengah malam
bersama dengan angin dan sejuknya malam honolulu
yang selalu setia bersamaku dengan atau tanpa bintang
dengan atau tanpa rembulan yang kulihat kemarin

seperti sinar yang selalu menghangatkan hari-hariku di sini
seperti gemercik air yang selalu mengiringiku di taman jepang
burung –burung berkicau di sepanjang hari

aku rindu..
padamu yang membuatku rindu
padamu yang selalu kulihat di kala mataku terpejam
di kala aku ingin melupakanmu
terkadang begitu indah
menusuk dan mengilhami
seperti halusinansi..

dan aku ingin pulang
padamu yang selalu membuatku letih tetapi membahagiakan
padamu yang selalu kucoba nisbihkan
meratap pada birunya ombak
pada birunya langit
sama – sama biru seperti biru hatikukah?

derai – derai rinduku..
setelah sekian lama, aku mencoba menjauhkannya
dan kau hadir di saat yang tidak begitu tepat..
tetapi indah..
terima kasih…

aku ingin menatap wajahmu sekali lagi
sebelum aku dan kau berlalu
mengikuti derap hati yang ingin pergi

aku ingin memelukmu sekali lagi
sebelum aku dan kau berkata sampai bertemu lagi
atau kita tidak akan pernah bertemu lagi
sebelum semua berakhir
aku ingin mencapai puncak kerinduanku padamu
tetapi biarlah..,
mungkin dengan begini juga jauh lebih indah
jauh lebih dalam untuk selalu diingat
bukankah sesuatu yang tidak sempurna akan selalu lebih diingat dari sesuatu yang telah sempurna…

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Enneagram and Personality Plus

I’ve just returned from Mai’s b’day. I feel great. I wish every weekend we have party. It was cool. Happy B’Day Mai.. We need sometimes to enjoy the life. :))



Enneagram


I supposed to post this yesterday.


Today’s Enneagram presented by Keith and Michael is cool. To be honest, I’m number three (3), The Achiever. Some part of number 1 (The Reformer) and 2 (The Helper) are my characters.

I’m interested in this stuff. One book of my favorite dealing with this Personality type is Personality Plus written by Florence Littauer. She divides the personality into four basic characters; Melancholic, Phlegmatic, Sanguine,Choleric. My type is more the combination of Melancholic and Choleric. In comparison with The enneagram, it’s most like the combination of number 3, 2 and 1. Besides, I think this is part of my Melancholic personality, as I like to deal with self-things to know, I read a couple of things about Chinese Astrology, general Astrology, Numerology and things. My Chinese Astrology sign is Dragon, My West astrology is Scorpion and Numerology number is 8.

Here are some basic information about Florence’s Personality Plus. She devided the personality in four basic named as follow
SanguineThe Sanguine is the popular person who wants to have fun out of every situation and be the life of the party. Sanguine love to talk.
Choleric
The Choleric is the powerful person who wants to take control of every situation and make decisions for others. Choleric love to work.
Melancholy
The Melancholy is the perfect person who wants everything done in order and done properly and who appreciates art and music. Melancholies love to analyze.
Phlegmatic
The Phlegmatic is the peaceful person who wants to stay out of trouble, keep life on an even keel, and get along with everybody. Phlegmatics like to rest.

Why I want to know that things is simple. I just want to know the nature of my activity or what behind me drives my behavior. Anyhow, I concluded that the personality type can be changed from time to time based on what we do and how certain environment influences us. It’s not a fate instead of something dynamic along with the deed we conduct day by day.

My personality however changed. When I was student; undergrad student, I was most matched with Melancholic. I used to be perfectionist or never at all, in order, loving anlyzing things, quiet, reserved. We loved books. This made me graduate Cum Laude :)). That’s funny.. The problem was I’d rather to talk depth with one or two persons than talking with many people. And I have only two or three closed friends which I dealt much.

But things change. Especially when I almost finished my undergrad. It was in 1997 and 1998 when I was much and almost all my time spent for student demonstration protest against the Soeharto’s Regime. As student leaders, we dealt much with leading street demonstration. It forced me to be in the front row on the street, managed the peaceful demonstrations and made decisions. A lot books dealing with self-reflection influenced me too.

1999 was the searching point of my life and I gradually shifted to The Achiever (in the perspective of enneagram) or to Choleric according to Personality Plus of Littauer. Until now on, most Choleric things drive my behaviour as well as my Melancholic personality.

My Choleric personality experiences worked much better in chaotic situation. I quickly assessed what needed to be done and as fast as possible. Speed is our color. I think I’ve done good job for special events like Emergency Respond of Tsunami in Aceh and of Earthquake disaster in Nias currently. For long term, I re-built up my organization, LPAM-Nias. When previous Director was elected as Electoral Commision Member of North Sumatra Province, he just let the organization away without any intention to make it better. I handled it then as Director on the last February with a long previous process. I now have responsible for at least 2.000 students for their school building and around 875 family members are waiting for their houses reconstruction. The rest are my staffs and volunteers who depend their life on LPAM-Nias. Huge responsibility, but that’s it, I think I have to do it. Anyhow, I know that sometimes I’m alone. At least, I feel alone. It’s not easy for me to find a “right” person to talk to. Just because when I decide to whom I talk and then all things in mind and in my heart, I will let her/him know. And it’s not easy to find the right person. My choleric personality is very often reluctant to confess my weakness and the situation when I’m vulnerable to others.

For us Choleric, self-esteem is very important. We don’t work for the shake of money, for example. We do something just because we think we should do that and we very often do things the best we can do. Another character of us Choleric is persistent and loyal. Yes, we are loyal for someone who we love. And we have strong, brave heart and willing to be out of the main stream. "Brave Heart"is my fave film. Arrogance and feeling superiority can kill us the choleric ones.

So, I can understand that sometimes I’m just so exiciting and very optimistic in this life because of my Choleric types. But in certain times, I can be out of crowd just sitting and keep analyzing as a part of my melancholic one.

Favourite quoetes
“sooner or later, we’ll get it’.
"whatever it takes"
"the best I can be"



You can visit http://www.enneagraminstitute.com

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Getting Better and Better

Getting Better


I love this picture. It's in Nias Island. When I feel good, I sometimes put it as my desktop background. It's taken on 7 July 2005.

I started to like my days again. I believe that because of the Town Hall meeting and Tuesday Afternoon's meeting with Scott when we had a briefing before starting the Population Intro class. It gave us time to take a breath. Yes, I enjoyed my day. And just tonight I saw my friends again enjoy their days. When I was talking with Emilio and Myron, we saw some friends had just returned from somewhere else. I thought from Mangoes or somewhere. But, that's glad to see them enjoyed their lives. I had an interesting talking with Emilio and Myron as well. We were sitting on the stairs of the burns hall. We need this kind of social life.

I now started to appreciate the valuable time here again second by second, minute by minute, day by day... I come to appreciate again the valuable experiences' of my friends that have been shared. I believe every single of them have their own valuable stories that can be learned. I like my class and the staff, of course :). What we need more is just to learn more about ourselves and the experiences. We need to share and to learn from each other more..

The other thing makes my life is better is today Yulia taught me how to cook. That's cool man. We went to Safeway after the class. She showed me things to buy and not to buy :) and after that we had coffee in starbucks. We started to cook at 4:30 and completed things (including having the meals) at 6:30. We spent two hours for preparing and having great meals. I think I will know how to cook it myself later on. Yulia showed me things and that was great man.. I enjoyed my meal too. And from now on, the "my own menu made" will be no rice, canned fish and noodle anymore. :D Thanks Yulia, you are very kind-heart girl. I really appreciate it. I will start my new life of cooking now...

-----------------------------------------------------

Yulia, My Cook Teacher :))

It's meal... Great...
After the meal, we attended the Wednesday's Seminar : India - Pakistan Relation

Future Leadership, Generation Theory and Communication Gap

Michael Mol's Presentation About Generation Theory


He's presentation was cool


They both, Michael and Keith, were handy for Power Point things


Generation Theory and Communication Gap

This morning’s session is interesting. I used to try understanding people based on personality, culture and value. “Personality Plus” is my favorite book written by Florence Littauer. Coming here in Hawai’i deepens my understanding about cross-cultural experiences. What I found in this morning’s session is expanding more my knowledge about the generation gap. For me, it might be not new about the generation gap. I read before couple articles about Baby Boomer Generation and X Generation in which they are most American context. But it’s different when you try to theorize it and try to see it in a wide context. The perspective is called Generation Theory how to understand people and how to deal with people using this base.

I agree to Michael pointing out that his presentation is a frame. A frame that can be applied in various different context and countries. The case of the generation theory he presented this morning is basely on American context but again the frame can be applied in whatever countries. As my friends explored the frame using their own countries’ cases and context, it makes sense. Even within countries, the frame can be explored more. There’s a skeptics anyway that this Generation Theory because of the possibility to be used as ‘boxing’ or ‘labeling’ people instead of seeing people individually. I agree on that. If it’s used as a main base for seeing people and then it will go wrong.

The conclusion is simple, I think. Generation theory can be one of the tools how to understand people and how to communicate with them so that communication gap can be reduced


Michael had a good presentation. He didn’t speak aloud, anyway. In comparison with Keith’s presentation, Michael’s presentation was little bit calm. The part I like is when he gave the class much time to comment and to express class’ experiences about the generation theory. Keith’s presentation’s was better though he didn’t give enough time for class to comment. But both were great.




Keith's Presentation


Keith's giving presentation with his interactive power point


He spoke clearly and aloud so that the class keep awake


He used juggling to show how to be flexible of new things in this emerging world

Savvy Leadership

He had presentation about Future Leadership on Emerging Economy. The change of world needs new strategy and approach to deal with. The new economy needs what he called savvy leadership. It’s kind of leadership that requires leader to serve more (?). I’m not pretty sure, but I think that’s a new term for me. The point I got is we need a new approach and new strategy to face the future world and yet a future leader should develop new way of learning how to lead.
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Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Still Blue




It’s not easy these days and little bit complicated. I used to say that things are just exciting and yet I always found new things. Instead of saying those now, I tend to complain. I just hope that I can pass these hard times as soon as possible.

I identified three things stuck me. First it’s about the tight courses time, secondly is about my project in home country and the last one is cook. Courses time. Two-week orientation passed successfully and I really enjoyed the time although it was very tight up. And then I thought that it’s perhaps just because the orientation days. Then I came through my first-week class and I still found the same busy thing. Then, second-week class was still and at the third-week class, I found I missed four classes already. Gosh.. This is the problem when used to be 'a free-man'.

I found here too much things to read, a lot assignments. That's good.. In one side I often tried to reflect what I learnt in one day but there was not enough time for that because I needed to prepare things for another tomorrow’s class. It was mixed then by ‘culture shock’. I mean things were just new for me and very often I need time to figure out things first before I internally feel comfortable to adjust myself for the new situation.

Then, we had a break. We went to Moloka’i in which I very enjoyed it. No classes, no readings, there were much reflection though still busy and did not have time for writing the experiences there. I enjoyed it though. Soon after returning from Moloka’i and then that was it. I feel I can’t stand anymore. I just found everybody complained about the courses, too much readings and assignments all the time. It seems like the courses, readings and all the stuffs spoiled our days. I thought it was only me who experienced that but many.

In addition for my case, I found too much things to complete after the Moloka’i. I found there were many things to decide for my project in Nias. Continuing our humanitarian work for the Emergency Respond over earthquake disaster, we started our schools and houses reconstruction project just when I departed to Honolulu. And I thought I could do much assistance and guiding in distance. I also expect that from Honolulu I can design and plan for one to five-year strategic planning of the NGO I lead now. I know that my staffs need to improve their capacity and yet the project is still new for them. What I found then was it was not as easy as I expected. Every time they needed me to chat with them to decide this and that, to finish monthly report and things.

What thing makes more complicated then is cook. Yeah, I should learn how to cook in Indonesia before. I never cook in my life. Well, I remember when I cooked once when I was in my first day at college but that’s all. Only once and I decided to just go for catering after all. And then, that’s it. I try to cook here with noodle, rice and canned fish. But it’s boring to have the same meals menu everyday. I go to cafeteria or restaurant here but it’s not easy as it’s not closed from dorms and yet costly.

And then I found things ruined.

I know these days are not good time for me. But I have to confess that I have good friends here too. Their sincere concern when I missed the class, offered me lunch or dinner, appreciate me, we sometime have talks make me feel good. Sometimes, when I talked to my fellow here is a relief. Yet, the staffs are good, some.

Two days ago, I was thinking of just going home is a better idea for me. To go back to my comfort zone. Everything was just cool, no need to worry about meals menu, I love my racing motorcycle, my lovely Indonesian cappuccino, had deep discussions with friends or just hanging out at night, I got up as I wanted, no time-schedule set by someone else for me, busy time but still feel free and all things. But is that what I want? Hmm...

I just need a little more free-time to settle things down here and little patience.

Still Moloka'i

Time's for Outdoor Activities
















Great Shot G


Good Try Miwa