Butterflies in my tummy!

Ngantuk..ngantuk...about to board the plane to Medan..

The newly-opened Marriot Hotel...sssssoooooo niceeee...

Can't wait to get into bed....

View of Medan from the room..

Toye siot muka masa rehearsal...

Update!

Arrived in Medan at about 9.00am today. Was in awe with the hotel. It's damn bloody nice! Room is superb. Too bad only 2 nights here and most of our time would of course be spent in the conference room. But I would really want to have a good sleep tonite.. that is if I'm not hyperventilating!

I'm soooo nervous for the presentation. We slogged again tonight...And had like 2 rounds of rehearsals. But we finished earlier than the nights in Aceh. We've decided to have 1 emcee and 4 presenters tomorrow. Since the majority that would turn up tomorrow would be Indonesians, we will have 2 English presenters and 2 Bahasa presenters. I've been asked to present the Community section in Bahasa. Time rehearsals pun rasa cam nak terkucil.. besok depan 80 orang tak tau la camna.. but I told myself.. hmmm those speaking English obviously won't understand what I say and those who speaks Indonesian would probably just be confused with what I say... so, what the heck! Present je lah! It would be over in 10 mins.

I pray that the conference would go well.. the U*DP rep did dot seem too pleased with the materials that we've done.. kept on stressing about training to the farmers may not be funded etc etc.. hmm... we're still going ahead with the Business Plan anyway... mainly because we have received pretty good response from 2 big chocolate exporters i.e Armajaro and Olam. And the Heads of these 2 organizations will be at the conference tomorrow.

We also have with us for the past 3 days, a rep from a Swiss Choc Company who is also said to be the son/kaum kerabat from the Porsche family. He's been giving us feedback on the materials and our presentations. Pak Hamzah, the trader King has been giving us good feedback too. He is apparently driving from Pidie to Medan (8 hrs journey) to attend the conference tomorrow.

So, I guess we're all set to go. Power to the farmers of Aceh!

I already have butterflies in my tummy. Can't wait for this to end. Just chill. Sleep. Shop. And then go back to kiss and hug the 2 kiddies! :)

Ready to go!

Looking at the whole situation, it's obvious that the crucial part is to think of ways to improve production. The production team initially struggled to come up with some good analysis and proposals. But they finally came up with really good stuff for the Business Plan. We now have a pretty solid Business Plan I would say.

I guess the best thing about working on the Business Plan is that everyday we get news about parties who have already shown interest in the project, be it an NGO or chocolate exporters. I know that it is not easy to get them to 'buy' our ideas but the fact that these people have RSVP to attend the conference in Medan and hear us out shows that there is some promise in this project. Apparently the total number of people attending the conferenece would be about 80 people now! I look forward to the Conference yet a bit nervous because I'll be presenting to this bunch of people...


A bad cocoa plant.

The Finance team -- thank God I'm not in this team!

By now, all of us have become experts in cocoa.. ;)

See...told u..main blasah je nak keringkan the cocoa..

The past 2 days we all had been slogging till the wee hours to finish up the business plan.

I'm actually very tired. I guess the slogging has now gotten to me. I'd better go..need to get some rest. We all need to wake up at 5.00am tomorrow morning to go to the airport and take a flight to Medan.

p/s: Heard the hotel in Medan is kinda cool.. Marriot,new - about 6 months...5 stars but 6 stars quality.. Nice... :)

Cocoa Calamity

Have you been to a cocoa farm?
Have you seen how the farmers dry their cocoa beans?
Coz if you have, I guess you would think twice before eating that piece of yummy chocolate! ;)

The journey to Pidie seems like forever although it was just about 3 hours..road going up the hill was bumpy..I thought the Mat Salleh's would get sick tapi yang rasa nak muntahnya minah Aceh yg jadi our translator for the day... :p

As we needed to get as much information about the farmers and the cocoa industry in Pidie fast I hopped in the van with Pak Hamzah (a cocoa trader) and Pak Sayid (a rep from APED/UNDP). Pak Hamzah is a reputable cocoa trader in Pidie district -- probably the one and only cocoa trader in Pidie who had the capital to buy,process and sell cocoa to big exporters.

I also met with Pak Jailani a cocoa farmer who poured his heart out to us. He owns about 1 hectare of cocoa farm (about 800 cocoa plants). He works on the farm with his wife and daughter, 7 hours a day. But Pak Jailani and in fact all of the farmers in Pidie lacks the skills and techniques to produce good cocoa beans. I got a shock to see how they dry the cocoa beans -- in front/at the back of their houses/wherever possible! Kalau hujan, then hancuss...Since the cocoa's quality is not so good, they can't demand much on the pricing...so although they have a big farm, the money that they could get from selling cocoa is barely enough for them to get by... their minimum wage per month is about RM 350 only!



Winding road to the cocoa farm.. it's the rainy reason.. jalan licin and lecak teruk..

With Pak Jailani..apsal muka aku poyo tu? :p

With Pak Hamzah, the trader King!

My team with Pak Zulkifli, Pak Hamzah and Nadra (our translator)

Drying the cocoa beans.. hmm....wonder how something so yummy could actually be so icky!

More cocoa drying -- on the baadminton court..

Processed cocoa at Pak Hamzah's place..

Dried cooca beans..

The cocoa kiddies.. :)

We were at Pidie District for a couple of hours.. The journey going back was scary coz it was dark (lampu jalan takde), it rained heavily and the road was slippery. By the time we reached the hotel it was already 8.30pm. Everybody was pretty tired but we of course had to conggregate and share our findings. Our session ended at about 11.30pm -- I was half dead by then... that was just the first day.. still a long journey for the team...

The project begins..

Hi all,
I've been sending emails to people to keep them posted about what has been happening but I've not been blogging..my schedule is really really tight..I thought of blogging about the places that I've been to in Hong Kong but I'm actually more excited about this project...

Today, after a 3 hours flight from Hong Kong to KL, 2 hrs transit in KL to catch a flight to Medan, 3 hrs transit in Medan to catch a flight to Acheh, I safely arrived at about 9.00pm...
Yes, I'm tired. The program has been very drilling so far. BUT it's just great. If anybody were to ask me about the program, I only have good things to say about it. These people at Global Institute of Tomorrow (GIFT) is a bunch of amazing people with a determination to bring about positive changes.

I've learnt so much the past couple of days.. met with some very inspiring people and realized how little I knew about the things going on around the world. I mean, I am a working mother who is satisfied with the way things are --- I don't think about things like globalization and it's effects..what's happening in China and India...CSR vs social entrepeneurship.. but if I don't learn about these things I will be left behind.

Anyway, here I am in Acheh. I've a big responsibility. The group has been divided into 4 teams - Finance, Governance, Community and Production and for God knows why, I've been elected to lead the Community team. In my team I have Cindy (Australian), Becky (China) and Xiau Juan (also from China).

The project?
The cocoa producing communities of Acheh have volatile incomes and lack reliable access to credit facilities. This traps them in a cycle of poverty and dependency. The participants of the Global Young Leaders (YLP) program has been given the task to create a more sustainable model for cocoa farmers to relaize greater economic benefits for their efforts. Right now, the farmers do not realize that they could really make a business out of their cocoa. So,they kept on producing cocoas of bad quality, will get sold at a cheaper price and won't be able to be exported to the outside world. So, we need to help them out.

We've got a busy day tomorrow. At 8am all 20 of us would be taking a 2 hours journey to the cocoa farm. This is for us to see the production of cocoa. Apparently it is the harvesting season now so I guess this would be interesting to see. After that we would be brought to the cocoa collection centre in Sigli to meet the farmers so that we can learn more about their challenges and concerns. We would be meeting about 5 farmers from Aceh Utara (they need to take a 12 hrs drive to come to Banda Acheh) and 5 farmers from the Pidie District. The 3rd stop would be exciting I think. We've been invited to the Bupati's (like Penghulu) house. We would only be back to the hotel at about 8pm.

We all don't have much time actually. We need to do the groundwork on the next couple of days and after that consolidate all the information for the business plan. On Thursday we will be flying to Medan and on Friday present the proposal in a conference held at JW Marriot Hotel, Medan. I've been told that about 100 people will attend the conference -- UNDP, APED, local authorities, people from Cadbury, cocoa exporters and Body Shop.

Okay, I'm gonna catch some sleep peeps. Hopefully, I won't be too tired to blog tomorrow.

Hong Kong - Day 1

The very very busy street in Mong Kok..


Got a room with a nice view of the city..



The room is also facing the Hong Kong football club.. so it was really cool to see the football field full with all the teams having their training..




The teeny Pakistani ala Mamak shop at Wan Chai Road..


The most expensive roti canai meal that I've ever had in my entire life!

Brief update - (too tired to type and think of a good storyline)

- Arrived safely at about 12.45pm (HK and Msia time is the same).
- No sign of 'Sellcom's' roaming service --- crap!
- Took a cab to Cosmopolitan Hotel - shared cab with Azmi and Shahzan - cab very terer.. taruk 3 luggage besar kat boot tapi takyah tutup-can't say anything coz he seemed to know what he was doing.
- Arrived safely at Cosmopolitan Hotel with luggage still in the boot.. phew
- Taxi costs us HK 375!!
- Contemplated to go to Disneyworld but tak jadi coz ticket counter closes early today
- Walked around Times Square --- met, saw a lot of Filipinos and Indons (???)
- Decided to experiment with the MRT
- Went to Mong Kok - huge street market probably like 5x bigger than Petaling Street -- yes, this is where I'll buy your key chains and fridge magnets... hehe
- Got hungry after walking for 3 hours .. MCd and KFC looked damn bloody yummy.. tapi iman masih kuat... :)
- Took the MRT to Wan Chai, which is near the hotel and said to have a lot of halal food ... walked round and round and round but could not find any... time was 7.30pm but it felt like 10pm ...we walked no less than 30km today
- Bumped into some Arabs who told us where we could find a Pakistani restaurant
- Pakistani restaurant is actually like a very tiny mamak place
- I ate the most expensive roti canai ever -- RM 30!!
- Damnnnn tired...
- Missing the kids already
- Hard to sleep without the kiddies... thank God I brought their clothes... at least adalah jugak bau...
- Programme starts early tomorrow -- just found out that b'fast not included -- :p
- Money spent today = RM 187! I could be broke by the end of the week..
- Tomorrow we plan to check out Central or Victoria Harbour after the programme
- Weather is just nice.. not too cold..

Itinerary

Got the itinerary yesterday.. tight schedule especially in HK.. don't think I would have time for Disneyland.. :p Ainun who's now in HK, gave me some really goos tips and info... so I hope I would still be able to do some shopping or exploring in HK.. Looks like I'll have more leisure time in Acheh..I'm surprised to see that there are a lot of places for us to go for makan... siap ada Italian Restaurant lagi...

I've got lots of reading to do before I go...The briefing notes is like a 70-pager thingy with a gazillion things to know about cocoa and the economic condition in Acheh... I see that there will also be a presentation that we have to do to potential funders...I hope I won't be the one to present!

My new ride...

When I was in secondary school, my dream car was a yellow vitara...masa kat Uni I had wished for a Civic bullet tu...but since the day that I got my licence to drive, I've been a loyalist of the Proton family... Proton Saga..Proton Satria..Proton Waja..

I have collected my long awaited b'day gift... and I totally totally lurrrrrrvvvvvvvveeeeee it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sorry peeps..had some probs downloading pic from hp..so terpaksa mengoogle..

Don't you just love the colour? It is just apt that orang pembersih like moi to get this colour kan... ;)

Thanks Nyet..I promise you won't find any karipap 3 minggu in the car....