Bandoeng, Bandung,........here we come!

Bandoeng, Bandung is the title of a Dutch book that tells about a “famous Dutchman” who experiences a sentimental journey when he goes back to the place he grew up after 40 years: Bandung, same place where we are going to.

Tomorrow CSC Team Indonesia 4 arrives in Indonesia and we will start our own kind of sentimental journey. It will definitely be exciting, fun, challenging and sometimes tough to work for 4 weeks in a country so different from our own countries. After 4 months of preparation the time is finally there!

Who are we? We are group of IBMers who may work in an emerging country as part of a highly selective program. So, I don’t have to tell you we are really honoured to get this opportunity. We are with 10, coming from eight different countries: Karen & Terry (USA); Manuel (Canada); Victor (Mexico); Flavia (Brazil); Trupty & Nitin (India); David (Ireland); Sergio (Italy) en myself Yolande (The Netherlands).

We will work for three different companies, which we explain later in this blog, being updated at least until the end of our assignment!

The last months we already had a chance to get to know each other via the weekly calls, which for me were on a very convenient time at 1 pm, but for some of us almost in the middle of the night or in the evening.

These last months were filled with all kind of preparation work, as learning about the do’s and don’ts, the language, dress code, social & business behaviour and many other topics. And we had a lot of chat’s about the packing list, what to bring….? The only thing we didn’t had to think of were gifts as it is not allowed to bring gifts to people working for Indonesian (governmental) organisations.

Finally the moment comes that we can meet each other face to face! We are so thrilled and cannot wait. Some of us left already yesterday and will not arrive in Jakarta before tomorrow, some have to switch day and night when they arrive. For me it is 6 ours difference, so reasonable easy to overcome, as I also will fly in the right direction from that perspective.

I will meet David already at Schiphol Airport as we are on the same flight! So we already have a chance to start getting to know each other better as of the first minutes.

You will hear about our flight experiences by tomorrow after we arrived in Jakarta!

Our travel story will be continued!

Yolande
#ibmcsc indonesia