That's a Wrap!

Yesterday (March 14, 2013) we had a great experience giving our prepared "closing ceremony" presentation to MPK's Dato and Directors. It was very satisfying to be able to deliver a presentation of all the effort our client and us had collaborated on together. I also greatly enjoyed seeing the other two teams presentations. Each one them really gave it their complete focus and worked diligently to help MPK with their requested projects!

In typical Malaysian fashion, right in the middle of Dato's closing to the meeting he stopped to take a call, or maybe it was he went out to smoke. You just get used to it and know that it's nothing personal, just the way they are culturally. He said some really great things about our work. My colleague Jayme wrote them down for us. Here is a summary of what he said,

"I am definitely very impressed with the work you have produced… with the recommendations you have made… how you have furnished us with practical approaches… that are straight-forward and easy to implement. On behalf of MPK, we are in an enormous debt to IBM for their efforts as part of CSC – for helping us to be a better organization in Kuantan. I hope your memories in Malaysia will be one of the fondest in your life."

- Dato’ Hj. Zulkifli Bin Hj. Yaacob (President, MPK)

After our presentations were complete we got this photo with Zatil, middle left, the Mine Manager and Huda, middle right, from the the Marketing department who we had also worked with quite a bit. We had some High Tea with Dato after the meeting was closed and he caught wind that we were headed back to the Ikan Bakar for dinner that night. When we arrived there were some MPK staff there and the food for all twelve of us had already been ordered, paid for, and was waiting on the table! Here's an idea what today's catch barbecued up for us looked like.

Today (March 15, 2013) is my last day in Kuantan, and I must say I think it is the first day that I actually had some time to just go out and walk around the town. On the way to the post, to get some stamps for the post cards I still hadn't mailed, we managed to find what must be the only cross walk in the entire, and I do mean entire, town! It didn't exactly go to sidewalks on each side, but it did connect two schools. Maybe there is a future for pedestrians in Kuantan. . . 

I was also finally able to take a peak at the city Mosque. It is a very prominent building in the city and with the call to prayer which woke many of us on many many of the mornings (although we found out not from this mosque but a little one directly across the street from our hotel), one I didn't want to miss.

I am happy to report that Corporate Service Corps has definitely been a life enriching experience. I've made friends I will keep for the rest of my life. Tomorrow I depart bright and early (leaving at around 4:45AM) for the Kuantan airport to meet the wife in Kuala Lumpur.The CSC program is a once in a lifetime opportunity to immerse in a unfamiliar environment with colleagues from around the world, while learning about many different cultures, and collaborating to achieve business/community goals. All of these factors combined changes a person for the rest of their life. Malaysia will always be a part of who I now am. Thanks for all the "nasi" Ademar, Aparna, Georg, Jayme, Jennifer, Juan, Michelle, Pawel, Petra, Piet, and Zuhe!

Mexica (Chineses food), our First and Last team dinner in Kuantan.

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Did We Win?

I can't believe in three nights my time here in Kuantan will be complete. It has moved so quickly, I better understand why the recommendation to blog is so encouraged. It is hard to really absorb and recall so many experiences piled atop one another.

When I was planning for the trip I mistakenly thought I would need to have something to do in the evenings. Haha. I've not even turned on the television in the room a single time. The only free moments have been few and far between; and I usually was working on sorting pictures or putting a blog post together. Up until my laptop died I was staying on top of blogging and photo organizing fairly well. Also trying to find time to have a good FaceTime or Skype call with the family even was a challenge.

Today (March 13, 2013) we had our closing ceremony hosted by University of Malaysia Pahang (UMP). We had been told we would not be presenting so we were a bit disappointed going in, but they really put together a nice event for us.

Many of the MPK staff were in attendance as well as the University System Chancellor. They bestowed upon us many gifts and talked about the contributions we had made to both organizations. Malaysia IBM representatives were also in attendance and shared in a signing ceremony for some software deal they made back in January. That part felt out of place, though the rest of the event was great. One of our team members had noticed how much they like awards and trophies here so with the help if the local branch manager we were able to purchase a nice token to give each organization.

After the ceremony we also spent some time recording some video messages about how we were feeling about our experience. I thought it was actually kind of fun to see everyone share right then in the moment how they were feeling about the service corps and what we they had learned.

Later we found out that we had been asked to do one more meeting for the MPK president and the 20 or so directors in the organization tomorrow. On a side note, I did confirm the night before that the municipalities here are more like "county" government size in western countries. So. . . though I was looking forward to a break tomorrow, looks like at least the six of us working for MPK will get a proper closing presentation. It will be great to be able to share with them a summary of our work; as well as hear about the other teams projects.

Managed to talk with home tonight as my wife is joining me in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday morning. After booking her ticket from Singapore we found that there is a separate low cost carrier terminal not connected to the larger airport. So the logistics of actually getting to same place will be a little more complicated. I'm sure she will navigate it just fine, can't wait to see her!

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Mission Accomplished!

Another packed full day (March 12, 2013) as we delivered our final plan today. We created our closing ceremony "condensed" version of our presentation this morning, then I set off to find a color printer to get several nice paper copies of our completed marketing plan printed. I was able to get three copies for the presentation made and bound with the help of one of our friends who took us to the mine on the first day. Which I'm very glad about, as we were able to dive a lot deeper into the real plan than just our high level executive summary with them having the paper copy in front of them, and it gave the management representatives a place to take notes on their impressions and thoughts as we presented.

They aren't accustomed to meetings as long as ours in the western world, but we successfully kept the room engaged. When we concluded, the client director saying, "This is very very good work, we will implement this to the best of our ability" really made it feel like a great success. Now we leave it in their hands to execute on the digital presence recommendations. It will be unique for our subteam to be able to easily see how they progress via social media.

After scrambling to produce the closing ceremony slides we then found out that we apparently won't even be presenting at the closing ceremony now; which I find a very odd choice by University of Malaysia Pahang. Our CSC team as a whole was also looking forward to the opportunity hear about each others presentations.

Tonight was Lawn bowl game time for our "friendly match". It really is a fun and leisurely game. I was matched up with Petra on my team against Dato and his partner, a professional lawn bowler from the national team! I don't think we even had a chance :-)

After our doubles match they fed us supper (the tradition 6th meal of the day) at about 10:00pm. They also gave us some parting gifts of MPK logo gear and a Tunnel Tour certificate. They have been very good to us and the UMP teams. Malaysians are such gracious hosts!

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Mission Nearly Complete

Today (March 11, 2013) we managed to get through the rest of the marketing plan cleanup, leaving us with a 116 page detailed presentation and a good executive summary presentation for our meeting tomorrow. As I've said before, the work isn't picturesque and is definitely not glamorous but I'm very happy with what we've produced for them. It's been like a crash course in marketing for us as well.

Tonight we also had a dinner hosted by the Dato at his home. They served up their version of BBQ fresh fish and fruit with rice of course. During the conversation after I learned that my name actually means "paint" spelled "C a t" pronounced ch a d. Hilarious when you factor this in to the service day switch on painting and that I'm not fond of it.

Here's a photo my team member took of me with my "work" friends Kamri, the Sports Director (including over the mine) on the left, and Malek, the Marketing Director on the right. Going to miss these guys as much as my CSC team!

Here are a couple of dinner photos from tonight.

Jayme turtling up and notice Zatil trying to hide her laugh as usual on the right

Waterfalls & Jungle

Today (March 10, 2013) was a long day of hiking through the jungle. We visited a place where a river formed 7 different waterfalls at various locations along a slippery, rocky path. Our local IBM contact's wife arranged for the trip for us. Her boss is a trail runner and some of his friends were up to lead us on the hike, (or in there minds) run through the jungle. Their goal was to have high tea at the top waterfall. That was to be at about 3.25km in, crossing the river and over slick rock for a good portion of the journey. I guess our hike was a bit doomed when we weren't even able to drive to the trail head due to the road being washed out.

Normally I am all for this type of adventure but we had some team members with us that this was actually there first time hiking, ever. . . We also were not properly briefed on the conditions so most were not wearing proper shoes.

At about three km in one of the team had a slip so some of us stayed back and worked our way back down. I did enjoy the hike and it was really cool to get out into nature in such a foreign place. But, I can definitely say that I'm not a jungle lover. I'll take the mountains over jungle any day!

Here are a few of us cooling off in a pool below one of the smaller falls, and a hut near the bottom of the trail.

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Doors, Paint, Slides & Durian

Today (March 9, 2013) we participated An MPK day of service where they host a community outreach gathering. For this particular meeting one of our IBM teams had coordinated to try and administer a redone and better worded customer service survey they had worked with the client to complete. So the six of the team who were not gone to Tioman Island for diving helped at the two events.

There was rumor that some painting of a bus stop shelter was going to take place at the site the ladies were headed to so I headed to the other car (I happen to not really enjoy painting). We ended up splitting men to one location and ladies to the other.

Here's some Zumba to Gangam Style:

Zumba Gangam Style

They've been preparing for an election, this is the opposing party flag

It turned out that at our location another event was being hosted near by so we were not getting our needed survey responses so we headed out to knock on doors and search for those in the community to respond to the survey. We had surprisingly good success and I think it was good for us to actually be out and among the people especially for our community service day!

Malaysian mini-van (that's FIVE people on there)

Upon our return from door to door surveying; they were, to our surprise, beginning to paint over graffiti on a bus stop. We figured the ladies had planned it for us and we of course joined in the painting. They claim it wasn't on purpose even now, either way we all had a good laugh at my good fortune.

After our day concluded a bit early we went to the other site were they were just having their lunch. We were just in time to see the council leader show us his "hobby", here it is for your consumption. His departure was not quite as stable as it could have been so this bike must be his latest acquisition.

The team had planned a visit to a local water park. It was fun, and a nice change to do some slides. The fast slide was soooo fast that when I landed from catching air at the bottom it felt like my eyes came out of their sockets! Our MPK drivers waited for us the whole time so we bought them a drink.

On our return they gave us an impromptu tour of some other areas of the city and introduced us to the infamous durian fruit. It was an event to remember. I'd describe the fruit's taste as kind of like sucking on a pair of someone elses month old gym clothes. And the texture is like a thick mayonnaise goo. I had to take a second bite just to make sure I didn't get a bad piece, but nope, that's just what it's like!

We also saw the local Hindu garden and the night zoo on our impromptu tour, after that it was the night market and the end to a very long day.

Sad little monkey

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Watch Where You Step!

Today (March 8, 2013)we were very grateful for the MPK staff always taking our needs, it allowed us to really crank out a lot of work. It is pretty amazing the amount of information and ideas we have amassed in the last three weeks on how to market the Mine Tour. We had an early arrival of lunch or a late second breakfast, that was again something new, well sort off; Nasi Adam Kukus, spicy chicken and rice. So not entirely new but a different flavor chicken and rice and it was really quite artistic as the standards go for nasi.

This allowed us to get first run through all but the last section of our marketing plan done for the afternoon presentation to our client, for their input and suggestions. Our marketing plan presentation was moved to next Tuesday at the HQ office. So we will have time to finish and rest and the executive summary on Monday.




Being Friday evening we went out as a team for a relaxing dinner among those who hadn't made other plans for diving. It still amazes me how many of these missing drain covers are all over. Don't be trying to talk or read a smart phone while walking here. That being said, did I mention there are almost no sidewalks of any kind and no street crossing either. We had bee discussing just the day before and the next one of the headlines in the paper was the number of deaths from people getting hit trying to cross the street, around 600 I believe was the figure.

After dinner I went to grab a few things at the grocery store. Check out this rice section at the plain old grocery store!

#ibmcsc Malaysia