Cultural lessons direct from Brad

OK, so an interesting day from a cultural perspective. This morning, when I came in, Dian (one of our Admins) said to me that at 11:30 there is a ceremony in the mezzanine. So I asked her to please remind me close to the time. Why the ceremony? To celebrate the end of Lebaron and Idul Fitri (end of Ramadan)

At 11:24 I went to Dian's desk and she said yes Pak? I taped my watch and she said oh yeah, let's go. We grabbed everyone else in the office and took off for the mezzanine. Got there and there was a long line of people. Dian said no Pak, go up front and join Pak Barito. So I went up front and the guard asked me something in Indonesian. I signaled to Dian for help and she came up and helped point me in the right direction.

I entered a room with the other CAP (Chandri Asri Petrochemical (our partner)) execs and said good morning to Erwin (CEO of CAP). We then lined up in a u-shape against the walls and someone said how will this work? They can't get out.
 
We rearranged ourselves (note: I was a sheep and followed the others' lead) and then Agus came in around 11:32. He is the son of Pak Barito (note: CAP is a JV of Barito Pacifico (seeing the connection now?) and Siam Cement (a Thai company) . Pak Barito is a multi-billionaire (yes, I stated it correctly). At 11:35 the room got quiet as a man, woman, and young woman walked in. The man was Pak Barito, OK, THE Pak Barito. He shook everyone's hand followed by his wife who was elegantly dressed and the young woman who was elegantly, expensively but simply dressed. They then took their place at the head of the line. Pak, then Bu Barito then Agus and Bu Agus.

For those of you saying to yourselves, "What's Pak and what's Bu?" here's the answer: Pak means basically Mr. and Ibu means basically Mrs. or mother, but it can get shortened to Bu if the social situation is more familiar. So I am Pak Brad (prounounced Pa Brad) and Pam is Ibu Pam or Bu Pam (pronounced iboo or boo Pam). So to many we are Pak Brad and Bu Pam. I'm not quite sure why we are not Pak Karas and Ibu Karas...
 
Back to the story...The doors opened and the employees came in and we started to shake hands. With each one, you bowed, said thank you, took their blessing (basically for providing a job and being asked for guidance to make good decisions) and repeated. Some were real handshakes, some two handed followed by hands to heart (typical Asian or Muslim greeting). I learned a few key things: 1) here, I am in the top 10%, OK maybe 15% of height!!! Never thought that would happen did ya? 2) one's back gets tired from all the bowing (note to self to get bowing lessons like the queen gets for waving to learn the most energy efficient way to do it); 3) Gotta learn some Indonesian.

So we were off to the races, after 5-8 minutes I started looking at the "entrance" door and they kept coming, and coming, and coming. After 10-12 I started counting how many seconds between handshakes and came up with a rough average of 4 handshakes/10 seconds. Thus, 24/minute. Yet, they kept coming, and coming and.... No matter how many times I looked, there was always more people.

FINALLY, the end of the line was visible, or so I thought. Once all the people left (~25 minutes and we'll come back to that) the execs "turned on themselves" and the end away from Pak Barito started to collapse and shakes the hands of all those "upstream" ending with Pak Barito. At an average of 24/minute for 25 minutes the total was 601 or roughly 600 amongst us friends.
 
I was told they do this twice per year. Once now, after Ramadan, and once at Christmas. From a cultural perspective, very interesting and nice to do for inclusiveness.

Cultural lesson 2 for the day and 1,300, 269 since arriving. After eating a boxed lunch of Indonesia celebration food, I stopped at the canteen in the office to get some tea. Normally, I drink water. Bu Intan (our other Admin) had ordered some Coke and Diet Coke. I finished the Diet and didn't want real Coke. Decided on tea. Intan popped her head in when she saw me in there and  asked  "May I help you Pak?" I said I was OK.

I found a mug and opened the cupboard to what I though was tea. Opened the box and there were packets of liquid. Hmm, probably not tea.  Couldn't find the tea. Intan was walking by and so I said, " I lied and yes I could use some help." I asked her, what was in the packets? Traditional medicine. Probably, not what I need. I asked where is the tea? In her car. It had been finished and she bought more but she was waiting for the office boy to bring it up (another cultural discussion). I decided on coffee. Intan asked me - you drink coffee Pak? Not normally but I wanted something hot.  She replied she had also bought Diet Coke for me. It too was in her car awaiting the elusive office boy. I laughed, said thank you as that is my poison (The Diet Coke and not the office boy). I then mixed my coffee  as she pointed to where the sugar, creamer etc was.

I realize that I could easily have asked her for coffee or tea and it would have almost instantly and magically appeared. However, sometimes I use the "drink walk": as a means to take a short minute or two break and to clear my head and think.