Orchid Story 35 - Rainstopper and belly dance

September 2006

My Dear Orchid Story Reader

Where should I start? Well, well… once upon a time there was… ;-)))

1. The rainstopper
2. The belly dancing performance
3. Random and memorable moments

1. The rainstopper

I mentioned to you earlier that one of my projects is to organize the yearly AP Employee of Year event next February. In May we identified our partners in Bali and now it was time to carry out the detailed event planning as well. And yeah, the time of the most shocking and most interesting business dilemma arrived for me so far, too: we were talking about the impact of the monsoon weather on the outdoor programs and I asked the local people to give me ideas on what else we could do other than ordering the very expensive tents. Then our two vendors immediately told that we would need to get the rainstopper. First, I must say, I thought they were joking that a shaman/ priest praying for 24 hours in a given spot would stop the rain but when I was asking them for the details, I had to realise that they had taken the same for granted. Even our Indonesian colleagues told that we would certainly need the rainstoppers. Ever since I am wondering how to input such an element into our budget… At the same time it is very important for me to know and understand the different cultural and religious beliefs so I am challenged and happy about this dilemma :-)!

2. The belly dance performance

It was nearly a year ago that I was absolutely amazed while looking at the belly dancers of a local dance school on Sentosa island of Singapore. Shortly after I signed up for a course and ever since this dance has been one of my favourite hobbies. At mid-September the time arrived for us to perform on the very same stage with two Singaporean and one Chinese class mates of mine. We performed a 4-minute-long drum solo dance. I was nervous and excited at the same time and I must say that the presence of ten of our friends made a huge difference from the dance experience back in November :-)! I really enjoyed it and I am very much looking forward to the next ones! (Photos can be found here!)

3. Random and memorable moments

- My Indian friend, Amit from my ex New Zealand AIESEC team moved to Singapore two weeks ago. As such, needless to say that he has become our office’s permanent comedian ever since :-)!
- I tried parasailing! It is not as dangerous as I thought ;-)!
- I again won a professional photo making session so I wonder again what professional photographers can make out of reality ;-) (photos can be found here)!
- During an event preparation meeting in Borneo I ended up visiting an orphanage where my heart was to be broken while meeting a 2-month-old baby with AIDS, a 4-year-old deaf little boy, 5-year-old fire burnt twins and a 9-year-old girl who was recently raiped by the father and grandfather. This visit made me realise that while I am having my ‘problem free’ life, concurrently there are many innocent beings suffering in our world… :-(

Hugs
Gitti/ Margit/ Hugi