Day 5 - Suits on


On Monday Oct 9th we would for the first time meet our client organisations and the CSC Indonesia program was formally launched at a press event with the Mayor of Solo City so an early start in our finest attire.



Video link to opening speech - click on the video to get sound

Mayor F.X.Hadi Rudyatmo (or Mayor Rudy as he is known) arrived and welcomed us saying how excited he was to have IBM experts from all over the world visit Solo city to work with Govt agencies. He had cancelled a trip to China so that he could attend the CSC opening ceremony.




We each in turn introduced ourselves and said where we were from and what our jobs are.








Mayor Rudy then took questions before posing with the group for photos. He told us that he grew up in great poverty and that his wish is that no 6 to 16 year olds in Solo city endure the hardships that he endured growing up. He said that the poor and very poor are now being cared for through improved health care and welfare but that the "nearly poor" still struggle in Indonesia.
He invited us to attend an opera in Solo city on Monday evening.


No meeting with a mayor would be complete without a selfie!

In Indonesia there is a rule for civil servants that they must exercise regularly (would that work in Ireland?) Mayor Rudy does his exercise by cycling around the poor neighbourhoods and talking to the people each Friday. He has invited us to join him this Friday.

The selfie attracted the journalists attention and was covered in the Solo Post on Tuesday.








With the formalities out of the way it was time to get to work with our client organisations.  Myself, Aban (India) and Tracy (Missouri) are assigned to Solo TechnoPark. STP is a Govt agency that looks after skills training for young people. It also offers an incubation service to young entrepeneurs to help them get a new business up and running. Papak L Sumadi the head of STP brought us to their campus and gave us a tour. We also met with his management team papaks Mafud (IT), Susilo (incubation centre) and Sutrisno (training)
Students at Solo TechnoPark






Metalwork classes 

Underwater welding training equipment













After dinner we set off for the Opera, Ramayna, which is based on an Indian legend - a spectacular show of colours and sound with Indonesian percussion called gamelan.



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