It was another extremely hot day on our work week in Papua when Michael, the reseller we had been working with at the time told us to hop out of the small truck we were in. Lisa and I jumped out the car along with Pak Soca and Pak Mousa, the other reseller. Michael had to get the car over a small wooden bridge.

 

We were pretty much driving through a jungle on a very narrow road which was not too accommodating for cars. There was no way Michael would have been able to maneuver the truck over the tiny makeshift bridge in the middle of the jungle had we not piled out. How did we even get on that bridge? Michael created his own trail to get to the group we were meeting with because the main road was closed off. For him it really was all in days work as I tried to pick my jaw off the floor all I could think was “WOW”.

The title of this post  is Selemat Jalan which means in Indonesian almost like good bye or safe travels. I think this is an appropriate title because I am closing the chapter on a journey in my life and preparing myself for what’s next by using what this journey has awarded me. When I look back and try to condense this nine month experience I would ultimately say that this fellowship for me was all about getting off the beaten path and trailblazing towards a new one. Making your own path. Social entrepreneurship in a nutshell for me is about making your own path.  I’ve been inspired by all the social entrepreneurs and enterprises that I have met throughout this experience. The people I met were fed up with injustice and fed up with waiting on systems that their only option was to go a new direction. Creating a new path is about taking a risk and being creative which intrigues and overwhelms me. In seeking a new path, you have to be welcoming of challenge and embrace adversity something we are not all conditioned to do so quickly.

I am thankful for how much I have grown over the course of the past nine months. I was encouraged to apply to the fellowship by my LEAD professor, Erin Kimura Walsh. I had expressed to her a while back my interest in international development and business. The fellowship essentially fell into my lap. I had actually been preparing to go back to school January 2014 as I missed fall quarter due to a car accident in the second week of the quarter. Apart from back pain, a long arm cast, and a few facial abrasions, I was really lucky. Due to the extent of my injuries, I elected to take the term off and dropped all my classes. Missing fall quarter was really difficult. I was frustrated, stressed, and upset. Initially I thought of very minuscule things. Things that make me laugh now when I look back because of how unimportant they are in the grand scheme of things. I thought what if I don’t graduate on time. I thought a lot about the financial burden the accident had on my family. I thought a lot about the scars on my face and if they would fade. Looking back now none of these things were that important in scope of my health.

As time progressed, a part of me was actually quite happy. I was doing things I liked for once in my life. I was reading things that interested me. I was not going through the daily grind I have grown so accustom to these past three years. For the first time in a long time, I was thinking about things, actually thinking and being intentional about it. The most important things I thought about were how I wanted my last few years of college to look like and I started thinking about what I wanted to do with my future and long term the kind of person I wanted to be. Frankly, I was thankful to be alive. The accident also taught me that, although we hear all the time, that tomorrow is not promised and your life can change in a matter of seconds.

Instead of being forced to go through the motions I was able to think about what I wanted next. I knew that upon my return in January I would only have 5 quarters left at Santa Clara. I would need to take extra classes to make up for the quarter I missed. I also knew that I wanted to move forward and utilize my talents towards something tangible that would make me both proud and serve a purpose. Then it happened. Erin emailed me to apply for the fellowship and said I would be a great fit. I was hesitant at first. I knew that missing a quarter would mean I would have to overload and hit the ground running in the winter and I did not know if I could commit myself to something like the fellowship. After a long process of thinking and hoping, I signed on. I saw the fellowship as a great way to do the things I thought a lot about while I was away from school in the fall. I signed on and have been on this crazy, stressful, beautiful and amazing experience for the past nine months.

When I think about working and future vocation, I have realized I loved gathering research and trying to make sense of it. I learned that I really love bouncing ideas and talking through problems with others. During my time as a fellow with Nazava, I felt the most comfortable talking to resellers one on one and helping them evaluate their own sales goals and practices. I loved talking through their issues and then brainstorming with them ways that they can improve their sales and develop stronger sales approaches.  I want to see myself in a role that requires brainstorming and development. Which brings me to another area of interest I have been working around, consulting. I am interested in consulting, especially international consulting. I do not know if this would mean working for multinational corporations or smaller organizations but I really like helping others work through their problems and find solutions. I want to be able to think about problems and ways to approach them in my work in order to help an organization meet its goals and improve.

 

Ideally within the next few years I would love to see myself filling either a fundraising or development role in an organization or business. I know personally, I would prefer something behind the scenes.  I’m trying to be selective during my job search process due to what I have realized I would really like from my future career through the fellowship. However, it is difficult to be selective when nearly everyone is asking you the same question, “Whats next?” You find yourself almost in a rat race willing to accept anything just so you can have something when faced with that question. Since September I have interviewed with a few corporate companies and made it to second round interviews for standard entry level positions. I must admit as I read the job description for these positions before interviews, part of me feels very uninterested. Within the past few weeks, however, I have been feeling like I am more interested in working in a startup environment because of the opportunity to be creative and the chance to be able to see your work manifested directly. The startup environment also intrigues me because of the diversity in the daily tasks I would have to do as opposed to working at a larger corporation. Working at Nazava, although sometimes frustrating, I loved that we did something new every day to work towards our end goal. There is a steep learning curve in working for a startup but I feel the experience you obtain is invaluable.

I am amazed at how the fellowship has also changed my perception of time and relationships. Time was something I to some extent was cognizant of before the fellowship but this entire experience made me in a sense more wary of time. I was so used to simply floating through time and not necessarily stopping to reflect and think more thoroughly about the passage of time and what it means. Due to my fellowship experience, I try to reflect daily or at least weekly about how I fulfilled my time that week. I try to see if I spent the week doing things that I loved with people that I cared about. I try to gauge if I fulfilled my goals as a friend, a sister, a student, and a daughter. When I look forward towards my future vocation, I want to do something which maximizes my time and is worth spending time on. Time is so limited so I want my work to have a meaning in time. Not to just fill simply fill my time but to actually turn my time into something that leads to something else. I do not like the simple clock in, clock out notion of working. I want my work to have ramifications much greater than the time that I am simply on the clock.

The fellowship also changed my perception of relationships and mentorship.  Relationships are something as a rather private person, I find a little longer to foster. I have a handful of extremely close friends that know almost every single thing about me. The fellowship really changed my view on relationships, especially professional relationships. It’s refreshing to know that there are people who are willing to help you and guide you towards personal success. There is a notion among some people that is about constant competition and stepping on others to get to the top and that just is not me. Unfortunately, I have met people like that and I know that I will continue to meet people like that in my career but there are also so many amazing people who take joy in your success. From as long as I can remember, I have always loved helping others and guiding others to opportunities in which they can succeed.

The fellowship made me more focused on growing those relationships that will help me grow. I have always mentored others in my community or my own siblings but I never really sought out mentors. I can honestly say I have gained amazing mentors from the fellowship who I can seek advice out from. People who are willing to help me unpack and probe what I want to do next. I still remember a day off when Lisa and I were speaking to the CEO of Nazava, Lisa about women in business and she said so many things that resonated with me. Her points about women working to lift one another up instead of compete with one another in male dominated fields was something that stayed especially true to me. There is a proverb I remember hearing so much growing up from both of my parents about lifting your brother up as you climb. To this day I get WhatsApp messages from the Nazava WhatsApp group amongst the resellers and the resellers shoot ideas back and forth on the message thread about sales ideas and wishing one another good luck on a project. The resellers are not each other’s competition but instead working together because one person’s success is essentially collective success. We are taught at a young age that we are always in competition with the next person its almost ingrained in how we create relationships it seems. Mentorship is way more important to me than competition. Mentor relationships, now more than ever will be crucial for me because of where I am at my life. Before, I went through most of my K to 12 education alone and went on to each next major milestone. Now for the first time in a long time, I do not know what the next milestone is after college graduation. It almost feels like you are climbing up a huge mountain for so many years just to reach the top and then what do you do next? Especially as a first generation college student, I worked my way to walk the stage and it was essentially all my life’s work for the past sixteen years of my life. It’s all I have thought about since I was a child. It’s weird now to start thinking what is next for me.  Will being a college grad fulfill the hopes and dreams of myself? Of my family?

Finally, the fellowship changed my perception of faith and religion. Being in Indonesia, I got a greater understanding of the human aspect of faith. Religion is so politicized it seems nowadays.  Everyday there is something on the news about ISIS or the Vatican but no one seems to talk about the people who practice the faith and their realities. I do not mean to generalize but the Hindus, Muslims, and Christians I met in Indonesia all seemed to want the same things from my conversations with them. Everything was centered around family and wanting success and happiness for their families and themselves. Faith is also a way for people to endure their trials and tribulations. I know personally for me, I tend to come to faith during times of hardships, not necessarily when things are also looking up. I remember meeting a few people who converted from Islam to Christianity who were nervous at first to meet with me because they thought I would be judgmental towards them. Why would I be? Faith is a personal choice. Eventually, I got along so well with the girls and we bonded on our faith. Before the doctrine and the politics of faith, the people are worth noting in my opinion. They all manifest faith in diverse ways but have overarching similarities that are so profound. The human aspect of religion just captivated me in Indonesia.  The fact that I could tour an ancient Buddhist temple as a Muslim with a Christian convert and have amazing conversations about faith is something that really touched me.

A year ago I thought life was a rat race. I was going through the motions, unwilling to forge a new path. I wanted to play it safe. Although I value safety and security, since the fellowship, I am more willing to take risks, ride on motorbikes (maybe at 5 miles per hour), and ultimately define my own success. I am more willing to embrace mess and uncertainty, something I think is inherent in from what I have studied for the past few months about social entrepreneurship. The answers in life are not always there which is why social entrepreneurs exist in the first place, to find answers to problems others haven’t!  As much as I am a person who likes structure and order, I’m also starting to accept that sometimes you cannot plan for everything. Ultimately, what matters is the company you keep and how you fill the time you have on this planet.

 

My time spent in Indonesia was truly a whirlwind. I met people from all walks of life and worked on an interesting project. I had some good laughs, I shed a few tears, and I am still working on uncovering what I learned and discovered about myself and the world around me. Over the past month, I have been working on trying to process my feelings and thoughts throughout the experience and what they mean for me moving forward. As I said in previous posts, due to the nature of our project, it was very difficult to get to know end users of Nazava in a more personal and intimate level. We were constantly on the move throughout Indonesia and meeting new faces every single day. Since we were on the move, it was hard to be able to know more about the communities being served by Nazava beyond the customer profile. Many of the typical highlights of an immersion experience which entail realizing people’s realities and being in solidarity with the poor were not necessarily part of our project as we did not have these sort of conversations with customers we met. However, I felt like I was able to gauge these aspects by examining subtle things around me.

I think one of the most difficult things for me was working with Papuan resellers and hearing them voice their difficulties in trying to sell to Indonesians from other parts of the island. I could not help but wonder if the Papuans felt that they had to try to overcompensate in order to get their message across and be productive in sales with other Indonesians due to the color of their skin because of prejudices others possess. As a women of color, I too have felt at different times of my life a need to overcompensate in order to prove that I am just as good as anyone else. I also thought a lot about the politics behind the situation in Papua and I felt very upset. The system of marginalization is very detrimental and you cannot help but feel defeated by it. Colonization has long lasting effects on communities and it is something that I notice every single place I have traveled to outside of the “western world”. Colonization, I feel sometimes, has hindered development for so many peoples around the world.

While abroad one privilege that I have been aware of for a very long time was also something I was once again made to think about during my time in Indonesia. This privilege would be having a U.S. passport and never having to think twice about being turned away at a border. The developing world really treats you with kindness when you wave your western passport in the air and I have seen this time and time again in my travels. Unfortunately, the feelings are not reciprocated to people from developing countries when the travel to the U.S. and elsewhere. I was able to travel around Southeast Asia without ever having to worry about requesting a visa before entering. The United States was a visa on arrival country to every place I travelled to. I talked with a few Indonesian people who talked about having their request to visit visas denied when trying to visit the U.S. This is something many of my own relatives from Somalia and the Middle East have also experienced. The ability to be able to move freely because of my nationality is something that I find so unfair. The fact that I can book a ticket to Indonesia and not have to worry about a visa until I get past security, while and Indonesian would not get to do the same if they were hoping to get to the U.S. with their passport, makes me upset. I wish that people understood how while we can plan spontaneous Southeast Asia trips, people in developing countries have such a difficult time traveling to the west. It hurt me so badly hearing from people saying they had relatives in the San Francisco and Seattle that they haven’t seen in years and that when they applied for visas were denied because it is something my own relatives have faced.

As far as vocation is concerned, I am still trying to grapple what I would like my dream job to look like. There is no doubt that I would ideally like to serve others and do more than just line my own pockets. However, reigning in what exactly I can do is difficult and the whole “I want to change the world” dream is too general and cliché. I know formally I am on the fence between pursuing a career in the financial services or the nonprofit realm in either a fundraising or administrative role. Being abroad made me realize that in order to change anything I need to change the world around me and start within myself. When I graduate this spring, I will be the first in my family to graduate from university. I know this is a step in the right direction in changing my own world and setting an example for my younger siblings. However, I know that this also comes with its own challenges. Being a first generation college student is often alienating and it is difficult to get career advice and support. In addition to that since I come from a lower middle class background, the pressure to work immediately after school is something that I cannot help but feel.

After going to the career fair a few days ago, I must admit I feel just that much more overwhelmed about the decisions I will need to make this year as I embark on my job search. I really hope to work somewhere in which I can have the opportunity to grow and be creative which a realization I made while in Indonesia was. It was hard at first not being behind a desk, doing the same thing over and over again. But after a while, the change was something I really did like about going to work every day. Each day was no like the last and I always being challenged in a new way. Being in Indonesia, it was refreshing to see how Lisa and Guido were so passionate about their job and their mission. I hope that I can find somewhere to work that gives me that sort of energy. During the reseller conference too, I loved how all the resellers immediately welcomed one another and collaborated with each other. The team environment is something I really value and I want to strengthen my own leadership skills so I can be a better team member and bring the best out of my own teams since it is inevitable no matter where I work that I will be working with others.

Since our stay in Indonesia, Lisa and I have been off the typical tourist track. Last week, we spent about a week in Sanur, a popular tourist area outside of Denpasar. For part of the week we caught up with our CEOs and spent some time working with a nonprofit organization based in Ubud called Kopernik, which provides life changing technologies to last mile customers. Towards the end of the week, we spent our time catching up on notes and data. While working in Indonesia, Lisa and I have had very little time off given all the traveling and meetings. Last week we had a few days off and we indulged in the typical tourist activities. Bali is absolutely full of tourists this time of year, especially from Europe and Australia. Bali is also the most visited island by western tourists in all of Indonesia. The tourism industry, although not as big as agriculture, is still massive component of the economy within Bali and is concentrated mainly in the south.

Working with Kopernik was great and different from what we have been doing previously since Kopernik is a nonprofit entity which sources the filters. Kopernik provides other technologies like solar lamps and cook stoves to last mile consumers and an affordable price. It was nice to learn about the organization, how they function, and how they are able to provide crucial technology to communities which are often isolated. We were able to brainstorm and meet with various program coordinators in their office. The next day, we traveled to Desa Ban to visit a kiosk which sells Nazava and chatted with them about sales practices. I really liked Kopernik’s training for kiosk owners and support for tech agents. Not only are communities benefiting from the new technologies which are now in reach, but sales agents are learning valuable business skills and making livelihoods.

While in Bali, Sally (another GSBF fellow working in the Phillipines) came by to visit us and spent the week with us. We also met up with Amy and Paty, two friends of Lisa who recently graduated from Santa Clara and are journeying around south east Asia. It was really nice to spend time with the girls! I must admit it felt strange to indulge in the luxury of tourist side of Bali when for weeks we have been so far removed from that part of Indonesia. I almost felt like I was committing a crime by buying food over 20,000 Rupiah. We also checked out the infamous region of Kuta. Kuta is known for being a tourist hub filled with unruly drunk tourists who disregard the locals. Kuta was definitely an experience for us and not like many of the places we have seen in Indonesia so far. With all the free flowing alcohol, bars, and women topless in the beach, I forgot I was even in the most populous Muslim country. It’s funny how much of a contrast Bali is from Jakara. In Jakarta, I have seen cafes and restaurants with curtains up covering people eating because of Ramadan.  Although it was nice to have a few days off, it was weird being on the tourist track and being served to at fancy restaurants by people your own age. Being waited on was always feels so weird to me, because back home I work retail and I am always on the other side of the coin, waiting on others. I did feel a little annoyed with how rude some tourists were to locals or how blatantly entitled they felt prancing around in a place where they know very little about the culture and people. I think ultimately what I am getting at is there is definitely a right way and wrong way to be a tourist. You should not travel to countries for a cheap holiday and act in a way you wouldn’t on the streets of your own country. But I’ll stop there before I start to ramble. Our last week of research will be in Papua in which we work with an nonprofit church group which assists resellers in running kiosks that sell Nazava. Stayed tuned for a post on that!

We spent the second week of July in Lombok in the Sukarara Weaving Village. While in the weaving village we worked with the Bali reseller we were working with in the previous week and joined his resellers in Lombok. We spent most of the week shadowing him and his agents in Lombok in order to gauge how sales have been the past few months and new opportunities for growth.

While in Sukarara we stayed with a family that was absolutely amazing. Pak Owan and family took us in and were very kind to us. I especially loved playing with their daughter Fuji. She was the funniest little kid I have ever seen. She had tons of fun copying my English phrases and I would try out my Bahasa on her. I think I picked up the most Indonesia here. Fuji is also very popular in her village. Nearly every day we were there, we met with one of her many friends and played games. I taught the girls “Ring Around the Rosie” and the “Cha Cha” and they taught me a few Sasak dances and songs. They also loved taking selfies with my iphone and playing Barbie games on my laptop all week long. Every night, we had iftar (breaking of the fast) with the family. The iftars reminded me a lot of what iftar is like back home for me during Ramadan. Ramadan is probably one of the only times of the year in which my entire family sits down together and shares a meal so being away from home I was longing for that experience. It was nice to be a part of that familiar experience, even if it was just for a week. Also hearing the taraweeh prayers at the various mosques and children playing with noisemakers every night reminded me of my time in Somalia.

Half way through our stay in Lombok, the presidential election occurred. The election which was scheduled for the 9^th of July was between two candidates Probowo and Jokowi. It is now the 21^st of July as I type this blog post and we still do not know who the president is. Both candidates declared victory early on which made it difficult to determine who really did win. Also tv channels are supporting certain candidates so polls are skewed towards the candidate in which they support. I am really interested in finding out who won the election and the suspense has been killing me! Given Indonesia’s size and growing economy, the president of this growing democracy will be a very prominent leader in both the Muslim world and among emerging economies. Lisa and I took election day (national holiday) to scope out the beaches with our boss for the week. Lombok has some amazing beaches with less tourists than Bali. Every single beach we went to was breathtaking.

Throughout the week working and promoting water filters during Ramadan was definitely a difficult task. The villages we traveled through were for the most part virtually shut down. There were very little shops open and almost everyone was inside their homes. Schools and offices were also closing earlier than they typically do. Even though given the difficulty of promoting the filters during Ramadan when a majority of the population is fasting, we were still able to sell a significant amount of filters to people in various villages in central Lombok.

The last day of our stay in Lombok we were treated to a lovely tour of the Sukarara Village by Fuji and her friends. Lisa and I were guided around the city by five very enthusiastic girls. At every turn, the girls introduced us to other members of the weaving village and pointed us out as “touris”. Every now and then, they would suggest we take pictures of various sights along the stroll. We also stopped by and saw traditional weavers creating various items that they sell through the village cooperative. I bought a few bags and a wall hanging from the cooperative. I thought it was wonderful that the village was preserving its weaving culture but also allowing others to experience it and also attain income for the village. Occasionally the village does get tourists from around the world, who stop by and check out some of the wonderful weaving items.

Finally, after buying some items and walking around with the girls, it was time for Lisa and I to pack up and hit the road so we could catch a boat back to Bali from Sengigi. The family wished us “Selemat Jalan” which means safe travels and Fuji was really upset to see us go. We exchanged email information with the family and they told us were always welcome in the village if ever we return back to Lombok.

The week in Sukarara was also the first time during this experience in which I genuinely tried to practice my Bahasa. I watched tons of Indonesian television with Fuji and even started following a drama series about a girl who is turning into a monkey. I would also wake up about a few hours before work and go on a stroll around the village and send greetings to neighbors in the few phrases I knew. A few times people actually thought I was a local and told me I look like I could be Sasak.

Overall, Lombok was an extremely wonderful experience and really helped to get me over some homesickness I was feeling. It has been hard being around “less Ramadan” these past few weeks but being in Lombok really got me in the Ramadan spirit. Missing much of the fast has also been pretty spiritually taxing but I hope to make it up soon, inshallah (god willing). I have been fasting since I was about fifteen years old so Ramadan is a very important month for me and it has feels weird not participating. I almost feel like an outsider looking in. I know health wise though fasting would not be an option because my body is still adjusting to all this traveling! Fun fact by the end of this trip Lisa and I will have boarded an airplane 16 times. Yeah, 16 times.

For the past few days we have been in the Karangasem regency in Bali about a 1.5 hour drive from Denpasar. We are currently in a homestay in Sidemen surrounded by gorgeous views of rice paddies and a nearby river.  Karangasem is beautiful and is very lush and green, more greeney than this city kid has ever seen. Karangasem is also drastically different then the crowded streets of Bandung in which we first started our work in Indonesia. The population in Karangasem is approximately less than 500,000 according to the reseller we are working with here. The regency for the most part is divided into villages and there are hundreds of villages. Each village has its own leadership and village center. The village center is the administrative hub of the village and also close to the nearby schools and banks. The villages for the most part are rather empty with only a few shops and warungs (restaurants) on the street corners. Village life is very communal and cooperative. Coming from the west, it is always strange for me to see people working together cooperatively, as horrible as that may sound. The homes we visit as well are also very communal in nature. It is common to see shared showers and living spaces. Typically a housing complex has about 2 to 4 homes with a temple in the center. Nearly every single home has a temple. Even some of the lower income homes we saw had some variation of a temple in their home.

Which brings me to my next point about religious life in Bali. Religious life has probably been the most interesting aspect of life to observe during our time in Bali so far. In Java, it was common to hear the adhan during the five daily prayers or see women in hijab. Although Islam is a very dominant part of life in Java, I do not think it played a huge significance in Javanese culture in the way that Hindusim does for Balinese culture. In Bali, Hinduism is very ingrained into culture and everyday life. Nearly 90% of the population in Bali identifies as Hindu according to national data. However, only 3% of the total Indonesian population practices Hinduism, making Bali really unique.

During our first day in Karangasem, we went to the village of the reseller in which we are working with for the week in Kebung. The village itself was virtually shut down because there was a religious ceremony going on which only occurs every 100 years. We attended the temple for the ceremony and it was definitely an interesting experience. I must admit, I initially felt very uncomfortable, being in a Hindu temple during the start of Ramadan, participating in a ceremony in which I did not believe. I also felt a little awkward participating in the ceremony because I felt like I was intruding on something that was sacred to someone but had no significance to me. Eventually, however, my awkwardness and hesitation cooled off and I was able to take in the ambiance. I decided to not take any photos because I thought that would be pretty invasive. At the ceremony, everyone was wearing white and traditional temple sarongs. I clearly didn’t get the memo and although I was able to borrow a temple sarong to wear around my waist my light blue shirt stuck out like a sore thumb. Throughout the temple, there were shrines and animal and plant sacrifices. There was also music and dancing from the Hindu holy book.

From talking to people, I learned that people spend a lot of their income for religious obligations. The reseller we are working with said he spent approximately 1.5 million rupiah this month on the preparations for the ceremony. Preparing the sacrifices also has a financial and time burden which I found interesting to observe. During our week here, I have seen people participating in wedding ceremonies, cremation ceremonies, and temple ceremonies almost daily. Prior to coming to Bali, I did not know anything about Balinese Hinduism and only had a vague understanding of Hinduism, in general. From being here for week, I can gather that Hinduism is a very important part of life, culture, family, relationships, and business for Balinese people.

Today, we attended a womens group, which is called a PKK meeting for Desa Budakeling, which is a village in Karangasem. The meeting was run by the village heads wife and was attended by over 20 women. The women were very interactive and enjoyed the presentation. From talking to the resellers, apparently women are the main driving source for sales in this region because of their concern for family well-being and health. The resellers said that they actually target women’s groups as prime resources for attaining sales in villages. Tommorow, we head to Lombok with a Bali based reseller with operations there. We plan to stay in Lombok for a week before returning to Bali for another week.

In general, being in Bali was probably the first time in this trip in which I felt a complete sense of culture shock. For instance, it was weird being in a small town environment. I also felt out of my element in the Hindu temple because I knew very little about that faith. However, I think this type of culture shock is necessary to learning and is a humbling experience and I welcome the opportunities in which I am forced to see through a different perspective, as cliché as that may sound.

Hati Hati (Take Care), my new favorite phrase in Indonesian. It literally translates to liver, liver but also means to take care. I have seen it written all over street signs to indicate treacherous stretches of road.

 

To my family and friends following my blog, I first say Ramadan Kareem. I hope you all have great month and missing everyone and everything about Ramadan back home so much! We are wrapping up our second week in Indonesia and today marks the start of Ramadan. Given the difficulty of promoting water filters during Ramadan because the majority of people are fasting  in Java we have arrived in Bali, a majority Hindu island. We plan on spending the next few weeks throughout Bali working with resellers and meeting customers.

It is bittersweet leaving Java because I could really feel the Ramadan spirit as we left. Markets were extremely busy with people buying last minute goods for the month. Major city streets were filled with “Marhaban ya Ramadan”  (Welcome Ramadan) posters and there were even special Pepsi, Dominos, and KFC ads catered to Ramadan iftars! From every majority Muslim country, I have traveled to I noticed how much Ramadan is commercialized and how much people are encouraged to spend even though the month is about piety and modesty.

We experienced such great hospitality and kindness while in Java. Everyone welcomed us into their homes, shared stories,  and offered us tons of food. We were able to experience both sides of various cities in Java in terms of socioeconomic status. Indonesia is quickly growing and it is evident from the busy streets and cranes from construction. Even though Indonesia’s economy is growing, it still has problems with basic issues like clean water and garbage disposal. You can walk past huge skyscrapers here but then have a massive pile of trash right next to it.

Bali is a sharp contrast from the places we have been in Java. Even though its been one day, I have already seen more dogs here in Denpasar than all of the 6 cities we traveled in Java combined. There are also a lot less mosques here and and more Hindu temples. Around nearly every shop we traveled past, I noticed incense and offerings at the store front. There are also a greater number of western tourists throughout the city streets then we have seen in the other cities in Java. I am curious to learn more about Hinduism and its influence on Balinese culture during our stay here. since, personally, I know very little about Hinduism.

That’s all I have for now but I will definitely try to blog more frequently. Take care.

 

For years I remember being told by teachers and mentors to do something you love so that work is something you enjoy doing.  As cliche as it sounds, it is something I aspire to have as I pursue my vocation. My fear, however, is I won’t ever find that thing I love doing and will have to settle. I also fear the pursuit of my ideal vocation because I know it entails trial and error and it is often easier and more comfortable to just follow then it is to truly search for what makes one fulfilled. In order to find fulfillment, I think you need to be willing to be vulnerable.

As a child, I watched my dad loyally work  the typical white collar 9 to 5 job at the same place for over 16 years. I know he is thankful for his job and what it provides him but I do not feel his job is aligned with his passions. But when you are responsible providing for five children, a wife, and remittances to family back home pursuing passions is at the bottom of your priority list. My parent’s main passion has become raising my sibling and I to have all the opportunities they were never able to have. As a daughter of Somali immigrants, my parents sacrificed a lot to give my siblings and I the chances we are blessed with today and for that I am forever indebted to them. My greatest aspiration in life is to make my parent’s proud and provide them with all they have given me and more. However, I do struggle with reconciling my own dreams and aspirations with doing what it takes to make my parents proud.

Issues of development facing lower development countries have always been something that has captured my curiosity and attention. However, being born and raised in the Silicon Valley, I was far removed from the life my parent’s grew up in. Throughout my childhood, I would hear stories of what it was like for my parents to grow up in Somalia and the realities of life in a country with no stability. Development, especially development within Africa, is something I have had interest in since high school and is an issue very near to my heart since many of my extended family still live in Somalia.

Visiting Somalia for the first time has been one of the most formative experiences of my life and allowed me to experience the difficulties facing lower development countries as well as reaffirm my interest in development. My parent’s, although nervous about the trip, wanted my sister and I to go so we could learn more about the country we had heard so much about. We stayed in Hargeisa, a city in Somaliland, an autonomous region in Somalia, which declared independence from Somalia in 1991. After coming back from Hargeisa, I knew that I wanted to come back and contribute to Somalia’s development at some point in my professional career. I was inspired by members of the Somali diaspora who returned to Somalia and contributed to the development of their homeland. Particularly, I was incredibly moved by Edna Adan, who is largely credited as the first Somali women to obtain a college degree. After studying nursing, Adan returned to Somalia and created the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital in order to improve maternal health in Somalia. I was so inspired as I walked around the hospital which was the first of its kind in the region.

Along with development, I have always had an interest in business. My interest in business stems back to as long as I can remember. During elementary school, I started my own ice cream shop from my house and stowed my finances underneath my pillow case. Instead of doing what everyone else was doing, my parents would joke that I was always scheming to find the next big thing which could put me ahead of “my competitors”. The running joke in my house was I could sell just about anything to anyone when I was a child. As the bossy big sister, I also considered myself the CEO of my family and my siblings and younger cousins would always run ideas by me. As I grew older, I realized business has always intrigued me because of its power to transform lives and unleash creativity as well as have a detrimental effect on livelihoods.

I am attracted to this fellowship for many reasons. First, this fellowship will be fundamental in helping me to further evaluate my vocational aspirations and learn more about the power of business to create positive change. I am majoring in Economics and I have an interest in development economics. I am not too sure what the future holds after I graduate from university and what I hope to utilize my degree for. However, I do know that ideally I would like my degree to help me find a career in which I can make a positive change and have an impact on something as well as wake up every morning proud of what I do. Currently, I am interested in a career in the financial services but I also want something which incorporates my interests in international development. I do feel the pressure to get a stable, white collar job behind a cubicle from my parents. However, in my heart I know that, although stability is great when it comes to vocation, a challenge is also very rewarding.  Next, I am excited to learn about the risks social entrepreneurs take in order to see their dreams materialize and embark on this journey of self discovery and challenges.  Lastly as a Muslim, I am attracted to this fellowship because of my ability to give back and service others, which is a fundamental part of my faith. Surprisingly, attending a Jesuit university has been very instrumental in helping my strengthen my own faith and learn more about my place in society because unlike my public school background Santa Clara is incredibly faith cognizant. I welcome the new perspectives this fellowship will bring and hope to learn and grow from the people, places, and experiences.

 

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