Dante's peak? Or good time for boardgames? :D

Which will be the next destination?

The week went well, with hard work, long brainstorming sessions, so I was feeling we are getting closer to our final recommendations. On Thursday we prepared a workshop for the Tourism Authority workers about social media and marketing strategy to deliver on Friday.

Working hard in the "office"

The team was nice, the weather was nice and we have discussed also our weekend trip (cave tubing in Pindul Cave, watching a really cool waterfall, and then finishing the day at a hidden white-sand beach).

The plan was awesome, but Mother Nature had a different idea...

This morning I have woken up, had a shower and dressed in batik, ready for work. I made a mistake, I haven't opened the window. I went down to have a quick breakfast before leaving and I've checked my phone, realizing that the workshop has been cancelled due to unknown reasons - it's Indonesia I was thinking, quite usual that people were cancelling meetings. 

During breakfast I've met with my teammates and this was the real shock. I wiped the dream out of my eyes and I've looked through the big windows in the dining hall. The tropical flowers were covered by a 3 cm ash layer. It was unbelievable. Then my teammates have informed me about the eruption of the Mount Kelud which is around 250 km to the north in Java.

I've suddenly realized that my clean laundry wouldn't arrive today :D. 

The streets were empty, IBM security contacted us, advising to stay in the hotel until further communication. 

10 years ago I was on the Etna 2 days before the eruption and I experienced a little earthquake and I could feel the warm earth under my toes.

This is totally different. During the morning it was like a dead city (the call to the prayer was also missing during the morning, which is kind of unusual).

 

Our hotel provided us with basic facemasks today, and our in country contact Diane went looking for special face masks called N95 masks that are mandated by IBM Security for these situations. Unfortunately the conditions were very bad outside and several stores were sold out - but we're very lucky that the special masks are supposed to be hand-delivered to us tomorrow all the way from Jakarta (Thanks Kiki, the Security Manager of IBM Indonesia!).

Claudia and Elisa with the supplies

Ladies in mask - Elisa, Rosa, Claudia, Antonella

 We had some local heroes from the team, who have decided to go to buy the supplies we will need if the things are turning worse. Claudia and Elisa visited the store to buy some noodles, cracker and biscuits in case the hotel would not be able to serve as with food. Thanks so much ladies, your are real heroes!

We are grounded here in the hotel, so I decided to organize a board gaming afternoon with the people who were interested. Finally Antonella, Elisa, Rosa, Shannon, Alberto and Jay shown up, so we played some Dixit, King of Tokyo and Avalon. I decided to open the bottle of palinka, brought from Hungary, it is really strong, we couldn't finish it, yet :)

Boardgames, masks, pálinka