Ayo Ketemu! (read: Ah Yo Kuh Tuh Moo) means let’s get together and meet in English. For us, this means 4-day-3-nights of fun in Bali with 30 diverse creatives from across Indonesia. Considering that Indonesia is the largest archipelagic country, and in terms of area it is the 14th largest country in the world, it was a pretty exciting gathering. Shown below with a green mark is where Bali is, the other blue marks are where everyone else came from.

Map of Indonesia market on the places where the participants come from

The gathering is the first step of The Arts Development Company and Ketemu Project’s Developing Inclusive Creative Economy Project: Gerakan Kreabilitas. We received more than 90 applications from disabled and non-disabled creatives around Indonesia. From these, we shortlisted and invited 30 creatives to come to Bali and meet. The idea is that we can connect 30 people, that some interesting collaboration and ideas may come out of this, and it certainly did.

Coffee and Introductions

To introduce each of the participants to each other Budi, Ketemu Project Founder, set a game where people take turn to draw each other’s face. Everyone had fun sketching and talking to each other about their drawing.

two rows of people sitting face to face ready to draw each other

As Indonesia the third largest producer of robusta beans in the world, it is quite natural that we start our conversation around and about coffee. We had a conversation between:

  1. Tarini, the Founder of FENCY, a community that develops and trains blind coffee makers, baristas, from Jakarta.
  2. I Ketut Supena, Head of BRSPDSN Mahatmiya,  (translation of the abbreviation BRSPDSN)  A centre for social rehabilitation of people with visual impairment.
  3. I Putu Krida Lesmana Putra, Barista BRSPDSN from Bali
  4. Puri Ardini, Ceramic Designer of Jenggala Ceramics

Tarini and Supena explored how they made space in the coffee industry for blind and partially sighted people. It sounded as though it was an inspired start, despite the challenges they faced.  The most difficult part according to them is training and maintaining the people they train. For Krida, who was trained by Mahatmiya, the beginning was hard but once he got used to the equipment and the space, it was all ok. They all had to make do with what they had; nothing is modified to their needs. Except at the Mahatmiya Café, where they used a bell on the tables so customers could tell baristas which table they are sitting at. Despite the challenges they faced, the cafes that Tarini and Krida run have regular customers.

four speakers are sitting in a row, secon speaker is holding a microphone

Puri, then talked about her process when designing her coffee cups and mugs. She considered many aspects of the use of the cups. Puri also researched and observed how people hold the cups, how the material holds heat, how people drink, how baristas uses it in their café.

Puri smiling and holding a white cup and a microphone

Experience the Challenge

After the talk, Tarini showed us how to brew  coffee the proper way, and how she teaches others how to make coffee. Then she challenged anyone who dared, to try brewing coffee, blind folded.

in the coffee brewing training a man putting on a blindfold

The result, lets just say from what was left of the coffee in the cups was nice. To be fair this was their first time brewing coffee blindfolded.

We have more on Ayo Ketemu! watch this space for more updates.