LeX : Design Thinking and Cultural Exchange

Friday (26/09/19), we split up. Exactly at Sultan Hasanuddin Airport, South Celebes, everyone had tears coming out from their eyes, promising each other to meet in the future.

LeX (Learning English Express) had left behind many moments by the many different ethnics. This collaboration program between Singapore Polytechnic (SP) and Muhammadiyah University of Makassar (Unismuh) had a purpose to solve the problem using the DT (Design Thinking) method. The end result from this was to create a prototype for The Farmers in Cikoro Village, Gowa. Besides that, this program was to make the students understand that the process of finding the solution is very important and make the students become the ones with critical thinking and care to the environment.

We met on Thursday (15/09/19) in Mini Hall, Muhammadiyah University of Makassar. On the first day, we spent the time to know each other and practiced Design Thinking methods. There were some activities in various areas of Muhammadiyah University of Makassar. Awkwardness made our discussion concise as there was a fear of making a bad impression on the first glance.

The most memorable moment of LeX was when we were in Cikoro Village for 4 days. All of the moments was created by our togetherness in the village. We slept, ate, played games, and solved problems together which were priceless lessons to us. There was also a cultural exchange in village. Unismuh students learned about discipline and cleanliness. SP students learned about simplicity, "gotong royong" (cooperation), and friendliness to everyone.

The first day at the village was very impressive. Adam (My Buddy) had to wake up at 5.30am to cook and wash the dishes after breakfast. In the night, Ibu, The Camp Owner was shocked to see SP students showering at 10.30 pm. It was because, showering at night was an unusual thing for Indonesian and as the weather was as cold as 16ocelcius. However, after the explanation by the Unismuh Students, Ibu could understood and lessened her worries for her guests.

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We had a problem when we were in the process of the Insights and Need Statement step on DT. Our discussion took a long time which was also quite interesting such that we decided to divide our group by 3 to solve the problem in a easier way. Luckily, we were accompanied by competent facilitator who directed our discussion.

Not only that, Prototyping also made us confused. It was proved that achieving dreams were actually more difficult than just dreaming. In such a limited time, we finally could finished all of the steps productively as all of us believed that together, It would make the problems easier to tackle.

Apart from Design Thinking, there were other touching moments. This was due to SP's tolerance soul. Shockingly, sometimes they reminded us to pray and waited in front of the Mosque for us. Sometimes, SP Students also shocked The Villager who invited them to stay and they returned the favor by serving the host well too.

On the last few days of The Village Homestay, there was an accident where Adam lost his wallet. At that time, I reminded Adam to keep calm because, Cikoro was a very safe area. Adam was panicking before my words were slowly coming true and eventually his wallet finally found. His wallet was saved by Pak Imam (The owner) who saw the wallet was scattered.

"Several months ago, there were 3 similar case which occurred. The driver's wallet or phone was found directly in front of my house. However, there was nobody who dared to touch things that were not belonging to them" Pak Imam said.