Understanding a new culture and learning its language takes time and effort. Add to that
someone resettling in another country and getting used to new food and climate as well as
having to relearn how to do daily life routines – where to buy groceries, how to use public
transportation, how to fix broken things etc. away from the support of a grown network of
family and friends.

SEEDS is committed to see its consultants and their accompanying family members, who come
from all over the globe, settle well, take roots and thrive in the long haul within their new
culture.

Therefore, a consultant of SEEDS in Indonesia is assigned to support our newly arriving
consultants and their dependents in all aspects of adapting to a new place, language and
culture learning.

We believe that SEEDS projects have lasting impact when founded on trusting relationships that
SEEDS consultants establish with their local partners and communities.

To this end SEEDS considers it mandatory that our consultants become proficient in local
language and culture and spend significant time in formal language and culture study prior to
their project-assignment.

This will help them to communicate well in formal and informal situations, but also to better
understand unspoken meaning and underlying cultural values that influence behaviour and
decision making.

For example, one SEEDS consultant was happy to have papaya seedlings sprouting up in front of
the house. Neighbours started to comment on the papaya trees. The consultant assumed the
neighbours were happy, until one day the house-helper explained that the local people’s belief
is that ghosts live in papaya trees in front of houses. It takes knowledge of language, culture
and trust to get such insights. As a result, the consultant will be cautious offering papaya
seedlings to local people to plant in front of their house…