Working with Kaelani

     I'm asked often enough for more information about Kaelani and his family that I thought I'd put some more info here:

     Around 1999 I was importing largely handicrafts from a number of Asian countries.  Walking down a street in Indonesia I saw a tiny shop with some amazing, richly colored batik material.  Further down the street I passed another little open front shop with about 6 tailors at sewing machines.  Having a novel idea, I asked the owner "What if I bought some material at the batik shop down the road and you made some clothes out of it?".   He said "What do you think we do here?".   Everyone can't be a genius.

     Over several years I slowly waded into selling clothes with this little business.  One of the employees I met there was named Kaelani.  He was the pattern-maker and also cut the material according to the patterns.  At that point he didn't speak any English and I didn't speak any Indonesian so we mostly gestured, smiled and had others translate.

     In 2004 the owner of the first tailor shop told me that he was closing his tailoring business and moving to another island and would have to let his employees go.  He said Kaelani was interested in trying to start his own tailor business and maybe he would be able to rehire some of his coworkers.  Kaelani and I each had big gaps in our knowledge but we decided we would learn together.

     Kaelani had a wife who helped immensely with the business, an adult son and three little daughters.  When he started his business, Kaelani inherited 4 customers, including me, from his old boss.  But after a few years, the other 3 customers had stopped ordering.  Kaelani did fantastic work for me, and our orders kept getting bigger, but I had to tell Kaelani it was too risky for him to only have one customer because what if I get hit by a bus.  Kaelani's son spoke English well and would be our primary translator at that time.  Judging from the family's shocked reaction to my "hit by a bus" comment, that was possibly a cultural faux pas. 

     It was too expensive for Kaelani to rent a shop on a well travelled road where he would have opportunities to meet potential new customers.  In hopes that they could use the internet to find new customers, I bought Kaelani's family their first computer.  At that time computers were getting more popular in tourist areas but were not common in Indonesian homes.  Kaelani learned a bit about computers but it was his 3 daughters who took to the computer like ducks to water.

     I learned so much from Kaelani. He was a respected friend as well as business partner.  He had the expertise with clothes.   Both our businesses grew and Kaelani was our biggest supplier for 14 years until his death in 2018. 

     To back up a little, when I started working with Kaelani, I would occasionally travel there to meet with him at his home.  His three little girls would always follow us around so I would sometimes do silly things to make them laugh.  They probably thought I was crazy but they did not want to miss the show and watched every move. 

     After Kaelani died, the oldest of the three daughters was now an adult and took over the business with her mom.  Some years later the second daughter took over the lead role and continues to work with Peaceful People.  

       The oldest son and oldest daughter each have started their own businesses.  We continue to order consistently from the family.