“Twinkle, twinkle little star!” If you are down in the warehouse of Paul Penders International on the island of Penang in Malaysia, you might hear someone humming sweetly. Meet Siti, a lovely Malaysian young woman from the town of Teluk Bahang. Why is she singing? Because her 4-year old daughter came home from nursery school to teach her mom the song in English she learned in school that day.   Siti has worked at the Paul Penders warehouse since November 2011. Previously she held jobs in tourist hotels. Her husband continues to work as a security guard in a hotel in the famed resort town of Batu Ferringhi which is just minutes away. She tells me they live just a few steps away from the warehouse in this fishing village by the sea – a very short commute. Siti has lived all her life here.   One of her favorite phrases is, “Seriously.” Siti is not really shy – or very somber. She has a beautiful warm smile and readily hugs me hello when I first meet her. Her colleagues say she is always smiling and friendly – she has a great attitude!     At first, she says, it was hard for her to know where and what things were in the warehouse and to figure out the tallies from the many boxes of products that surround her. What helped was when her “bosses” gave her samples of the cosmetics to try out at home and to give to her friends. One of five children – 3 brothers and a sister -- she and her sister experiment with the products and compare notes. She’s now a big fan of PP products!   Mrs. Tan at work in the PP Warehouse in Teluk Bahang, Penang Island   Siti now feels quite confident that she has the warehouse tightly organized. When the lab upstairs ran out of a liquid to make a new batch, her boss, Bas, raced downstairs to the warehouse to get more. I watched as Siti led him directly to the correct barrel and carefully poured out the exact quantity needed. People are in and out all day – Mrs. Tan who helps part-time pops in for more supplies. She is a lovely smiling Chinese Malaysian woman who is a bit shy about her English but her co-workers say she’s efficient, helpful, and very kind-hearted. Mrs. Tan speaks Mandarin and Malay; Siti switches fluently between Malay and English at will.   Siti receives supplies delivered to the PP Warehouse   The Paul Penders warehouse is spacious and airy with high shelves filled with cartons in all sizes and shapes. When the large screen door is opened for deliveries, it can get quite hot -- but Siti is uncomplaining. She turns the radio on softly, sits up on a stool with a mountain of paperwork beside her -- and sorts, counts, packs, and ships PP products all over the world.            Subscribe to the Paul Penders Newsletter     Share this post, download zipfile with the html code