Last Minute Jitters…but can’t wait to go to Africa…#ibmcsc tanzania

Last Minute Jitters…but can’t wait to go to Africa…

Every since I’ve heard the news that I was to be deployed to Tanzania on an CSC assignment I have been doing Cartwheels J Never been to that continent and I always thought Africa was the most exotic place on earth. We have already been warmly welcomed (Karibu) to the land of Serengeti and Zanzibar !!!

I am very excited and it’s really an honor to get selected in a very competitive program and to get to work with the best talent in IBM across the world.

We are 15 of us from all parts of IBM corporation: China, India, Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, UK, USA, Canada, Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, Australia and Spain. Amazing diversity…I must say. We will be based in the Morogoro town but will travel frequently to Dar-es-salaam the commercial capital of Tanzania to meet up with our host organizations.

At present just a week away from deployment, we are headlong preparing draft work plans, finishing up our pre-work, packing and arranging last minute logistics…

Since the announcement of CSC Tanzania team 8 and our official kick-off in October we as a larger team have been meeting every week on Tuesdays to go over various things.

While we thought the pre-work was a little overwhelming in addition to our normal jobs, I personally think the whole pre-work schedule has been well thought of keeping in mind our deployment to Tanzania.

We went over various topics like cultural adaptability, Role of International development in emerging markets, Health and safety, Teaming activities, Understanding Corporate Social responsibility and our role and key logistics…everything seemed so important…

We also learnt new things about Tanzania and Morogoro where we will be based, it’s culture and started learning Swahili. I personally downloaded the iphone app to learn the language and I must say it has lot of references to Hindi and Sanskrit. While the basics are easy…I’m still trying to get a handle on the pronunciations J

Starting January 2012, once our Visa were done and tickets booked, we started focusing on our serious topics like Consulting Methodologies especially Issue based Consulting. We got 3 projects to work on from the department of Science and technology coordinated by our NGO partner DOT.

Based on our skills and expertise we were assigned to each of the 3 projects and I really got the project I wanted all along so I was happy…the past few weeks have been hectic…we got over 600+ pages of material based on the project that we had to digest and incorporate into our draft working plan.

Just yesterday (Feb 21), we have the draft working plan presentation and I thought every team did a superb job and committed to the cause.

Now, it’s time to think about packing, finishing the pending 2 pre-work assignments, ensure I have the last leg of vaccine boosters well before my flight on March 1. And not to forget the Malaria pills…better safe than sorry!

So long then..till my next update Kwaheri  (Goodbye) !

Pearl George #ibmcsc tanzania