I am finishing writing this, the last of my blog posts about my IBM CSC experience in Uberlandia, from my comfortable office chair at my home office, nearly a week after getting back home. The final week was an incredible rush - delights, frustrations, panic, farewells, sadness, joy - all thoroughly mixed into a masala of emotions.
Then on to a discussion with the Secretary of Strategic Management about our project. He briefed us on what the city was doing to grow in stature, and we exchanged notes on how the work we were doing for Tourism could help his vision.
It started raining heavily in the evening. A few of use grabbed dinner a nearby sanduicheria, and scurried back to our final "weekly Bruno meeting", to update everyone about our respective projects. The final presentation and closing ceremony was scheduled for Friday, at the Municipality. A few visiting executives from JP Morgan, New York were expected for that session, and some of the teams had to work out how to de-conflict their presentation schedules to accommodate the visiting executives.
Tuesday morning was going to be different - we were not headed in to work as usual, but all of us were going to spend the morning doing community service. Two minibuses picked us up at 8:30 and took us to the edge of town, to Estacao Vida, a daycare center for kids from the neighboring areas. Tony & the Ipe team had arranged the trip. The matron explained what they did there - it started as a place for elementary school age kids to come to after and before school and learn useful skills, instead of hanging about and getting into trouble. The place has been growing and now offers capoeira, dance, academic tuition, music, toy-making etc. It is completely funded by a few community members. A tour of the place took us to an organic garden with carrots, greens and other veggies, and a fish pond. A neem tree growing nearby acts as a natural pest deterrent.
We divide into two teams, and Team White take the job of whitewashing the outside walls. I am on Team Blue, and we have the tougher job of painting the building. We have to tape off half the wall, scrape and spackle holes, cover up the windows and electrical fixtures and then start painting. We finish off the entire structure, and then break for snacks and drinks. Meanwhile, a TV crew has been busy taping our adventures and also interviewing a few of us.
When we finish up, we go outside to see that the whitewashed outside walls were now being painted up by a graffiti crew ! They let us add our amateurish touches (which they skillfully transformed into a part of the overall theme), much to our delight. I now have an additional line to add to my CV - graffiti artist.
Here's the TV show (hosted by Tony) on our community service project.
After the excitement of the morning, my three teammates decided to work from the hotel, while I head to the office. I spend the afternoon with the UFU interns, translating my part of the report into Portuguese. When I got back to the hotel and catch up with Marc, May & Jill, we realize that we have document formatting problems that will take quite a bit of time to harmonize - oh, well.
The next morning, we work concertedly on getting the final report ready for the end of the week. We review our work with Pedro, and he appears very happy with it. We tick off a bunch of last-minute tasks, including project reviews required by the CSC program. We get an unanticipated break - a 3-hour meeting scheduled for the evening with the two visiting JP Morgan execs is cancelled, as one of them misses her flight. Instead, a large group heads out to dinner at Carro do Boi, the restaurant across the street where we had dinner on our first night in Uberlandia. Tara from JP Morgan & Gavin from CDS have arrived and join us for dinner - they are going to be around for the final few days.
Thursday - D Day -1 - is, as can be expected, a frenzy of preparations for the final reports and presentations. We get token gifts for Mayla, Pedro & Marise, and are surprised when they tell us that they want us to accompany them to dinner with the visiting delegation from the Irish Olympic Association, who are in town to sign a letter of intent that they would use Uberlandia as their training base for the 2016 Olympics ! We are to meet the Irish team at our hotel, as they are also staying there, and ride with them to SESI Gravatas for dinner. During the ride, I talk with a couple of Irish Olympians, who are very down-to-earth. At dinner, I have a long chat with Stephen Martin who told me he won an Olympic hockey gold medal in 1988 ! I'd never heard of an Irish Olympic hockey victory, when he tells me he played for Great Britain. He is now the Chief of the Irish Olympic Association. During dinner, I had my first taste of Brazilian wine - a sparkling version called Casa Valduga - which was quite nice. I was happy to see that Ciro, our UFU intern, was asked to help out as a translator to the Irish Olympic Association.
Friday - our last official work day - dawned early for us, as we were to be picked up at 7:30 AM for our team's final presentation at 8 AM. Our final presentation was at the same room in the Municipality as our kickoff. When we reached, we found a nice spread - pastels, sandwiches etc - and an impressive translation station with a person ready to do simultaneous two-way translation ! Bruno, Alcely and Mauro from IBM were present, and the Mayor started things off with a warm thank you speech to us. Each of us presented a piece of our report, with May going first, followed by Jill, then Marc and finally me. The meeting went quite well, in my reckoning. We finished up 9:30 AM, just in time for the official CSC closing ceremony, scheduled to be held at the same venue.
The closing ceremony was an opportunity for all 19 of us to present our work to a large audience that included city officials, clients, IBM & JP Morgan executives and well-wishers. Each team presented a 10-minute summary of their work and their recommendations. A highlight for me was listening to the Acao Moradia team of Sylvie & Nirav presenting in fluent Portuguese. For my team, I co-presented with May. All the teams seemed to have poured their heart into their work, and the quality and dedication was evident for all to see.
I am called in for a short interview by the local TV station, and asked about my experiences here, which I reply to at length, the best two seconds of which can be seen at the end of the clip here.
Closing speeches, with thank yous from Paulo, the Tourism Secretary, followed by surprise gifts of cerrado coffee. A very touching round of final hugs and photos. Pedro & Marise take us up to the Tourism Department for us to say our farewells to the staff there. Marise makes a heartfelt speech, and each of us say a few words, expressing our sentiments. I decide to speak in Portuguese, which meant that my speech consisted of 4 words - "Muito Obrigado" (thanks very much), "Abracos" (hugs), "Saudade" (miss you) and "Ate logo" (farewell). They then sing a Minas song of farewell for us. Very moving.
The description of the ceremony and our work here, in Portuguese
We go back down, and are presented a Brazilian flag each from Larissa. We get busy getting everyone to autograph the flags.
Pedro, Marise, Mayla, Paulo and a few others then invite us to lunch at Santa Chiara, the restaurant at Hotel San Diego. Despite staying there for a month, I'd never actually gone to the restaurant - but had heard good things about it. I was glad to check things out now...and the place turned out to be as good as reports had it. We started off with a mid-day caipirinha, which, on the principle of not wanting to appear rude to our hosts(;-]), I did not refuse. The filet was magnificent. Surprises again - the 4 UFU interns are handed nice appreciation certificates by Paulo, and we also get well-written letters of commendation. Finally, all four of us are handed a gift basket by Paulo, with goodies from his company, Junco.
A quick run up to the room to drop stuff off, and then to a hotel near the mall for the final CSC Brazil 14 team meeting with Bruno. We are asked for feedback on various aspects of the program. Criticisms are rare and trivial, praise is often and sincere. Larissa speaks about her experiences, and there are many teary eyes around the room. My team presents Larissa with a small token of our appreciation. I get my flag signed by everyone, and head back to the hotel for a brief pre-dinner respite. I use the time to get started on my packing, and realize my organized and efficient nature has made the job of getting my clothes packed a breeze - I am mostly done in half an hour.
Down to the lobby at 8 PM to head for a farewell dinner to a place suggested by Larissa. Cachaceria Agua Doce is a very nice place, and we soon take it over. Not only have every one of us come, but many of our interns and even some clients land up to join us for drinks and dinner. As the evening progressed, plans were made for a final night of clubbing. The first group of people to leave Uberlandia the next morning were on a 6 AM flight, meaning that taxis to pick them up would be coming to get them at the hotel at 4 AM - so many of them decided to skip sleeping altogether ! We head to A8, a club close to our hotel, and get busy on the dance floor. I am in bed by 3 AM, after bidding my goodbyes to many I know I won't see again.
Saturday, my final morning in Uberlandia. I eat a leisurely breakfast, but am then in a hurry to finish my packing, and get myself oriented for the upcoming week of vacation with my family, who are joining me in Rio de Janiero that evening. I finish off the last remaining errands and head down to the lobby to wait for Paul & Christy, as the three of us are on the same flight to Rio. Larissa comes by, and final hugs are exchanged. A cab arrives - but we were supposed to get two. A bit of problem solving later, we manage to fit all of our luggage and selves into the one cab, and trace the route back to the airport were we came in a month before. Coincidentally, our cab driver is Anderson, who had picked us up at the airport ! We bump into Olaf at the airport, as his flight was cancelled and he was moved to our flight.
As I hear the boarding announcement, I look back on the month that was, and my immediate feelings are overwhelmingly positive. While I can't say how this experience will affect me in the longer term, but I do know that it will change me.
There, dear reader, ends my CSC journey, the reason for this blog. Blogging was a new experience to me, and one that I started to enjoy. Thanks for coming along with me so far, and most of all, thanks to my family, Brazil, the Brazilian people, the city of Uberlandia, IBM, the CSC program, my CSC teammates and clients, and people too numerous to name who made this a memorable experience for me.
#ibmcsc brazil
Monday, September 30th - the first day of our last week in Uberlandia. I am starting to plan for my departure from here, and make sure that I send in a load of clothes to the cleaners. I eye the pile of newly acquired or gifted stuff for which I'll need to find space in my bags, and conclude that I am in a good place, compared to some of my colleagues who have acquired dozens of pairs of Havaianas flip-flops, bikinis and coffee for back home.
At work, we're all getting our ideas down on slides and going into the home stretch to get our recommendations ready to share with the clients later in the week. Mid-day, we are told that we have a meeting with the Mayor in a couple of hours, and we frantically pull together a dozen key slides for the meeting, and get them translated. We wait for half an hour before we get to meet the Mayor in his impressive office. We present him the summary report, and give him an overview of our findings and recommendations.
The Mayor of Uberlandia, Hon. Gilmar Machado, with our report
The Uberlandia Tourism team with the Mayor (seated, left) and the Secretary for Tourism (seated, right)
Discussing our project with Stoessel, the Secretary of Strategic Management
Then on to a discussion with the Secretary of Strategic Management about our project. He briefed us on what the city was doing to grow in stature, and we exchanged notes on how the work we were doing for Tourism could help his vision.
It started raining heavily in the evening. A few of use grabbed dinner a nearby sanduicheria, and scurried back to our final "weekly Bruno meeting", to update everyone about our respective projects. The final presentation and closing ceremony was scheduled for Friday, at the Municipality. A few visiting executives from JP Morgan, New York were expected for that session, and some of the teams had to work out how to de-conflict their presentation schedules to accommodate the visiting executives.
Tuesday morning was going to be different - we were not headed in to work as usual, but all of us were going to spend the morning doing community service. Two minibuses picked us up at 8:30 and took us to the edge of town, to Estacao Vida, a daycare center for kids from the neighboring areas. Tony & the Ipe team had arranged the trip. The matron explained what they did there - it started as a place for elementary school age kids to come to after and before school and learn useful skills, instead of hanging about and getting into trouble. The place has been growing and now offers capoeira, dance, academic tuition, music, toy-making etc. It is completely funded by a few community members. A tour of the place took us to an organic garden with carrots, greens and other veggies, and a fish pond. A neem tree growing nearby acts as a natural pest deterrent.
Estacao Vida
The Matron giving us a tour
We divide into two teams, and Team White take the job of whitewashing the outside walls. I am on Team Blue, and we have the tougher job of painting the building. We have to tape off half the wall, scrape and spackle holes, cover up the windows and electrical fixtures and then start painting. We finish off the entire structure, and then break for snacks and drinks. Meanwhile, a TV crew has been busy taping our adventures and also interviewing a few of us.
Olaf's Dutch "invisible brush" painting technique on display
The answer to the puzzler "How many CSC-ers does it take to paint a wall" - 1, with 7 onlookers
Taking a break from my painting duties
Soon, others are attracted to my swinging lifestyle
When we finish up, we go outside to see that the whitewashed outside walls were now being painted up by a graffiti crew ! They let us add our amateurish touches (which they skillfully transformed into a part of the overall theme), much to our delight. I now have an additional line to add to my CV - graffiti artist.
The leader of the graffiti crew
Estacao Vida, in cursive graffiti font
I painted the big yellow circle, which a better artist turned into a flower
Here's the TV show (hosted by Tony) on our community service project.
After the excitement of the morning, my three teammates decided to work from the hotel, while I head to the office. I spend the afternoon with the UFU interns, translating my part of the report into Portuguese. When I got back to the hotel and catch up with Marc, May & Jill, we realize that we have document formatting problems that will take quite a bit of time to harmonize - oh, well.
The next morning, we work concertedly on getting the final report ready for the end of the week. We review our work with Pedro, and he appears very happy with it. We tick off a bunch of last-minute tasks, including project reviews required by the CSC program. We get an unanticipated break - a 3-hour meeting scheduled for the evening with the two visiting JP Morgan execs is cancelled, as one of them misses her flight. Instead, a large group heads out to dinner at Carro do Boi, the restaurant across the street where we had dinner on our first night in Uberlandia. Tara from JP Morgan & Gavin from CDS have arrived and join us for dinner - they are going to be around for the final few days.
Thursday - D Day -1 - is, as can be expected, a frenzy of preparations for the final reports and presentations. We get token gifts for Mayla, Pedro & Marise, and are surprised when they tell us that they want us to accompany them to dinner with the visiting delegation from the Irish Olympic Association, who are in town to sign a letter of intent that they would use Uberlandia as their training base for the 2016 Olympics ! We are to meet the Irish team at our hotel, as they are also staying there, and ride with them to SESI Gravatas for dinner. During the ride, I talk with a couple of Irish Olympians, who are very down-to-earth. At dinner, I have a long chat with Stephen Martin who told me he won an Olympic hockey gold medal in 1988 ! I'd never heard of an Irish Olympic hockey victory, when he tells me he played for Great Britain. He is now the Chief of the Irish Olympic Association. During dinner, I had my first taste of Brazilian wine - a sparkling version called Casa Valduga - which was quite nice. I was happy to see that Ciro, our UFU intern, was asked to help out as a translator to the Irish Olympic Association.
Friday - our last official work day - dawned early for us, as we were to be picked up at 7:30 AM for our team's final presentation at 8 AM. Our final presentation was at the same room in the Municipality as our kickoff. When we reached, we found a nice spread - pastels, sandwiches etc - and an impressive translation station with a person ready to do simultaneous two-way translation ! Bruno, Alcely and Mauro from IBM were present, and the Mayor started things off with a warm thank you speech to us. Each of us presented a piece of our report, with May going first, followed by Jill, then Marc and finally me. The meeting went quite well, in my reckoning. We finished up 9:30 AM, just in time for the official CSC closing ceremony, scheduled to be held at the same venue.
Invitation for the closing ceremony
The closing ceremony was an opportunity for all 19 of us to present our work to a large audience that included city officials, clients, IBM & JP Morgan executives and well-wishers. Each team presented a 10-minute summary of their work and their recommendations. A highlight for me was listening to the Acao Moradia team of Sylvie & Nirav presenting in fluent Portuguese. For my team, I co-presented with May. All the teams seemed to have poured their heart into their work, and the quality and dedication was evident for all to see.
May & I presenting our recommendations on behalf of the Tourism Department team
I am called in for a short interview by the local TV station, and asked about my experiences here, which I reply to at length, the best two seconds of which can be seen at the end of the clip here.
Closing speeches, with thank yous from Paulo, the Tourism Secretary, followed by surprise gifts of cerrado coffee. A very touching round of final hugs and photos. Pedro & Marise take us up to the Tourism Department for us to say our farewells to the staff there. Marise makes a heartfelt speech, and each of us say a few words, expressing our sentiments. I decide to speak in Portuguese, which meant that my speech consisted of 4 words - "Muito Obrigado" (thanks very much), "Abracos" (hugs), "Saudade" (miss you) and "Ate logo" (farewell). They then sing a Minas song of farewell for us. Very moving.
The description of the ceremony and our work here, in Portuguese
We go back down, and are presented a Brazilian flag each from Larissa. We get busy getting everyone to autograph the flags.
Flags being autographed
Pedro, Marise, Mayla, Paulo and a few others then invite us to lunch at Santa Chiara, the restaurant at Hotel San Diego. Despite staying there for a month, I'd never actually gone to the restaurant - but had heard good things about it. I was glad to check things out now...and the place turned out to be as good as reports had it. We started off with a mid-day caipirinha, which, on the principle of not wanting to appear rude to our hosts(;-]), I did not refuse. The filet was magnificent. Surprises again - the 4 UFU interns are handed nice appreciation certificates by Paulo, and we also get well-written letters of commendation. Finally, all four of us are handed a gift basket by Paulo, with goodies from his company, Junco.
A quick run up to the room to drop stuff off, and then to a hotel near the mall for the final CSC Brazil 14 team meeting with Bruno. We are asked for feedback on various aspects of the program. Criticisms are rare and trivial, praise is often and sincere. Larissa speaks about her experiences, and there are many teary eyes around the room. My team presents Larissa with a small token of our appreciation. I get my flag signed by everyone, and head back to the hotel for a brief pre-dinner respite. I use the time to get started on my packing, and realize my organized and efficient nature has made the job of getting my clothes packed a breeze - I am mostly done in half an hour.
Down to the lobby at 8 PM to head for a farewell dinner to a place suggested by Larissa. Cachaceria Agua Doce is a very nice place, and we soon take it over. Not only have every one of us come, but many of our interns and even some clients land up to join us for drinks and dinner. As the evening progressed, plans were made for a final night of clubbing. The first group of people to leave Uberlandia the next morning were on a 6 AM flight, meaning that taxis to pick them up would be coming to get them at the hotel at 4 AM - so many of them decided to skip sleeping altogether ! We head to A8, a club close to our hotel, and get busy on the dance floor. I am in bed by 3 AM, after bidding my goodbyes to many I know I won't see again.
Saturday, my final morning in Uberlandia. I eat a leisurely breakfast, but am then in a hurry to finish my packing, and get myself oriented for the upcoming week of vacation with my family, who are joining me in Rio de Janiero that evening. I finish off the last remaining errands and head down to the lobby to wait for Paul & Christy, as the three of us are on the same flight to Rio. Larissa comes by, and final hugs are exchanged. A cab arrives - but we were supposed to get two. A bit of problem solving later, we manage to fit all of our luggage and selves into the one cab, and trace the route back to the airport were we came in a month before. Coincidentally, our cab driver is Anderson, who had picked us up at the airport ! We bump into Olaf at the airport, as his flight was cancelled and he was moved to our flight.
As I hear the boarding announcement, I look back on the month that was, and my immediate feelings are overwhelmingly positive. While I can't say how this experience will affect me in the longer term, but I do know that it will change me.
I'm leaving on a turbo-prop plane
There, dear reader, ends my CSC journey, the reason for this blog. Blogging was a new experience to me, and one that I started to enjoy. Thanks for coming along with me so far, and most of all, thanks to my family, Brazil, the Brazilian people, the city of Uberlandia, IBM, the CSC program, my CSC teammates and clients, and people too numerous to name who made this a memorable experience for me.
#ibmcsc brazil
