A little about me and this blog

Hi there,

Thanks for stopping by!

So firstly my name is Patrick (Paddy) Ennis and I'm from a place called Trim in Ireland (Ireland's Cleanest Town 2011!)

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim,_County_Meath

I'm an employee with IBM Ireland and will be traveling to Brazil in August 2012 as part of their Corporate Service Corps program - hence this blog!

https://cscserv2.chicago.ibm.com/CorporateServiceCorpsRegistration/

I'll be traveling to and working in a city called Belo Horizonte with a local Brazilian NGO partner during my stay. (I'll add in details on what exactly we'll be doing later on.)

I'm feel really fortunate to be selected to take part in this program for a number of reasons, both professionally and personally.

1) I'm very passionate about volunteering in my personal life, so its great to get a chance to merge that side of my life with a professional experience.

2) The program is fully focused on delivering lasting and sustainable positive effects in the communities we'll be working in, and that's the true acid test for the success of any development program.

3) I'll get the chance to meet, work and network with a large team of IBMers who will be part of our team. We've a team of 15 professionals from 11 different countries, all with great skills and abilities to bring to the table, so it will be great to get to work with them and learn from them too.

4) I've always wanted to visit South America and this visit, although it will be quite work focused, should give a taste of what I've been missing!

Over the course of the next few months, as I prepare to travel and also as I am working in Brazil, I'll be adding to this blog, so hopefully you'll enjoy following along with my experience.

All the best - Paddy