All Settled In (Day 3 in BH)

So finally after all the months of preparations I'm in Belo Horizonte!

Thankfully the trip here was uneventful, with the only exception being me realizing my bags were ridiculously over weight just a few hrs before I went to the airport, but anywho the crisis was resolved and off I went on my merry way with the usual inquisition from the taxi driver about where I was off to etc etc :o)

I flew Dublin - London - Sao Paulo - BH, a trip that took about 20 hrs door to door, and a trip that was way shorter than some of my other team members had to endure! Met a really nice guy from Sao Paulo on the plane and he was full of advice and suggestions on things to do and things to eat ! It really affirmed my assumptions of what Brazilians were like and made me even keener to get here and start experiencing the culture first hand.

Myself, Eniko and Jared all landed in BH roughly around the same time and we all traveled to the hotel toegther. It was pretty cool just taking in the city views from the taxi and letting the fact set in that this was going to be our home for the next month! Traffic was crazy busy and there are hills everywhere!

After we got settled in the hotel and grabbed a quick bite to eat (with great difficulty with the language barrier!) we got to meet up with more of the team and got a brief orientation around the neighborhood.

Later that evening we all went out to dinner in a traditional restaurant which was fun. We also got introduced to 'caipiranhas' which are kind of like mojitos, but kind of not! Anyway, time will tell if they are my friend or my enemy :o)

Sunday was a really interesting day overall. A lot of ice breaker and team building activities with the entire team, and I think all learned a tonne about all our backgrounds, interests, etc. It was also a lot of fun with plenty of laughs! The CDS team who facilitate the CSC program along with the local IBM team members are just great folks, and they really helped us gel as a group and get comfortable in our new surroundings.

Monday (today) was our first formal day of work and it began with a big meeting of all the teams and clients in one location. The clients all explained a little bit about their organizations and work, and overall it was fascinating! Such great work being done by all, often with limited/no resources, and the general feeling I took away from it was the level of passion and commitment they all had to their work and the people and communities they serve. Also what I found so interesting was the amount of similarities between issues experienced in Brazil and those we experience in Europe.

The remainder of our day was spent with my IBM team (Carolyn, Karin and Kim) and our client - Maos de Minas - in their office location. We met so many friendly and helpful people who explained to us how the organization worked and what services they provide. To be honest it was almost a case of information overload ! but anyway its just day 1 of many so there's plenty of time for it to sink in and then be used!

Anyway in summary, so far so good :o)

Later, Paddy

P.s. Do not buy 5 Euro irons from Argos, they are a complete waste of money !! :P

#ibmcsc Brazil