mikeslifeexperience-blog

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Reflection at One Week

It has been a week since I have been back and getting back into the swing of things has been quite the whirlwind.   First, the jet lag!  The first week back the 18 hours of travel really took its toll. Not to mention day light savings time had happened so the time difference went from four hours to five hours.  The whole week I was pretty tired from the traveling and to boot my body kept waking my up at 4 AM telling me that I had slept far too late.  I elected to roll around in my bed trying to sleep until about 530-6 AM and then got up and went to work.   The first day back of course I get to see how my co-workers decorated my desk for Halloween!!

Despite my biological clock sending strange signals, it has been good and strange to be back.  The good part is that I get to see my friends and family to catch up on what as been happening in everyones lives.  The strange part is having all of your habits that I used to have at home and at work be completely non-existent.  It was as if I was coming back with a blank slate and so it was time to start to construct my life from the experience I had had from the previous month.

In my personal life the chance to build new habits gives me the opportunity to fine tune my training, diet, and what I spend my spare time on.   For my training I have decided to try to keep training sessions shorter and less intense but keep a high frequency of training sessions per week

For my diet I have decided to keep with carbohydrates I started eating again in Senegal as I noticed improved energy and mood overall.  However, I will have to make sure to keep total calories under control, something that is hard in the world of French fries!  Finally, for my free time I was doing quite a bit of reading before.   Now after a month away from it, working almost constantly, it is now time to be more targeted with my reading and trying to integrate more skills improvements as well.  I am still thinking through it, but it will probably be a split of reading and skilling up in the end.

In my professional life The really encouraging part is that I know how much I accomplished in four weeks in Africa and now I get to think about how I can port that momentum forward.  Still being relatively new in my area I still have the opportunity to grow in so many directions.  I know I personally want to shoot for the sky in my career and I will only get there one building block at a time.  Here is where I think my personal and professional goals align around skills.  There are many technical skills that I need to acquire in the near term with thoughts of business and leadership level skills to come down the road.  One must build the foundation before building a tower!  I think one thing that CSC taught me professionally is that I can move faster and feel uncomfortable, but that will allow me to grow even faster.  

One week past and the world is still my oyster!

Still missing this fun group! Cannot wait for Reunion! 

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Rose, Thorn, Bud

A common practice I have done since I went on long field trips with classes in elementary school was to take a moment to reflect about the experience through thinking about a rose - the positive, a thorn - the negative, and a bud - things that you are hopeful for to come down the road.   With the Corporate Service Corps experience, the occasion is no different.  

Rose

The positives?  The list here is almost endless.  The CSC Program puts fifteen of its top performers in a foreign country for a month, where the team spends almost every waking moment together trying to use their skills to help the world become a better place.  The alignment of work and purpose almost never becomes as tangible as it did at the end of our month here in Senegal.   From healthcare related topics like e-Health for all and the 90-90-90 UNAIDS objectives to top level strategy for the education and woman empowerment, our missions were clear and it took a lot of work to lay framework for the vision of the future for each of these projects.  I think each and everyone of us accomplished something amazing at the end of the day and it does not get anymore positive than that!

We will also not forget all of the other invaluable experiences that came along with the journey.  The time spent out each weekend seeing something new and different as a team was incredible.  Especially, in getting to know so many cultures and the ways things work across the world. Although here, we must talk about the richness of the Senegalese people as part of those invaluable experiences.  Everyone of them that we worked with opened their heart and welcomed us with open arms to their country.  Had it not been for the warm welcome, or “Teranga” as they call it, we could not have accomplished so much in such little time.   Not to mention how the food and music stand out in amongst all cultures our team had experienced in the past.

Thorn

For the negatives, I do not think that I can point to a single enormous negative over our four weeks.  What I do know is that almost everyone was uncomfortable at one point or another.   Most of that initial discomfort came from the different food and environment that makes just about everyone feel a bit strange when they travel to a different part of the world.   Second, I am also sure that almost each of us felt exposed at one point or another in the way we work.   Our working styles stood in contrast to others with such a diverse set of working styles on the team, and of course such exposure can lead to tension and conflict.   Finally, a thorn for many was not being near my loved ones for such an extended period of time.  Some of the team members had children who missed them dearly, while others had significant others they had to leave to come to a place they did not understand.

Bud

Despite all the uncomfortable times with the food or the work and missing our loved ones back home, we pushed through the thorns.   We pushed through, not by charging at them full force like a bull, but by lifting each other up above the thorns through our supportive efforts, in effect becoming the family that we had all left at home.  Once we jelled as a family there was no limit to what we could accomplish and those results are the buds of hope that will grow into the future of Senegal and it is up to the Senegalese we worked with to grow those buds into saplings and then trees to create an even more amazing country.

On the flip side, the Senegalese people, the team, and our work left a bud inside of each and everyone of us. From the amazingly friendly nature of the Senegalese to the iron clad support of our team members to our work styles being exposed in the contrast of cultures, each of us saw our weaknesses and strengths in full action, leaving buds of ideas of how to improve ourselves in our heads.  In order to cultivate those buds we must not return to the same day to day routine, we must till and irrigate our land.  From that fertile soil will come beauty, but only if we take the time to make the bud grow into the beautiful rose bushes that live inside each and everyone of us.   In effect, if we can nurture the buds inside of us, then Senegal will have no problem nurturing the buds that we left inside of it.

A Final Thank You

At the end of the day we also have to thank IBM for the opportunity and all the administrators (Jamie McDonald, Monica Murray, Gopalakrishnan Kolathu, Julie Elliot, Tidiane Gueye, Sidi Ali Maelanin, Samantha Chaou, Kotheid Nicoue, et al.) that made this amazing journey happen - Thank you!

And from the bottom of my heart thank you to everyone who made this journey possible, especially to the special 15 of Senegal 5!

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Just Going for a Walk

There are a couple of things that I love doing while immersing myself in various different cultures through out the world, like visiting the grocery store, going to markets, drinking the local beer / wine / liqueur, looking at art, etc.  My all time favorite is to just grab a few things and go for a walk!  You can see so much more detail if you just take time to walk, smell the flowers, and say hello to the people.

As we headed north from our hotel we first walked through a market, that was almost completely closed since everyone was away for a Holy day in Touba, the Senegalese holy city.  While empty, one can imagine it full of people trying to sell you everything you could possibly want, need, or never knew existed:

Here’s a local bus stop:

Here’s what the common cafe of Dakar:

The grand Mosque of Dakar:

A Local food market:

Here is some brand new construction, which is quite common in Dakar, and a sign that if I come back in ten years how much the city will change:

A common tribe of goats in the streets:

The biggest fishing village Dakar (all the fishing boats are done by mid day but are all uniquely and beautifully decorated):

Beautiful murals:

And last but not least, walks on the beach:

The walk through the city was amazing, from main streets, to cosy neighborhoods.  Everywhere there were children playing, foosball and games were on the side of the road for all to use, artisans painting, and sellers from left to right.  Dakar is a vibrant city with so much life, beauty, and fun that I hope to be able to come back and see how it has grown!  

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Bandia Reserve

When the group made plans to go to Bandia Reserve, I was a bit skeptical as to what we were walking into.  I have been to a number of zoos in my life and a lot of the time animals are sleeping and are not too active and can sometimes not seem too happy.  I went as I wanted to spend time with the group and keep the experience going.   The day started out on an interesting note since most buses in the city were heading to Touba, the holy city of Senegal, for an event we could only get a last minute bus.  Andddd the bus turned out to be a sardine van that we just barely fit into:

Once we arrived I began to get a very different feeling about the place.  The grounds were enormous and all animals were allowed to wander and spent the day as they pleased, they even make artificial watering holes to make sure the animals can find water all year round.

Our group split into two smaller 4x4 vehicles and headed off into a massive reserve to find animals.  We did drive around for some time but we finally caught the tracks of the animals and started seeing a lot! Here is what one of the 4x4s looked like:

First we saw giraffes:

Then Rhinos:

Then Gazelle (also the name of Senegal national beer!):

Then Zebras:

Then Forest Buffalo (the most dangerous animals in the reserve as they will attack you as soon as you get out of the car):

Then Ostrich:

And of course some time to goof off on the many Baobab trees:

Finally just outside the place to eat lunch were a happy bunch of crocodiles:

Another great day in Paradise of Senegal!

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What have I been eating?

I have had a couple requests in my conversations with folks about what have I been eating in Senegal and what is the food like?  I already did an entry on the fast food I have had in the early days but now that I have been exploring and eating a large variety of dishes its time to share again.  As result I decided to take some time and share pictures.

First let me say that Fish has been the corner stone of my diet just based on the shear number of pictures that I have of fish related meals:

Also very large shrimps:

I am also trying to fit in as much espresso as I possibly can here as its delicious and gives me the fuel on need:

Plenty of kebabs either right off the grill or stuffed between pizza type breads here:

And finally one of the most common and famous dishes of Senegal Thiebou jen, which is an extremely filling and delicious meal:

Also let me not forgot my standard Hotel breakfast every morning of one omlette with ham and cheese, two hard boiled eggs, two crepes with Nutella and fruit, one buttered roll, two to four strips of bacon, and occasionally throwing in some beans and plantains when available with an Americano.  I also make sure to throw in a ginger juice to boost digestion.  The breakfast is packed full of energy and keeps me going to whenever lunch may be that day! 

There are still some more dishes that I have been hunting for and have not found like Mafe and Pastels, but I will keep searching! 

Overall, Senegalese food consists of a small amount of meat and vegetables a large amount of rice, which is a diet pretty similar to what I eat at home.  It seems to keep me we feed and full of energy through all the hot days here.  I did some research on how to keep having Senegalese food when I go home and here are some good sites for references to Senegalese dishes that are very accurate:

https://www.thekitchn.com/five-dishes-from-senegal-and-a-122630

https://www.finedininglovers.com/blog/food-drinks/senegalese-cuisine/

I also already found a Senegalese Restaurant back home in Boston here that I can’t wait to check out when I get back home:

http://terangaboston.com/

I am looking forward to bringing Senegalese food to all my friends back home!

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Culture is everything

After many days of tourist type experience one of the members of the group reached out to our translators to see where we could go to see Senegalese culture in action.  What they found was a concert that we could go to by the artist Sidy Diop.   Half the group decided that it would be fun to go, the only catch was that the concert did not start until 1 AM in the morning so many of us had to catch evening naps and then a snack and some energy drinks before even going.  

The event actually took place in what would be a Senegalese club, which certainly fit the definition being in the basement of a building.  Arriving just after 1 AM we were surprised to find that almost no one else had arrived and there was no one playing, in fact they were still doing sound check.  There was not even an opening act on before him!  As time went on still no one was playing and then some of the group went on stage to play with the drums.  Then we spent time practicing our dances moves until the concert go under way around 230 AM in the morning.  We then all go our feet moving for a little while, until our bodies could not move anymore!  In the end the music was truly different and the dancing was different from anything I had ever seen before.

Here’s a link to Side Diop on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0BB34wrtvSC9NGBDVqrSY3

Here is a good video of Sidy Diop and friends dancing to his own music here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTxtG1ra98Q

Let me know if you are able to pick that up in a night!  

In other good news, there’s plenty of Senegalese music on Spotify to keep the cultural exploration going!

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A Day to Remember

With the third week beginning and being so busy I wanted to take my mind back to the last weekend we had.  Once again our local Pyxera Global manager Tidiane Gueye did an amazing job putting together a relaxing weekend for us around and outside Dakar.  

To start the weekend off right we had our weekly team meeting followed by everyone on the team going out to dinner together at a local place called “La Plancha”!  Something we had not done all week! And of course I waned an entire Thiof fish but they were out of the fish so I ended up having a fish called “Le Capitan”, which was equally as good!

The next morning we then got up and got right out the door to the Pink Lake or by the local name “Lak Rose”.  Driving to the lake took just over an hour but boy was the lake pink, er well, maybe more of a red color, but it was definitely like no lake color I had ever seen before

After sailing on the pink lake for a little it was then time to hop in a 4x4 vehicle and circumnavigate the Pink Lake.  We were thinking that we would just be inside of small SUVs for the trek, but we were wrong and all 17 of us piled into the beast below:

From there we saw how to locals were extracting salt from the Pink Lake and drying it in the sun and then used to make Epsom salt, which is be good for bathing in.

Then we took the 4x4 of through the sand dunes:

Then we drove along the ocean side back to where we started:

We then ended the day with a delicious meal and relaxation by a local pool:

Overall a perfect day to go along with an already amazing experience!

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The Half way point

When I first started on this journey, 4 weeks seemed like quite a bit of time. After the first week I still had the impression that we had plenty of time. Despite that feel I was pushing to get through the design thinking exercises so we had the most time to work on the hard deliverables.   Now at the end of the second week I am starting to feel tense as if I will not have enough time to get everything done and in as detailed fashion as I would like to see.  

Our project consists of two goals, one for a technical study for an HIV treatment tracking system and the second to help configure DHIS2 (a system specialized for tracking health campaigns).  The first week was spent trying to understand everything that needed to be done and talking with as many stakeholders as possible for the second and larger objective.   From there we were able to generate a stake holder map, empathy maps, as well as start on the as-is scenario for how they doing things these days.

Then in week two we met all of the stake holders for both objectives and started building out the scenarios and requirements that each stake holder would like to see.  Once all of the information was in place we then got the whole Africare team together to walk them through what we found.  They were quite impressed with our work and I think they all came out of the meeting with a better understanding of what the problem was.   We then followed that up with  the team to go over big ideas and prioritize the ones from most important to less important as well as must have features.

Finally, in the last couple of days it has been nose to the grind stone doing all of the research for the technical study and getting around to reading and configuring DHIS2.  The experience can be epitomized with plenty of time starring at walls and papers completely covered in sticky notes like the following:

As well as plenty of late night meetings to sync up from what we have learned from throughout the day:

If we have too many late nights we might not be smiling and cracking as many jokes!

The road ahead will be full of work but the deliverable will be well worth it and I hope Africare will be able to continue towards the successful eradication of HIV in West Africa.

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Time for a weekend break in Dakar!

I really have to give kudos for the Pyxera global host Tiadiane Gueye as he has been extremely accommodating and is on top of all the weekend planning.   I had to take a moment to mention that the first Saturday in Dakar was great and it is all thanks to Tidiane.  Granted the day started out early, really early, but it was worth it.  Tidiane had us scheduled for a “Community Day”.  I was not quite sure what that day would involve, but we ended up going to ANHMS.  ANHMS in French is “L’Association Nationale Des Han dices Moteurs Du Senegal”, which is an organization that takes in disabled people of all ages and makes them feel welcome and at home and provide for themselves rather than having to beg on the street.

The link to the organization can be found here:

http://anhms.courantsdefemmes.org/

After getting an introduction to the facility we spent the afternoon having fun with all the kids that were there. I spent my time with a young boy making a clay Baobab tree:

It was a truly rewarding experience and it inspired me to spend more time volunteering back home.

Then later on in the day after a quick nap Tidiane took us all to a National Soccer game with amazing seats:

And guess what?!?! Senegal won the match 3-0 against Sudan and then went on to beat Sudan again to go to the Africa National Championship, go Senegal!

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Traffic in Dakar

Dakar like many modern cities is no stranger to traffic.  However, if I tell my friends that traffic was bad it means something completely different from traffic in Dakar.   Driving in Dakar is an experience just in of itself.  The city was designed in an ingenious way to have almost NO traffic lights!  That means, so much less to fix and speed bumps and round about galore to control the traffic.   As a result of the design people go when they can but I’m sure as more people could afford cars they started driving and the roads became crowded.   With the level of crowded streets people tend to let others go so you must sneak your nose out in order to go.  That being said none of this is done in an aggressive way, just many cars packed on the roads inches from each other moving a couple feet at a time!

Not to mention plenty of different obstacles like here:

And the occasional grid lock:

Despite making logistics difficult and people frequently late, it has given my team and I time to get to know our hosts, driver, and translator quite well.   Joking, playing music, and just plain of shooting the breeze.  

Here’s the happy bunch here:

I think I’ll miss those relaxing times with everyone in a few short weeks.

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Senegalese Fast Food

With running around and interviewing all of the key stakeholders for our project with Africare lunch has come to be squeezed even in the first week of work.  No problem since the Senegalese are no strangers to fast food just like we are back home in America.  

In the first picture is what Caesers fast food looks like in Senegal.  The second picture is what I got, which was called a “Taco”.  The taco was a combination of chicken, beef, French fries, and barbecue sauce wrapped up a carb delivery mechanism.  The final picture is the all famous hamburger, also served with French fries on it.

After having fast food several times here I have to say that I like it more than McDonalds!

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Meeting our host Africare

On Monday October 8th, after two days of seeing the sites around the city of Dakar, it was time to officially meet our clients and start getting to work.   Our client is Africare, an NGO that works primarily in Western Africa on a number of initiatives from HIV prevention to childhood nutrition to food vouchers.  The opening ceremony started off with overviews of each teams assignments for the four weeks.

After the presentation and a hefty lunch it was time to get down to business and start to get to know our client and start to figure out our assignment.

Above is all of us sitting together for the first time.  Going from left to right we have Ouleye - Africare Monitoring and Evaluation Chair, Mor Toure - Africare Project Coordinator for Senegal Armed Forces UNAIDS program - Ineke Van de Loo - My teammate and HR profressional - myself - Divya Garg - My teammate and Client facing professional in GBS - and finally our lovely translator Aita. 

Our assignment from Africare is two fold:

1. To help configure their District Health Information System to allow for superior reporting of indicators to their donors.

2. To conduct a technical study for the HIV UNAIDS program they are running with the Senegalese Armed Forces to better scale their HIV tracking and reporting.

I am excited to see what I will learn doing all of this! 

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I am finally here in Africa and traveling has been an exhausting whirlwind.  My flight was anything but direct.  I left from Boston at 9:43 PM on Thursday night and flew to Dublin.   Plane ride was smooth  Fortunately the gates were close so I managed to take a pit stop and get an official Irish breakfast!   After that I took off to Paris to meet up with people on the final plane ride to Dakar.  Once in Dakar a 35 minute ride to the hotel and passed out.  The next morning we finally got to meet as an entire team for the first! (See Picture) Finally together to conquer the world!

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IBM CSC - Education in Review

I just wanted to take a quick minute and mention that finishing the education ended on some high notes that I just had to talk about.  First, covering the logistics and packing lists was really important to getting me mentally ready to go.  I still now feel like I am forgetting something but the packing list is making me feel good about it all. 

Second the modules on Consulting have made me ready to become a trusted advisor and talk through problems with a client.  All the practice of active listening will be really important to getting to the bottom of Senegals most difficult problems. 

Third and finally the Design thinking class gave me the refreshed I needed from all the workshops I had over a year ago.  The class made me ready to tackle my clients most difficult and conceptual problems! 

The education was great and now onto the actual practice of using all of that knowledge! 

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IBM CSC Week 6 & 7 in Review

With the wind at our backs IBM CSC Senegal 5 is pushing strong ahead through the academics of our journey.  Past the first month of team building and more into the nitty gritty of our assignment.  The team is doing well and spirits could not be higher!

First up was a walk through ethics.  In my opinion, ethics is where IBM has always had a strong position in trying to be fair to competition and maintain ethical actions in areas of the world where corruption is present.  There are quite a number of rules in this area, which is why I was happy to see that we had someone from the legal team walk us through all the requirements and what they might mean in a practical sense.   First important take away was that cash donations are prohibited and can set unsustainable expectations.   Second was that nominal gift such as IBM logo merchandise is allowed as long as its <$50, but between CSC members the rules are a bit more flexible. It was also interesting to see during the presentation that Africa is pretty high on the corruption index compared with the rest of the world, but when looking at Senegal specifically compared to the rest of Africa it is one of the better countries.   All this being said I will have to keep an eye out for corruption and bribery, as I am not used to seeing it.

Next was our second cultural adaptability exercise, which involved both a personal and group exercise around conflict resolution.  In each instance there were six scenarios that were read and questions answered about what might be the conflict present, what might be a resolution, and how bad the situation is.  Conflict resolution types we explore were Authority, Intermediary, Consensus, Direct, and Denial. In one scenario there was one person who did not gel with either of their team mates and spent a lot of time in their hotel room.  In another scenario there was someone with a sales manager background that just expected everyone else to do the work.   Once we read and answered questions individually we met with small  groups to come up with a team answers.   With different cultural backgrounds it was quite interesting to see the different approaches folks had to different scenarios and the debate that followed.   In the case of the quiet team member, we really thought he should have spoken up more, but disagreed on how bad his decisions were.   In the second scenario we agreed that the sales manager should have done work, but differed on how strong our response would have been.  After much discussion we did manage to settle on the same resolutions.  Quite the fun exercise!

Almost half way there and excited for what is next!

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IBM CSC First Month in review

With agreeing to go to Senegal and the beginning of the education process the whirlwind of the CSC program is fully underway!  Information has been coming in the classical fire hose fashion, but it keeps you on your toes and really generates that quick learning experience that I’ll use for many years to come.

So where does the CSC education start?  With the TEAM, of course!  With any big adventure it is imperative to know who you are going with.  For the CSC program we each created our personal profiles and then presented who we are to the group.   We were also paired with buddies to get to know a few people in more detail.  The experience was great at both putting ourselves out there and also thinking critically about who we are, which is the basis for creating trust.  All in all, I am excited to work with everyone with such diverse backgrounds.  I’m sure there will be challenges, but I look forward to over coming them with this group!

Next, CSC started to drive us past the individuals and into cohesive unit.  What is the corner stone of any good team?  A Code of Conduct or Social Contract!  In much of my experience so far I have been in teams with very similar backgrounds, and expectations have been unsaid and recognized through observation.  When taking such a diverse group of cultural backgrounds together as a team non-verbal communication and expectations can vary widely.  As a result we had an in depth discussion both over a video conference call and online forum to figure out our Code of Conduct.  From all that discussion I believe we have created a really solid base from which to tackle the complex problems that will be coming down the road.

Finally, we started to review the logistics of going to Senegal.  Health, safety, immunizations, plane tickets, Senegalese culture, security, etc!  Many details, some familiar and some not so much.  What stood out to me the most was the cultural comparison tool that we used.   The tool allowed us to develop a profile of how we work and interact with others and compare that with the Senegalese culture.  The comparison was really cool!  For me it looked like my relationships are more business and transaction oriented compared to the Senegalese people, but our mode of thinking in abstract ways is very similar.  Sounds like I’ll have to focus on building relationships more, but that’s all part of the fun.

Quite a bit in the first month but my anticipation is only growing! Two more month to go, check back again soon, more updates to come from this adventure!

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IBM Corporate Service Corps

After starting at IBM after as my first job out of college I quickly learned about IBM’s coolest program called the Corporate Service Corps (CSC).  The idea is that volunteering time and money do help, but the donation of raw skills in critical areas can create massive improvements and creative solutions to difficult problems.  CSC’s volunteer experience is specifically focused on developing countries where the donation of skills for a month in technology to develop new or steer existing infrastructure or projects can make an amazing difference.  

Of course being of the college mindset, I thought “why of course I want to go to foreign country and help for a month!” And thus started the quest to get into the program, although entry into the program is no easy feat.  IBM only selects about 300 people from a pool of thousands of applicants (harder to get into than top colleges).   The focus of the application is on top performance, volunteering/community service, and passion.  As a result from the very outset of my time at IBM I sought to be a top performer and achieved that level every year until my application acceptance.  Volunteering also came second nature to me as I had done it since I was in high school.  I took leadership roles in professional networks that gave back to the community in many ways. 

Finally, I had to figure out my passion.  Passion is the part of the CSC application that I believe most applicants would struggle to figure out.  I applied several times and only after 5 years at IBM did I manage to get into the program.  During that time I had time to reflect what it was that I really valued in my life.  Values often times come from what we care about most and the life events that shape those interests.  Once one can determine our values, our passions often follow.   One’s application then takes these values and passions and describe how they align with the CSC program and how the program will enable you to do great things in the future! 

I have just now started my pre-work as part of the program and already I have learned so much about myself during the application process.  I cannot wait to see what else I learn about in the coming weeks!