For those of you who might not know, I am about to embark on an opportunity of a lifetime.
About a year ago, I was sitting in my parent's living room in NY and filling out an application to join the IBM Corporate Services Corp. About two years ago, IBM started a program allowing 400 employees each year to take a month long service assignment, working on community service type projects in emerging markets. I had to summarize in 200 characters or less how I felt about corporate social responsibility and global volunteerism and other such things. It was very hard to summarize in only a few sentences and I hit send, thinking my chances were pretty slim that I would be accepted. A few months later, I received an email saying I had been accepted and that I would find out where in the world I was going 4 months prior to starting! I was quite excited but also thinking, guess there is no turning back now! I had ranked my preferences - SE Asia, South America, Eastern Europe and then Africa and then I waited and I waited and finally in December I received my mission - I was going to Jaipur, India! huh, where?
At first I thought, India? how did that happen, I really wanted to go to Vietnam like my co-worker John last year or maybe Malaysia or China. I was familiar with Vietnam and China and they were comfortable countries. All I could think about was Slumdog Millionaire. For those of you that know me well, I want to be able to help everyone, and I tend to get stressed out in situations where I have no control or the ability to help make a difference. All I could think about is how overwhelmed I was going to be in India, kinda like when I was in Tokyo and felt 1) extremely tall and 2) very claustrophobic because there were people and buildings and cars and things everywhere. Come to think of it, I felt that way in Vegas too. That was when the adventure began...
The first thing I did, I went to the library. I checked out every book they had on Jaipur and India and started to figure out where I was going to be. I read through all the stuff IBM sent me, including how I would have basic lodging (mosquito net if needed), and that this wasn't a normal business trip. I would have a bed and a clean bathroom, hmmm...I started to think what have I gotten myself into. Well, that was back in December, and now I'm a week away from starting my 27 hour trip to the "Pink City" of Jaipur. The guest house where we are staying looks really lovely, and Jaipur is supposed to be a beautiful, amazing city, smack dab in the middle of Northern India. Did I mention that I love Indian food?
Each week since December, we've had team conference calls and we've been learning about India - customs, culture, doing business, etc, etc. I virtually met my team, there are 11 of us, me being the only American and native English speaker. We are from all over the world (Singapore, Mexico, Sweden, Germany, Hungary, Turkey, Spain, Poland) and all work for IBM. We have 5 projects with different non-profits/NGOs that we are divided to work on, but will all be based in the same hotel. The rest I'll figure out once I get there.
Over the next 6 weeks I'll be updating my blog, posting pictures, links, etc, etc and trying to keep everyone in the loop on what I'm doing, working on, etc. I have my project assignment, which I'll write more on later, it is very interesting and sounds really rewarding. For now, time to finish my taxes, figure out who is going to mow the lawn (any volunteers?), get my malaria pills, and starting making my countdown checklist. Plenty more to come later....
