So for those who don’t know, I will soon find myself in Tanzania trekking up Mt Kilimanjaro with a colleague. The plan is to spend a total of 7-8 days going up the mountain.
When you read the websites of the tour operator companies, it’s extremely tempting to think that because it is not a technical climb (where climbing gear is required), that it is just a simple walk in the park, so-to-speak. However, thank goodness for the multiple sources on the Internet! This climb seems like it is going to be very challenging. I am a bit concerned that the endurance and strength training I have been doing might not be enough. My goal is to reach the summit (something that only about 64% of the people attempting the climb on my route actually accomplish) and to be part of the percentage that gets up there. In addition to increasing my training, I have been walking and changed my diet considerably since 01 January. We’ll see if I am successful to get to the top of the summit! What I am missing unfortunately is some form of altitude training that is not available in Stockholm, but in talking to the Climb company, I added in an extra day beyond the normal in order to get used to the altitude.
I am really looking forward to this climb. It will make my trek up the Great Wall seems like a stroll in comparison.
SO wish me luck, health, and success dear friends! I am eager to make it to the summit and to share my success with you 🙂
The time is so close now you can feel it! I am 15 days away from departure. My mind is still in this kinda blur-like state. At our team preparation meeting yesterday we went over our logistics guide, which is a pretty detailed assessment of everything we need to know when we land and how things will be organised. It also had a checklist of what items to bring and some other information which I found in the guidebook that I bought, but it was nice to get confirmation from another source.
Our NGO partner, CDC Development Solutions, has been fantastic in helping us get prepared for the assignment and because they have someone on the ground already in Nigeria, we also get a dose of reality when our imaginations run away with us — or when they they fail to 🙂 And the IBM team has been great as well. We get all of our questions answered – no matter how strange they are. And we get a local perspective as part of our intense cultural preparation.
Last weekend, we had the pleasure to get initial correspondence from our client – and you can feel that they are as excited to work with us as we are with them. Our project team also met for the first time last week (it’s 3 of us on our sub-project) and reviewed our statement of work, asked some questions, and assigned some tasks to be completed. And since two teams are working on two projects with the same client, we will look for synergy. Our really international team (over 12 countries) with our really different cultural and job backgrounds will mesh nicely.
Well….15 days! That is all that remains until departure. And as I type this, I realise that Relaxed Rodney must give way to Planning Rodney. So the first order of business tonight is to take all of these guides and checklists, map out what I need to accomplish to ensure I am prepared (separated by 5 day blocks), and then simply work the plan. Yeah, it is as over-bearing as it sounds. But for a trip like this (Nigeria, plus some time exploring Tanzania), those who are best prepared probably have the best experience 🙂
This week is a fantastic week in terms my IBM Corporate Service Corps project assignment in Nigeria! Not only has my Nigerian visa been sorted out, but we also received our Statements of Work (SoW) today! The assignments will be working mostly with the regional government, but with some non-governmental organisations as well. I am really excited to read through the material and then to meet with our sub-team to go through the approach. So at the moment, I don’t really know what to think since I am in that rather euphoric moment where everything just feels surreal 🙂
So now that I am essentially done with the personal logistics, it feels good to be able to focus on the logistics of my assignment (which is what the SoW about) as well. We have our primary project assignments and then of course we should support each other on the other projects that the team of 15 is working on (we are divided into sub-teams to focus on our projects).
We also finished the last set of presentations on cultural adaptability. And again I have to congratulate my colleagues of putting together such a great set of presentations and materials. I for sure I have saved all of this to my iPad so that I can refer to it whenever I want.
So now it really feels real! Life between now and the next 3 weeks will be busy with my day job, busy with my assignment prep, and busy with my personal prep. But as we get closer, I am only looking more and more forward to the opportunity!
So we are now done with another week of preparation – and one week closer to departure. It’s hard to imagine, but there are only 4 weeks left! Times does really fly!
On our call today we learned that we will get to know the clients we will be working with next week and I am really excited for that! We’ll also get more documentation and information about these clients and other matters next week. I can now imagine myself on the plane on the way to Ado Ekiti because we are so close to the departure date! For me, the milestone to achieve this week is to try and get my visa fully sorted out – hopefully this week! Then at least I know that there is nothing impeding my departure in terms of formalities.
In today’s meeting we went through some more very important administration issues, heard some more presentations on the different topic areas relating to cultural adaptability in Nigeria to help give us an overview (thanks to the team for awesome preparation work!), and we also got a great overview of our Corporate Citizenship Programmes taking place in Nigeria. Every time I hear about the ways we stayed engaged in our communities around the world, I always feel a source of great pride.
I feel as prepared as I can be for Nigeria at this point. But I also know that the next week and the weeks thereafter are going to be a lot of work right up until the point where we arrive in Ado Ekiti. I feel like next week I will be posting about how unprepared I feel, which is something I am looking forward to because it means we move to the next step of preparation before our arrival!
Every day I am looking more forward to this experience than the day before! \o/
So this week commences was the eight week of prep for my #ibmcsc Nigeria assignment (please forgive the tags, they are needed for aggregators, etc) and I have to say that with each passing week it begins to feel more real.
This week the members of our team presented on more topics that they did research on in order to give us background and knowledge as a team. The presentations were well done – as usual with the team. We also got some more preparation information and of the course the usual reminders about the preparation work and admin. For someone like me (who wants to normally jump right in when I am enthusiastic about something), the prep work has been very helpful to help pace me. I was a bit behind all of the prep work last week, but now not only am I caught up, I am happy to say even a bit ahead of schedule 🙂
Outside of our group meetings, I finally got everything right in order to submit my paperwork to the Embassy today here in Stockholm. I had to go in person which was inconvenient but a small price to pay for what will surely be an adventure! \o/
It’s hard to think that in 5 weeks from now I will be in Nigeria on my assignment. I feel mostly prepared, but the happy panic will set in around 2 weeks. There is still a bit to do to prepare for Nigeria as well as the trip after Nigeria to see some more of Africa.
Anyway, that’s enough for now. Wishing all of you a happy and healthy 2013! <3
So it’s been a couple of weeks since I went to Israel and now I am finally finding some time to write about my experiences.
I was there for 5 days (11-16 December) and I was mainly in Tel Aviv with a day trip to Jerusalem. I considered this to be an “overview trip” which is what I call any trip where I am visiting a country for the first time and spend less than a week there. Even in the smallest of nations you need a week at a minimum to take in all of the sites.
If I had to summarise my experience of my trip, I would say that I loved it in Tel Aviv. Jerusalem was okay too, but I have to say that I liked Tel Aviv a lot more. Is Jerusalem is a very religious city, Tel Aviv is it’s secular opposite and as such, in my mind that made it a bit more fun.
For this trip I once again decided to book an apartment rental for the week through AirBnB instead of paying for a hotel room. To be honest, hotel room rates for the “international standard” hotels are as expensive as Stockholm, London, or Paris. Which given the price of things in Israel makes hotels like the Hilton, Sheraton, etc really really expensive. So basically for about €50/night I rented a 90 sqm apartment with bedroom, nice bathroom, nice living area, and a small balcony to myself and saved about 60% compared to a hotel. Raviv (whom I rented the apartment from) was a fantastic host and basically it is my second fantastic AirBnB experience. For personal travel, I might just decide to always use AirBnB. My apartment was located next to the Carmel market which is where can get a taste of bargaining and haggling (to a point) for everything from textiles to food. I was 5 minutes away from the beach and a short 15 minute walk away from everything I wanted. So I was at the perfect location. Central, but not in the middle of everything.
Being pleased with my accommodations, the first night I didn’t set out too far from the apartment. I took my map and took a walk around to get familiar with the area and get a general lay of the land. It was nice to trade in my winter jacket for a light parka. I found a cozy restaurant near my apartment and had a nice meal. Where I lived seemed to be a melting pot of cultures and it showed in the people who surrounded me. And it showed in the food I was eating too 🙂 After the restaurant I took a bit of a further walk and found a bar where there were lots of smiling and laughing people. So after settling in for a drink, I got to talking with an Israeli couple (a guy and a girl) and we had a really nice conversation. A couple of rounds later they had to leave so I stayed a bit longer to finish my drink. I ended up chatting with a couple more people and basically ended the night at the bar in listening mode. I listened to their stories, their impressions, and opinions. But I didn’t have any opinions to offer of my own (perhaps that frustrated them at times, but their thoughts were more interesting than mine because they live the experience whereas I am just a visitor).
The next day I woke up rather late (thanks for those killer gin and tonics). Now to understand me in vacation mode is to understand that I operate without an agenda. Before I got to Tel Aviv I made a list with 9 things I wanted to see and do, but it is just a list. It can be changed whenever I want and there is no prescribed order or priority to anything. I actually spent an unusually long time on my balcony drinking coffee and eating some of the bread, fruits, and yoghurt I got at the market the night before. I spent the day essentially walking around and looking at monuments, visiting the Art Museum, and buying a local sim card (since it included internet access which meant I wouldn’t be disconnected from the digital world entirely). A stop for a drink, a bit to eat, or a coffee here and there and I have to say that I felt pretty good with my Wednesday. I made my own dinner (the perk of renting an apartment) where I tried (and failed) to make “Middle East-inspired Tapas”. They weren’t all bad. They just weren’t all good either *lol* After dinner, I decided to make my way out to some gay bars and cafes. A lot of hours later, I eventually made it home to the apartment. Not really intoxicated by any means, but more looking forward to seeing the nightlife on the weekend (which is Israel is on Friday and Saturday). The one thing I notice here clearly is that all active duty soldiers (mostly the guys though) carry their guns with them everywhere they go. I was curious and asked why and the one soldier who talked with me said it was because at any minute they might need to be deployed and that doesn’t always include time to run back to the barracks to get their weapons. Fair enough. I didn’t feel more or less safe because of it. I’ve seen this in other countries so I wasn’t fazed. The other thing you notice is that you are required to pass through a metal detector in major building (government buildings, malls, pretty much any building that would be well-visited). It felt a bit sad that this is required, but one can clearly understand the safety reasons for it.
On Thursday, I decided that this was the day to visit Jerusalem. So after another leisurely breakfast, I left around 09.00 for the 75 minute bus ride to Jerusalem. I started my day there as I start every holiday – getting lost in the city (the new part). In this case, I got really really lost and missed some things that I wanted to see in the newer part of Jerusalem. I ended up taking a taxi to the older part of Jerusalem where I saw the Western Wall, The Dome of the Rock, and was wandering through a maze of shops and stalls. Whilst I can say that Jerusalem was peaceful, you could sense a tension near the sites of religious significance. At no time did I feel unsafe, and basically there was a strong armed presence of Israeli soldiers, but in some areas of the city, you could feel that the peace is tenuous. In this trip I decided to skip over Bethlehem, but I will look forward to visiting them in the next trip that I made to Israel. After wandering around aimless for another 2 hours taking in more monuments and sights, I headed back for Tel Aviv. In the evening I met a colleague (Amit) who was kind enough to bring me out to dinner and then drive me around Tel Aviv giving me a tour of the different residential areas. It was great to catch up with Amit. In my next trip, I will for sure catch up with Schlomo who I haven’t seen in ages (promise promise promise!)
On Friday I had a rather light day. More exploring areas of Tel Aviv, and making some final purchases before the Sabbath (which is from Friday late afternoon until Saturday early evening). Basically most things close because of the Sabbath. There are some small exceptions, but all public services and most shops observe the Sabbath even in Tel Aviv. So it was interesting to have most of the city shut down on a day I would expect it to mostly stay open. That being said, I have the feeling that Tel Aviv was more open than Jerusalem would be because Tel Aviv is more secular in nature and has more tourists. I ended up starting my evening at a bar where I met up with some British travellers who were trekking through. Several beers later we made an agreement to meet at the bar again for some goodbye drinks since they were really good guys. They tried to give me tips on picking up the ladies for which I laughed and then offered to give them tips for picking up guys (more laughter ensued). I went back to my apartment after stopping at the market to shop for the items to make dinner. After making dinner (not as adventurous this time, tabbouleh and grilled chicken with some spices from the market), I took a nap and then headed out to the bars and clubs. For some reason I was more tired than excited to go out and then went home pretty early, but not before meeting a cool guy and we hung out for a bit.
Saturday was also pretty cool. Got a late start to the day so I decided to walk to Yafo (Jaffa) and explore the port areas and the side streets. I have to say that I liked this part of town too. It felt very lively. Waked along the beach for a bit and took a lot of pictures and then eventually after several hours made it back home just in time for the Sabbath to end and the city to come alive again. I decided to take some dinner at the restaurant from the first night. Then I took an evening walk around the city and decided to hit the gay bars and clubs again. They were crowded but not overloaded which I enjoyed and ending up having a great night, even though it was a Saturday (which is their version of Sunday).
Sunday arrives and it is time to go home. I clean up the apartment, take a relaxed and leisurely breakfast, and then go to meet the British boys for a couple more rounds. I think were all were surprised that we showed up 🙂 So we talked about the weekend and what we did since we last met. We inevitably made the comparisons between Israel and our respective home countries. Some hand shakes and best wishes on future travels and then it was time for me to return back to my apartment to check out. I met Raviv (owner of the apartment), thanked him for letting me rent his apartment and then was on my way to the airport.
Now…the airport experience requires its very own section. Coming into the airport (which is billed as the World’s Most Secure Airport) I was stopped by security who asked me some basic questions (first time here? who am I visiting? etc, etc?). This lasted for about 75 seconds. I then went onwards to Customs/Immigration Border agents who basically asked me the same set of questions. This time the questioning took about 3 minutes and I had to show the address of where I was staying. And basically I was done. I have heard many stories of it taking hours from when you land to when you get our baggage and leave the airport, but I experienced none of that. I don’t have any reasons as to why my experience was the way it was, but I don’t ask questions. I’m a rather vanilla kinda of guy I guess. The “fun” came in leaving Israel…
When you get to the airport, there is someone in uniform who is clearly profiling people, and he ended up profiling me. Again, asking about 30 seconds worth of questions. Then you get into the queue to get to the check-in for your flight. From there you are subjected to more behavioral interviewing, your bags go through an initial scan, they can potentially go through a more detailed examination, and then you get to check in. I missed the initial detailed examination probably because I only have a carry on). I check in and then go to the security gates. At the security gate, then my bag get the full work over. Everything is tested for explosives and scanned and I answer questions about any items they wonder about. It is clear that speed is not the concern – it is safety. But again, you understand the reasons behind it, so it is nothing to get frustrated about. And they seem to treat most people equally. Like with any multi-faceted security approach, they have visible and non-visible methods. Whatever helps them to achieve security given the environment I am okay with it. I was only surprised that it took 2 hours to complete the experience (note: I wasn’t examined for 2 hours…the waiting and the speed of the line is the time waster). So after that it was soon time to board (and get in some duty shopping) and then a short time later back in the coldness of Scandinavia and Sweden.
Overall, I would gladly repeat what I said at the beginning – Israel was a great experience and I look forward to visiting again. The people I met were genuine, nice, and sincere. Right now I am planning to celebrate Tel Aviv Pride in June as the next time I return. Anyone want to join me? 🙂
Finally, here are some pictures for those who would like to see what random things I took pictures of. There link goes to all of the pictures, but here are some of my favourites…
A randon picture in Tel Aviv along the beachPrayers being given against the Western Wall, a wall of religious significance to Jewish and Muslim faithsDome of the Rock from the exterior…I wasn’t allowed inside 🙁Picture of old Jerusalem from where I was standingA marketplace in Jerusalem. I didn’t buy anything, but then I have enough stuff already…Me with the ocean at my back. 20 degrees is winter in Israel, but summer to me.
Well it seems that I am not doing the best job in the world of updating my preparation for my upcoming trip to Nigeria on a weekly basis like I had hoped. So I have been jotting down some notes here and there and now I finally have the opportunity to put them down on digital paper.
Weeks 6 and 7 are not continuous weekly. We didn’t have a meeting on 5 December and because I was on vacation in Irsael, I had to listen to the recording on Week 6 (12 December). However, I did attend our prep call for 19 December (Week 7), which was our last call of the year, and essentially concludes the second month of preparation.
Week 6 (12 December)
If I had to summarise Week 6, it would be that the administrative details and the logistical requirements are rather easy, but making the time for them is difficult. It’s the normal pressures of work against the ‘homework’ requirements that we have combined with the need to get through all of the formalities such as obtaining our visas, etc, etc. It is pressure that can be handled of course, but it does leave us with a lot to do.
In terms of the preparation meeting we had this week (again, thanks to the team for recording the call), we got to hear more details from our colleagues in Nigeria about some more of what we can expect which was nice because it is always good to get first-hand knowledge. Our ‘Alumni’ member assigned to our team (someone who has done a Corporate Service Corps community project in the country before) also provided us with some valuable insight.
I think for many of us, the thing that is still outstanding (and most eagerly awaited) is to know what our assignments will be. Who will we be working with (we are told that Ado Ekiti is most dedicated to university education and the government)? What issues will be working on? How do we ensure we make the best start possible? What is clear from the team is a great commitment to get started and to do a good job. Personally for me, there is a positive pressure that I am putting on myself to make sure that we do at least as good of a job as our predecessors. Once we know the issues that we will be working on, I plan to make full use of our global project library to contact and work with experts.
So that is what Week 6 was about…preparation, homework, exciting building, sharing how we feel about the assignment, and lots of admin and logistics!
Week 7 (19 December)
It’s our last meeting for 2012. And it’s hard to imagine that since getting our initial notifications that only 9-10 weeks have. Goodness how quickly time is flying! We began our meeting with a status on more logistics and preparation of course! I got a timely reminder that I had to visit a travel doctor in order to fix any required vaccinations that I need and medicines I must secure before I travel. According to a lot of people, the vaccinations will be very expensive. However, since I was already traveling a lot for IBM as a IT Auditor and then for my personal travels, I don’t think I’ll need as many vaccinations as my colleagues had to get (Note: My assumption turned out to be correct. I needed 2 booster shots and everything else was in order). And of course then there is sorting out the visa. I have completed most of the paperwork for the visa, but I have confess that I have not filed it yet. First because you have to show evidence of being vaccinated against Yellow Fever. Second, the different websites I have been checking have shown different information requirements and fees. So I will contact the Nigerian Embassy in Stockholm again in early January (after the Christmas break period) to sort it out once and for all. When I contacted them earlier this month, they were very helpful and told me that with the correct paperwork, the visa should be approved and in my passport within 4 days of submission.
Today was also presentations by members of the team on certain topics relating to Nigeria in terms of culture and customs. It is a great way to get us engaged and committed to learning more about the destination country. The presentations were really good actually – I have saved them to my DropBox account so that I can have easy reference to them to read when I am community or otherwise don’t have access to my laptop. Our IBM Nigeria colleague was on hand as well to serve kind of as a point of truth and I have to say that everyone pretty much passed. Of course books and reality are always a bit different from each other, but I was impressed with the level of energy the team has. I also learned that even through I have like 14 hours of air travel, there will essentially be a 1-hour time difference between Stockholm and Ado Ekiti. No that doesn’t mean that I will be taking work calls. It does mean however that I should have less of a time adjustment to make over everyone else. Speaking of my day job – I also have to make a note to review my coverage plan with everyone covering for me and to make sure that I share it with my managers and other interested parties. I want to make sure that I am fully focused on my CSC assignment.
Frustratingly, we still don’t have our assignments for what we will be doing in Ado Ekiti. It is entirely normal that we don’t get details until Month 3 of our preparation (January….yikes! It is so close) so I look forward to getting the details in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, there is still plenty of admin and homework to be done – and I have to confess that I am behind. Guess who will be a bit busy during Christmas and New Years playing catch up? 🙂
Our next week is the first Wednesday in January. I am basically 6 weeks from departure, yet I feel remarkably calm and related about the CSC engagement. It’s the other things surrounding the engagement that have me a bit nervous 🙂 But all things will work out. We have a lot of great support and material to help me be as a prepared as possible 🙂 So all I can say is “bring it on!” 😀
So yesterday we had another preparation meeting for our upcoming trip to Nigeria. It was our Third meeting (I missed last week’s meeting). Yesterday’s prep meeting was pretty awesome because we got to hear from someone who was part of the last Nigeria team (Team 5). Although that Team was in Lagos and we will be going to Ado Etiki, the country and cultural overview was very much appreciated.
I think in the meeting we found ourselves asking general questions…maybe even silly questions. But in fact, there are no silly questions when you are embarking on a journey such as this. We had lots of really good questions on the logistics (we need to finalise on those quite soon), what to expect about our living conditions (internet might be a scare resource), what kinds of projects we would work on (issue-based consulting projects), typical diet of the population (we have vegetarians in the group), travel logistics (Ado Ekiti seems about a few hours from everything else), and of course our security situation which seems fine to me. Our meetings are also attended by our NGO partner as well who gives us good insights and helps us understand the overall process.
To give you a sense of placement within Nigeria, this is where we are:
Also, the true scope of pre-work has now also dawned on me (and probably the team). There is the “easy” administrative stuff, but we know that within 4-6 will come the work that is associated with the projects themselves. I am honestly a ball of energy about this! Nothing would make me happier than to just dig in right away, but I have to trust in the structure and the methodology so that I don’t drown in good intentions.
It also now just hits me that when I plan to be in Ado Ekiti, that also means that I need to plan time away from my job and time away from Sweden. There are many logistical things that have to be planned and coordinated at work (coverage for meetings, etc, etc), and at home. But it all will sort out because I will make sure it does.
Finally, it seems that many in the group are planning to do something after the CSC assignment ends. Whether that is climbing mountains in Tanzania or safaris or anything in between, I find the adventurous nature of the group refreshing and inspiring. In a way reminding me of how I used to behavior before getting comfortably settled into my “Svensson Life” 🙂
Well I don’t want to drone on forever…so I will end it here until next time 😀
Yesterday we had our first kick-off call as a team of people who are going to Nigeria as part of IBM’s Corporate Service Corps (CSC). All of the team members were present as well as the operations and support team who will be helping us with the logistics. We are Nigeria Team 6, meaning we will be the 6th IBM team to do a project in Nigeria. We spent a good part of the call making some introductions to each other, but I suspect we will have a lot more opportunity to get to know each other. We spent the other part of the call getting an overview of the programme, what we will need to do, and some more initial information with the promise of more to come. We also got to ask questions. We asked about the logistics of travel, security, types of projects, etc. I left the call feeling satisfied that we are on our way – and in some way wanting to quicken the pace 🙂
I awoke this morning to find several administrative and logistical e-mails in my inbox, including forms for travel, pre-work assignments, and more overview information. It somehow now feels real. Like there is no turning back (like I would want to). It’s hard not to feel excited for what is about to happen: the opportunity to serve, a new adventure, a new experience. I can already tell that this will not be about “kissing babies and shaking hands.” We will get some real work done, and I am confident that we will have real results to show for it.
Well last week I got to “escape” (the weather was actually beautiful in Stockholm has week for a change) Stockholm and went to Paris with work to attend a conference and I have to say that I fell in love with Paris all over again.
My only regret is that I didn’t spend enough time there to get even further acquainted with the city. There are so many things to love about Paris I don’t even know where to begin. And as with any city I leave on the last day, I left with a determination that I would visit one day again, sooner rather than later 😀
