First Working day - The most exciting day ever!!!!

IBM-CDC CSC Orientation Workshop

Even before we had left for Ghana, the agenda for today was already planned. It was the first day we would start our official assignment in Ghana. The morning session was packed with talks from IBM Country General Manager, Deputy Director from the Ministry of Education in Ghana followed by presentations from the clients on their successes, challenges and expectations of IBM. Another item on the agenda was a presentation from the sub-teams on the finalized scope of work and a high level plan.

In anticipation of this presentation, our team had met up on sunday(the day before) to talk about the best and worst case solution we could offer based on the little we understood about the requirements. So far, all our earlier communication with the client had been through not the best telephonic media and over e-mail and this was gonna be the first time we met them face to face and we had to all agree on our target and assignment for the next month!

My clients - camera shy on Day1

I don't know about anyone else.. but I was apprehensive to say the least! By the time the initial introductions were done with, I had already started thinking how the principal looked very serious and some of the others looked like Indian govt people... I was ready to pee in my pants!!!!

You see, we had been prepared by others based on their experience with other schools and in general that our client was a govt organization and would need a push from our end.. and that in Ghana, no one would counter the opinion of a senior person like the Principal so if you wanted their opinion, other means like voting, directed questions were suggested. At the start, in my pre-conceived notion head, it totally looked like we weren't gonna get all our questions answered today!

SOS Presentation - An eye-opener into the world or orphages

Oh! but it so wasn't!!! In my best dreams, I had never imagined we would find such an open minded, driven bunch of individuals! They were the Principal, Assistant Director, Head of IT and professor of Textile and they were brilliant! They clearly had already planned a few things for us - a full week's schedule, some activities and interactions.. for them as well, had started collecting profiles of people they could take the solution forward with.. gosh and were they open to modifying it to what makes sense, eager to work long, work late, whatever it took! They ideated with the principal and gave their own opinions, talked about non-project ideas, listened to and ellicited opinion on how things work in different parts of the country. It was the most wonderful two hours that could ever be. At the end, we not just had a roadmap on what we were going to achieve in the next three and a half weeks, we also had a detailed schedule for the next one and immediate to-dos both for them and us!

IBM CSC 100, IBM CGM Ghana, CDC and all clients

And with all that, they were just such a pleasure. Before this break-out session, we had had lunch with the staff and fun conversation about various things from IBM laptop's lack of stylishness.. to Ghanian festivals ..to food .. to teleconferencing and how Japanese and Ghanians need to see the people they're talking to.. to many things. Probably this bonding is what helped in the actual discussion.. god bless CDC for having the processes in place to enable us to do this.

Gosh, excited about the days ahead!

Day 2 In Country - Baby's Day Out

Francis - Liaisoning as usual!

Tema Fishing Dock

Around Tema, to the gorgeous looking but interesting smelling Tema fishing dock, Tema harbour, a few churches, nice relatively nearby beach, community 1 market with loud lovely Ghanaian music on the streets ..

Comm1 Market - very africa

Africa wouldn't be the same without the little ones :)

The first thing that hit me about Africa is that people are so stylish.. na, not like just walked off the ramp kinds.. just that each one pays attention to styling their hair differently or well fitting clothes with different cuts or patterns.. like they're conscious of it and I agree that that is what the entire world is moving towards now, but that's not something you see in remote off-locations so much.. do you?

They say just like hamburg

Buy Ghana Made!

Old dogs.. old tricks

Recently, I've been scrambling to get the ideal combination of open-source, free, recommended software for the client in Tema and looking at the best way to tie in dreamweaver, tomcat, mySql with eclipse. It's only when a non-technical team member asked if these were heavy enterprise products, did at some point it hit me, that maybe a four software combination isn't something a non-technology centric school might be able to manage when we're not there. In this case then, a better solution is probably a single ready package software like OpenAdmin for schools, which may be limiting, though much more easier for a less IT Capable school to manage.
"Best solution is the one designed to customer's needs" - makes more sense as you grow in your career, funny then how our increasing experience itself makes us forget about it. Something about old dogs, new tricks? :)

Boundary between work and life .. or lack thereof..

I've always compartmentalized work and home, so much so that my personality changes. Professional, to the point, get the job done at work.. and go home and forget about it(the non-work, non-call times) .
It is strange to think then that I've started considering these ten people as family. This, when I haven't even met them yet! (or maybe cuz ;))
Seriously though, even when I'm trying to be cautious of perceptions with cultural differences, I've noticed the walls I would typically draw up in a professional setting, just don't seem to be there. Maybe it's because I know I'm spending a month with them day and night and they will get to know me very well anyway, or it's just all the Ghana reading which is preparing us to smell the roses first instead of directly jumping to work, or maybe the knowledge that each other is all we'll have there... not sure what it is, it'll be interesting to see the boundaries blur, almost like a social experiment - only I'm the subject :)

Shopping for Gifts

Weekend shopping! More like B'day shopping .. though, for a change, not for me - gifts for Ghanaians, gifts for team members. It may seem last minute since this is the last weekend before departure, though all the scouting and deciding, finally led to buying today(phew!) and frankly, I'm quite happy with the lil collection I have. Ah, I think Bombay Store is my new love for Indian momentos.
A month is a long time and I anticipate there are people I will bond with and I'm sure would want to leave something for them to remember me by. I just hope I don't run short on them.