acabado

CSC Brazil 19 teams finished (acabado) their assignments yesterday with closing activities at the Sebrae facility.  Each team summarized their project and the results along with comments from the clients on their next steps for these projects. Here’s a photo of the entire team still intact after 4 weeks of work in Fortaleza.

ITEVA had a farewell ceremony for us and made us honorary employees of ITEVA.  Thanks for the honor and I hope our input for your next big step in growth and impact on training the youth of Ceara is helpful.

Thanks to my IBM teammates, Kitty and Alex, for making this a great experience.  I’ve enjoyed working with you both this past month and hope to keep in touch for the future.

Now I get to share this beautiful location and it’s welcoming culture with my wife for the next week before I have to go back to my day job.

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Final Week

The end is quickly approaching.  We will have a final project summary meeting with the other teams and their clients this coming Thursday.  ITEVA took a photo of the complete team yesterday:

Our last weekend together as a CSC team was spent taking in a soccer game at the Castelão world cup soccer stadium.  Fortaleza beat Vila Nova 3 – 2 in a very entertaining game for us out of towners:

Sunday we spent the day at Lagoinhas beach North of Fortaleza:

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Week 3 Activites

Working with Kitty and Alex on our plan and recommendations for ITEVA’s project to bring Midiacom to the vocational schools of Ceara:

Lunch at ITEVA with our ITEVA teammates.  The cook is a great talent and the food is excellent:

Dinner with Fabio and crew at Faustino in Fortaleza.  Best piece of fish I’ve had here yet:

A walk along the beach on Sunday morning:

Overall, a great week working with our client and enjoying what Fortaleza has to offer.  We are now down to 1 week left before our closing activities.

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CSC Community Service Day

We had today off from our client work to hold our community service day.  We visited the Public High School/Vocational School in Aquiraz this morning.  It is a school similar to the one our ITEVA team visited in Cascavel on Tuesday.  This time our entire CSC team visited the facility in Aquiraz.  As with our visit in Cascavel, the students and staff were very enthusiastic to welcome us providing a red-carpet entrance:

This school is 5 years old and provides students a chance to complete std. high school curriculum in parallel with a vocational track that provides the student skills and greater opportunities for employment upon graduation.  We were each assigned a translator and met individually with 2 classes.  This covered the entire school population of 500 students.  We shared our personal and professional background with the students and they in turn provided us an education on their own background and culture.  I attempted the Forró (Fo-Ho) dance in one of the classrooms; fortunately there is no photographic evidence of the event.  The students were very welcoming and asked many questions about my culture and background as they are very curious to learn about others from far away.

My interpreter just happened to be an American who lives locally in Aquiraz and is a missionary serving the locals.  The website for his organization can be found at http://brazilforchrist.org/  if you’re interested in checking it out.  He had a very interesting story about doing mission work in Brazil for the greater part of his life.

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Back To School

We spent the morning yesterday visiting a local vocational school at the town of Cascavel which is ~ 30 miles South of the ITEVA facility.  We were asked to provide a presentation on ourselves (where we come from and our personal/professional background and experiences).  The students range in age from 15-18 as vocational school in Brazil is combined with the standard High School curriculum path.  It was a truly life changing experience as we presented to entire student body of ~ 500 students.  Their enthusiasm and interest in our stories was over the top.  They asked very challenging questions and treated us like celebrities.  Thanks to the students and staff for their warm reception and great hospitality.

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The Start of Week 2

Last Friday was spent meeting with the Vice Governor of the State of Ceara (within Brazil) as well as the Secretary of Labor and some others associated with the Secretary of Education.  We had an opportunity to discuss the vocational school system within the state and the project we are working on with ITEVA to bring their Midiacom curriculum to the state vocational school system.

Our weekend was spent visiting the beachside resort of Canoe Quebrada South of Fortaleza.  A nice place to unwind and enjoy the beach.

This week we continue to learn about our client’s Midiacom program and the vocational school system.  We’ll be visiting a local vocational school tomorrow morning to learn more about their current programs and their students.  In addition we will start working on the content of our deliverable for ITEVA and start discussing it with the client.

A Drink of Water

This week is spent gathering information about our client, their business, and the specific project that they ask us to work on during our 4 week visit.  The leader of ITEVA, Fabio, has described it as giving us a drink of water; one glass at a time.  In this pic he is pointing to the local neighborhood that he hopes to serve in the future with an ISP service that would enable residents to have wi-fi access in an under-served area.

We toured other areas of the neighboring towns around ITEVA yesterday getting a look at the local high school/vocational school that we will visit next week to interview students.

We’ll transition from info gathering to working on the solution/deliverables next week, but in the meantime there are many more glasses of water to drink.

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Kickoff and Project Start

The CSC Brazil 19 kickoff began with a round table discussion amongst the 4 NGO organizations being served by the IBM teams.  This activity also provided a chance for the IBM teams to meet their individual client contacts.  The following two pics include our IBM team as well the team with all the client participants at the kickoff.

We spent the rest of Monday and today at our client site in Aquiraz, Brazil; a suburb of Fortaleza that is ~ 1 hr. drive from our hotel.  The ITEVA facility is located in a rural location that includes the founder’s home as well as 3 buildings used to house classrooms and the business office of ITEVA.  Our host has been very hospitable and engaging.  They have provided our own team area that is located amongst all the other young employees within their office area.  We are spending the week with the ITEVA team getting briefings on all aspects of their business before we start working on a strategy with them for the next step in their organization’s evolution.

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All have arrived – Kickoff tomorrow

All 13 members of the Brazil 19 team have arrived and have taken the weekend to acclimate to the Brazilian location/weather.  It is very warm here near the equator but I welcome it after the long cold Minnesota winter.  We actually started work today with a team meeting to review our client projects and discuss the kickoff meeting that will happen tomorrow.

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Packing with Jack

Today is packing day.  Jack felt like being helpful … or was he trying to sneak his way into the suitcase.  I fly tomorrow afternoon thru the night and then arrive in Fortaleza on Friday afternoon.  We then get the weekend to acclimate ahead of the kickoff meetings with our clients on Monday.  I’m excited to see what the next 4 weeks will bring and look forward to working with new teammates from the far reaches of global IBM.  Thanks to my Rochester teammates for covering my regular day job while I participate in this unique opportunity.

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