Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Days Seventeen through Twenty-one: Lessons I learned from my "driver" and interesting coincidences!

Note: This is a delayed blog entry - I've not had a chance to update the blog in about a week due to the sheer volume of activity that is occurring as we prepare for our final deliverables for the client and get ready to wrap-up our visit.  Hard to believe that we'll be heading home soon - while this has totally been a tremendous experience, I am ready to get home!  I'm blending my key takeaways from Days 17 through 21 into 1 post and am not breaking it out by day - blending the days of the week into this blog post is consistent with the blending of thoughts and emotions that is happening inside me and the multitude of experiences that I'm being exposed to!  I've called out key highlights from the week that was.  Key thoughts/takeaways appear at the end.

Day 17 - Monday, May 23 to Day 21 - Friday, May 27

After the excitement and R&R from the Saturday trip to Praia do Forte and the relaxing Sunday after, we were energized and ready to get the week started!  Since this is our 2nd last week here, we spent most of our time consolidating our notes and preparing our final deliverables - as a quick refresher, we're delivering a high-level IT strategy, a fundraising plan, a Marcomm strategy and org management recommendations for Instituto Cultural Steve Biko (ICSB).  We're scrambling to line everything up and get it in a high-quality format for final delivery to the client ... along the way, we've also given them sneak peeks into what's coming so they're pretty clued in and we have good buy-in.  Always a good idea to socialize your deliverables prior to the end so that you can course-correct, if needed.  And my analogy for life is that if we have a plan for where we're headed and we socialize the plan with key stakeholders in our life, we increase our chances of success and our chances of hitting our goals!  Hmm... food for thought.

Moving on, continue to enjoy the "joie de vivre" of the folks of Bahi'a - everyone smiles (or mostly everyone does!), people are laid-back, easy-going and this is evident across all walks of life.  It is hard to describe until you've experienced it first-hand!  Not for nothing is Salvador known as Brazil's capital of happiness due to its easygoing population and countless popular outdoor parties - speaking of outdoor parties, the Brazilian people definitely know how to party - I can hear music outside on the street every night except Monday - Monday is apparently a day to rest and recover!  The music goes on till at least midnight every night and I've gotten accustomed to it - am going to miss it back home!  During the week, we went to this great outdoor music show by one of the best known local singers - Geronimo - every Tuesday night, he plays on the steps of an old cathedral and has a band accompany him.  Great ambience, music and a lot of people!  I've incl. a Youtube clip I found of Geronimo at the end of this post.

During the week, we also got our first (and second) taste of the famous Brazilian churrascaria (steakhouse) where the cooking style is churrasco (pronounced, chuhasco and roughly translated to barbecue) - amazing cuts of meat!  Our first experience was here in Salvador and the 2nd was at a place called Bovino's in Sao Paulo - what a feast - more on that in just a bit.

One very amazing highlight from the week was related to a song that I absolutely loved growing up (and still do) - it's by one of my favorite singers/musicians - Paul Simon and it's called "The Obvious Child" - reference link at the end of this blog post.  Growing up, I must've heard the song a 100,000 times but I never saw the video - the other day, a friend of mine posted a Paul Simon clip on facebook and I was reminded of the song that I used to listen over and over and over - so I checked it out on Youtube and, guess what??!! The video was shot here in Salvador with a local drum band called Olodum (the same band from MJ's They dont' really care about us video) - how cool is that?  I recognized most of the places in the video.  I guess I was just meant to come to Salvador! :-)  And my takeaway on this one is that a lot of times in our life, things happen for a reason - coincidences occur, deja vu occurs - it's important to pay attention and see if one can understand the bigger pattern at work.  Going back to one of my earlier posts about Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement address - he talks about the dots in life connecting when you look in the rearview.  If you can see the patterns, maybe you can connect them going forward too! :-)  ... which leads me to the concept of Synchronicity - first proposed by Carl Jung that 2 seemingly unrelated events when viewed together can have meaning!  The same concept is also talked about in a book I read quite a while ago - "The Celestine Prophecy" by James Redfield.  I've included a reference link with a synopsis of the book below.  In short, it's a book about spiritual discovery and about nine insights - the main character of the novel undertakes a journey to find and understand a series of nine spiritual insights on an ancient manuscript in Peru.

At the end of the week, we headed to Sao Paulo for an office visit - Sao Paulo is an urban jungle - a New York to Salvador's New Orleans!  Completely different beat and feel to the city and much like many other countries - the differences in lifestyle, culture and pace are apparent between North and South Brazil!  There are 3 highlights that I want to call out from the trip to Sao Paulo (and only 1 of them has to do with food!)

- The super-friendly and passionate folks at our local express station in Sao Paulo - Vera, Edu and Julie - thank you for welcoming us and for making us feel at home.  You guys do a tremendous job in a tough setting!  Kudos to you.  I also felt super happy to see the familiar Purple and Orange logo around me!  And it was great to see the shared passion and commitment translate to instant camaraderie.

- An awesome lunch at Bovino's churrascaria and a brilliant dinner at a restaurant called Figuera - it's built around a fig tree and the food, service, company and conversation were all exceptional!  I've included some pics at the end.

- Dinner conversation: On arrival in Sao Paulo, we were greeted by our guide for the day, Marcos.  From the airport, we went straight to the hotel to freshen up before heading to our business meetings.  One of the hotel agents asked Marcos if he was checking-in too and, in his humility, he said that he was simply the "driver" - I cringed when he said that and it wasn't easy to understand at first.  Growing up in India, it was common to refer to someone as the "driver" or the "domestic servant" but now I feel that those labels are not in good taste.  This ties directly back to my earlier post about putting on your "human" face.  One of the greatest impacts living in the US has had on me is about the "dignity of human labor" and how everyone is largely treated with respect - it doesn't matter if you're a CEO or a server at a restaurant - people typically will address you by first name!!!  At dinner that night, Marcos arrived a little early to take us back to the hotel and we asked him to join our table and this is where it got really interesting.  Prior to Marcos joining us, we had been talking about several weighty topics around race, equal rights, education and Marcos jumped right into the conversation - to my pleasant surprise - the conversation then veered to things needed to be effective and Marcos quoted from "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People"... included below for reference.  This experience and conversation reinforced for me - the need to keep an open mind, the need to treat others with respect and the need to forget any and every label!

* Habit 1: Be Proactive
Synopsis: Take initiative in life by realizing that your decisions (and how they align with life's principles) are the primary determining factor for effectiveness in your life. Take responsibility for your choices and the subsequent consequences that follow.
* Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Synopsis: Self-discover and clarify your deeply important character values and life goals. Envision the ideal characteristics for each of your various roles and relationships in life.
* Habit 3: Put First Things First
Synopsis: Plan, prioritize, and execute your week's tasks based on importance rather than urgency. Evaluating if your efforts exemplify your desired character values, propel you towards goals, and enrich the roles and relationships that were elaborated in Habit 2.
The next three have to do with Interdependence (i.e. working with others)
* Habit 4: Think Win-Win
Synopsis: Genuinely strive for mutually beneficial solutions or agreements in your relationships. Valuing and respecting people by understanding a "win" for all is ultimately a better long-term resolution than if only one person in the situation had gotten his way.
* Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
Synopsis: Use empathetic listening to be genuinely influenced by a person, which compels them to reciprocate the listening and take an open mind to being influenced by you. This creates an atmosphere of caring, respect, and positive problem solving.
* Habit 6: Synergize
Synopsis: Combine the strengths of people through positive teamwork, so as to achieve goals no one person could have done alone. Get the best performance out of a group of people through encouraging meaningful contribution, and modeling inspirational and supportive leadership.
The Last habit relates to self-rejuvenation:
* Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
Synopsis: Balance and renew your resources, energy, and health to create a sustainable, long-term, effective lifestyle.
"Above quoted from Wikipedia"

Key Takeaways/Thoughts:
- Have a plan and socialize it - for life and for work
- Keep an open mind - in any situation, your perception determines reality - two people can look at the exact same thing and come up with different conclusions (glass half-full, half-empty) - you have it within you to turn everything into a positive.  Not everything you encounter will be what you want but it is still an opportunity - I know, easier said than done!
- Try to be effective - we get busy, forget the really important things and just find ourselves caught up with things ... do not confuse being effective with being busy.
- Life is short - what are you waiting for?  I've been revisiting my bucket list on this trip and my wife and I are going to do a joint review once I get back - looking forward to that.  How many times we wish we had another opportunity to do something, reach out, make contact, live an experience etc. etc. etc. -  Carpe Diem!  More on our bucket list in a future post.  Oh, by the way, what's next on your list?
- Passion (a continuing theme for me on this trip) is powerful: It can make you achieve more than you thought possible, it can turn strangers who are passionate about the same things as you into instant friends, it can overcome many challenges and it most certainly is contagious.
- If you don't like something, change your attitude!
- Enjoy and cherish what and who you have while you can - who knows what tomorrow will bring?
- And finally, two quotes I read recently 
1. "It takes more than good memory to have good memories" - at the end of the day and at the end of our life, all we have is memories - take the time to create some good ones today!
2. "Start by doing what's necessary, then do what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible"

Reference links:
- Geronimo: Salvador musician - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TZoW7CAAZk
- Book synopsis: "The Celestine Prophecy" - http://www.homestar.org/bryannan/celistin.html
- Need to get started on a bucket list?  http://www.ehow.com/how_2199305_bucket-list.html 


Sign on the office wall in Sao Paulo


Figuera - amazing dinner - Sao Paulo

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Days Fifteen and Sixteen: "The World is Shrinking" and some much-needed R&R

Note: This blog post details activities from our weekend trip to a fishing village/ecoresort town.  In a sense, it's not as reflective as some of my previous posts.  I do have a challenge for you right at the very end though!

Day Fifteen: Saturday, May 21 
We had planned a trip to a local fishing village which has now become a well-developed resort town - Praia do Forte.  Praia do Forte is north of Salvador - about a 90 minute drive and is on, what is called, the Coconut Coast - about a 200km stretch north of Salvador is lined with beautiful beaches, enclosed by rivers and dunes.  Our trip began with a visit to Castelo do Garcia d´Ávila - this medieval castle was completed in 1624, which makes it one of Brazil´s oldest Portuguese buildings. The ruins of the castle have been carefully restored with steel upper-level walkways affording views over the palm-studded coastline beyond.  I took my camera along and was lucky enough to get some really good shots (see below) - in addition to the ruins of the Castle, got some great shots of butterflies and a dragonfly that was hovering for a split-second!  From the castle, we headed to a Turtle conservation project - huge turtles!  Some weighing as much as 1000 lbs!  The turtle conservation project is right along the beach and again I was lucky to get some good shots.

We ran into some US students at the turtle conservation place - they were also staying at the same B&B as us in Salvador - small world that it is, they are from Martin, TN.  Here's a recap of a funny conversation that I had with them back at the B&B.

"Me: Hey guys, where are you from?
Them: America
Me: Where in America
Them: US
Me: Where in the US?
Them: Do you know where Tennessee is?
Me: Ya, I think I do ;-)
Them: Well, we're from Tennessee.
Me: Which part?
Them: West Tennessee
Me: Ok, I'm sorry for asking so many questions - but where in West Tennessee.
Them: Near Memphis - do you know where that is?
Me: Yes, I know Memphis - I live there ;-)
Them: Oh Wow!"

From the turtle conservation place, we headed to a gourmet lunch - one of the local folks here, Geilson, invited us to lunch at their wife's restaurant - it turns out that his wife is a well-acclaimed and well-renowned chef - Tereza Paim.  The lunch was simply divine!  We got a cooking lesson on Moqueca - a Brazilian seafood stew.  And we enjoyed lots and lots of seafood.  Some pics below - after lunch, we headed to Geilson and Tereza's home where an unbelievable dessert spread awaited us - everything from candied tropical fruits to a dessert with cashews, honey and milk to a caramel cake - I indulged and found myself in heaven!  They have a great great place right near the beach in Praia do Forte.  Again, I am touched by strangers opening up their hearts and homes to us.  Thank you much Geilson and Tereza!

After the heavy lunch, we took it easy in the afternoon - relaxing on the back porch of their home - in the evening, took a quick stroll to the beach and got some lovely shots of the sunset!

I continue to be amazed at the warmth of the Brazilian people and their "Joie de vivre" - makes me think about how one needs to find joy and enjoyment in the simple pleasures of life.  One life to live - might as well enjoy it, right?

In the late evening, we headed back to Salvador - the group was split into 2 - 6 folks decided to stay overnight and the other 6 headed back to home base.

Day Sixteen: Sunday, May 22
Most of Sunday was spent recovering from the heavy meal from the previous day!  Took it easy for the most part - spent some time completing documentation and managing versions for our final client deliverables.  It was nice to have some downtime after the hectic activity during the week.

Did not venture out until the late afternoon - headed to the local supermarket - it's called Bompreco (and it's owned by Wal-Mart) - enjoyed some fresh coconut water enroute and enjoyed a good walk with 3 of my colleagues.  The groceries here are definitely more expensive than I expected - for instance, a bag of chips (medium size) is about 5 USD.  A regular-sized cake that is about USD 10 back home, is about USD 25 here.  A 2L bottle of coke is about USD 3.  Dinner on Day Sixteen was back at the Sandwich+Juice shop - enjoyed a glass of fresh mango juice!  

I am also beginning to feel a little homesick - it was more pronounced on Sunday and I think the fact that I didn't really do much the whole day contributed to it.  Which leads me to the title of this blog post "The World is Shrinking" - in this hyper-connected world, I am so thankful for the technology that makes distance seem less than it really is.  I love the fact that I'm able to talk with family back home via video conference on Skype - definitely makes me feel more connected.  It's hard for me to imagine how people managed in the good ol' days with only snail mail!  Also, thanks to Facebook, I feel that I'm pretty caught up with what's going on with everyone while I'm gone!  And this blog helps me share my journey with friends, family and colleagues - technology definitely helps!  Of course, there is the flip-side of being over-involved (read: addicted) with technology and not being able to disconnect and unplug! :-) - in a future post, I will include an open letter that I wrote to Steve Jobs about my addiction to all things Apple! :-) - 

Finally, speaking of the world becoming smaller and how easy technology makes it to reach out to people and connect, here's the challenge - reach out to an old friend or a family member you haven't connected with in a while - pick up the phone and call or send them an email, do whatever it takes to make contact!  It's not that hard and delaying only means you'll likely never get to it.  Being what life is, you may not get an opportunity later so, don't delay and do it now!  I just completed the challenge myself and I feel good! :-)


Outside the castle in Praia do Forte - a pic of a person taking a pic!

Arches abound!

Loved how the walkway cast its shadow - the dots are the shadow of the steel walkway above

The Castle at Praia do Forte

The Castle at Praia do Forte

A beautiful butterfly!

The beach near the turtle conservation project!

A beautiful home in one of the local neighborhoods

The beach in Praia do Forte

Amazing sunset - Praia do Forte

The street behind Geilson and Tereza's home

At the Turtle Conservation project

Massive Turtle!

Desserts anyone?  Yes, please!
The feast at Tereza's restaurant

Monday, May 23, 2011

Days Thirteen and Fourteen: Put on your "human" face

Note: Another long blog post - courtesy of the pace at which things are happening here, the amount of information we're being exposed to and the multitude of emotions and thoughts that the information is triggering. In a slight departure from previous posts, I'm going to pick out a couple of key themes and talk about my thoughts/emotions around those vs. providing a blow-by-blow account of our daily activities.

Day Thirteen: Thursday, May 19

We presented our first formal status update to the client - the update followed a pretty standard format and incl. key activities/accomplishments; key upcoming milestones and issues/risks - Kevin did a great job presenting the update. One of the discussion items that the update sparked was around the topic of prioritization - I'd mentioned this in my previous blog post. Our initial observations lead us to believe that a prioritization framework that ensures all client activities align with their overall vision and mission is key to ensuring that the meager resources are used effectively - we had to do some explaining around this prioritization framework as the client initially felt that we may ask them to change their mission! It was a spirited discussion to say the least. I want to spend some time here talking about what our client - the Instituto Cultural Steve Biko (ICSB) does and use that background to lead into some thoughts/questions around racial inequality - race and inequality, often times, is a hairy subject to deal with but given my exposure here, I feel that it is important to list some key thoughts/questions around this potentially hairy topic!

Let's begin with the ICSB vision and mission and their core values...


Vision: A city, Salvador, where all citizens are treated equally and have the same access to quality educational, career and political opportunities. In time, racial and sociopolitical equality extends throughout the country.

Mission: To promote socio-economic and political opportunities for the Afro-Brazilian population through educational training, political engagement and by increasing appreciation of their African legacy.

Core Values:
- Racial equality (equal opportunity for engagement regardless of race) in:
o Education (quality, access)
o Work (professional ranks, open doors)
o Government (treatment, access to resources) 
- University education (instill in the minds of young people the importance of going to university)
- Political engagement (instill in the minds of young people the importance of engaging in the political
process)
- Strong self esteem leading to excellence in citizenship
- Focus on science and technology as a tool for inclusion in our technological society

In the face of staggering stats here in Salvador around racial inequality, they face an uphill battle to reduce the inequality - what's in their arsenal to tip the scale back to equity? Education and access to it - but how quickly can education make a difference? It's the right solution but it's going to take a while especially when the inequality has been propagated over centuries. We're doing what we can to help improve ICSB's brand, get them access to donors (both institutional and individual) and help improve their overall IT infrastructure and setup but the fact remains that it's an uphill battle - should one give up given the enormity of the task? Absolutely not! The passion that the ICSB team shows is very commendable - it reminds me of a starfish story that I once heard - it goes like this "One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean. Approaching the boy, he asked, "What are you doing?" The boy replied, "Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them back, they'll die."
Son, the man said, don't you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can't make a difference!

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish,and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said, "I made a difference for that one." It's a simple story but a very powerful one - what difference are you making in someone's life today?  You can start small and just like the boy in the story, make an impact one starfish at a time.
The racial inequality has also got me thinking about personal prejudices and stereotypes - I don't want to generalize so I'll just speak in terms of questions that are running through my head - "Do I stereotype or judge people based on their appearance, affinity etc.?", "Do I look at people as human beings or do I label them based on different factors?", "Do I consciously remove any bias - positive or negative - from my mind when dealing with people"?  and "Do I, without fail, put on my human face and see others with their human face in every interaction that I have?".  Several months ago, I saw a very telling video on society's reactions to a man stealing a bike in a park and how the reaction apparently changed based on the race of the make-believe thief.  If you haven't seen it, I strongly suggest that you do - check the reference section at the end of my blog post for the link.  I've also been reading about modern-day inequality back home in the US - the stats are telling - across income/wealth; occupation; education; microinequalities (media, language, face-to-face interaction, social interaction); violence - racial inequality is one of those things, in my mind, that is always lurking under the surface - again, the questions I posed above run through my head.  As often happens, one you're thinking about a particular issue, a lot of things start pointing to that issue - one of my facebook friends posted some very telling infographics about our world - a Global Village and what it would like in terms of education, race, religion, access to water, wealth distribution etc. if the population was a 100 people - very fascinating - check out the reference links at the end.

Moving on to a lighter note, we had a great lunch at a restaurant in the town square - the restaurant has a tourist menu and a local menu - same prices but different items on the menus - thanks to our fabulous local translator (Luciana), we ordered what the locals order - a yummy meat-and-veggies meal.  Picture at the end!

Dinner on Day thirteen was back at the juice+sandwich shop - we've become regulars there and I enjoyed an avocado milk shake again with a grilled chicken+tomato+onion (Frango+tomate+cebola) sandwich!

Day Fourteen: Friday, May 20
We worked remotely on Day 14 - from the hotel - after a big breakfast, we all got our laptops out and continued to work on our deliverables for the client.  We're making some good progress - we have a lot to do in our short amount of time so time is definitely of the essence!  

A lot of my thoughts on this trip have been around gratitude and legacy.  "What difference am I making in this world?", "I have one life to live - am I making the most of every opportunity", "Am I telling the people that matter to me how much they mean to me?" and I have been filling out my gratitude list (a list of things I'm thankful for) and revisiting it often.  In this context, I saw a video from TED (I love TED videos) about Ric Elias - he was one of the survivors of US Airways Flight 1549 that crashed into the Hudson.  Reference link below - it's a short 5-minute video that talks about the 3 things that ran through Ric's head as the plane crashed - 1. "It all changes in an instant - we have this bucket list - people to reach out to, experiences we want... don't delay anything"; 2. "Don't waste time on things that don't matter with people that matter...eliminate negative energy, I don't try to be right, I choose to be happy...; 3. "Sadness at possible loss of life - he only wished he could see his kids grow up..." - powerful powerful stuff.  He lived through a miracle and his life is changed - what am I waiting for?

Rounding off with details on dinner on Friday night - sat by the beach with 6 other colleagues - had a brilliant conversation over dinner with my good buddy, Shane - we talked about spirituality, life, meaning, faith and many other things - net conclusions for me, we may come from different walks of life, different faiths, different backgrounds, different this and different that - if you wear your "human" face, we're all disconcertingly similar!  Shane, thank you for being part of my journey!

Our weekend plans include a visit to a nearby tourist destination - home of one of the oldest structures in Brazil (and I believe all of South America) - the town is called Praia do Forte and it's about 90 minutes from Salvador - more on that visit in a subsequent blog post.

Key Thoughts/Takeaways:
Make a difference to someone - recall Starfish story - replay over-and-over again - even if you can't do much, do something!
Racial Inequality - do you have your "human" face on and do you see others with their "human" face alone?
Gratitude - don't delay, do it now - reach out, fulfill that dream - don't wait!  Be thankful!
Differences? Yes; Similarities? Absolutely! - we're all blessed to have this life and while we may have different backgrounds and perspectives, we're also very alike as members of the human race!

Reference Links:
1. What would you do?  A man stealing a bike in a park - http://bit.ly/jdE9ER
2. Ric Elias: 3 things I learned while my plane crashed - http://bit.ly/lCW4Zw
3. Infographic on the Global Village, a world of 100: http://bit.ly/imyC0q



Yummy meat-and-veggie dish on Day Thirteen

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Days Ten, Eleven and Twelve: Live life Kingsize!

Note: This post is going to be shorter than my usual ones or, at least, I think it's going to be shorter - we'll find out!  I am still enjoying this opportunity tremendously even though I'm feeling a little homesick.  I continue to feel blessed to have this remarkable opportunity as part of my life's journey.

Day Ten: Monday, May 16:
Day ten began with the usual scrumptious morning breakfast.  The Pousada (Brazilian B&B) has a lavish spread for breakfast that includes fresh fruit juices (selection varies daily - mango, orange, acerola berry, pineapple, passion fruit) and both Brazilian and American breakfast items - scrambled eggs, Brazilian cheese rolls, bread, small guava pastries, fresh cut fruit (watermelon and papaya are staples) - the breakfast is really really good (I guess a lot of my blog posts have to do with food since I love it so much!).  Anyways, after breakfast, we headed to the client site - our first deliverable was due today and it was a revised scope-of-work that outlined the exact details of the project and what our final deliverables to the client would be.  We talked about our ideas around marketing/communications strategies, a high-level IT assessment and org management strategies - the revised scope was well received by the client and they expressed their appreciation for our working with them.  One comment from their office manager stood out, he said that just by virtue of our being there and trying to learn about their organization and asking questions had triggered some very good ideas for him on how they can be more effective.  Felt good to hear that!  Kudos to Shane (my colleague) for putting together the revised scope-of-work.   

For lunch on Day 10 (back to food!), we headed to a cooking school and restaurant combo - as opposed to the pay-by-weight concept, they had a open buffet with a fixed price.  After sitting down (but thankfully before we ate), we asked about the price of the buffet and promptly left on finding out how expensive it was! :-) ... back to the "kilo" buffet that is more reasonable.

The afternoon was spent on consolidating our open questions for the client and also beginning the process of prioritizing and ranking our ideas/observations to-date.  So much in life and in business has to do with how you prioritize your efforts - how do you make sure that your only true possession (your time) is spent on the most meaningful activities and how do you track and measure the RoI of your time in both personal and business settings.  I know that I, for one, am guilty of sometimes focusing and spending time on activities that keep me busy but don't really have a meaningful or high-enough return - that takes me back to the title of this blog post - "Live Life Kingsize" - growing up in India, I remember this ad whose slogan was "Live Life Kingsize" - the fact that the ad was for a cigarette brand is not important, what is important is the notion of making the most of your life - you have one life to live, make it count and do what's right and what's important - pick up the phone and call a loved one, tell someone you care, shower your love and affection on those that you care about, make the most of every opportunity and "don't sweat the small stuff (and it's all small stuff!)" - as the book by that title says!
Ok, this is turning out to be longer than I thought it would be - ah well, if you're still reading, continue on or jump to the end for my key thoughts/takeaways.

We got back to the pousada relatively early since there was no traffic - it took us all of 15 minutes - our shortest ride in the cab so far.  Since there was still some light, I decided to take out my big DSLR camera and take some pics around the neighborhood - it was fun and I enjoyed indulging in one of my biggest hobbies - it had been a while since my trusted Nikon D50 and I had been together!  I've posted some pics at the end!  The neighborhood is really pretty and we're a short walk away from the beach.

Dinner (yes, food again) was just across the street from our B&B - 7 of us ate together and ordered 2 chicken and 2 fish dishes - all very yummy and served with raisin rice!

Day Eleven: Tuesday, May 17
After a repeat of the daily scrumptious breakfast, most of Day eleven was spent consolidating all our ideas up to this point re: our client engagement and also brainstorming with one of my colleagues on an effective IT management strategy for our client.  It continues to amaze me how much each of the NGO's we've interacted with is able to achieve with limited resources - passion totally trumps a lack of resources.  I also began drafting one of our final presentation (we have a couple that we'll be giving) and fleshing out the MarComm strategy incl. tactics - one of the things we're collectively doing is to make sure that any recommendations that we make are actionable and that they are easy-to-understand - key takeaway being to ensure that you always tailor your message to the audience so that they can understand easily.

Skipped lunch on Day eleven and instead waited until the evening to get my fix of the famous Golden Arch (yes, I was missing my McDs!) - McD's here in Brazil is much bigger, cleaner and fancier than what I'm accustomed to back at home and the service is actually really good.  Instead of eating a whole meal by myself, I split Chicken Mcnuggets and Fries with a colleague - as a quick side note, the Chicken here (called Frango) is really tasty and is mostly organic and farm-raised.  You can definitely tell the difference in taste compared to commercially sourced chicken.

One of the other things I've been reflecting on is how accustomed one gets to a particular environment and how different cultures, countries and, for that matter, even different contexts may cause some discomfort initially but if you're open to learning new things, you'll get accustomed to the new environment fairly quickly!
Day Twelve: Wednesday, May 18
Day Twelve was similar to Day Eleven in many ways - breakfast in the morning, working on the final deliverables through the day and skipping lunch again.  I also spent part of Day Twelve consolidating the video footage that I've taken up to this point - the intent is to have a video journal at the very end - I will post it once the video project is done!

Dinner on Day Twelve was back at the juice+sandwich shop - called "Suco 24" - Suco meaning juice and 24 for the fact that it's open all the time! :-)  Had a great avocado milk shake (it's much much yummier than it sounds - check recipe in my reference links) and a grilled chicken sandwich.  It's quite remarkable how we're able to navigate Brazil without speaking much Portuguese - that extends from ordering at the restaurants, to directing a cab, to having a conversation with a native Portuguese speaker - I guess if you truly listen and tune-in, you can understand - we have no choice but to remove and forget about all the typical distractions so the communication is very focused.  What if we did that with every conversation we routinely have?  Hmm... food for thought!
That's about it folks - at the risk of being extremely repetitive, just feel amazingly fortunate to be living through this experience!

Key Takeaways/Thoughts:
Live Life Kingsize: Do what matters; prioritize, prioritize, prioritize; tell someone you love them; make the most of every opportunity; life is short - make it count!  Be grateful and give thanks for something every day - whatever it might be!
Passion trumps lack of resources: Where there is a will, there is usually a way - it may not be easy but if you stay the course, success will be yours!
Focused communication helps: Forget the distractions, give your full attention to any communication/conversation you may have be having!
Speak the language of your audience: Doesn't matter if it's business or personal, make your communication easy-to-understand and that will make it more effective
Be open to new experience: You may feel some discomfort initially but it's amazing how quickly one adapts provided you have the right attitude!
The food here is really very good:

Reference links:
Don't sweat the small stuff and it's all small stuff: A book by Richard Carlson - http://www.amazon.com/Sweat-Small-Stuff-small-stuff/dp/0786881852

Colorful buildings - Pelorinho town square

Pottery collection in the Breakfast room

Outside our B&B - the exterior is bright pink!

On the beach near our B&B

An interesting chandelier!

A lamp in the lobby

Long corridor at the B&B

B&W shot - Pelorinho Town square
 

Monday, May 16, 2011

Days Seven, Eight and Nine: Be a traveler, not a tourist

Note: Needless to say, this is another relatively long blog post.  It probably won't be as long as some of the previous ones.  As is becoming practice, I have included key takeaways/thoughts at the end.

Day Seven: Friday, May 13th
Day Seven began with our cab driver (Germinio) running about 30 minutes or so late - the concept of time in Salvador is different than what we're used to in the US.  As I've posted previously, people are more relaxed and easy-going and this is evident everywhere - from restaurants where the server takes their own sweet time to get to you and will not bring a check until you ask a couple of times to Germinio - any time we call him to check how much more time he'll take, his answer is "Dez Minutos" (10 minutes) - and this Dez Minutos represents a range from 2 minutes to 45 minutes! :-) He doesn't speak any English but we've gotten to like him quite a bit and enjoy our morning and evening cab rides with him.  Which leads me to another thought - it's amazing how a little bit of respect can go such a long way.  If one respects people without regard for title, rank, status, job etc., it can totally light up someone's day - something as simple as remembering the name of the person who brings you coffee or the name of the janitor or the name of the security guard - how often do we make the effort to show some respect?  And treat people as human beings before we put any label on them!  Hmm...
 
Once Germinio got here, we headed to a tour of the city - our clients wanted us to see the new building that they're likely to get from the Government and also show us around town a little bit.  The new building has a beautiful facade but is currently boarded up as it is in need of extensive renovation - it's right alongside a major Carnival route and very accessible to everything so we're hoping that the Government allocation comes through for our clients.  Around the prospective new building is a great park, a view of the ocean and a Military compound - we walked the grounds of the military compound and I've included some pictures at the end of this post.  Around mid-morning, we visited a local school - even though the kids were not in, we got a pretty good tour of how the school runs (incl. a kitchen) and how they survive even with limited supplies (one teacher told us that they discuss what needs to be printed during their staff meetings since toner supply is limited - hard to imagine that and, again, I feel overwhelming gratitude).  One thing that continues to strike me is how devoted folks are to what they believe in - the teachers get meager salaries and still continue to  teach secure in the knowledge that they are shaping the future - I shared the story of how my mom has been a teacher for 35 years and how she always maintains a positive attitude - she's often said that if she can shape the future of even one kid in her class, she's making a difference!  Kudos to you mom.  I also had a very engaging conversation with one of the directors of the school - she said that the school was in her neighborhood and her parents had always invested in the local community by serving on various boards and committees - despite having several "better" opportunities, she chooses to continue staying in the same neighborhood out of a sense of responsibility.  She told me that "strong neighborhoods make a strong country" and she's committed to doing all she can to make her neighborhood and community strong - wow!

Lunch on Day Seven was at another "kilo" buffet place - yes, there's a lot of those - this one was opposite the university so it was packed with students on lunch break and was the best "kilo" place we've been to yet.  The food was simply out-of-this-world and the desserts were something else - one dessert in particular (fresh tropical fruit in a sugar syrup with cinnamon and cloves) was just amazing!
We continued the afternoon by working at the client site and finalizing our scope-of-work through the end of this assignment.  We've begun to divvy up the work and have things cut out for us over the next couple of weeks.

The evening of Day Seven was rather fun - first, we went to a Capoeira performance (from Wikipedia and my earlier post, Capoeira is a Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, sports, and music. It was created in Brazil mainly by descendants of African slaves with Brazilian native influences, probably beginning in the 17th century. It is known by quick and complex moves, using mainly power kicks and quick leg sweeps, with some ground and aerial acrobatics, knee strikes, take-downs, elbow strikes, punches and headbutts.) - quite an experience - I've uploaded a short video at the end of this post.  After the performance, we headed to dinner and I had the most delicious fresh guava juice.  We followed that up with spending some time at a local Samba bar - the music is great!  And the Brazilians have the music in their souls - hard to describe.  Our local guide said that music is one of the reasons why Brazilian people are happy - I can see that now!

Day Eight: Saturday, May 14th
Day Eight was mostly low-key - the week had been rather hectic so I tried to take it easy for the most part.  I did make a quick trip to the supermarket - it's owned by Wal-mart and is called Bompreco - much like the US supermarkets.  On the way back, had some fresh coconut juice (for all of 50 US cents!) and bought some custard apples that were, quite simply, mouth-wateringly delicious!

Skipped lunch on Day Eight and substituted it with the fresh tropical fruit - also had a mango (after a long time) - tasted totally amazing - pics at the end of this post.

Dinner on Day Eight was quite an experience - we went to a local pizza place and, hold your breath, paid R$100 (approx USD 60) for a single pizza!  Not being local, we were given the extra-special tourist bill - had to pay for cheese separately and also had to pay a 10% surcharge for having multiple toppings on our pizza!  By the way, the even had a pizza on the menu called "Smell of Pizza" - pic below.  No more pizza in Salvador!!!

Day Nine: Sunday, May 15th
Day nine was pretty low-key as well - again, relaxed for the most part - did some work and made some revisions to the scope-of-work.  It was raining the whole day so didn't really do much - we'd initially planned to go for a soccer match - the final of the State Championship but our local guide was only able to procure 3 tickets - not enough for the whole lot of us so only a few folks went to the game.  They said it was quite an experience - with drums, a full house and very passionate support.  Unfortunately, the home team lost and there were a lot of disappointed fans at the end of the day.

Heading into Week 2, I'm reflecting on this whole experience - continuing to be grateful and looking forward to the weeks ahead.  I do feel a little homesick but you can't have it all!  As a final note, a blog I read  on ways to be a traveler (and not a tourist) provided some good tips!
- Learn before you land (learn the basics, customs, geography etc.)
- What's the rush? (Slow down, savor the simple pleasures of traveling, don't overschedule your itinerary)
- Foreign people are people too (real travelers know that people are extraordinarily similar the world over)
- Get local (eat, walk, talk, learn, observe and immerse yourself)

Key Takeaways/Thoughts:
- A little respect goes a long way: A simple case-in-point is the effort we're all making to learn Portuguese - out of necessity but also out of respect for our clients and the country we're in - when folks see you being respectful and making an effort, it warms their hearts and makes them more receptive!
- Be a traveler, not a tourist: Immersion is really the only way to travel - proven time and time again!
- Music and Samba are hard-coded into the Brazilian soul and DNA: These folks know their music and love it!
- Strong communities build strong nations: Do a little something in your local community - volunteer, donate time and money, get involved in whatever way you can - a small contribution from you can have a big big impact.  Make it happen!
- Avoid Pizza in Salvador:

Fresh mango - divine!

A view of the ocean from the grounds of the military compound

A park we visited during our tour of the city on Friday, May 13

The super expensive Pizza place - they even have a pizza called "Smell of Pizza"!!!

Amazing Fresh guava juice

Capoeira performance

Who's got my line?  Electrical wiring

 
Samba performance video


Capoeira performance video

Friday, May 13, 2011

Day Six: Open hearts and leadership lessons

Note: Another long-ish blog post - I'm letting it all pour out! The short version is at the end (key takeaways and reflections on leadership and people opening their hearts)

Day Six: Thursday, May 12

 
This experience continues to amaze me - day 6 was action-packed (much like all the other days) - most of the day was spent at our client site learning about their marketing and communications strategy - they do a lot of good stuff but it's largely disjointed and there is limited tracking of their activities - part of our eventual recommendation is going to be the creation of a simple communications calendar that helps them streamline their activities. Additionally, we're going to be suggesting some basic metrics for them to keep an eye on as they invest their time, money and energy in various marketing activities. Not surprisingly, they're on the social media bandwagon as well and have a Facebook page, a Twitter feed, an Orkut page and a YouTube channel - as with much of what's out there, the content is dated and no ongoing dialogue exists between them and their target audience (afro-Brazilian youth who are in high school) - social media marketing can only work if the dialogue is ongoing and engaging - we're hopefully going to help them here. As a quick aside, early in the day we found out that their current website host had gone out of business and consequently they had lost all their webpages ... thanks to Google, I found a internet archiving project called Wayback Machine - reference link at the end. We were able to find a cached version of their website dating back to late 2010 and they were able to retrieve all the lost webpages - yay for technology! :-) - check out how some of your favorite sites may have looked 5-7 years ago - pretty radical transformation from then until now, I bet!

We also made some good progress on categorizing remaining open questions, sorting through a running idea list and identifying all upcoming deliverables and milestones on the project - as I've mentioned before, we really are working hard to manage the client's expectations and having a plan certainly helps!

One of the things I've been reflecting on is how leaders evolve and how roles emerge in any team setting - it's very fascinating for me to see how the 5 teams are assigning roles amongst themselves - at the beginning of the assignment, no roles and responsibilities were fixed - yet, just about 4 workdays in, it seems that there is some natural alignment of roles and individuals. What drives and motivates leaders? What differentiates them? How great leaders are typically leading in multiple life spheres and not just one. That train of thought has led me to thinking about what really makes great leaders great - I've jotted down below my thoughts on what behaviors great leaders exhibit - this list is based on my observations of leaders that I look up to. It's not intended to be an exhaustive list and I welcome comments/adds/deletes on these behaviors. Great leaders...

- have passion
- Persevere
- are deliberate
- are storytellers
- look at all experiences as opportunities to grow, advance and stretch
- mostly have a positive outlook on things
- serve and treat others with a high degree of respect
- know that respect does not come from title - they also know that respect has to be earned.
- know when to step-in and when to step-out
- separate the material from the immaterial - they know what's important and what's trivial
- know that being busy and being effective are two completely different things
- constantly seek to improve themselves and strive to provide opportunities for those they lead
- know that leadership is a privilege
- lead inclusively
- see opportunity in the most difficult circumstances
- take risk
- are humorous
- always put people first. Without fail. Never compromise.
- Make decisions with imperfect information
- remember things that are important to people (birthdays, family milestones)
- know that leadership is not easy and constantly work on adapting and improving their style
- are adaptable
- consistently put in discretionary effort
- ...

Moving on to the Bahi'an people - continue to be very amazed to see the spirit of the Bahi'an people - very easy-going, very warm and definitely seem very happy - I plan on doing some digging on what really drives their apparent happiness. As a quick example, on our way back from lunch it started raining pretty heavily - we ducked into the first open store we saw - it turned out to be a music store (CDs and records) - the guy who runs it is originally from Indianapolis and was very friendly and knew a lot about the music history and origins in Salvador - had a great conversation with him - he's lived here about 20 years and has the same easy-going, high-spirited nature that the natives seem to posses! Bought some great Brazilian samba CDs as a going-away thank you present for 2 of our program managers (they helped design the program and coordinated all the logistics) and are headed back to their home base of Washington DC - Muito obrigado (many thanks), Rodrigo and Justine!


Lunch today was an awesome crabmeat dish (w/ spices, lemon, coriander) and a local favorite called "Moqueca" - a traditional Brazilian seafood stew - ours had coconut milk, shrimp, palm oil, onion, garlic, tomatoes and cilantro - picture at the end - it was quite awesome! On the way to lunch, we came across the shop for a local music and drumming school called "Olodum" - if you remember the MJ video "They don't really care about us", that's the band/school I'm talking about - the video was shot here in Salvador - have include a link at the end of the blog post.

And then finally on to dinner - a totally amazing experience! On first arrival here in Salvador, I had asked one of our local consultants if there was an Indian restaurant in town (I had not been looking forward to a 30-day absence of Indian food!) ... while there's no Indian restaurant here, she told us about her British Indian friend and said that she would check with him about cooking a meal for us. Well, he totally came through! Dinner was at the community room in his apartment building - chicken curry, daal (lentils), naan, rice, raita (yogurt mix), cabbage sabzi - so awesome. Dinner companions were from all over the world (several expats) and we had a great view overlooking the Atlantic ocean! I was, quite literally, pinching myself in disbelief. Thank you Raghu for opening your home and heart to total strangers ... and I ask myself again, how often have I been the recipient of someone's hospitality and their open heart? And how can I consciously do the same and pay-it-forward. Open your heart and you will receive much much much more than you will give!


That's about it for Day 6 - have included some pics below as well as Key takeaways.


Key thoughts/takeaways

- Leadership, while challenging is also very rewarding ... great leaders consistently exhibit behavior that includes passion, perseverance, positivity, respect for others, putting people first, taking risk, making decisions with imperfect information
- Open your heart whenever you can - you'll be surprised at where it can lead you and what you will receive in return!
- People in Salvador are easy-going and high-spirited - I plan on digging into the roots of this apparent happiness over the next several weeks! :-)
- Leaders emerge in any team setting - embrace the leader inside you!

Reference links:

http://web.archive.org/ (Internet archiving)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador,_Bahia (Details on the city of Salvador)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNJL6nfu__Q (MJ video shot in Salvador)
One of the sidestreets where the MJ video was shot
Yummy lunch
Music shop
Music shop