Sid's musings: Days Three, Four and Five - Drinking from a fire hose and loving it!

Note: This is going to be a long blog post - there is so much going on and so much I'm learning about - a new language, a new culture, new friends, new client (local NGO). The term "drinking from a fire hose" is 100% applicable. And instead of feeling overwhelmed by the experience, I am enjoying it tremendously. It's almost other-worldly! Anyways, if you want the short version - scroll all the way to the bottom - I've listed my key thoughts/takeaways at the very end. I'm enjoying blogging - in addition to wanting to share this experience with my family, friends and colleagues; I'm counting on reliving this great experience through the blog in the years to come!

Day three: Monday, May 9

The morning began with the first in-person introduction with the clients - the 14 of us are split into 5 groups - each assigned a different local NGO/community organization as a client. Projects vary from developing a marketing/communications strategy to developing fundraising plans to defining organizational mission and priorities to designing an organizational hierarchy... the clients themselves are engaged in social causes - one client works with children who have cancer and runs a full hospital and counseling service for the patients and family. Another client is engaged in addressing societal inequalities through music and access for Afro-brazilians. Yet another has a multi-purpose mission as the "Holy House of Mercy". Each of the teams met with their clients at a local hotel and each of the clients gave presentations on their organization - the passion that the clients bring to their cause is unbelievable - you can feel the fire in their bellies and hearts and see the fire in their eyes - makes me wonder about how important passion is for life. Find something to believe in and be passionate about it - it's fuel for your soul. And make yourself part of a bigger cause - a cause that you believe in. The causes these clients support are so noble and they try to forge ahead despite many many challenges - quite an incredible journey. Our project is with the Instituto Cultural Steve Biko (ICSB) - ICSB is an institute whose mission is to promote the politicosocial ascension of the afro-brazilian population through education and through learning the value of their ancestry. After hearing the client presentations, our client took us on a tour of the city and helped us understand the evolution of Salvador and the state of Bahia - a very eye-opening experience. Here's some key things that we learnt...

- Racial inequality in Salvador is a big issue (and in Brazil)

- Nearly 75% of the population in Salvador is of African descent

- The Federal and State universities have very few afro-brazilians enrolled

- Afro-brazilians do not enjoy the same access to education and job opportunities

- Education can help bridge the gap and the inequality between the haves and the have-nots

- Racial segregation is just under the surface - I noticed that there were hardly any afro-Brazilians in all of the restaurants we'd been to

- From Wikipedia, ""Stephen Biko (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a noted anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. A student leader, he later founded the Black Consciousness Movement which would empower and mobilize much of the urban black population."

- Out of a population of 190M, most of the wealth and political power is concentrated amongst 5,000 families in Brazil.

- Afro-Brazilians have significantly higher rates of crime against them compared to the rest of the population

- Afro-Brazilians and poverty are virtually synonymous in Brazil and especially in Salvador

- The Portuguese brought large numbers of slaves from Africa to Brazil (an absolutely eye-popping article on the slave trade is at the end of this post)

One thing I've noticed in Salvador is the friendliness and easy-going nature of the people here - a colleague of mine posted on her blog that the people here are "pure spirited" - very well put. Over the 4-week onsite engagement, we are tasked with developing an IT education curriculum, evaluating and recommending changes to their marketing/communications strategy and recommending an org management strategy. A tall order but one that we feel excited about!

Day three wrapped up with a trip back to our "pousada" (Brazilian B&B) that had us stuck in rush-hour traffic. An overwhelming day in many ways but also a day that put a lot of things in perspective and opened my eyes to many things that I did not know about. Dinner was a team affair at a local fish and sandwich shop - an opportunity to catch-up on our first day with the clients. Memorable dinner quote from one of my Russian colleagues, "Be a little Russian" - literally translated to Don't stress, be happy, try to make a difference and have fun!!!

Day Four: Tuesday, May 10

Headed to the client site in the morning and continued to learn more about the ICSB (Instituto Cultural Steve Biko) including how they manage their organization, how they raise funds, how they choose projects. A lot of similarities to how start-ups run a business except that this organization supports a social cause vs. a business cause - everyone chips in and does what's needed to keep the wheels turning. Continued our education on the Afro-Brazilian ancestry and manifestations of the racial inequality. Most of the discussion was led by one of the founders of ICSB - a man with great passion, energy - very contagious. I've also been enjoying the immersive Portuguese learning - we have a translator to help us understand the client's needs and their organization and I've been trying to self-translate before she translates from Portuguese to English - it's funny how the non-verbal communication helps one pick up on what a person may be saying in a foreign language.

We also spent Day four trying to put together a plan of action for our project execution - managing expectations is key - the client is very excited to have us on-hand for the next four weeks and they want us to help with a lot of things - we have to be selective in order to have the most impact in this short timeframe. Very glad to be part of a diverse team working with this client - we all bring unique perspectives to the dialogue.

Day Four concluded with a team meeting (all 5 teams, 14 individuals from 2 corporates + our local NGO consultants) - this is a weekly meeting held every Tuesday @ 7pm - we brainstorm on what we learnt, how we can share things with one another and help each other's projects. Again, loved the accents, the multiple perspectives - very engaging conversation. We also made plans for the upcoming weekends - on this Friday, we will be headed to a performance of the Capoeira (From Wikipedia: 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). Finally, while many of us were experiencing the "drinking from a fire hose" feeling, everyone was enthused and excited about being part of this unique opportunity. Dinner was at a local "Suco 24" (Suco means Juice) ... had a yummy tamarind juice and a "super double" sandwich! :-) (gotta have my burger)

Day Five: Wednesday, May 11 (today)

Day five was spent at the client site fleshing out our plan-of-action ... including a running list of ideas, open questions, upcoming deliverables and tasks/activities that we collectively needed to track. As a quick aside, we're using Google docs to share a workspace - works brilliantly with real-time edits to a document that multiple people can view and edit simultaneously - love it when technology makes life easier! :-)

We had some interesting moments during our conversations - at one point, there were 4 of us and 7 folks from the client side - 4 of the client representatives spoke both Portuguese and English and all attempted to translate simultaneously for the 3 non-English speaking client reps - it was quite a challenge to get our point across and vice-versa - we finally had to take a time-out to sort out the communication flow! It's interesting to see how the client is really looking to us to do a lot in a short amount of time - we have to prioritize our efforts if we're going to be successful here - we will be presenting a revised scope-of-work and a deliverable outline to our clients at the end of this week (heck, that's in only 2 days!)

Lunch today was at another "kilo" buffet place - very good food. Dinner was back again at the "Suco 24" juice and sandwich shop. Had the most amazing custard apple/sharifa/sitafal shake and a Super Double sandwich again! :-) Dinner conversation was around the fascinating topic of amateur radio direction finding (ARDF). One of my colleagues from Germany is a passionate hobbyist - ARDF combines physical endurance, quick decision-making, analytics, logical reasoning, tracking and hunting into one sport - it's really quite an involved sport - the basic objective is to track down transmitters on a course (typically a forest) using a home-made non-commercial receiver. More details are at the reference link below...

That's about it so far - I hope you enjoyed reading about my adventures - I continue to have this sense-of-disbelief about this opportunity and feel tremendously grateful for it. Key takeaways, reference links and a few pictures follow...

Key thoughts/takeaways:

- Be passionate - it's fuel for your soul.

- Find a cause you believe in and support it with time, energy, money - whatever it takes

- "It is in giving that we truly receive"

- Passion fuels passion - it's contagious!

- Paying it back is not always feasible or appropriate. Always pay it forward.

- Be grateful - find one thing every day (if not more) that you can be grateful for. A loving spouse/child/parent, food on the table, a car to drive, a roof over your head - whatever. It's easy to lose sight of the things that one needs to be grateful for. Do you have an attitude of gratitude today?

- Ever wondered why the guy in the fancy car has a frown on his face and the guy who's walking barefoot on the street in searing heat has a bounce in his step and a smile on his face? Relates back to my earlier post about the "Happiness" book that I've been reading. For reference, it's called "The Happiness Advantage" and it's by Shawn Achor. Find what makes you happy and strive to experience it!

- Learn something new each day!

- The world is full of interesting people - make an effort to know people better - we're all unique and there's a spark inside each of us.

- You have one life to live. Make it count! Forget the trivial!

- Throw all preconceived notions out the door! Keep an open mind at all times - if you do, you'll find and uncover things that you may ordinarily have missed.

- Memorable dinner quote from one of my Russian colleagues, "Be a little Russian" - literally translated to Don't stress, be happy, try to make a difference and have fun.

Reference links:

Atlantic Slave Trade: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_slave_trade

Steve Biko: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Biko

Capoeira: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capoeira

Amateur Radio Direction Finding: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio_direction_finding