Day Zero - ready, set, go for Brazil!

Background: As many of you know, several months ago I found out that I was going to be part of a special pilot run by my company to develop talent through an immersive in-country experience in an emerging economy.  The program is perhaps best described as a "Corporate Peace Corps" ... teams of 10-14 individuals from around the world come together and work through a 4-month program where 3 months are in a virtual classroom setting (homework, case studies, conference calls, web meetings) and 1 month is on-location working with local community development organizations.  I have always wanted to invest my time and energy in the community and when this opportunity came up, I was quick to raise my hand for it.  Fortunately, for me, I was included in this first pilot - I am so incredibly grateful to have an opportunity like this and have many many people to thank for getting to this point - I will not call them out at this time (you know who you are!) ... when I first found out about my participation, I thought that May was far far away and that I will have a lot of time to prepare - well, May got here sooner than I thought and I'm now set for launch!  My intent is to use this blog to post my personal experiences and thoughts on the program - these are my views and my views alone! :-)  So, here goes!

Day Zero: Departure for Salvador, Brazil (Salvador is Brazil's 3rd largest city with a population of about 2.2 million residents - it's in the Northeast state of Bahia).  The last few hours before departure were spent on a bunch of activities - I had a conf. call, some last-minute packing and between that I enjoyed some yummy Indian food cooked by my mom-in-law.  While my wife and I had been preparing for our longest separation to-date, felt a fair bit of anxiety about being away for a month.  At the same time, felt tremendous excitement and gratitude for the opportunity itself.

Day 0.5: On the plane to Miami (connecting through to Salvador) ... thoughts are zipping around in my head... sad about my wife missing me and me missing her!  Thoughts about all the life events that transpired to get me to this point ... choice of employer, choice of workgroup, love of travel and new experiences, raising my hand for the opportunity, being supported by my chain of management and colleagues at work and by my family, several mentors who I continue to look up to.  All these thoughts accompanied by a sense of disbelief that I was actually on the plane headed to Brazil - a dream really - it is true that wealth can only be measured by the things that money cannot buy and, by that definition, I am super wealthy! 

Day 1: Touchdown Brazil - pic and video attached on arrival at 6am on a Saturday, May 7 ... the plane ride was comfortable and uneventful - continued reading a book called "The Happiness Advantage" by Shawn Achor - central premise being that Happiness enables success and not the other way round - a very interesting and relevant message ... more to follow...