First Day of Work

Finally after months of preparing and planning and after several wonderful days sightseeing we were ready to start work today. The meeting with all of the clients and IBM consultants started bright and early at 11(ish), with the first presentation lasting about 30 minutes. After that it was time for a break (no joke). Three more presentations lasting about an hour and it was time for…lunch.

When we finally arrived at our new offices to get down to some real business my four team members and I wasted no time to pop open our laptops and dig in. Our client, Sam, had a stunned look on her face when we all just started chattering away about our assignments and started getting into some heavy conversations. With all this pent up energy you could actually feel the momentum in the room starting to build until…wait for it….wait for it….no internet, which (personally for my assignment) is absolutely critical to getting our analysis done. After another hour or so fumbling around trying to get things working we had enough connectivity to get started when….wait for it….wait for it…we were informed that it was 4:30 and we were the last ones in the building and they had to lock it up. So much for making a dent in the workload. I guess this is all part of the experience, right?

Before I go on I just have to say that everyone from all three teams are quite overwhelmed by the amount of work that needs to get done. We keep talking about it amongst ourselves and everyone is genuinely excited to dive in. So, with the concern for our workload weighing heavy we all got together and….went to a gorgeous reception in our honor under the African night. The reception was held in a beautiful open outdoor hall with music and food. There were several speakers, members of the press, IBM-SA, all of the clients and other members of the community. The people that we are meeting are so genuinely happy to see us, excited about the work that we are doing and grateful for us to be here. Speaking to many of them (not just tonight but throughout all of our nights here) has brought the many books I have read about the country’s history and struggle to life. Most everyone we meet seems to be moving away from the past and excited about the future, and it really is amazing to see first hand how much this country has overcome and what a bright future it has.

Now that the night is over I think it is finally time to get down to business. Most of the teams are going out tomorrow to do field work and interviews, while my partner and I will be online (hopefully) getting through some research before our interviews start next week. .

And – for the record – we have no more formal social events planned for the rest of the stay, so I think the hard work starts now.


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