1 Week (or so) to go!
10/01/2017
I am excited to be joining a team of 15 IBMers from all over the world (Argentina, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Mexico, Slovakia and USA) deploying to South Africa as part of the IBM Corporate Service Corps (CSC) program.
The CSC program sends groups of IBMers with different skills, backgrounds and cultures to emerging markets to perform community-driven economic development projects.
My flight to Johannesburg departs in just 10 days, with a good 39 hours from door to door (Guadalajara to Joburg).
I applied and got accepted to the CSC program in the summer of 2016 but received the deployment email during June 2017, one year later. This is a fairly funny story, I was actually on vacation when I received the deployment notification, so I ended up reading the email 1 day after the deadline for me to confirm and receive approval from my manager. Imagine my face when I saw the deadline had come and gone without me knowing, I ended up contacting the CSC program manager via the CSC Facebook group (lol). Needless to say, it turned out fine.
After gathering paperwork, getting a yellow fever shot (South African requirement for entering the country because my flight itinerary has a layover in Sao Paulo), receiving my SA visa and, most importantly, gone through a 3 month orientation, I am ready to meet my teammates (in person) and clients in amazing South Africa.
Over the course of the deployment I will be posting blogs a couple times per week, recording my journey with the help of photos and videos. I invite you to follow along, ask questions and add comments.
#IBMCSC
#IBMCSCSA18
