Byebye Berlin, hello Bangkok!
Waking up on the other side of the world is always an adventure — the unusual sounds of honking Tuk Tuks ringing in my ears, my nose taking in the smell of grilled meat from the various street stands and my eyes watching the traffic slowly weave its way through the concrete jungle. Switching the German winter to live in the “Land of Smiles” feels exotic, exciting, and unique. For the next four weeks, I’m giving up my Berlin home to live in a Bangkok skyscraper as part of the SAP Social Sabbatical program. My initial acceptance letter to the 2019–2020 cohort after a two-round application process was already sent to me back in July 2019. The past two months were spent with preparation work, and tomorrow finally marks the kick-off of the Social Sabbatical. I couldn’t be happier and more excited to meet my fellow colleagues from different countries, different lines of businesses and different professional backgrounds who will join me on this adventurous month in Bangkok.
The Social Sabbatical program is a portfolio of one-month long volunteering assignments where SAP employees from around the globe work together in highly diverse teams solving strategic challenges for NGOs and social enterprises. Each year, SAP sends more than 100 employees from its worldwide locations to support social causes and enterprises through the Social Sabbatical program. SAP is partnering together with PYXERA Global, an NGO helping to identify and shortlist social sector organizations. Including myself, we’re a total of 12 SAP employees who were chosen for Bangkok and will be divided into four sub-teams of three. The Social Sabbatical is not just about solving concrete challenges at different client organizations, but at the same time it’s about advancing the participants’ intercultural and leadership skills. In giving up our desks and leaving our comfort zones, all of us should become agents of change!
While the program itself only starts tomorrow, I can already see how the next month is going to be a whirlwind of experiences, adventures, shared memories, and new discoveries. What I learned about Bangkok so far is that no local calls it by that name. In fact, Bangkok is more commonly referred to as Krung Thep, กรุงเทพ, which roughly translates to “City of Angels”. In its entirety (with 169 Latin letters), Bangkok’s official name is the longest name of any capital in the world: กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทรายุธยามหาดิลก ภพนพรัตน์ ราชธานีบุรีรมย์ อุดมราชนิเวศน์ มหาสถาน อมรพิมาน อวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยะ วิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์. Bangkok also wins in another ranking, taking the top spot in the most-visited places in the world, well ahead of London and Paris. Overall, Thailand really feels like the Land of Smiles and I’ve already been met with many a smiles, warm greetings and a laugh.
As I embark on this month-long adventure, I’ll keep on sharing my experiences, learnings and take-aways during the Social Sabbatical and hope you’ll follow along!
To be continued…
