Social Sabbatical: Crunch time! The final week and the busiest yet!

This is it! We are pretty much done with all the deliverables and have mentally prepared for all the presentations we needed to do.

Monday. We started the week strong with a presentation at Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina (UDESC) to speak in front of graduate classes and professors. UDESC is the state university with 59 undergraduate courses and 48 graduate courses, which they offer free of charge.

We talked about SAP in general, the digital transformation, our suite of products and efforts to “run simple”, and our presence in Brazil. It is not part of our scope of work, but we happily obliged as it was not only an opportunity to build networks, but to also talk about how great it is to work in SAP and promote the social good SAP is doing. Who knows maybe we also get to encourage these students to explore career opportunities in SAP.

Fouad Sadik is a colleague from the Semente Negócios sub-team. Fouad works as an Associate Development Architect out of our Canada office and we are truly grateful that he joined us to give valuable tech insights.

It was a long day, but we never felt tired, rather still energized after the presentation at the university, so we had a quick tour of the university grounds and then went to a park nearby to check out the various food trucks like uni students. We settled for some burgers and gyros, then headed back to our hotel as we needed to pack our stuff. Packing is my least favorite activity even though I travel so much. We have to pack tonight as we are changing hotels in the morning before heading out to work. (Backstory: the initial hotel we were staying at had been booked solid on the last week due to a medical conference. It was not the most ideal setup but Pyxera Global, SAP’s partner in executing social good activities, made the move easier.)

On Tuesday, we had two sets of internal presentation for our host organization. First with the Management team, then the second set was for the FUCAS staff. The FUCAS team also planned a sort of closing event for us later that afternoon, a simple get-together over grilled sausages and beer. Perfect.

Group shot at the balcony. It was really windy outside!

The FUCAS kids made these adorable Christmas doorknob hangers for us as farewell gifts.

The day does not end there though, we headed back to our new hotel for the recurring debriefing session. We do this weekly for two hours, where we catch up and sub-teams share project updates to the bigger team. Some of us often joked about how it felt like AA meetings.

Wednesday was another day to play sports with the kids! Some members of the Sebrae team dropped by FUCAS to play. It was great watching the kids and the adults come together in a pretty intense but healthy competitive game. I didn’t play this time, learned my lesson from last week and I don’t want another asthma attack. :-)

Aleksandra Aleksic was from our Sebrae sub-team. Aleks is from Palo Alto, California, working as a Product Manager for SAP Labs. Here’s Aleks in action, she’s the one holding the ball there and she totally owned the game!

Later that afternoon, we had our executive presentation together with all the SAP consultants and host organizations. It was the most conducive way to showcase what we have been doing for the past four weeks.

Thursday was a holiday and we were invited by the FUCAS sports coach, Marcelo Dias, to spend time with his beautiful family. Their home is close by the beach and we made a day out of it.

The Dias family have been warm and welcoming. Marcelo’s wife, Mitchi, went way over and beyond to accommodate us. Their kids were also the sweetest, especially their youngest daughter who always had hugs and kisses for us.

Friday. Final day. Assignment is almost over and most are heading back to their home countries tomorrow. Before anything else, we had our final debriefing session. This time, it’s barbecue by the beach rather than the typical closed room session.

Group photo with SAP colleagues and Pyxera team. Ever wondered what’s up there?

Of course, here comes the packing again. By now, you would be annoyed how much I whine about packing :-) I took a break from packing and whining and went out for dinner with one of the graduate students I met at the university (UDESC), Bruna Gonçalves. We exchanged stories and she even gave me tips for my upcoming Peru trip!

We have branched out a lot during our assignment in Brazil, more so during the final week. I have learned a lot and it was certainly a life-changing experience. I will treasure the relationships we have built and the memories we have made. Social Sabbatical may have officially ended, but this is just the beginning of something greater for all of us.