Sunday, February 20, 2011

Nairobi arrival and Team CHUI meet-up


It was a tough breathing session as I counted down to land at Nairobi. Going to an unknown country for one-month, working on a ‘big-impact’project, delivering results in only a month, and the enormous expectation levels created various jitters through my head. But these jitters were mere hurdles, getting such a unique opportunity to work with fellow IBMers from across the globe jointly towards a socio-economic development was an award in itself.

First glimpse of the award on arrival at Nairobi Airport
Even after 17 hours flying time and the jet-lag, it was the sheer excitement to meet my entire team (with whom I had been interacting over conference calls only) kept me going through-out. And what beautiful way to get to know each other – everyone was sharing the same platform at the welcome dinner (except Bill, Luan and Francesco who joined us a little later).

The dinner was hosted by Muriuki Mureithi who then initiated the introduction session. Each member was asked to introduce in their native languages. Hebrew, Japanese, Swahili, Spanish, Chinese, Hungarian, Danish, Hindi, Portuguese, Dutch were some of the languages used – a prime example of how deeply IBM is connected globally.

Luan’s arrival in Nairobi during team’s welcome dinner brought further smiles as the entire gang was nearing formation (Bill and Francesco were still due to arrive). But more than that it was TEAM CHUI who was ecstatic to see the union of sub-team 2 FINALLY happen … yeeee!! Anna Choi from South Korea, Dave Sloan  from Washington DC, Luan Nio from Switzerland along with myself form the CSC Kenya Team 2 Sub-Team 2.

CSC Kenya Team 2 Sub-Team 2 aka Team CHUI
From left: Anna, Dave and Luan
Perfect food, perfect introductions, perfect weather and a perfect BEER was all that was needed to kick start our endeavor :)

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