Final Preparations

Sunday was an exceptionally busy day.  The IBM & JPMC CSC teams, with the assistance of our program leaders (Rodrigo, Vanessa, & Larissa), had a full day of activities.

• Our first stop was at a local park (Recanto do Sabia) on the outskirts of Uberlandia.   While there, Larissa highlighted different aspects of the park for us.  There were soccer fields, running & walking trails, and swan boats (propelled by pedals); as well as many small eating establishments and vendors.
• Next, we stopped at an upscale Churrascaria restaurant (Tropeiro).  If you’ve never been to this type of eating establishment, a salad bar is situated in the middle of the restaurant, and the tables surround it.  Soon after eating your salad & “healthy” food, the servers come by your table about every 1 – 2 minutes with many different types of grilled meats: lamb, pork, chicken, chicken hearts, several types of beef, and fish (tilapia).  As long as you pace yourself, things are okay.  To end the meal, our table of 23 shared an awesome dessert:  Passion fruit mousse (at least that is what I call it) drizzled with Crème de Cassis liqueur.
• At 3PM sharp, we had our last team building session in the hotel.  Bruno, our facilitator, performed admirably and took all of us out of our comfort zones.  He asked us to produce a “time line” of events that led each of us to the pursuit of a CSC assignment.  By the end of the 3 hour sessions, we all felt a lot closer to each other because personal stories & anecdotes were shared.  To wrap up, Rodrigo asked all of to perform a “destressor”:  Laugh non-stop for 60 seconds. (It is actually harder than it sounds and turned out to be quite an ab workout!)

Monday would be upon us before we knew it and we all felt that a good night sleep was in order.  Before turning in, I opted to take a walk with my teammate (Hajira) and do 1 final brainstorm session before we met members of our NGO: Ipe Instituto.  While we were out walking, a planet (Venus?) was immediately adjacent to the moon. (See the picture found at the very bottom of this blog.)

Boa Noite.  (Good night in Portuguese.)

 #ibmcsc brazil