Just around the finish line....

The one month long trail blazer is wounding down, and I have to admit it has had all the twists and turns of a roller coaster which I predicted at start of journey. TRUE to the name of the blog I choose.

Tomm we move back from Adama to Addis for the final leg of client presentations before we take the flights back home. My team is sitting pretty with final report and executive presentations completed with big help from my India team who never leaves me high and dry. 

Well, they said use the 420,000 IBMers back home & I used 4 stalwarts from my team to help us with beautifying and cleaning up our documents and presentations 
Thanks Garima, Narendra, Saraswati and Shubhojit for all your help. 

The last weekend the team spent together visiting Lalibela, Gondar and Bahir Dar. It was a beautiful trip immersing self's in the world heritage sites. But honestly, looking at Ethiopia makes me realize how rich Indian heritage is and its my resolve to spend more time going around India now. 

Well, I am just 296 mails back-logged which I intend to clear before I start trip back home so that I can start from a clean slate but as of now top of my mind is going back to eating roti, dal & sabzi. Man !! I miss the food so much....

Some pictures from the last weekend trip.

Breath taking view in Lalibela

Stone church carved from single volcanic rock in Lalibela

St. George Chruch in cross shaped design

& I thought St. George was only a beer :-)

The Ethiopian Trail Blazers

Full view of St. George Church

View in Gondar

Mirror Mirror on the wall, whose tallest of them all 

King Fasil's Palace - Guess it was from 8th Century

We know how to party @ Beer Garden

Boys having some fun...

This is called Jesus finger... 

Saying anything  more would be Blasphemy

Murals on the wall of Bahir Dar Monasteries 

situated in multiple islands on Lake Tana

Yes, we shot some pool too..

Blue Nile Falls in all its magnificent roaring beauty

only it was not blue...!!

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Ethiopian Roller Coaster inching towards closer...

9 more days to go, no we have not been reverse counting but then again family is top of my mind now besides final client presentations.

Today we had community day which was attended by students from Adama University. Focus Area -  "Building Your Personal Brand" - a topic very close to my heart and on which I do business facilitation in IBM as well. 

Program Agenda includes an overview of IBM, CSC & then Speed Mentoring sessions on variety of career development topics.

Some pics from today.

IBM Overview presented by Todd

The Focus Area for today

Sharing view points

In rapt attention

Speed Mentoring Session in full flow

Lighter moments

Pennin down some sites to create Digital Eminence

Yours Truly during Wrap Up 

The Ethiopia 1 Team

The Dynamic Dozen

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whiff of wilderness...

Oh I have been  busy now that we reach the half way mark with presentation and final report. So let me recap from where I left.

We moved from Addis Ababa to a smaller town called Adama. 
On our journey to Adama we went thru flash floods but survived to reach 90 km distance in 4+ hrs. On reaching our designated hotel Adama German, team was displeased with the security & facilities and raised the concern to CSC Team. After some hoops and jumps we moved to another one Tokuma Hotel. I would recommend this to CSC Ethiopia Team 2 over Adama German any day.

That weekend team went to Awasa and saw some wild life (we had a walking talking wild life encyclopedia Shivraj Iyer), World Hertiage Site TIYA which is best known for its adjacent archaeological site, which is distinguished by 36 standing stones or stelae, "32 of which are engraved with enigmatic symbols, notably swords," marking a large, prehistoric burial complex,  Stone Church & finally wounded up with a stop over for coffee ceremony.

Ingeniously build Yacht

Ask Shiv the names.... he is amazing !!

Fishes caught here are fillet with mouth by kids..

The photographer in all steps out..

Team up a view point with 2 lakes

View was breath takin...

Shiv, me and Himanshu

TIYA - where people were buried in vertical feotal position

Tombs of TIYA - Dated 900 yr BC

The huts in Awasa National Park

Team weathering the slicky mud enroute stone church

Coffee Ceremony

Amidst all of this action, team is working hard on the mid way presentation with clients to showcase the progress and prepare for the final presentations.

Thanks to Garima and Narendra form STS who are providing me some cover fire from India. Thank You Team !!

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Day Out - Tree Planting with Ministry of Comm & Info Technology (MCIT) at SEBETA !!

During our first meeting with Director of e-Government, we wanted to set up detailed interactions with their data center teams & that's when we got to know that all of the folks from Ministry of Communications & Info Technology are going to a hill top for tree plantation exercise. We asked if me, Andy and Mauro could come along as well and they were delighted.

Well, the rule is besides approved places which includes within and outside city, you need security clearance from IBM. So we called IBM Security and asked that we wished to go with clients and got an OK. 

And thus stated the 2 hr drive to the outskirts of city called Sebeta.  I thought the tree plantation would be on plain or plateau kind of place but no we had to climb a steep steep hill with pathways filled with muddy slush.  I died 3 times on the way up... That's why they say EXERCISE :-)

Mauro, Anand & our translator Minei

Future IBMer - Son of one of employees who climbed all the way up.. we gave him an IBM Cap and he was delighted..

Walking with the team up 

Miles to go..

Lets do it...

State Minister of MCIT delivering the speech. He made a point to THANK IBMers to being part of this initiative. It was a great moment..

Me, Director of E-Government & Andy

Hands filled with Mud ... Proof of we were there..

Taking a breather...

Sub Team 1 - With the Data Center Lead Haregoin & their Finance guy..

Slow motion running.....

Unsuspecting but Media catches us .... and later we got wrapped for it becoz we were not briefed adequately for media interaction. 

Young Planters

Aaah... cant climb anymore...!! CAN I PLANT MY TREE Here Puhleeeeeeez...

Me and Mauro...he is from IBM Brazil and we are learning so much about the culture of that place from him.

The climb up thru the mud and slush, We managed without fallin down which deserves a standing ovation.

5 Birr to get the shoes cleaned. Its like a fad here..

THANKS to ANDY for sharing memories we are making and pics for my blogs.

And for those of you who are thinking all we are doing is going to places and tree planting. Let me warn you that some serious sessions happening with teams, visits to data centers, interview with teams to understand and document process. 

First impression of their Data Center Operations which we are reviewing and will give recommendations on - lot of scope for improvement & alignment with industry best practices.... But they have  done good to reach where they are. And best part is they recognize the need to become a scalable, modular, resilient and enterprise class. Well, the only reason I do not discussion those here are to protect client info & privacy around it.

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