One week down

The first week of my assignment with the Navabharath Foundation is over. Our team achievements this week have been:

1. Met face to face for the first time with Santhosh, C.J., Harsha, Prathiba and Rani. Rafael, Cat and I are all visual thinkers, so there was great value in being able to draw diagrams together to clarify our understanding.
2. Conducted brainstorming sessions on how to successfully incubate grass roots micro enterprises.
3. Completed field visit to see first hand the work being done by some of the micro enterprises.
4. Researched incubation models.
5. Revised the scope of our project and agreed the objectives and deliverables.

There is a lot to be done in the next three weeks, but it is a challenge to be relished.

It has been nice to touch base with the broader IBM CSC India 16 team (comprised of 12 people from 9 countries) over breakfast in the hotel, or dinner at a local restaurant. The noise and chaos of the India traffic is reflective of the pace at which most of us seem to be moving. There always seems to be something happening such as trying to avoid our usual day jobs, keep in touch with home, updating blogs, reviewing photos or just trying to find a regular sleeping pattern.

This weekend we are doing an overnight boat trip on the backwaters. I will have to report back later whether this is a leisurely, relaxing boat cruise, or, as I expect to be more likely, something akin to Gillian's Island meets Maverick. The poker game being discussed sounds of Olympic standards relative to the beach cricket game I have organised for Sunday when we will meet up with the IBM CSC India 15 team who are visiting Kochi for the weekend.
#ibmcsc india