On three continents

Two days ago I arrived in Jaipur, the pink city in Rajasthan, India. It is time to take a deep breath and write down some reflections at the early stages of a month CSC India journey. A journey which actually already started 3 months ago when we had our first call with the CSC India 32 team. A diverse team of colleagues from across the globe, all exited and honored to join this program.

CSC stands for Corporate Service Corps, an IBM high quality leadership development program through delivering quality problem solving for communities and organizations in emerging markets. I was thinking (or actually dreaming) of joining this program for many years and only last year I finally applied. In June this year, I got the acceptance email with Jaipur, India as designation. I still remember the moment I saw the email in my inbox…..oh my….this must be it! Now I need to tell the kids and husband that I’ll be away from one month. I knew they would be very supportive. The only thing was that my daughter Ophélie was also preparing for her one-year of High School to the USA. I also was asked for a new global role in IBM Learning as Digital Learning Transformation and Communications Leaders. Two great opportunities I grabbed with both hands.

To keep a long story short….after much paper work (two visa process, first for Ophélie then for myself), packing and getting organized, here we are……on three continents as a family. An emotional roller coaster from all sides: fear, joy, proud, happiness, doubts, longing, insecure, self-confident, peaceful, stressful, energetic, honored but above all curious and grateful……Curious of what the coming 4 weeks will bring me and grateful for being given this great opportunity.

Tomorrow we will be meeting with our NGO to kick-off our project: a pro bono consultancy project at a civil society organization here in Jaipur. A project to which I’ll contribute to my professional skills and personal commitment with full dedication together with my direct team mate Markus Fehr and the rest of the team. An experience which will also helps me to grow and learn…grow my skills, grow my experience, network, self-awareness and will wider my perspective, view and model of the world. The world of India, a colorful country with lots of contrast of which I’ll share you more about in the coming weeks.

My intention is to use this blog to share and tell you more about this great country, the people and my experiences. It also will help me to capture and to reflect and be most conscious and mindful of all that I’ll observe in the coming weeks.

I hope you’ll enjoy……NAMASTE!

#IBMCSC #IBMCSCIndia32

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