My original plan was to blog at least every other day, so by that standard, I am OK. However, I am finding that if I don't write my thoughts and impressions down immediately, they slip away due to the intense nature of this assignment. So I wanted to post yesterday, but we experienced an internet outage at the lodge that ended up being insurmountable even with USB modems, so I catch up tonight for the two days...
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| My humble abode for the next 28 days |
Saturday, 10/1, arrival day for the team of 11. We experienced a loss before we even started the in-country program when one of our colleagues with whom we'd prepared for nearly 3 months couldn't travel due to a serious family matter. Eventually, the rest of us arrived at the lodge, so we got together late in the evening to enhance the bonding that started over weekly conference calls. As Day 1 ends, Day 2 begins.
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| I have a pet in my room |
Sunday, 10/2, a very busy day of orientation. We toured the campus then key parts of the city of Accra, stopping for lunch at a traditional Ghanaian restaurant. All 11 of us ordered native food; two of us (one being me), ate our groundnut soup in the traditional manner, with our right hand only. Fun, messy, but I'd decided previously to immerse myself in this experience to the greatest extent practical. Good, good! Upon our return to the lodge, we were given various presentations about the key things that we'd need to know to get by in Ghana for the next four weeks.
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| Vendors selling their wares along the side of the street |
Monday, 10/3, the consulting begins in earnest. The morning was spent absorbing information from the key stakeholders: CDS, our host; the Minister of Trade and Industry; IBM Ghana; and our four clients:
- Association of Ghana Industries (AGI)
- Ghana Tourist Authority (GTA)
- National Youth Authority (NYA)
- Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA)
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| My plate from Monday's buffet lunch loaded with more traditional food |
Later, we split into our four subteams and very quickly laid out a rough plan for the four weeks in country. It was great to hear about all of the project Statements of Work (SOWs) which are uniformly intriguing, challenging, and in fact, have many commonalities across them even though the clients are so diverse. More on that later though as this combined post is getting lengthy. Tomorrow we battle the legendary Accra traffic, meet the clients on their home turf and dive right in with site visits and tours on our agenda with #IBMCSC #Ghana-VII.
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| Team AMA |
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