Yes, I’ve been back from India for nearly two weeks, but I told you I wasn’t done telling the story, and I’m not! Let’s pretend we’re 3 weeks into our deployment. Once upon a time…
Every CSC team, regardless of where deployed, participates in a “community service day.” My initial thought upon hearing about this was “Isn’t every day ‘community service day’ while we’re on CSC?” Barring the rare day off, the answer is “of course!” I’d argue that even when site seeing or shopping we did something of value for the community, from contributing to the economy to simple, kind gestures and everything in between (one of my favorites being giving really delicious, nutritious, vegetarian leftover food to the poor on the streets; the “spirit bond” from that is REAL). Side note: not that I had many doubts in the first place, but the CSC experience completely crystallized for me the notion of “the world” as our community. Well, until we discover our neighbors on other planets. Hopefully they’re nice! Hmm…. hopefully WE’RE nice!
One of our 4 clients agreed to host the community service day with a focus, like that of all 4 of our projects, on women’s empowerment. No one is going to mistake me for someone getting passionately behind causes or attending political rallies. I’m a cynic, though I like to think an “optimistic cynic,” so “causes,” and “politics” are things that, at least previously, I have taken with a grain of salt. I vote, but I drink no one’s Kool Aid. Bearing that in mind, the focus on empowering communities and families through empowering women really connected with me and still does. Owing nothing to the assignment in India, and long before we arrived, I heightened my awareness and interest in gender issues, women’s rights, LGBT rights, and, well, everyone’s rights. This transcends political affiliations (of which I proudly have none) for me. I just call it “let’s all be cool to each other, OK?” Some of this comes from events in my own country and state, some of it comes from living and observing life, and those closest to me know some of it comes from recent personal/family impact. I’m happy to talk about that one on one with anyone who is interested, but let’s leave it there for the blog.
If I haven’t said it already (and, whether I have or not, I definitely WILL say it again), the cohesiveness, caring, and friendships developed across our team were remarkable, noted even by our in country partner organization. Preparing for and participating in the Community Service Day gave us a great opportunity to work more closely as a team of 10 and to mix things up a bit. We split up into 4 “new” teams to coordinate 3 rotating/parallel sessions as well as plenary and closing sessions.
Ottavia and I worked together to plan and (sort of) deliver the plenary and closing sessions. I say “sort of,” because every session needed translators. I don’t speak Hindi, but I am observant enough that it took no effort to figure out that our host essentially delivered the plenary session for us before we said a word. We collectively agreed to split the women into groups of three and send them into the rotational sessions. Ottavia took on the role of primary videographer for the day, and I was the time keeper, floating from session to session and letting everyone know it was time to rotate.
Natasja, Sylvia, and Leon led a session called “Go For It!” The workshop included an exercise involving rocks, pebbles, and sand and touched on themes of priorities and allocating finite resources. During my brief visits, the women were engaged, learning, smiling, and laughing. If there’s something else we could have asked for, I don’t know what it is!
Anna and John hosted a workshop on Financial Well-Being. This included a game with “play” money, which of course had to be created, printed, and cut into little notes. The night before the service day, I walked into the hotel conference room and saw Anna cutting the sheets of money. I ran up to my room and grabbed the small pair of kindergarten scissors that are always in my checked luggage. I’ve NEVER had occasion to use them, until now. The presence of these scissors and disclosure that I never travel without them elicited a pretty intense fit of laughter from many in the room, including Anna. I did not allow that to bother my inner “be prepared” Boy Scout, and in fact I sort of enjoyed it. I got the last laugh, as those scissors were used on more than one future occasion by teammates looking to cut labels off of various purchases.
The 3rd rotational session was hosted by Alê, Mark, and Makus. The subject was “Be Proud!” and, in addition to touching on issues of body language and posture, thanks to Markus’ totally righteous camera and photography skills, each participant left with a printed, individual photo of themselves. I guess now is as good a time as any to mention that we were told to expect 60 attendees for the community service day. We took and printed out 111 photographs. The collage prepared by Markus serves as proof. After the 1st session, the “Be Proud!” team asked for help. The crowd of ladies at twice original expectations combined with the process of teaching the material, lining them up for photos, and keeping the right printed photo with the right name for distribution meant that, by the end of the day, all 10 of us helped out with this session. The printer was nothing we’d call “fast,” so there was quite a backlog. Not wanting to keep our guests waiting (they all had the chores of their day-to-day, rural living ahead of them), we suggested that we could print them out and arrange for pickup at the community center at a later date. The women showed no interest in that option and happily gave up more of their (seriously!) in demand time to wait. They used the time to sing songs for us, encouraging a few ladies from our team to dance. In retrospect, even though I am not prone to dancing, I sort of regret not jumping in, both for fun and in keeping with the theme of breaking down gender stereotypes.
All of this fails to mention the incredible welcome we received when we arrived at the community center. Piling out of our cars, we were greeted by the fanfare of local musicians. Before long, the ladies on our team were pulled into a big dance party and given scarves to wear over their heads. The men from our team enjoyed this and took photos and videos, thinking we had escaped ceremonial and sartorial initiation. And that’s when a man walked up to John, or was it Markus, and proceeded to build a turban on his head with a long, red cloth. It doesn’t really matter who was first, because none of us “escaped.” I loved seeing how the turban was built up on our heads, and I loved wearing it. There was one problem: it was HOT that day, so about midway through, the non-locals among us had to take them off.
Once appropriately attired, our client took us to the “back yard” of the community center, where they had arranged for each of us to plant our own tree. The idea was that they will remember us every time they see the trees. Once again, we received more than we gave, which is unfair: I get to live the rest of my life knowing there is a tree in India that I planted, and that tree is in a row with 9 other trees planted by my teammates, and it commemorates a day I will never forget during a month of experiences that are beyond what I deserve.
I’ve typed enough, and you’ve read enough for this entry. Enjoy the photos! #ibmcsc #india32
The views expressed in this blog represent my own personal views and not necessarily those of IBM. That said, if IBM doesn’t like The Beatles, then IBM should really think about starting to like The Beatles.
Preston Cleland - IBM corporate Service Corps, Jaipur, India 