Kerala backwaters and Fort Cochin

Kerala is just as beautiful as shown on the pictures and videos. The drive was soo long, it took 6 hours to get there (200 km) due to road construction and heavy traffic but it was definitely worth it. Kerala is a real tourist place, lot of beautiful things to explore. The plan was renting a boat to have a Backwaters's tour, spending some time on the beach and meet India 16 team who is located in Cochin. Great dinners, beautiful restaurants, excellent time, the weekend was simply amazing. I can't take but I love my TEAM! :)))
Pics will arrive within some days: )) It is worth to wait :))

#IBMCSC INDIA 15

Week 2- NGO visits

Sorry for not blogging in the past few days ( rather weeks) :)) but it is very difficult to find time to spend with my computer, only the 2 of us :)

The 2nd week was mainly about visiting NGOs, interviewing them, getting larger overview on their projects and scopes and meeting great people who are helping thousands of poor people in the communities.  Our project is the establishment of a Rural Health Training Center by conducting need assessment of the NGOs associated with the Tamil Nadu Voluntary Health Association. Tamil Nadu returned a total population of 7,21,38,958 (Provisional) in 2011. In percentage terms, the rural population formed 51.55% of the total population with the urban population constituting 48.45%. Of this, the rural population stands at 37.19 million and the urban population 34.95 million.

All of us ( Govert, Grazey and me) felt that we've been given a very special opportunity to meet these amazing people. The sparkle what we have seen in their eyes leads these organizations towards success. Willingness, faith and steadiness are the key factors of  their successful operations. The whole week was awesome but if I could name the most touching visit, it would probably be that very short time we spent in a residential school where children rescued from child labor learn and live. It was very a heartbreaking  moment which will always remain in my heart and mind.

As I am blogging from the hotel and the internet connection is very slow the pics will follow within a few days. :))

#IBMCSC India 15

Shopping tour and Topslips

Our second weekend is over- time is flying so fast :(( 

As India 75 team worked on Saturday we decided to go for shopping in Coimbatore and not to go to any tour without our guys. Our first destination was Brookefield, a big shopping mall to buy some Indian-styled clothes- which we all fell in love with. Women have great life here- from fashion point of view. They have a lot of nice materials to tailor from. Coimbatore has a big textile industry- so you don't have to go far to find wonderful dresses. After lunch in the mall we ( the girls) decided to re-visit our favorite place- FabIndia. Fabindia is India's largest private platform for products that are made from traditional techniques, skills and hand-based processes. My god, we could spend a lifetime there :))) The evening we went to a super-glamorous restaurant- The Residency. Soft music, red wine, delicious food, what else is needed? :))
 

Sunday we woke up early to get to Topsplip which is located above 300 meters from the sea level (Hills of elephants). It is an important tourist center in Indra Gandhi National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary (sanctuary covers 958 sq.kms) in the Coimbatore District of Tamilnadu. We expected to see wild elephants and tigers but locals told us that they do not come out from their shelter this season- rather in May-June, therefore we saw one elephant, some monkeys, deers and a kind of Indian buffalo-called gar. We also saw a very old teak tee- it is said to be more than 450 years old. Amazing :)

The 450 years old teak tree

The TEAM: Joe- US, Govert- US( originally from the NL), Joao- Brasil, Bernd- Germany, Aya- Australia( originally from Japan), JeongRan-Korea, myself from Hungary, Sandra- Colombia, Andrew- Australia and crazy Grazey from The Philippines:))

#ibmcsc #india 15

Mahashivaratri Festival- simply amazing!

Day 7- 17/02/2012


We had our first interview on field with one of the NGOs who is our target "customer" in our project ( Coimbatore Multipurpose Social Service Society ). It was a long, but very interesting and useful interview. Before coming to Coimbatore I did not expect that high level of community activity in India. This is really amazing such as everything in this huge country which is so far and so different from my home but which is so adorable that I cannot be enough grateful for life for this possibility to be given to me. :)

Back to the hotel the traffic was hectic- just as always :))

 

sorry for my camera, it just mixes up the days :)

 The evening we visited Isha Yoga Center for Mahashivaratri Festival. That was simply wonderful!

#ibmcsc #india 15

Time to play!!

Day 5- 14/02/2012

Cricket is the most popular sport in India; it is played by many people in open spaces throughout the country. Wednesday morning the faculties of PSG played a cricket match. I am not really into ball games so I could hardly follow the rules-- what I realized is if the ball gets out of the field- that's a good shot :)))

 

the winners :))

  After the cricket match and the afternoon we were creating a questionnaire to survey the training needs of the NGOs in Tamil Nadu. We are going to have live interviews with some of the NGOs. which are located close in Coimbatore and send the survey to the rest. Let me say that we are progressing well :)

#ibmcsc #india 15

1st day at office

Day 4- 13/02/2012

 

Tuesday was our first day at office. We were looking forward to it very much. Just after arrival at PSG Dr. Thomas welcomed us warmly.  He introduced us to the Community Medicine personnel. We got a fancy office- which is is going to be our working place for  the coming 4 weeks. Cool- sorry Joe for using your word..hehe :)))

 

Grazey and Govert at work :))

The afternoon we visited the Vedapatti Health Center. The center is located in the rural area where the health care service is quite limited. They help around 30.000 patients per year. Awesome!

 

 The dinner was spent at Ananhdas- a veg restaurant 5 mins walk from our hotel. This place is going to be my favorite (together with FabIndia). They serve excellent food in a very pretty ambience. This was our last night with Kabi for a while.  We will miss you so much Kabi. Can't wait to see you again! 

#ibmcsc #india 15

 

Kick-off meeting with our client

Day 3- 13/02/2012

Monday was full with expectations. This was the first day to meet our clients in person. CDC Solutions made and excellent job when selecting our clients. :)

Our clients are:

1. PSG Institute of Medical Sciences & Research: Govert, Grazey, me
2. India @ 75: Andrew, Bernd, Valery
3. Sankara Eye: Aya, JeongRan, Joao
4. ABT Society : Sandra, Allison, Joe

Our client is PSG and the project we are going to work on is the expansion and rollout plan of the PSG Rural Health Training Center for NGOs in Tamil Nadu. Dr. Thomas Chacko and Dr. Sughuna Devi were present from client's side. They are going to be our host for the coming 4 weeks. It was nice to see them in live finally :)

We had a lovely dinner together with Mamtha ( IBM) and Kabi (CDC Solutions). I already know that I will miss my team soo much after the assignment :((  Cannot I just pack them up and take them home?? Pleasee!!! :)

#ibmcsc #india 15

Thought for the day- Coimbatore Day 1& 2 were flying away

Finally the BIG DAY has come. Left the cold Hungary ( the car was showing -16 °C when leaving Kiskunfélegyháza) and at 4.15 p.m. I departed from Budapest to start my incredible journey to the far Asia. I changed flights at Doha in the middle of the night- sooo glamorous, lighted skyscrapers, simply amazing :))
Arrived at Delhi in time- landed at 7:55 Saturday morning. Very tired, but very very happy to be in India, for the very first time in my life :) At Delhi airport I had 4-5 hours for my domestic transfer.

Waiting at Delhi airport

With my baggage and one of my favorite books with myself I was having great time while waiting for my connection. People were smiling at me, kids were running around, coming to me and kept on smiling. What a nice start of the day!! Then I departed to Coimbatore, my final destination at 13:35 p.m.Prof.A.Alagarsamy was waiting for me at the airport of the town which will be our home for the next 4 weeks. He welcomed me very warmly. Even if I was very tired as I could not really sleep on the plane we had a great talk and besides a lot of nice information, I got aware that mango season is going to start in India! Yammy :))

Coming out of the terminal the warm wind just blew onto my face, sun was shining... that's all I was dreaming of in the past few weeks.. :))) The drive to the hotel was strange for me who is used to the European driving style...When arriving everybody except Alison - she arrived on the 12th- was together in the lobby. Grazey run to me, Sandra gave me a big hug :) .. so finally after so many months I can put faces to the names and I am very happy to know everybody personally. :)

I just had a quick shower and went for a walk with the team around the hotel. While walking I could experience what Indian traffic is all about- never stop honking... people, bikes, cyclists, passengers are all on the road.. Coimbatore is really busy even in the evening.

We had a lovely team dinner by tasting traditional Indian food... good advice: never ever start with the spiciest one.. otherwise you won't feel the taste of any other meals...:) Except the chicken which was too spicy for me, but was delicious for others - so simply my "spice level" is very slow- the food was very nice, we tasted a lot of different dishes, so it was a wonderful evening.

I had a great night- 10 hours sleep--waking up at 9 Sunday morning. Had a quick breakfast then visited a nice temple.We took the rickshaws..using this fancy yellow cab is getting more and more exciting every day :)

A lot of people were in the temple, praying to Gods- as they pray to lot of Gods- which was simply amazing.

We met a living God who was praying for our team. He was very kind an open just like everybody in India. It is an incredible country, you just walk by and people are smiling. We came back to the hotel, had some nice Indian pizza for lunch and had our orientation meeting with the team. Tomorrow we are going to have the kick-off meetings with the clients.. I am sooo excited :))

After some rest we had dinner in a nice vegetarian restaurant, I choose a kind of bean with sauce and some other vegetables- was really delicate.

The first 2 days were flying away so quickly and as it is in the middle of the night in Coimbatore let me wish you a great night / evening in Hungary with the though of the day at the entry of the temple:

"All work is blessed when we allow God to work through us to reach others."

#ibmcsc
#india15

CSC assigment- let's get started!

CSC assigment- let's get started!

This is my first blog ever- and I have never imagined that one day I will write about my adventures/ experiences in a blog but this unique opportunity in India definitely deserves to share my experiences with family, friends and other IBM-ers and to never forget the feelings this one month is going to give me.

Early last year I applied for the Corporate Service Corps program within IBM. In June my widest dreams came true when I was notified that I am going to travel to India for an assignment. After long months filled with pre-work, weekly calls and presentations I am going to leave on the 10th February to start my one month-long adventure in Coimbatore, India. 12 persons have been selected from all over the World to form the India 15 team. We are going to work in groups of 3 ( 4 teams altogether) on different projects. My teammates are Grazey from Manila ( The Philippines) and Govert  from Colorado (the  U.S.). Our project is an expansion plan of a rural health training center for  PSG, a non-profit organization in South India.

The past few weeks were quite busy and as I get closer to my departure date I am getting more and more excited with a longer and longer to do list before I leave. I am full with expectations as I am sure that this one month will bring a significant change in my life. This is a great possibility to share our expertise and knowledge  in order to progress on personal level and to make difference in Coimbatore's community's life.

Asia has always been very attractive for me and the Indian culture seems very interesting. I cannot wait to pack my belongings and arrive in the sunny Coimbatore!

Regards from Hungary,


Timi

#ibmcsc india15