#ibmcscmex6

The day has come... I woke up Friday morning at 6 a.m. and the first thought was that this was the last time I was sleeping in that hotel bed, the last time I would get up here, the last time I would go down to breakfast and the last day that I would spend with the CSC Mexico 6 family. Sadness..... fighting back my tears....

No time to further think about that though... I still needed to do the 30 minutes participant review and then prepare for the closing ceremony as I was selected to do the 8 minutes executive summary speech. When I went down to breakfast, I again started thinking that this will be the last day I see the people that I got used to so much over the last 4 weeks. Sadness again.... and again fighting back my tears. I was glad to see in others eyes the same feelings.

No time again to further think about it; I concentrated on my rehearsal of my speech and at 9.30 a.m. we left to drive to the city hall where the closing ceremony was conducted. I was very proud of all of our work all of the 3 teams did and presented that day and also my presentation went well.

The event was very formal again, similar to the opening ceremony with lots of media and representatives of each of the host organizations, the Peace Corps team and this time even the major of Guadalajara was chairing this ceremony. A special pleasure was also that Gina Tesla, Global Director of Corporate Services Corps program flew in to see the presentations and participate in the closing ceremony.

After the closing ceremony we went for a last lunch together. And guess what.... yes, again sadness between many laughter.

We came back to the hotel at around 4:45 p.m. and started packing. Not easy to get back everything into the suitcases especially since we also have a few souvenirs to bring back home.

At 6 p.m. we then met for a final debrief session about the 4 weeks, talking about what was good and what we would do differently. And then again this bad word of the day “last”. This time I lost my fight with my tears, as did others..... Sadness, sadness, sadness.... I will miss you all but really hope we’ll meet again one day.

We then had another to hours to pack before we went on the bus altogether a last time (there was it again, that bad word) and went to a salsa club to celebrate our achievements and have lot of fun and let all the tensions of the last weeks and days go.

We went back to the hotel at 1 a.m., took a last shower, and then came back down to the lobby to say good bye to people as we were leaving in tranches starting 2 a.m. I then left at 2.30 a.m. and a last group at 3 a.m.  Some others had there flights only later during the day or extended their stays.

It was really difficult to say good bye. I would wish I could be sure I am meeting the family again one day in person.

At the airport we had a little reunion given most of the 3 tranches departed from the same gate area. So a last quick get together. And then we got all on our flights and when the plane started it was an ultimate and final good bye.

The last week was an especially busy one as it was the last on of our 4 weeks. And this meant due date for the final reports to the host organizations: Sub-team 2 “BAMX” did so on Wednesday night, followed by sub-team 3 “DIF” on Thursday morning and Sub-team 1 “Lake Chapala” presented their results to their host organization Thursday afternoon. All of the presentations went very well and each of the host organizations were truly impressed about the quality and the extensive details included.

We were especially excited that Gina Tesla, Director of Corporate Services Corps flew in to see the presentations and also then be present at the big closing ceremony on Friday in the city hall of Guadalajara. During the ceremony each of the sub-teams presented an 8 minutes executive summary of their work and then received awards from the host organizations for the excellent work. The closing ceremony was similar to the opening ceremony a big event with lots of media interest and was hosted by the major of Guadalajara. This closing ceremony officially finished our in-country assignment and as Jaime Kuklinski, Country Director Peace Corps Mexico said in his speech: “Thanks team - mission completed”

November 2 is Día de Muertos, a very important holiday in Mexico and also a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. At this day, the dead come back to earth to enjoy food and drinks they liked on earth and most importantly to meet with their families.

Thus in the week before the day, people start building altars in their houses with pictures of the dead and put items and food there which they liked so that they will feel very welcome when they return for Día de Muertos. Also cemeteries are nicely decorated with yellow or orange tagetes, tents are placed next or above the gravestone, musicians play live, people sing, eat and drink. It’s a family reunion and all are happy and celebrate. I have to admit it is very unusual for me, seeing people sitting on gravestones toasting, singing and being loud. Totally different to our culture where people are expected to be quiet and don’t step on gravestones as this may disturb the dead.

I have put lots of pictures and videos on my Facebook page - feel free to browse through.

A very important symbol of Día de Muertos is La Catrina and many people would go for a Catrina make-up and so did I.

We spent the evening in Tlaquepaque and liked the atmosphere very much: lots of altars in the street, lots of music, lots of people and all being happy and celebrating.

It was with very mixed emotions when we entered into the bus this morning to go to our office in Chapala for a very last time. And especially when we went up the road to the hill that is just before Chapala and then got the view on the lake from the top of it, it became very quiet in the bus and everyone tried to absorb and memorize this fantastic morning view of the lake and the sun mirroring in it.

We had worked hard last week to get all our findings and recommendations into slides and  today’s goal was to bring it all together and go through our consolidated presentation to fine tune slide contents and agree on the flow. We made very good progress and are on track to finalize our report over the next 2 days which are holidays here in Mexico and we will thus work from the hotel.

Thursday is the big day: we are scheduled to present our final report to our host organization AIPROMADES at 4 p.m. that day. We are very much looking forward to that and can’t wait to share our project outcome.

Our last afternoon in the AIPROMADES office had a special surprise for us: we were invited to go to the lake to see the harvesting machine working and also eye-witnessed when the conveyor was put into the water the very first time.

IBM CSC México 6, IBM CSC Alumnis, Peace Corps and AIPROMADES ran together a series of workshops and sessions in Centro Universitario de la Ciénaga. We covered topics like cognitive era, Watson Health, Digital marketing, Design thinking, sustainability and social responsibility. Also we mentored students and gave them feedback on presentations they made.

The star was probably Frida, a robot that is able to communicate like a human being thanks to Watson technology.

Today feels really good. Finally our team “Dad” is back: Carlos Saucedo, Manager of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs Mexico.

Carlos is the man behind the scenes…. making this CSC experience possible in Mexico and being truly dedicated to the team. He spent the first days with us and then headed back to Mexico City where he is based. He is now back to Guadalajara and will spend the remaining week with us. Carlos has true passion and is at least as excited about our projects and progress as we are. He is always very positive, enthusiastic and full of energy. He is also a great friend to tell us about Mexican culture and help us to understand local habits. Great to have you back & very much looking forward to all of the upcoming events such as Community Day, final report presentations and the closing ceremony at Guadalajara City Hall.

And there was one more special kind of family situation I experienced today: Chuma from AIPROMADES invited all of his colleagues and our sub-team to his house and served delicious lunch. Besides his profession as a biologist, Chuma is an amazing artist and his house is very extraordinary. All designed by himself and lots of details in all of the rooms and the garden. These 2 hours were very special to us as it was the first time to come to someone’s private house in Mexico and get an idea on how people live and get together with friends. We definitely enjoyed this very much and the bus pick up was way too early. We would have loved to stay and also enjoy the marvelous view on Lake Chapala that he has from his garden. Thanks again for hosting us!