Today marked our first official day doing work for Corporate Service Corp South Africa Team 12 and we kicked it off with a bus ride from the hotel to the IBM office in Johannesburg where we met the Country General Manager and other senior mgmt who graciously took their Saturday morning of a long Holiday weekend to welcome us, give us an overview of IBM in South Africa, and a security briefing.  We posed for what will be one of many group photos, although we are still one shy as our final teammember will arrive Sunday from India.

13 of the IBM CSC SA Team members plus IBM SA Senior leadership and our NGO partner, Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT)

After the morning work meeting, we continued on the bus to do sightseeing in Joburg with a lunch and tour of the Apartheid Museum.  It’s a wonderfully detailed museum that kicks off with a random assignment as either “white” or “black” to enter into separate parts that eventually merge.  And it ends with an array of sticks that when viewed from a certain direction form Nelson Mandela’s profile. From there, the bus toured us through Soweto with stops at Hector Pieterson Square and then to Nelson Mandela’s house.  A quick stop at the hotel, then back on the bus to Sandton Mall to meet two of our clients from iNeSI for an Indian dinner.  The day concluded 11 hours after starting at 9:30 pm and now I sit in my hotel judiciously using my 1 hour of free internet to connect back with the kids, check email and of course post this blog!

Random sticks at first glance

That when viewed from a certain point form Nelson Mandela’s Profile

It was a gorgeous sunny day in Joburg, around 60 degrees, then getting quite chilly when the sun went down.  I knew it would be Winter here, but I hadn’t thought about the fact that it would get dark early so I was quite surprised both last night and tonight when the sun set at 5 pm!  My other very surprising discovery was how fast items charge on 220V!! I had a few other photos I wanted to share, but the free hour on my phone timed out before they could send over email to my laptop, so I’ll post them at some further point. We are back to work tomorrow morning — a Sunday — to start work sessions with the clients.

#ibmcsc south africa