Camels, tight-rope walking and a playground

Before I tell you about our second weekend trip here in India, I want to mention my team mates Tyler and Anika. We just came from a client meeting that was scheduled for 30 minutes starting at 7.30pm, but finished at 10pm (not so unusual). What made this more of an intense meeting was that we had to cover a lot of critical content. We ended up with amazing insight and great feedback that will help our overall project, however not without adjusting our deliverables all whilst trying to remain to schedule given we have about 1 week left.

Those who have been on CSC assignment know how stressful the last two weeks are (and for others; only having 4 weeks to deliver something that is good, valuable and in context to your country is definitely a challenge) so having this particular meeting in the third week (any earlier and we would not have had enough content to review) is definitely a meeting we need to be in the right mindset for. I have to say, following that meeting and exhaling a deep breath to work out how we are going to fit everything in these last few days, I could not have been more proud of my sub-team. We have worked out who we are as a group and some of the traits that I am most proud of include:

•  We support one another before, during and after a work day or internal/external meeting
• We give each other positive feedback immediately after an activity where warranted
• We are able to share insights about behaviours just displayed that we admire in one another
• We also discuss topics further when opinions don't always turn out to be the same (this has been surprisingly few conversations, we seem to generally be in sync)
• And we are always happy to make the necessary changes required for our client, even if it means we need to completely re-do a piece of work or change our daily schedules at the last minute. We all have the best intentions. 

I honestly couldn't say how many people would share that confidence in their employer, like I do in IBM. I am proud to be here and be a part of this group. Thank you team for making my CSC experience what it has been. You are both incredible. 

"I don't believe that the solutions in society will come from the left or the right or the north or the south. They will come from islands within organisations, islands of people with integrity who want to do something" - Karl-Henrik Robert: Founder of The Natural Step.

 

Ok so where do camels, tight-rope walking and a playground fit in here? (No, the camels don't walk on tight-ropes in a playground although that would be pretty impressive).

Well on our second weekend in Indore, we went to Nakhrali dhani (an hour away from Indore). This is an ethnic village resort that has been the mirror of Rajasthani and Malwi culture since 1995. Essentially, it is a recreated village for our entertainment purposes.

Here you have an opportunity to ride a camel. Let's see how I go with that venture:

Here is the said camel. Looks pretty fierce to me.

Bravely waiting with fellow CSCer, Maco to take our turn to ride the camel.

Scared face, getting on the camel.

Choosing the 'Pose like a rabbit' position to gain confidence.

That little ruse didn't instill much confidence in our camel owner so he made Maco take my hands and hold on. Sorry Maco. You got the short end of the straw pairing with me here.

Still not convinced.

But we have lift off! Yay for me!

Next we were treated to an incredible performance by a little girl who could not have been older than 10 or 12 years old. She appeared to be double-jointed and was able to walk on a tight rope. Check out the video:

We then watched a performance by some talented belly dancers who danced with a bowl of fire on their head, as seen here in this clip:

 What we didn't expect was to be part of the performance! Here are Anika, Delfina and I being brought up on to the stage to try and belly dance with the girls:

Tyler was the only brave male soul who also got up on stage. Maco may or may not have a video of this.

 We walked past a playground and honestly, who can resist? Check out Tyler's video of this in the link below:

 CSC team on a roundabout playground ride

Anika, Maco, Patrick, Tyler, Delfina and I being all cute in the playground

The evening ended with a traditional dinner sitting on the ground, cross-legged. We had food served to us as you can see here:

Our 'crockery' was made out of leaves and we were served from the silver canisters in the back

A sample of some of the food we have been eating. What we didn't expect was to have one dish served to us by one of the men putting his fingers directly in our mouths, one after another....

After dinner we watched another dance performance, by a male and female. But this time they were in miniature! Less than 10 years old, a brother and sister performed for us. My favourite part was mid-dance where the brother swiped at his sister and she retaliated with a swift kick to the side and then they both kept on dancing. She was happy to have her photo taken but first she wanted to take a photo of Anika and I with my camera. There is definitely no limitations on how to use camera technology in these parts.

The result of the little girls photo

And now we are allowed to take a picture of her.

And what better way to end a blog post but to say....

I FOUND A CUTE BABY!!! Our NGO client Hemal says that I have a telepathic connection with children as they are seeking me out as much as I am seeking them.

Next blog post, our time in Ujjain.

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