Sunday, October 18, 2015

Day 9 and 10 - Back to Work

10/13/2015

Hello

We've been quiet for a while, apologies..

Rewind a little bit:

A little  background on the different roles and people that help make SOLE run. We have the participants (in business sector, known as end users), they are the kids, youths, adults and retirees in rural, remote and undeserved communities, who are looking to explore opportunities, learn new things and to be empowered. We have the ambassadors who help set up the SOLE sessions and provide the space for the participants to learn and grow. These sessions are held in Schools, Libraries and  Kiosks (set up by the Ministry of  Information and Technology - MINTIC). The computers in the Kiosks are provided by the ministry to encourage people to  be empowered to learn and be technology literate. Then finally we have the explorers. These are the ones who help train the ambassadors on what to do. How to create an environment where the participants can learn, to encourage dialogue and research, to explain what and how SOLE works in different environments, communities and space. In other words, the explorers are the beginning of the SOLE chain. They really are explorers because they do go to places that are not easy to reach, to do what they really believe in.

This week has again gone by so fast, as much as we miss our families and friends we also wish the days will not fly this fast :-)

Our first day back to the SOLE office after a long weekend was pretty productive! I think getting away for the long week, got our creative juices flowing. We revised a couple of items on our SOW based on feedback from Liza (Pyxera).

Usually on Tuesday evenings, after we get back to the hotel, the whole Bogota Orchids Team gather for a meeting in the hotel conference room. Today also happens to be the day for the Colombia vs Uruguay game and it was raining so traffic was not pretty. Our ride usually takes us about 15mins to and from the office  but today it took 1 hour 15mins! not a good start to a Tuesday evening meeting.


10/14/2015

No rain, no game, no traffic! What more could we ask for?

Today, we worked on the Business Canvas and also we got a chance to interview with the SOLE office team. One of the things we are looking at was helping SOLE align their operational functions to their strategies. Getting insights into everyone's duties and functions was very helpful. I can't say enough how much dedication the team in this organization has. GO TEAM SOLE!

Once we came back from the office, we met up with a couple of other team members for dinner and had a few laughs.


Another thing that's so great about this experience is the fact that we get to literally be with each other day morning, afternoon and night (about 12 -15 hours everyday!) and we are still able to keep our sanity and sense of humor.




After dinner we adjoined to Rene's room to review our Business Canvas with Georg (from Team FC). We realized that we needed a little bit more direction and guidance on this and Georg was kind enough to offer his help! This was an amazing session and very helpful.  Danke Georg!


Tomorrow, we will meet the explorers as they get back into town. This will be our first time meeting with them and also our chance to see/hear about the SOLE sessions from the trainers.

Stay Tuned...










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