A glimpse into my working life in Brazil

Today was not one of those typical day at work, rather one of the more exciting ones. I just had this thought of blogging it so I can remember what I did here when I am back in Asia or anywhere else, on full-time employment.

To me, today was rather exciting, at least in the realm of social entrepreurship.

I went to work as usual at 9, David, my boss greeted me, came to my desk and asked if I still remember about the Charles Bronfman Prize the one which we have submitted our application in (its a Jewish award for outstanding Jewish individuals around the world). And then he told me to visit the website and boom! I noticed that the application deadline for the prize was on the 15 of Jan and we sent our package in on the same date! I was like, what?? Usually when something like that happens, it is very well understook that you need to make sure that your package reach the destination, in our case, New York by the 15 of Jan and NOT that you take it to the post office on the 15 itself (but strangely, David said that in Brazil, the latter is usual practice. I still find this very strange). But anyway, I suppose those who works for the Charles Bronfman prize were not aware of this cultural difference either and had sent a courtesy email to David’s referral for the award – John Elkington (a renowned man in the field of sustainability and social entrepreneurship, the author of the book “The Power of Unreasonable People”.) about this.

And so, I started my day firefighting with this matter. So I spent the afternoon trying to call and email thpse in the New York office. And, I address the person on the end wrongly. Instead of Ms, I sent in with Mr. Argh!! But anyways, the whole thing was solved anyway. Serendipidity I would say. If this were not to happen, the people in the New York office may not have paid that much attention on us. Well, everything happens for a reason. :)

Later in the afternoon at 2, I went to Berta´s office with my colleague to learn about her usual HR recruitment practices at Hudsons. It was really good and we learnt so much about recruitment, of creating selecting the right people for our company etc. (This year, my company is hoping to start with a new team of professionals who can work well with each other, who could bring us to greater heights). So on Tuesday, we will conduct a group exercise in 3 rounds for around 20 candidates for the position of Communications Trainee. We have such a brilliant idea of doing it! And of course, I do not think I can disclose it here. :) Ask me about it if you´re really interested to know.

We went back to our office again at around 3pm and started preparing for another meeting which David organized. He had this brilliant idea of connecting the past winners and finalists (including himself) of the Social Entrepreneurship award by the Shwab Foundation in conjuction with Brazil´s national newspaper, Folha de São Paulo. It lasted until 8pm. Ok. I did not enjoyed the chit-chat in a group that much. Well, language barriers. Everyone and everything in Brazil revolves around the Portuguese language. And my comprehension is still so-so. But oh well, just picture being in the middle of all these successful social entrepreneurs! That, is thrilling enough.

We had a short cocktail time in the meeting. I love to network and talk to people so it was really great. These success stories in the realm of social entrepreurship ranges from those in the field of dentistry to environmental sustainability and gastronomy. And I just got an invitation to visit Folha de São Paulo, Brazil´s largest newspaper headquarter! Will definitely pay him a visit before I leave!

Ok. So then the meeting ended. Exhanged namecards, chit-chatted and now, the evening looks pretty gloomy and it will probably rain again, just like any other days. The weather in Sao Paulo had been pretty crazy recently by the way. It´s supposed to be summer but it rains so much! Anyway, so I took a bus, reached home in 20-minutes time (I had the privilege of living really near my office), and then cooked (as usual) and talked a lot (as usual) with Martha, my Colombian housemate. We could talk and joke about almost anything, from the cats (we have 2 cats at home) to teasing her name which is apparently the usual maid´s name in Colombia (Martha). If I were to say one other thing which added so much to my experience here, I would say Martha! I had never really shared a room or lived with anyone else, all my University life. I was a little worried at first, you know what if she is dirty bla bla bla. But it turned out so great!! I really enjoyed her company and I am sure she did too! ;))

Anyway, and so afterwards, I went to vaccum our couch because it was infested with fleas. I know, gross! But we will get rid of it real fast! Phew!

Now, maybe I´ll catch a movie or continue reading "Memoirs of Geisha".