When was the last time you did something for the first time?

I left Manila at around 11:30pm via Qatar Airways and had connecting flights via Doha>Tunis>Casablanca.  After 23 hours and 55 minutes, I finally arrived in Casablanca.  The whole flight was really tiring even if I just sat the whole time. The time of my arrival was almost the same as Mihoko’s (from IBM Japan) and Rahul’s (from IBM US).  It was really nice to finally meet them as it was totally different when you meet your team in person compared to all the telecons we had for the past 3 months.  I do hope that we’ll be able to bond as a team and be like a family by the end of this whole activity.  

Even though everyone was so tired due to the long travel time to Morocco, we’ve decided that we would like to eat out.  We tried Sqala which was located near the Medina (middle of the city) and was by the water. On our way, we saw the Hassan II Mosque which was really beautiful by night due to its lights. According to Boutina, it is the largest mosque in the country and the 7th largest mosque in the world.

Here are some photos of what I ate. *burrrp*  The second photo is how they pour the moroccan mint tea, the moroccan way. ^_^

Tajine de jarret de boeuf aux pruneaux, amandes et abricot 140dh

This whole trip is a bunch of firsts:

• First time in Africa
• First trip outside of Asia
• First time to do connecting flights
• First trip alone
• First time to do volunteer corporate work
• First time to be away from home for 4 weeks
• First time to really mingle with other IBMers from around the globe
• Etc. etc. etc.

This list could go on and on as this whole trip is really something new to me.  I’ve been having mixed emotions of course, but I would like to think of this whole experience as a great once in a lifetime opportunity which would help me grow and be a better person as a whole.  I’m sure that I’ll learn a lot from this whole experience and I hope that I’ll also be of great help to my whole team and our client as well.

Here are some photos of the team:

I’m having some difficulties connecting over the internet at the hotel.  I do hope this could get fixed soon.


#ibmcsc morocco