When I was planning for the trip I mistakenly thought I would need to have something to do in the evenings. Haha. I've not even turned on the television in the room a single time. The only free moments have been few and far between; and I usually was working on sorting pictures or putting a blog post together. Up until my laptop died I was staying on top of blogging and photo organizing fairly well. Also trying to find time to have a good FaceTime or Skype call with the family even was a challenge.
Today (March 13, 2013) we had our closing ceremony hosted by University of Malaysia Pahang (UMP). We had been told we would not be presenting so we were a bit disappointed going in, but they really put together a nice event for us.
Many of the MPK staff were in attendance as well as the University System Chancellor. They bestowed upon us many gifts and talked about the contributions we had made to both organizations. Malaysia IBM representatives were also in attendance and shared in a signing ceremony for some software deal they made back in January. That part felt out of place, though the rest of the event was great. One of our team members had noticed how much they like awards and trophies here so with the help if the local branch manager we were able to purchase a nice token to give each organization.
After the ceremony we also spent some time recording some video messages about how we were feeling about our experience. I thought it was actually kind of fun to see everyone share right then in the moment how they were feeling about the service corps and what we they had learned.
Later we found out that we had been asked to do one more meeting for the MPK president and the 20 or so directors in the organization tomorrow. On a side note, I did confirm the night before that the municipalities here are more like "county" government size in western countries. So. . . though I was looking forward to a break tomorrow, looks like at least the six of us working for MPK will get a proper closing presentation. It will be great to be able to share with them a summary of our work; as well as hear about the other teams projects.
Managed to talk with home tonight as my wife is joining me in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday morning. After booking her ticket from Singapore we found that there is a separate low cost carrier terminal not connected to the larger airport. So the logistics of actually getting to same place will be a little more complicated. I'm sure she will navigate it just fine, can't wait to see her!
#ibmcsc Malaysia
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