Tag: #IBMCSCUSA2

Let me start with the weekend highlights before I get into today.

Since my last blog I have clocked up more than 43.5K+ steps, climbed 52 floors, and around 32 kms of walking. In that mileage I have experienced the following:

Saturday, 29 Sept

• Saturday morning was spent wandering around the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. It was such a beautiful calm morning. One thing that struck me was the history of the place. It offered the sights, sounds, smells and stories of Pacific Coast maritime history. The Park includes a fleet of historic ships, a Visitor Center, Maritime Museum, Maritime Research Center, and a Aquatic Park Historic District. As I entered the Municipal Pier, I noted how badly in shape the Pier was. There was a sign up “Save the Pier!” where it explained that the Pier was built in 1934 to create a protected cove where people could swim. The pier has endured decades of winter storms and pounding waves which has significantly weakened the 1400 foot walkway. The pier remains open today, but unless preserved and saved, it will one day close!

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• Saturday afternoon – Muir Woods Tour – a beautiful serene place, with the colours outstanding in nature, the tall trees providing some peace to recharge the batteries. Abhay (IBM Australia) and I spent some time chatting about life, what the future looked like and admiring the views and surroundings as walked amongst these majestic giant trees. The main attraction of Muir Woods are the coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees. They are known for their height, and are related to the giant sequoia of the Sierra Nevada. While redwoods can grow to nearly 380 feet (115 m), the tallest tree in the Muir Woods is 258 feet (79 m). Until the 1800s, many northern California coastal valleys were covered with coast redwood trees similar to those now found in Muir Woods National Monument. To protect the redwoods the Kents donated land to the Federal Government and, in 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt declared it a national monument. Interesting fact, Muir Woods featured in the movies The Rise of The Planet of the Apes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. After the Muir Woods, we ended up in Sausalito where we left the bus, and caught a ferry across the Bay to Fisherman’s Wharf. It turned out to be a mild evening watching the sun going down, and watching the lights dance in the water from the City. Fisherman’s Wharf was alive with music, lights, dance, street performers.

Sunday, 30 Sept

• Sunday, I went off to explore Lands End! A magical place, especially when the weather was stunning. Catching public transport required 2 buses to my first stop which was Legion of Honor. I had not done any research, so was surprised to find some interesting sights. Sometimes the best way to be, no expectations, therefore one can be engulfed in the whole experience and not be disappointed. Firstly, let me tell you a little story about a Crow while I was waiting for my 2nd bus. This Crow was very bright and black, shining in the sun. It made sure to catch my attention and flew in front of me, landing at the Pedestrian Crossing next to me. i stood bemused as this Crow waited for the traffic, waited for the lights, and proceeded to “walk” across the road, sticking to the pedestrian crossing all the way! A few minutes later, I hear what I thought was a telephone ringing very loudly. I happened to look up at the Crow whom happened to be sitting on the roof of a apartment building in front of me, and there he was, making a sound of a ringing telephone! I guess you had to be there, but it certainly amused me as I was sitting waiting for my bus.

• So, Legion of Honor. It is, in fact, a museum. If you click on the link, you can read all about what the museum has to offer. I did not go inside, but observed this pavilion is a replica of the Palais de la Légion d’Honneur in Paris, one of the 18th-century landmarks on the left bank of the Seine. The California Palace of the Legion of Honor was completed in 1924, and on Armistice Day of that year the doors opened to the public. In keeping with the wishes of the donors, to “honor the dead while serving the living,” it was accepted by the city of San Francisco as a museum of fine arts dedicated to the memory of the 3,600 California men who had lost their lives on the battlefields of France during World War I. Also on the grounds was a glass pyramid, some statues such as The Thinker, etc.

• Next, a very moving memorial – the Holocaust Memorial which really made you think! The Holocaust Memorial or “The Survivor” is a haunting, realistic life-size sculpture depicting 11 victims of Nazi death camps, with one standing looking out past a barbed wire fence. Created and installed in 1984, the placement of this memorial was controversial from the beginning. Some felt that the commemoration of an atrocity in such a graphic way was not appropriate in such a beautiful landscape. But sculptor George Segal insisted, saying that the viewer might consider death while facing toward the monument and life while facing toward the Golden Gate.Jews were among the city’s earliest settlers. Beginning during the Gold Rush of 1849, Jews came here looking fora fresh start and a level playing field. By the 1870s, San Francisco had the largest Jewish population in the country outside of New York.

• Labyrinth at Land’s End – a beautiful spiritual place, which unfortunately not many quite understand. The place would have been perfect if people just turned up and was quiet, taking in the moment of this magic place. San Francisco artist Eduardo Aguilera created the Labyrinth, which has been destroyed on two occasions by persons unknown, but Aguilera rebuilt it each time. A spot worthwhile seeing, particularly on a beautiful day like I was lucky enough to have.

• One Mile Rock Beach – just down from the Labyrinth, is also another magic spot. Here you will find towers of rocks balancing … a beautiful spot to find your balance in.

• The coastal walk was certainly breath taking, again with no presence of the wind, the coastal walk was simply stunning. Watched seals frollicking in the water below, to watching the birds dance in the sunlight.

• Late Sunday afternoon, I was soon back at the Hotel, meeting my UWBA Sub Team colleagues as we did a few hours of work, knowing that we had a full week ahead being our last week.

Monday, 1 October (wow where did that time go)

• So, leaves me with today! First half of the day was spent powering through our report to present this week to UWBA. Our cubicle quiet as we were all deep in thought as we divided the tasks to conquer the work needed to be done, and got on with it.
• This afternoon, the UWBA Sub Team (Benedicte, Susannah and Ricardo), along with Ansa (Atlas Corps Fellow), went along on a field trip to Glide to fulfil a volunteering task of “Feed the Homeless”. The Glide Organisation philosophy is simple: love, acceptance, and compassion, which they apply through programs in Wellness, Growth, Spirit, and Leadership. Click here to read their interesting and colourful history over time. Talking to one of the volunteers, he was able to talk about how the Co-Executive Director and Rev. Karen Oliveto’s elevation to the bishopric was quite historic. He spoke of the pictures on the walls, and whom each person was.
• It was certainly a humbling experience as we were in a neighbourhood where it was prevalent that there were many homeless people. Also supporting today’s dinner meal, was a group of children from a Boys and Girls Club, whom do many activities after school, which includes volunteering activities of this nature. I was tasked to serve up spaghetti bolognese with some of the young girls, while others got busy doing other tasks. Meeting our task master James, he was certainly a very passionate energised man with a sense of purpose in getting his crew to serve up as quickly as possible, in a clean environment, and ensuring that there was respect no matter whom you were.
• As it turned out, I had to be shown how to serve up a good place of spaghetti bolognese, as I was doing it all wrong! I soon caught on, scoop and spread, scoop and spread Sharon … soon 265 bowls of this had been dished up. As I occasionally looked up at some of the people walking in, my heart opened, and wondered about the stories of these people. Unfortunately, there was no time to talk, just scoop and serve! Come 5pm, the doors closed, group selfies done, a hug and thank you from James, with James asking if I would come back at 7am (ahhh, would love to, but no time James, but will definitely let others know, that if you are in San Francisco, then you should sign up to help out when you are here!)

• When we walked out the doors, the world was a different place to earlier in the day. It certainly gave you a sense of the Homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area, being just one pocket of people living on the streets. I was absorbed in my surroundings, in the people, in the sense of community that there appeared to be.
• A quick visit to a Westfield with my colleagues, where we did another 30 minutes of work, and then everyone departed their separate ways. I was in the food court, where a picture had caught my eye, and I thought that it was just something that had to be tried … the most amazing Lobsticle from Lobster Me ‘s secret menu … it was pricey, but oh so worth it. If you ever get the opportunity, ask for a grill stick. To die for!!

• Heading home, as I was walking, the evening produced many more sights and sounds of a different nature being in a different part of the City that I had not been in. From a band playing on the sidewalk with old ladies dancing to their music, enjoying themselves; to a singular man on a saxophone, playing some tunes as the surrounding buildings provided the acoustics; to an old man in a wheel chair at the entrance of Union Square, dancing it up, he had the moves as very loud hip music played from a sound box on his wheel chair, to a small group in Union Square carrying flags and yelling something out in protest against something that I did not quite understand.

Tonight I reflect on the day, give thanks to the bed that I am about to climb into, for the clothes on my back, for my home back in Australia. I feel very blessed!

If you are interested in the Day in the Life of CSC in Sharon’s World, you might want to grab a cuppa, this one is a long one! The last couple of days have been full! So many stories, so many experiences.

Starting with Friday … well yesterday we felt like we made some headway, and left the office feeling like we are moving forward. With a couple of key meetings, we had things very much clearer in our heads. Still, of course, a lot to digest, and to get our heads around, but definitely took a few steps forward!

So what did we learn that I can share. Salesforce Philanthropy Cloud, or fondly known as SPC, as it is much easier to say … you try saying Philanthropy quickly!

“Philanthropy Cloud will enable employees. and companies to tailor, track and grow their community involvement, making it a one-stop shop for philanthropic engagement that will meet employees’ needs, raise company profiles and build a better society for every person in every community.”

Being almost 100 year old company, it is really looking at transforming to make themselves relevant in the Digital Age, partnering with large companies to help them meet their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). The potential is huge!

Meetings and drawing on walls makes way for thinking time and space!

5pm Friday night, and it was out the door, ready to experience what San Francisco had on order. So after some quick research, it was decided that Mr Tipples was the place to be to enjoy some Jazz. Well, weren’t we in for a treat! First up was the Josh Taylor Quartet – Bop Jazz; and then Mr. T All Stars. The atmosphere was wonderful, food and company was great, staff were very friendly including the beautiful Tonzia whom waited on us throughout the night, and the Jazz music was outstanding. I would highly recommend anyone in the San Francisco Bay Area to check it out.

Saturday was an early one. It was the IBM CSC Community Day. As we all piled into Ubers to head out to the outskirts of the City, there was a little excitement, wondering what the day ahead would bring. We arrived at the Oakdale Community Center, where several NGO’s come together and partner to support the mission to help the youth living in low income housing communities build brighter futures through mentorship and youth development. The vision – to end the generational cycle of poverty in one of the City’s most challenged neighborhoods.

The Oakdale Community Center and the surrounding area was bright with colour, where we were to be greeted by Leonardo Sosa from dev/mission, Mike Yoshioka and Marlene Harris from SFHDC. They are supported by a wonderful group of people that work and volunteer such as Leslie, Travis, Zuri, Stephany and Tina amongst a few names I captured, that help and support the 200 families in the local area. So when you add Jamie Lawrence from IBM and her husband John, Emma Almon from Atlas Corps, and the 15 of us from IBM #CSCUSA2 Team in the mix for the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Family Day to volunteer, it was sure to be a fantastic day for the children and their parents that participated in the day’s event.

The colour that greeted us at the Oakdale Community Center

The Oakdale Community Center is full of wisdom and positive messages on the walls, on the poles, in the rooms.

Leslie Canjura (<dev/Mission>), Emma Almon (Atlas Corps) and Leonardo Sosa (<dev/Mission>)

With Jamie Lawrence (IBM), her husband John, and Yen (IBM Vietnam)

Leonardo with IBM CSC MEDA Sub Team – Noemi (IBM Japan), Abhay (IBM Australia), Leo, Hong Jing (IBM China) and Alona (IBM Philippines)

Welcomes, Thank you’s and let’s begins from Zuri, Marlene, Mike and Jamie

Some selfies with Tanujha (IBM India), Marlene (SFHDC), Mike and his sweet little son, Masabi, Stephany and Tina.

Masabi was a cute 9 month old whom was full of smiles and cuteness. He loved being a part of the day, and was so good around all of us.

Stephany, a bright 17 year old, and someone that I loved spending time with, and listening to her story. Stephany is one of 5 children, and talked about her family and growing up in the area. She was proud of her background, and was humbled by where she was right now in the way of her education, and getting to help out at the Center. Stephany loves learning coding, and is keen to learn more on graphic design. She has also been learning Japanese for the past 3 years, and has a strong desire to visit Japan one day. I spoke about my background, and passed on some guidance on how to go for her dreams! I introduced her to Noemi, whom is from IBM Japan, so that she had a connection to the place of her dreams when she gets there one day in the future.

Tina, born and raised in Samoa, also had an interesting story. We spoke of NZ and Australia, where she mentioned that she had sisters living in both countries. I asked how did she end up in America … short answer she moved from Western Samoa to Hawaii where she was a hoola dancer and met her husband-to-be there. He was a Police Officer in San Francisco, where she moved to and they had raised their family. She spoke passionately of family, her fears, and her love of volunteering her time!

The day was full of activities. The IBM UWBA Sub Team activity was building towers with Pasta and Marshmallows. A very sticky mess, but a lot of fun was to be had. Not sure whom enjoyed it more … the children or the adults!

Another activity that was going on, to remove and re-build a computer. Here Ricardo (IBM Brazil) is helping some of the teen boys on how to remove the fan without breaking it. I found this activity some fun to be around as I took some time to chat with David, a 13 year old. His passion was boxing, and loved science at school with his favorite being science engineering. He was a very focused young man and did a wonderful job in rebuilding the desktop.

Before long, it was onto more activities whilst lunch was being prepared. Here you can see that Suwidhi (IBM Indonesia) was not going to share … he wanted it all! This is a typical set up of a Taco Truck feast without the truck as it couldn’t get onto the premises.

Next activities were Puzzles and blowing bubbles.

The other activity, by the WAKE Sub Team was about introducing a little design thinking where the teens and young ones were to use post it notes to state their future dreams. The WAKE Sub Team spoke of what their dreams were when they were young, and where they are today. This was a very loud and boisterous activity having everyone engaged, and provided a space for them to all really think about, and put down on paper and up on the tree what it is they wanted to do.

The long awaited lunch … it smelled great, presented well, and went down like a treat. Thanks to the gentleman (whose name escapes me) whom gave up his time to provide a wonderful lunch for everyone. Everything was fresh and home made and was appreciated by all.

Before long, the community service day was done, we were bidding farewell, all feeling wonderful on how the day went, seeing a lot of smiling faces, and special memories made.

The late afternoon left some time to do some more exploring of this great City of San Francisco. Each group of people that left went off to do something different. I spent the afternoon with Lung (IBM Malaysia), Yen (IBM Vietnam) and Madlen (IBM Switzerland). We went off to discover the sights and sounds of the Castro District (a famous LGBT area), with all its rainbow colour and very friendly people. We spoke to a couple of the locals whom helped with highlighting some of the places to take a look at. I even found a gentleman by the name of Daniel whom was selling crystals, and whom was an artist sharing some of work of Angels that he has painted. We instantly connected, with our love of crystals and healing.

Next on the list was the Mission Area where we explored and saw the beautiful buildings of Mission High School, sat and absorbed the atmosphere at the Mission Dolores Park, the Clarion Ally Street Art (which is part of CAMP), a Blueberry Buffalo Soft Serve.

Next stop was the famous Painted Ladies. I would like to point out, we had stripped off with the weather being so beautiful. We stepped into an Uber to get to the Painted Ladies, got out of the car, and it was like we had stepped into another world! The temperature had dropped significantly, so back on went the jackets. The Painted Ladies are Victorian and Edwardian houses and buildings were built between 1892 and 1896 by a Developer – Matthew Kavanagh. They were repainted starting back in 1960s. These famous Painted Ladies have appeared in an estimaed 70 movies, TV programs and Ads, including the opening credits for the shows Full House and Fuller House (the sequel). If you click the link you can learn so much more about the history and background of what these beautiful homes and buildings stand for.

A busy, but wonderful couple of days was had by all. I do hope you enjoyed reading this blog and hope that the cuppa and break was worth it!