The 14 days that changed my life!

A LOT has happened in the past 14 days; in fact I know my life has now changed forever. I have not felt this feeling of exhilaration since, I don’t know when… I feel like the clouds have temporarily completely parted and I see the way forward with a clear and open mind.

Day 1 – Realized I wanted a career in CSR after speaking to two young women in HK both work to improve supply chain factory conditions in Chinese manufacturing facilities. They are in different companies, and they don’t even know each other, but they both shared with me the successes they have had in there careers, and that the have actually seen the positive impacts of their work on the lives of people living in extreme poverty in China.

Day 2 – Started looking for jobs in Calgary where I could work in CSR right away. And held Halloween party (see other post).

Day 3 – Talked to Diana and told her I wanted to start my career in CSR as soon as possible. She asked the best question you could “why don’t you see if your company will let you start implementing CSR practices?” She is just too smart sometimes.

Day 4 – Parents Arrived in Hong Kong, no time to think about these things. Took a long solitary bus ride to the airport… over the big bridge, very nice.

Day 5 – Told my Dad I was thinking of going home early. He, in his way of making people realize things, made me realize that this is not truly what I wanted, that I do not want to take this rare opportunity for granted.

Day 6 – Had my three-month review meeting with my boss. I told her I was not feeling very satisfied with my job at the moment. My boss is really great, and she asked “what do you want to be doing?” So I told her I was interested in CSR and she said she was recently introduced to the concept as well. She wanted to start implementing so practices in the company, but she hadn’t gotten around to it yet. So, she said if I am truly interested and that is what I want to be doing then I can bring proposals to her and her boss and we can look at ways to start!!

Day 7 – Saw my parents again, this time my mom brought the gifts everyone had sent (THANK YOU all SO much). One of the gifts was money from my grandparents.

Day 8 – Found a group called CSR Asia on the web. They have a course coming up called CSR Essentials, designed for people just starting to implement CSR in companies. Emailed them for more information, but did not sign up immediately because of the VERY expensive price.

Day 9 – Started preparing a session for the AIESEC induction conference NLDS with a member of the MC of Taiwan named Sphinx (she knows Abner).

Day 10 – Went to a pre-meeting of all the Facis for the NLDS conference. OMG!!! This was one of the craziest fantastic team environments I have been in. There was about 25 people, from A LOT of different countries, most of whom had arrived hours earlier in HK. We all had to come together immediately to get things ready for the big event. During this meeting I developed an entirely new level of respect for my roommate, and conference manager, Nadya. She was SO incredibly calm under pressure, and asked all the right challenging questions to get the facis to take the action that was needed to get the materials ready for the conference. My respect for her only grew throughout the course of the conference. Slept 2 hours.

Day 11 – Frantically packed for ZhuHai, China (conference site), then went hiking with my parents in a VERY beautiful part of Hong Kong Island. Seeing the scenery through their eyes, and realizing how much I enjoy hiking here allowed me to strengthen my resolve to stay. Phoned Erwin and told him I would be staying in HK for one year (I promised I would give him my answer that day). Then I took a bus to China. Slept 2 hours.

Day 12 – Ate congee with petrified (black) eggs for breakfast, while looking out of the window in a Chinese conference facility at the ocean, very surreal. Then proceeded to:

• Delivered, with Sphinx, my first session to 200 people (ahh… who is this… not me… I am the girl who turns red when you ask her to speak in public, this was a definite out of body experience).
• Meet the most amazing group of 1st year University students from Hong Kong, China, and a token French guy. My home group, known as Team Evergreen (throw back to camp days again), was so creative and open and funny and everyone got along so well, it was unbelievable.
  Had discussions, reflection times, ran games, etc… non-stop all day.
• Held another session, with Christy, to make students realize the good and the bad things about Hong Kong. They made skits, so funny.
• Had a day debriefing with my group. One member shared with us that he felt like a more confident person as a result of the days work. I cried later when I told Nadya and Martha.
• Had a panic attack with Christy that night as we realized we did not have a video for a session the next day because the Chinese government blocks Google video. Thank heaven for Ricky (still haven’t met him but owe him a TON) who stayed up til 3:00am downloading the video in HK and emailing it to us.
• Slept 3 hours

Day 13 – Basically repeated Day 12… only the day ended with a bus ride back to HK (tear). Nadya and Martha stayed in China and went to Guangzhou; check out Nadya’s blog for their really crazy adventures NADYA’S BLOG. On the bus home I met a student named Ken who stayed in Calgary for 3 weeks last year. He LOVES Calgary… and it was really nice to meet someone who knew about home. He really, really enjoyed it there, it was so fun to talk to him. Slept NOT ENOUGH.

Day 14 – AKA – the Most productive day of my life:

• Developed a vision and goals for the next 8 months for the implementation of a CSR system in World Family.
• Signed up for the CSR Essentials course using the Christmas money from my grandparents.
  Finally had a good full phone conversation with Erwin!! It has been too long but he has a plane ticket on reserve (YEAH!!!!).
• Phoned my grandparents to thank them for the opportunity
• Talked to Diana to tell all the news.
• Went to work and set-up, ran and took down the Halloween party (no time for CSR).
• Got home, and talked to Lumi… a very hard turn of events has happened in her life…
• Nadya and Martha arrived, heard about crazy adventures in China
• Went for a run from 11:00pm-midnight
• Swiss sofa guy (a faci) made us authentic Swiss fondue at 1:00am
• Slept NOT ENOUGH

Too much adrenaline to sleep right now… who needs sleep anyways. Next week is the course, and my parents are back. I guess HK is home now for a little while. Pictures of conference and parents to come.