And it begins..

OK, evidently according to IBM's guidelines for Social Computing, since I will be traveling and writing about what I am doing while working for IBM, I need to be transparent and make sure that there are no misconceptions. The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.
First some background, I have worked for IBM in Boulder since 2001, I perform software support, mostly the telephony software. I have a team of 4, we are amazing together and really enjoy each other's company. IBM developed and brought forward a new community concept last January (2008) and recruited over their internal website, I happened to see it and applied. The concept is the IBM Corporate Service Corps. Because IBM is a global employer and provider, they want to show their corporate citizenship by encouraging and proffering their employees as volunteers for developing countries and NGOs.
The first selection of IBM employees were sent in teams of approximately 7-9 people to 6 countries: Ghana, Tanzania, Romania, Turkey, Vietnam and the Phillippines. I was sad, I didn't get selected, and I was jealous of the woman from my Boulder facility who was selected for Ghana, Julie Lockwood. (It turns out that Julie is an incredible person and I totally would have picked her to join the team too. She travels extensively, is fluent in spanish and spent 6 months backpacking (I think?) in Chile.
Anyway, I was selected for the second year of the program, I found out in November, but they did not assign destinations until February of this year...... and I'm going to Brazil for a month beginning in mid-June!!