SAP Social Sabbatical in Bogota: Amazing 4 Days in Bogota

It’s been an amazing 4 days in Colombia!! Bogota is a huge city – over 8 million people live here. My corner of the world now is in a very nice area – a three-block walk to the office from the hotel and a one-block walk to wonderful restaurants. The weather has been great – no rain, lots of sun.

There are 12 of us here in Bogota for the SAP Social Sabbatical – people from everywhere – Germany, India, Canada, Great Britain/China, Norway and the US. I am already learning so much from all of them. A very smart, funny and energetic group!! The team I’m assigned to includes Sabrina and Steffen – both from Germany, who work out of the Waldorf, Germany office. They are amazing people and I’m having a lot of fun with them.

The client that my team is working with is Genesis Foundation, a non-profit organization whose goal is to create a more inclusive society for Colombian children by improving the quality of their education. Genesis provides services for children from age 0 to 12 in underserved communities. The executive director and program managers are really wonderful people and have made us all feel so welcome and valued. On our first day, after the kick-off meeting in the SAP Bogota office, they took us on a wonderful adventure to Mount Monserrate. As explained by one of the Genesis people, Monserrate is a sacred place to Colombians because if you make a promise to God, the way to fulfill that promise is to climb the hill on your knees. Which is no small feat, as the elevation is 3150 meters (10,334 ft). Fortunately, there is also a cable car type of people mover that takes you close to the top of the hill. At the top of the mountain is a Catholic church, where many go for mass every day. The views from the top of the mountain are amazing. These are pictures from the top of the mountain – amazing views of Bogota. The weather was wonderful that day so we could see all of Bogota – at least most of it. Bogota is so huge that there is no point where you can see it all. After our visit to Monserrate, we had lunch at a great restaurant that serves only what they can purchase in the market that day – all organic. I had an amazing pasta dish that was really good, and grilled octopus (which was great).

The day was really wonderful but the really nice thing was getting to know the Genesis people on a personal basis – not something we would have done sitting in a conference room. During lunch, the program directors (Karin, Caroline, Natalia) explained the programs that they manage – so it was a “working” lunch J When we returned to the hotel and explained what we did with our client, all of our SAP Social Sabbatical team was very jealous as they spent the rest of their day in an office!! The Genesis ladies (okay, I’m not being sexist but all of the Genesis people are women – very dynamic and smart women) are really great – very warm and welcoming and completely open with us about their organization and programs. I already know that I will miss them so much when the month is over.

The executive director (Cristina) and program managers are so passionate about the work and services they provide to children. It’s hard to put into words their passion. Tomorrow my team will go with the Genesis program manager to one of the centers of the Mis Primeros Pasos (First Learning Steps) program to visit the center and the children. I am really looking forward to the visit.

Our mission for being here is to help Genesis to define organizational metrics to measure the impact of the Genesis Foundation as a whole. Each program has wonderful stories and is able to measure their impact but there is no overall metric or measurement for the organization. So, it’s not a small task. Yesterday I think our team made some good progress to identify how we are going to achieve our mission. It’s kind of amazing that people who work in a world of 1s and 0s can understand and identify with a task that is so outside our normal comfort zone or daily activities.

I’m really enjoying my time in Bogota and feel so honored to be selected to participate in this wonderful program.

“Talk” to you soon…..