First Impressions — Motivated and at Times Overstimulated
From my questionable Spanish to being adopted by the extroverts of the group, my first week during my Social Sabbatical assignment in Uruguay had a lot of novelties in store for me. It was one of those weeks that felt waaay longer purely because of how much I experienced, who I met and bonded with and the wealth of new information — and food! — I digested.
After landing in Montevideo for the first time, things stopped feeling surreal and instead quickly got very real. I don’t know if it was sleep deprivation or nervous butterflies in my stomach, but I only have a vague recollection of my first day in Uruguay 😅. What stuck with me the most though was walking into the hotel lobby for the first time and suddenly seeing the majority of my SAP team, whom I had only known from our virtual meetings. The giddy excitement in their faces — and probably also in mine was palpable and contagious. It was as if we were all trying to say “I can’t believe everything worked out and this is actually happening” to each other. There’s always something slightly magical about the first few hours in a new place, where it feels as though you are purely guided by instinct, amongst so many first impressions and so many unfamiliarities your body and mind are trying to make sense of.
So instinctively, we used the rest of the day to get ourselves acquainted with our immediate surroundings, which in our case happened to be a walk along the beach in Punta Carretas. It’s fair to say that I’ve had worse first impressions in some of my other travel destinations 💁♂️. I was astonished by the tranquility and carefree nature of this place, given that we were walking around Uruguay’s largest city on a Saturday. This proved to be the first of many contradictions I encountered during my first week.
Las Llamadas
My first day in Montevideo had another happy surprise in store for me, taking in all the sights and sounds of the “Las llamadas” Carnaval parade, which was definitely an interesting experience on two hours of sleep. We were lucky enough to have arrived on the exact day of one of the biggest parades in what is officially the worlds longest carnival by number of days. Montevideo’s Carnaval festivities are often overshadowed by it’s more famous brother in Rio, but what we witnessed was a truly authentic representation of Uruguayan culture where all age groups walks of life seemed to watch on in joy and awe.
Claudia, our local project coordinator and local expert made us aware of the cultural significance of the event. Carnaval in Uruguay originated in the mid-18th century, where Afro-uruguayan enslaved people had one day off to celebrate their own culture and traditions to the rhythm of the drums of Candombe music. It is here, where the name of the parade “Las Llamadas” (The Calls) was born, as it commemorates the musical calls made by the Afro-uruguayan slaves, when they wanted to congregate in the streets, whether it was to celebrate or as a way to deal with social issues.
The parade was divided into differently themed groups, each boasting fabulously glamorous outfits, starting with a banner, followed by flag bearers, who got the crowd involved by waving their flags just above the heads of onlookers on the sidewalk. Seeing that for the first time felt particularly anxiety-inducing, but soon after I found myself hoping to be the next one under the flag. Upon reflection that felt like a poignant metaphor for how quickly one can adjust to aspects of a new culture that at first feels somewhat foreign. Up next were the cast of recurring traditional characters and dancers:
- La Mama Vieja (Old Mother): Dressed in elaborate, early 1900s traditional clothing, dancing with a graceful, yet spirited style.
- El Gramillero (Medicine Man): An old man with a white beard and a bag of herbs, dancing to ward off evil spirits.
- El Escobero (Broom Man): A dancer with a broom, sweeping away negative energy and clearing the path for the performers.
The engine toward the end of each group were the unique Candome drums and their respective drummers, who often switched between different rhythms and served as the informal conductors of this vibrant orchestra. The beat of the drums was electrifying and reverberated through my entire body. Which is a more elaborate way of saying that it was probably one of the few things that kept me awake so long. That being said the group made a conscious, and much appreciated decision to not stay until the end of what typically would be a five-hour parade ending at 2 AM, instead making our way back to our beds after a nightly stroll along the La Rambla promenade.
So Felix please tell us what you’re actually doing here…
Let me shed some light on the fact that I am indeed here to work on a month long project in the social sector 😅. More specifically, along with my two lovely SAP colleagues Jana and Greg who make up our sub-team, we’ll be hosted by Manos del Uruguay: a women-led, artisan-owned cooperative network founded in 1968, dedicated to producing high-quality Uruguayan wool garments, accessories, housewares, and artisanal yarns for both the local market and international luxury brands. The organisation is composed of 12 rural cooperatives located across Uruguay’s countryside, where artisans spin, dye, knit, weave, and felt wool by hand — preserving traditional techniques while creating products known worldwide for their craftsmanship, vibrant hand-dyed colors, and unique textures. Each piece carries a tag with the artisan’s name and cooperative, connecting customers directly to its maker.
Our goal during the engagement is to propose how Manos (I’ll make use of this abbreviated form a few times and yes I know it literally just means “Hands” in Spanish, but please bare with me for the sake of legibility) could carve out a bigger space for themselves in markets beyond Uruguay. An undertaking that involves formalising a cohesive branding, communication and product strategy, identifying priority audiences and market segments to cater to as well as identifying which products best meet the unique characteristics of said segments.
Amongst the Minority Group of Introverts
With first impressions of Montevideo sorted, next up was Orientation Day, where our group exchanged of welcome gifts, which involved consuming treats from all over the world, so the day was off to a good start. What followed were a couple of team building exercises as well as a communal lunch and a brief tour of our neighbourhood, where Claudia combined sharing useful tips and tricks as well as historical context about Montevideo. What stood out to me as the most insightful part of our Orientation Day, was a brief exercise to dive deeper into each team member’s personality types according to the Myers-Briggs 16 personalities framework. As an INTJ-T myself, one might understand how I enjoyed the analytical aspect of understanding how facets of my counterparts’ personalities might differ or be the same as mine. We separated into the opposite ends of the room to answer questions about each category of the personality type acronyms, starting with the first letter, I-Introverts and E-Extroverts. Whilst the initial act of separating far away from each other, it soon became clear that each letter of the acronym should be understood as a spectrum instead of a means to compartmentalise each other. Hence it was not uncommon for people to find commonalities with one another even though they weren’t part of the same category according to the personality test.
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I left the exercise with a heightened understanding of how to best socialise, collaborate, communicate and engage with each person, and most important of all provided me with a sense of psychological safety from everyone having digested the same about me. With time, I learned to appreciate the fact that it was organised in such a structured and focused way, as it has made the interpersonal component — which so far has arguably been the most important component — of my Social Sabbatical significantly easier as I wasn’t left to my own devices to figure out how everyone ticks. Great timing before we finally hit the ground running on the following day if you ask me!
The Official Helloes
I have to admit that I was a bundle of nerves on the morning of the opening event of our Social Sabbatical engagement. The realisation hit me in the elevator on the way up to the meeting room, that the weeks and months of preparation are officially over and these crucial first impressions between our team of 12 and all of our partner organisation’s key representatives are happening no matter what. Or it might have been the rare occasion of me wearing a suit to work that set a certain high expectations of myself, I guess we’ll never know for sure.
I was able to say a quick hello to our key contact at Manos del Uruguay, Sonia moments before the first point on agenda of the event got underway. To my relief, she gave off a similar impression in real-life as during our previous virtual call two weeks before arriving in Montevideo. Additionally, it became ever more evident that her fashion sense and charismatic presence is one I can only aspire to — especially considering that she was quick to remind me that one kiss on the cheek suffices as a greeting in Uruguay, after we had just exchanged two 🫣. Besides the slight embarrassment that followed, the feeling that overwhelmed was that of joy and fortune to be able to work with her during my Social Sabbatical assignment.
Everyone found their seats for our program coordinator’s opening words, after which the speakers from our partner organisations Manos del Uruguay, DESEM, Franca and CECONEU took the stage. They passionately presented the essence of their non-profits and social enterprises as well as their motivation to pursue each of their business models. I was quickly struck by each entrepreneur’s audible passion to make a genuine social impact and how that is often only possible with a myriad of contradictory practices, that might not make sense when viewed from a for-profit business perspective. The most common and profound contradiction being:
The intrinsic desire to deliver on a promised social impact, whilst at the same time generating and sustaining sufficient revenue streams that cover the cost of business and sustain the livelihoods of all employed parties.
Having learned more about each of our partner organisations, it was time for each of us 12 SAP colleagues to briefly introduce ourselves in our respective sub-teams, sharing brief facts about our work and personal lives. Once again the weight on my shoulders of making a positive first impression felt very tangible, however it was quickly dispelled once the first introduction broke the ice with a twinge of humour and a few running jokes that established themselves from one person’s introduction to the next. Although each introduction was brief, it was enough time to realise that we already had a few things in common with members of the partner organisations, which created a familiar and empathetic atmosphere.
What followed was the most eagerly anticipated part of the day for me… Shopping with Sonia, Greg and Jana! Or for those who prefer the more verbose, corporate-friendly description: a primary research exercise of the in-store experience at Manos del Uruguay’s flagship store in the Punta Carretas shopping mall 😉. All jokes aside, it was a really valuable exercise, where Sonia showed us around, explained more about each of Manos’ available products, their composition of fabrics (which’s quality one can only fully appreciate by feeling them) as well as the different techniques used to manufacture them. Jana, Greg and I were bursting with questions and asked as many as we could squeeze in to learn more — which turned out to be a common theme during the first week of our assignment.
For the latter part of our day, Sonia took us to what will be our workplace for the forseeable future, the offices and service center of Manos del Uruguay. She diligently managed our expectations on the way to the offices after our store visit, making sure that we knew the offices had a totally different vibe to Manos’ newly renovated store. What awaited us was a bustling space, which brought multiple disciplines under what is likely too small a roof. The amount of fabrics, yarns, looms, printouts amongst an occasional desktop computer was astonishing and represented a drastic shift in environment that took my senses a few hours to get used to, especially coming from a place like the SAP offices in Walldorf, where something being out of place for too long is sure to result in a facility ticket.
Settling in
Throughout our first week at Manos del Uruguay Jana, Greg and I got around to interviewing several key members of the non-profit as well as diving deep into any piece of data we could get our hands on. As our scope is inherently marketing-heavy the majority of our interactions were and continue to be with members of Manos’ marketing team. With each interview providing us with important insights and glimpses into the status quo as well as the historical context of the decisions that lead to the status quo. I am yet to meet someone at Manos del Uruguay, who isn’t incredibly passionate about what they do and the social aim of the business. I’ve had the privilege to sit across these driven, intelligent, strong and inspiring women who are undoubtedly experts in their field. In each case, although they are doing so many things, wearing so many hats with not enough time to pursue medium and long-term projects, they still shared their elaborate visions and strategies for how their area of responsibility and Manos as a whole should operate in the foreseeable future. Therefore, I am deeply grateful for having gotten the time to speak with all of you so far, a big thank you to: Beatriz, Teresita, Delcira, Cecilia, Sonia, Lucia, both Valentinas and Elina.
Debriefing each interview within our sub-team felt like we were putting together more and more pieces of a puzzle. With each insight sparking new ideas, whose feasibility or validity could be shot down by the insights of a following interview. We are only beginning to analyse and make sense of the holistic picture during this information gathering phase and to me it’s highlighted the importance of listening intently and understanding a situation from as many perspectives before jumping to any conclusions. Greg and Jana will probably be tired of me sharing that lesson, since they’ve been the victims of my many repetitions of it, so I hope they can cope with my final mention of it here 😅. Of course it wouldn’t be fair to paint the picture in such a one-sided manner, as both Greg and Jana have managed to each me important lessons within the short span of a week. I’ve put the ones that stuck with me below:
Jana’s Joules of Wisdom:
- You can prepare questions as much as you want for an interview, what matters most is how easily you can adjust and dive deeper as the conversation naturally tends to take unexpected turns.
- Clearly expressing joy, passion, humour paired with shockingly good Spanish are the quickest ways to build connection with strangers here.
- Carving out some time to oneself to process the day, makes you wiser and more reflected tomorrow — although I am yet to open up to the idea of walking 45 minutes in Uruguay’s humid summer to do so. So I’ll need another outlet.
Greg’s Genius Grasp:
- Coming to a conclusion is much easier when you have data at hand instead of vibes.
- Working together on a project like this becomes inherently easier when you make the effort to ensure the team is operating on the same wavelength and has enough freedom and space to discuss their ideas.
- It is possible to speak in an incredibly diplomatic way — and may I say soothing 😉, whilst still clearly and openly communicating what information you need from someone. I always thought those cancelled each other out, but in cultures where communication styles are less direct, dressing up your words nicely is a powerful tool.
I’m sure I forgot to mention some of the things that happened during my first week in Montevideo, that’s simply because soooo much has happened even though I’m only a quarter into my assignment. This first week felt like one where decades happen in one’s personal life so consider this article my best attempt at making sense of it all. One thing that has definitely stuck with me so far though are all of the genuine connections I’ve been able to make in the mere span of a week. I’ve noticed that there truly is something special and unique to sharing an experience like this together in a group, which only leaves me more excited about the weeks to come… 🧶
