Chil’s Point of View….

Last week, I was happy that I did not have to attend a Saturday class. It was one of those fronted loaded classes which would meet the whole day Saturday, and had a 3 day (away from home) retreat built in. It was amazing how having this one class would pretty much take my weekend – having to wake up early on the weekend, and then be learning the whole day through 4:30 pm. I would come back home exhausted. The class was taking place in Seattle, as opposed to the Bellevue campus where I take most of my classes, so it would add another 30 minutes to my commute.

Although the class was pretty cool, and dealt with learning about emotions and being aware of them, I am glad I have my Saturday back; I am excited – so that I can catch up with yard work, and all the other chores around the house. Since we came back from the Zambia/Kenya trip, I have not had a chance to do any spring-cleaning. It may seem weird that I am excited about doing house chores, but I have gotten used to doing yard work – and it also builds on my new year’s resolution.

Nelly just finished her Master’s of Science in Finance (MSF) at Seattle University in December.
Congratulations wifey!

She is so exited to get her time back – time away from doing school work.

I am now officially the only student in the house. If I keep my new year’s resolution of finishing my MBA this year, then I will be joining Nelly in the ‘out of/done with school’ club.

The two years of the program has gone by really fast. I can still remember the days we had been studying for the GMATs, and the long nights trying to ace the GMAT Preps.

“ So Ombati …….”

We teased OJ quite a bit during the wedding weekend. We were poking fun at him suggesting that he was next. It was always funny seeing his facial expressions, everytime we made the joke – it was classic! The funny part was that he would have the same smile and facial expression every-single-time we pulled the joke.
Mogaka on the other hand was not attacked as much. I think he was just calm, and excited to see Younsta get married.

So.... Ombati

Nairobi Game park
- Nelly learnt that leopards climb trees

Nairobi Girraffe park

-          Nelly kissed a Girraffe

-          Esmeralda kissed a Girraffe

-          The rest of us cheered, filmed.
To our credit though, we feed the giraffe by letting it eat from our hands.

 

Nelly kisses a giraffe

Some weekend pictures are [posted here].

 Real title should be – “Youngsta got married”

Marasi and Lea

Marasi is now officially off the bachelor market.
I just attended his wedding, as his Best man.
He had always wanted a Garden Wedding, and he got one.

He was really blessed with the weather as it would not rain during his scheduled appearances. Like on the wedding day -
- It did not rain during their beautiful wedding ceremony
- It rained the night before
- It drizzled early in the morning (around 5AM)
- It rained much later in the evening when the after party started; but when the Mercedes carrying the new couple arrived, IT STOPPED RAINING (<- how did he do that! )

Click here to see Marasi and Lea’s wedding picutures – these were the ones on our camera.

Nelly and I just came back from our vacation trip to Zambia.
Compared to last time, our all our bags made it.

For the first time in any customs control, Nelly and I were asked to open all our suit cases. They went ahead and searched; and found nothing. Oh well – how about that for a delay.

We did not go on a full fledged trip to a game park for a Safari out of town, but we did go to a semi-game drive at a local Lusaka mini-game part at Lilayi Lodge – they have a few wild animals in a on huge piece of land; all the land is enclosed both to keep animals inside; the lodge does not keep predators on the land as it would be dangerous for people, and the animal on the land. At the lodge, we did get to some giraffes, zebras, warthogs, …. Just see the [ pictures here ]

Some low-light: Food Poisoning, YIKES!
Nelly got food poisoning after eating a Seafood dish at Rhapsody’s at Lusaka’s Arcades Mall.
It was pretty bad that she was not getting any better as she took medicine – puking quite a bit.
So, my parents suggested we go to a local clinic (Mina Clinic) near the house. There, they did Malaria tests, which was negative as expected since Nelly and I have been taking Mallarone anti malaria medicine. One of the tests then showed high levels of something suggesting food poisoning. She was given medication which started controlling her vomiting, and given some nasty tasting ORS (Oral Rehydration Solution); the ORS brings back my childhood memories.
After 4 days of being out, Nelly finally recovered, and slowly got her appetite going again.

We were surrounded by babies
My cousin Chanda came over from the Copperbelt. He brought over his cute baby boy, who he has named after me.
Ntwale came over as well, and I finally got to his baby girl.
My uncle Henry’s step brother (<-there is gotta be a shortcut for that) also came over, and I was able to see his 6 month old son; a baby boy
Julius also came over on the same Saturday, and I got to see his big baby girl who can walk by herself. She was the oldest of all the babies I saw that weekend.

It was a good trip. There is never enough time to see everyone, and there is never enough time to spend a good chuck of time with people around. But it was good being back, and checking out how the place has changed over the years.

Check out the [trip pictures here]

I am looking forward to 2010. It should be an exciting year, and hoping that it is way better than 2010.

Some of my new years resolutions that I am willing to share with the rest of the world.

They are not in any particular order

-          Kick Butt at Work!
(Work hard; Produce more; Learn more; and have fun doing it!)

-          Finish my MBA!
(I want to be done with the program. I have been pretty busy the last two years, and want to get some of that time back)

-          Stay on top of lawn (and garden)
(Last year, I was playing a lot of catch-up with my garden – combination of ‘got rid of moss really late’, ‘it was an extremely hot summer’, and ‘I did not have enough time for my garden’. I want to get it to the way I maintained it 2 years ago were everything was looking really good)

-          Figure out my 5 year plan
(What do I want to do next; what else do I need to add to what I am doing; what do I not want to continue doing)
(This is not strictly work related)

-          Become active on the Stock Market again
(Perhaps even upgrade from doing a majority of my trading in penny stocks; combined with that, I need to start frequenting CNBC again)

-          Run at least twice a week
(Ideally 3 times so that I can do 2 during the week, and another one on the weekend)
(Do at least another Pro Sports BootCamp session this spring/summer)

-          “……..”
(Probably Nelly would want me to add a cooking one here; but No, I will not fall for it )

Not too long of a list. Hopefully by the middle of the year, I can report back on how well things on the resolution list are going.

Happy New Year to everyone, and I wish you all the best for 2010!

The last few weeks have been crazy busy – school and work.But I am now excited to be on a trip to Zambia to visit my parents, relatives, and friends. It should be fun.
I plan to be knocked out through most of the flight.

Trip Details:
Seattle to Washington, DC
Washington to Dakar, Senegal
Dakar to Johannesburg, South Africa
Johannesburg to Lusaka, Zambia

In Johannesburg, we have an overnight layover.
Marc Pendlebery (Marc-e-Marc “like mp3, but better”) will pick us up at the airport, and perhaps even show us around town. I have not seen Marc since late 2003, back at Washu in St. Louis. It should be fun; looking forward to it.

Return trip takes the same route backwards. But the layover in Johannesburg will only be 3 hours. That will probably be the time needed to be in the right terminal before the long flight.

While in Zambia, I doubt I will be updating the blog. I may throw a status on Facebook or something.

[completly my opinion; and I could have gotten some facts wrong; but I present this info as-is]

Rwanda Vision for Technology Based Economy

Rwanda is an East-Central African country, known to the world for the 1994 genocide that killed close to a million of its people. It has a population of about 10 million people (The World Fact Book, 2009). But these days, the country wants to change that image, and it wants to be known as the technology hub in Africa. The country came up with a program called “Vision 2020”, which would see the country transform from an “Agriculture based economy to Knowledge based economy” which embraces technology (Africa Development Bank 2009). Driven by government support, Rwanda is embracing the internet in order to transform its economy. 

Africa Internet Use Growth

Africa as a region has been rolling out mobile telephone infrastructures which many people are using rather than PCs for connectivity (Ferraro 2008). This is contributing to the increase in the percentage of internet users which has changed from 3.5% in 2008, to 3.9% as of June 2009 (Internet World Stats 2009). Rwanda is one of the countries that is contributing to that change due to their ambitious plans to leverage technology. The Rwanda government has come up with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) policies that aim to leap-frog the industrialization stage, and transform the country economy into an information and knowledge-base one(Rwanda Development Gateway 2005). According to the ‘The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa’, the Rwanda government policies has goals which include

-          Modernize the Rwandan economy and society using ICT as the main engine for: accelerated development and economic growth; national prosperity; and global competitiveness
-          Transforming Rwanda into an Information Technology literate nation
-          Promoting and encouraging use of ICTs in the economy and society
-          Turn economy to a high income one dominated by the trading in ICT product and services.

Cleary from the country goals, Rwanda seems to be on track as they finally got approved $24 million from the World Bank to start with the project (Balancing Act News 2008). The project to put in place fiber optic has been progressing, and the faster internet connection went live in September 2009 (Juma 2009). Rwanda has started raising awareness by putting in place Internet Connected Buses, which have laptops in them, driving from village to village (BBC News 2009). The buses have been providing free internet to students, and local business; and offering brief trainings. Computer ownership has also increased, mainly because Rwanda does not tax on Information Technology (IT) goods and the country strategy of targeting the children through a global ‘One Laptop per Child’ program (BBC News 2009). 

Information Technology Opportunities in Africa and Rwanda

With all the developments happening in Africa, there is an opportunity for global firms to enter the international market, and then leverage the internet infrastructure. Rwanda as an ideal example is attracting Fortune 500 companies such as Google and Costco, who have seen the opportunities in the country (Gunther 2007). Rwanda has been promoting their country as a business friendly nation, and the favorable response from corporate America may be seen as an endorsement for other firms to come in.

Population Age Distribution – Sub-Saharan Africa and United States of America

Source: Population Reference Bureau, 2009
The United States has an aging population, but Africa on the other end is facing a population boom. This creates an opportunity for products and services for children and parents (Mahajan 2009; Page 148). With Rwanda targeting its young population with technology, global firms have opportunities for youth based advertising.

Global Technology Marketing Challenges

But I anticipate that getting marketing firms to enter Rwanda would not be easy. As much as there are improvements happening, the firms would one way or the other have to deal with social issues. Computer access is still a luxury, and the problems such as constant electricity have not gone away. But according to Patrick Nyirishema, director of Rwanda’s Information Technology Authority, the technology drive will be moving in parallel with other planned government infrastructure plans to meet the new demands (BBC News 2009).

Other marketing challenges include the fact that “Africa is data poor” (Mahajan 2009; Page 209). There would potentially be a contact need to travel to the market, and generate market data before going on with strategies. Back and forth travelling would be expensive for firms to create their own data to understand the market. Author Vijay Mahajan of the book “Africa Rising: How 900 million African Consumers offer more than you think”, suggests that that Africa needs a resource like the Marketing Institute (MSI) in the United States. If multiple firm poll their data, a more accurate picture of the African market would be painted; this is one of the aims for the Rwanda government to address the shortage of data.

Enter market Slowly

Rather than abandon this market completely, global firms need to address the challenges, but still drive forward into the market. Some organizations such as Kiva.org, a Micro-financing firm, have already used the internet as a way to get local people in Africa. They already had success providing micro loans to Africa, even though their path was not smooth all the way. They hit into challenges, like the electricity, and were able to come up with mobile strategies, since a phone will always be on (Information Week, 2008).  But Kiva.org did enter the market slowly, and are learning to adjust to it.

Although it is unclear how inexpensive laptops will affect online access in the poorest areas of the country, it is clear that information is already starting to flow freely, and this is fulfilling one of the Rwanda’s government goals. Perhaps global firms can learn from these other organizations which have made their first moves, and perhaps global firms can start creating their brands as the population learns about technology.

REFERENCES

1)      Africa Development Bank Group (2009)
Vision 2020 – Use ICT to facilitate rapid socio-economic development
 ICT Situational analysis in Rwanda;
http://www.afdb.org

2)      Africa News Update, (2007)
Rwanda: Using ICT to build knowledge-based economy- http://www.afrika.no/Detailed/15287.html

3)      Balancing Act News Update (Africa) (2008)
Rwanda Gets $24 Million Boost for Regional Broadband Networks
ISSUE NO 426 8th October 2008
http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/back/balancing-act_426.html

4)      BBC News, (2000)
Rwanda forges ahead with IT goals
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/8285496.stm

5)      Ferraro, Nicole (2008).
Africa’s Portal To the Internet,
http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/ebusiness/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=32NBNBDZNNAOXQE1GHPSKHWATMY32JVN?articleID=206100708&pgno=1&queryText=&isPrev=

6)      Gunther, Marc (2007)
Why CEOs love Rwanda
http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/28/news/companies/pluggedin_Gunther_Rwanda.fortune/

7)      Information Week, (2008)
Africa’s Portal To The Internet
http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/ebusiness/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206100708&pgno=2&queryText=&isPrev= 

8)      Internet World Stats (2009).
Internet Usage Statistics for Africa,
 http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats1.htm

9)      Juma, Calestous (2009)
New Africa broadband ‘ready’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8256940.stm

10)   Mahajan, Vijay (2009).
 “Africa Rising: How 900 million African Consumers offer more than you think”,
Wharton School Publishing, New Jersey

11)   Population Reference Bureau (2009)
2009 World Data Population Datasheet  
http://www.prb.org/presentations/09worlddatasheet_presentation.ppt 

12)   Rwanda Development Gateway (2005)
“ICT & Telecommunications”
www.rwandaGateway.org/article.php3?id_article=93

13)   The World Fact Book, CIA (2009)
Rwanda
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rw.html

This last weekend, it was Zambia’s 45^th Indepence Anniversary. The Zambia Association of Zambians in Seattle WA (AZISWA) hosted a celebration event for Zambia’s new milestone.

New place/ New program / New members

The last couple of years, the Independence party had always taken place in Auburn; this time, the event took place on October 24 (the exact anniversary date) at the Renton Community Center

The event had a different program and agenda. I guess they are  building-on from the previous years offerings. Nice work!
I got a chance to see a fashion show (traditional Zambian outfits) and got to eat some Zambian food. In a couple months though, I will be in Zambia, and so will get to sample different Zambian treats .
Some of the pictures we took at the event are posted [ here ]

This should really have been titled ‘Norwegian Cruise Line’ (NCL) vs ‘Carnival Cruise Line’ (CCL).
The Alaska trip was fun – when we were not dealing with NCL.

Nelly and I had our first cruise experience last December, when we took the Carnival Pride to Mexico. It was such a fun, and relaxing cruise, that we constantly told all our friends to go on a cruise – because it was an experience worth it. But after our Alaska cruise on the Norwegian Pearl, we have adjusted our recommendation – go on a cruise, but go with Carnival (I will add more if we find another cruise line which we try, test, and love). I would never pay my own money to travel on NCL again! The experience just could not compare with our first cruise experience last December.

Prior to cruise:
We should have known from the first phone experience that this company service was going to suck. After calling, I could not ask the cruise to put my beds together. When the cruise was booked, it was for a double room.The room I got was with two single beds, and I had wanted a room with a bed for two people. The beds were tagged as being able to be put together. I called NCL so that they can put them together before we got on cruise. NCL customer service was rude, and could not entertain me. They directed me back to my agent to make that change (it is a simple bed change request). My agent got it changed (3 weeks prior to cruise), but day of cruise, beds were no

Website was down a big chunk of the time when I was trying to do research on cruise. It was frustrating. I am not making this up at all!!!
I could not finish my online profile as site kept giving an error with an error code. I called customer service, and they were able to remove the error – reason was that my address was entered twice in the system: the site had one address option, so how the heck can a user enter 2 addresses? And if so, why could the error not be descriptive. And customer service suggested that there is no way a user would have removed the duplicate address, because it was not exposed (so only way is to call into NCL). Ridiculous! Am I the only person who hit into this? By how fast the person figured the issue, it seemed that many other people hit into this. So why can’t they just update or fix this error?

A few days before the cruise, I was not able to book excursions. I called NCL, and they said it was closed because you can not make excursion choices 5 days before cruise. This was not documented at all in all the correspondence I had with NCL – it was not even in the booklet which was sent to me with ticket information. Why can’t they communicate! It just seemed simple. I don;t remember having these kind of communication issues with Carnival Cruise.

On cruise:
Freestyle dining sucked! Actually, freestyle dinning failed!
I could never get in the restaurant I wanted (not the specialty restaurants) the first few nights. All of them had long waits (which I never had to do on previous cruises), and I had to resort to eating at the summer palace buffet. The buffet was a decent experience the first day, but it became a dull option since the same food was repeated every day! The whole time I was on the cruise, I had never eaten at theone of the restuarants covered, called Indigigo – it always had a ridiculous long wait; it was also usually closed for private events ; why? Closing down a ship restaurant to cover for a private party? Why would they not reserve one of the speciality restaurants so that guests can continue with their selected choices.
Freestyle dining failed! I know I said that already, but it is true.
Because of the long waits, I felt NCL was pushing people to go to their specialty restaurants which had an additional cover. I did not want that option because I was on an all-inclusive vacation. Why would it need to provide me with poor options. I have always been happy with other all inclusive options; NCL was the first terrible one for me.

Staff unhappy!
I think there is some communication/training options NCL can do for their staff. Their wait-staff was not friendly (I remember only two who stand out as being friendly and courteous). Their staff would also often talk in their own language amongst themselves while I was there talking to them – I don’t expect everyone to speak English, but I think it is rude to talk among yourselves knowing that a customer can not understand.
NCL staff need training: When I could not get into the restaurants I wanted, I decided to go to front desk so that I can make a reservation to a restaurant so that I am at least guranteed a decent meal instead of the buttet option which seemed to be stuck on repeat. But the guys at customer service desk suggested that dinner for two did not need a reservation; only a larger party. I was shocked because at the restaurant, they had suggested we needed to have made a reservation to get gurranteed seating at the time slot we wanted. I complained and insisted that the customer service guy was wrong, and he harshly directed us to the desk where specialty restaurants make their reservations. Over there, the staff member said all restaurants take reservations for all numbers, and did not know what the previous guy was talking about – a complete disconnect amongst the staff members! Unbelievable.

Observation: Freestyle dining means you miss shows.
Because we always had to wait, and one time had to wait for our food for over and hour, we missed one of the main shows – I was really pissed! If there are preferred dining times, then everyone can plan accordingly so that they can get to the shows. Poor planning.

Staff members are always trying to upsell.
I hate when I feel like I am in a town where people are trying to sell  me timeshares after every turn I make. I felt the same about NCL Pearl staff – even on my quiet reading times, someone would always bug me trying to sell me their special even when I insisted that I would not be drinking alcohol in the morning. Every 2 minutes, someone or same person, would constantly bug me with their upsell. I did not feel relaxed at all when I was not in the stateroom (our room) or on shore at one of the stops.

What is up with the drink options in the all inclusive package?
Water (specifiy not bottled water), and unsweet ice-tea were the only drink options which were free. What the hell? What about other juices? I don’t care if sodas are extra, but why try to force people to shell up more? Orange juice for breakfast was some price not in the package; the same with Apple juice; crap – any juice for that matter.

What NCL did right.

After such a crappy experience, it was hard trying to pick some positives. One think that stood out though that was better than Carnival was that NCL did a really good job with embarkation, and debarkation. I would give this cruise the high marks for those options. During the Carnival experience last year, I spoke about how I thought Carnival scored low on the Embarkation process which made them seem disorganized – see my Carnival commentary (http://www.mubweb.com/blog/index.php/archives/203) on the last day of the cruise last december.

Like an analyst, you hear horror stories after the fact:

After we shared some of our NCL experience, people started finally opening up and asking us why we went on that cruise. We remember doing research, and doing some web searches – there were no warning signs. But this time, when I do web searches, I am now seeing people who are having issues with NCL. Shame.

Final Verdict:
Nelly and I may try another cruise line just for comparison purposes. But if we want to have an experience which we are some-what familiar with, we will definately go back on Carnival. As for NCL, we are not going to jump on it again, and we will definately not recommend anyone to try and have that experience – unless you know for certain that they have improved (but then, you will be taking a risk).
Nelly and I now now what to say/suggest to our friends looking for a cruise option.