Friday night when I logged in to check email and then post here, I found that the problem I was having with Microsoft Outlook earlier in the acfternoon while meeting with Evans Kahuthu and Louis Mahanja (more about them later) was not trivial. It was 4:00am in the morning when I isolated the problem to a corrupted .pst file (also discovering that my anti-virus definitions file was also corrupted). I went to bed after scheduling a full CHKDSK run and got up at 8:00 to finish up the fix before heading for lunch with Ms. Esther Muchiri.
But back to Evans and Louis. First, these guys are two of the brightest IT guys I know! Evans taught for CSU San Bernardino and managed their network infrastructure before returning to Kenya a year ago. Louis went to UC Berkeley and was instrumental in the implementation of an e-learning platform currently in use there. So our discussion yesterday was about providing a similar, reliable, cost-effective capability here in Kenya. I certainly have a biased interest in such a platform because it opens up a huge source of faculty for KIM U – all my fellow UOP and JFKU faculty that teach online. Think about it! I’m currently facilitating two UOP classes and just finished the set for my JFKU fall quarter hybrid class that starts on Monday. If I can teach in the US from Kenya, I can teach in Kenya from the US.
M. Esther Muchiri is the founder and leader of eMenteringAfrica, a social sector organization with a mission to serve youth and young adults in becoming self-sufficient through exposure to technology and development of personal life skills. We met during my last trip and stayed in touch, so I was looking forward to getting caught up on her efforts. She invited me to her home for a real tasty Kenyan meal and I was so happy and grateful for home cooking, I overate! It’s nine hours later and I’m still feeling full! Esther and I spent three hours brainstorming ideas for her programs. She’s real interested in the program models used by my two favorite nonprofits, the Bayview Y and the Attitudinal Healing Connection of Oakland, that I plan to connect them for continued sharing. Although I was “running on fumes” because of the lack of sleep when I left for Esther’s, I was re-energized when I returned to the hotel. All the better since I had another meeting with Mr. Nichlas Letting, KIM’s deputy ED an hour latter!
Nicholas had good news for me – I’ll have a co-facilitator for the workshop Monday and Tuesday – Mr. Karugor Gatama, a KIM consultant, is going to help me compare the US-based Gazelles success stories with those of successful Kenyan businesses. Perfect! We meet tomorrow night in Mombasa to prepare.
So tomorrow it’s off to Mombasa. I’m going to bed!
