Mid Way Updates

It’s Midway! We are 15 IBMers from 12 different countries. It is almost 20 days since we first met each other for the first time in our lives. My take on team Kenya 8 on what we have done T-O-G-E-T-H-E-R over the past 20 days:

WE:

T-hink

O-bserve

G-ive

E-stablish

T-aste

H-earten

E-valuate

R-elate

With these 8 adjectives I have described, allow us to learn many more new perspectives of Kenya and also among each other of this 15 IBMer team. There are many occasions in these 20 days that we have to apply what we have learned and experienced in our daily lives.

The following photos shares about our recent Kenya 8’s team weekend event that we scheduled almost a month ago. If this blog is going to be read by the CSC Kenya 8+ team, I would strongly recommend the entire team to schedule such an enjoyable team building event trip to Lake Naivasha. From my team from Kenya 8, there were 8 of us who chose the biking activity at hells gate national park and trekking at hells gate gorge.

Biking Activity at Hells Gate National Park

Biking as a team, we watch each others back, the terrain is unknown to all of us and the team moves as pack while passing vehicles kicks dust into the blue horizon of the dusty tracks at hells gate national park. 

Being used to cycling on paved bicycle tracks in parks with the environment of mean sea level of about 15m back in Singapore, this cycling experience of dusty and rocky path with mean sea level above 1800m was indeed challenging.

It is also critical to choose the appropriate bikes with serviceable brakes, gears, tyres for this trip. Nevertheless, fresh water to keep myself hydrated.

There is never a bad time to stop for photo shoots and get sips of water on the way to hells gate gorge.

Trekking Activity at Hells Gate Gorge

There is no 'I' in  a TEAM, this trekking session involves much appreciated team work in guiding and holding one another through the slippery and steep terrain of the gorge.

After biking for 1.5 hours at the national park before arriving at the gorge, we are almost in the state of "shack cannot think" also known as exhausted in Singapore military training context. But the team just simply enjoy the great companion of each other while watching out for one another in the entire gorge experience.

    

After trekking the gorge, we had a recharge of sugar and a brief break before we head back with our bikes to the main gate via the dusty and rocky path.

 

// Photos by Bakul and HS

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Safari at Amboseli

Last weekend ten of us did a weekend trip to Amboseli, which is right next to Mount Kilimanjaro and Tanzania border. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

We had not even reached the park gate when we saw giraffes on the side of the road

Masai with cattle + Mount Kilimanjaro peaking from the clouds

Serena lodge was very comfortable, we would have liked to stay longer!

The elephants clearly didn't mind the traffic

The sky cleared so we could get a final view to Kilimanjaro

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Next Generation Application development - Week 1 - Kickoff

Week 1 - Kickoff

The first week of intensive training on Next Generation Application Development is drawing to a close.  The aim of the programme is to demonstrate cutting edge technologies and techniques to  Kenyan developers.  We are using IBM Bluemix  as a vehicle to deliver the training and weaving in various strands around Agile, teamwork , innovation and entrepreneurship

The developers have selected ideas to work on and  have formed into teams and allocated roles.  Over the days the ideas have been expanded and they have begun having a daily scrums.  It's been great watching the team dynamics , yesterday we tried introducing the Devil's advocate which gave us the classic quotes:

" The devil was to tough..." 

"..it's so difficult to reason with the devil.."

Monday had a wonderful moment while waiting for the auditorium to fill up :

Some wonderful music to set the tone for the week.
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TIA

Already a week has passed in Kenya, it's unbelievable how time goes by faster and faster every day. I'll try to summarize our adventures so far:
Friday: Arrive, sit in traffic and go to bed. Simple as that.
Saturday: Joel from the Global CSC in Armonk visited. Nice coincidence to get to meet him while on a CSC assignment. After that, this was a full on tourist day. We visited the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage and Nairobi Safari Walk. We had a nice meal at a mall sitting outside in the sun and shopped for some necessities. We enjoyed welcome dinner and drinks at a very nice restaurant and opening the terrace season (at least for some of us) - good fun!
Sunday: Half a tourist day. Met Muriuki Mureithi from Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT) again in the morning to discuss our projects and then we worked on the first client presentations. In the afternoon we visited the Bomas of Kenya, a cultural centre here in Nairobi. The music, dance and acrobatic moves of the performers were amazing! Big monkeys climbing on the ceiling panels provided extra entertainment.
Monday: Suit up! Weather was extremely warm just in time for our first client presentations at Women Enterprise Fund and at Strathmore University. Entering the first building required a sign-in specifying our laptops' serial numbers. This procedure makes one think "why", but asking didn't seem appropriate. Maybe next time. We also got a little cultural flavor when the actual meeting started with a group prayer. Strathmore University seemed very modern with new equipment and determined students, which was delightful to see. Dinner was served at the hotel and late night meeting prep awaited the guys presenting on Tuesday.
Tuesday: First destination was Kenya Agribusiness and Agro-industry Alliance where we learned about milk supply chain among other things. We had yet another cup of really nice Kenyan tea made into hot milk. Then we visited IBM East Africa office and got to experience a first real rainy season downpour when walking to lunch. Last of the introduction presentations was at the Federation of Kenya Employers after which we got to taste the Nairobi traffic again. And I mean tasting literally, the diesel exhaust gets into the mouth and nose and hair and everywhere so much that an hour in the traffic will give you a headache for more reasons than one. We had a group dinner at Viva, a local restaurant where we were treated to ugali and goat meat among other things. We ate by hand, although scooping spinach with the ugali was quite demanding for a beginner. Food tasted good especially after building the appetite for 1,5 hours in the restaurant.
Wednesday: Meetings with the clients again, gym for some and swimming for others. Short power outages seem to be common, but so far nothing disruptive. Around dinner we received some information about our upcoming safari to Amboseli - cannot wait!
Thursday: Laundry service at the hotel seems to have its own challenges, whether laundry is picked up and returned to the same person within the expected time frame is a surprise every time. We celebrated a "Cultural Exchange" evening over pizza, which was just as formal as it sounds. Our team members shared some stories and souvenirs from their home countries. Caipirinhas were involved.
Friday: Teams had interviews and meetings and everything didn't go quite as planned. There were taxi delays, misunderstandings,  changes of plans and all the good stuff one can hope when trying to rush to three different places in Nairobi in one day. Our team was invited to have a lovely lunch at an Italian restaurant right next to the IBM office, which finally made our day. Evening dinner at a nearby Secret Garden restaurant was a nice end to the hectic work week.

Overall the week's wonderful experiences as well as challenges can be captured in the simple expression: TIA = This Is Africa.

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Nearest Cyber cafe

After taking the advice of CSC Kenya Team 7, we retired to the nearest cyber cafe when we lost our internet connection

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Strathmore visit

News of our Strathmore visit can be found here




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First impressions

Yesterday our team of 15 finally met each other in person after talking on the phone every week for 3 months. So great to be together! Here are some observations after our first full day in Nairobi:

Airport: Queues are slow and personnel responses are unclear to any question you might have. In the end it doesn't matter in which line you stand (I entered as "Kenyan citizen") or what you write on your visa form ("just fill it"). The immigration personnel may, however, have a sense of humor and can make you feel welcome :) Last but not least, you shouldn't let go of your baggage when a friendly guy volunteers to push your cart.

Roads: Hazard lights are used for a variety of reasons and many of them do not include an emergency. People will make brave attempts of crossing the road through traffic. Traffic is bad but not as crazy as in some other countries. We did, however, kind of get hit by a car already yesterday. Our driver was quick to steer away so we hit the curb harder. Nobody stopped to sort the issue, some potential metal damage is nothing compared to the possibility of getting carjacked.

This matatu pushed us off the road

 Hotel: The rooms are huge (more like apartments) and the whole place is very nice. You must remember to tip the staff helping you with your luggage. The noises during the night could be identified to come at least from a dog, a wild party and an electric fence. Sleeping with a mosquito net can feel like being a fish in an episode of the "Deadliest Catch", unless you know how to tuck the net correctly under the matress.

Outside the hotel: Getting 15 people on the move and keeping the group together takes time and effort. Rainy season can also mean sun and +25C. Schools look like prisons with all the barb wire and security guards. Shopping mall visit includes two security checks, at the parking lot gate and at the mall doors. Young girls have the most creative and colorful braids on their hair. Tusker beer is apparently the new Google Translate: after tasting some you are able to understand all your colleagues speaking foreign languages.

Waiting at the mall when Bakul had to return some misplaced sausages

Security checks at the shopping mall gate

Animals: Elephants die not from old age but starvation caused by loss of teeth, unless the poachers catch them first. Cheetah is not a very dangerous cat, but you should watch out for the leopards. Difficult to tell from a distance, however, which one you're dealing with.

Elephant orphanage

Scenery at the orphanage

That's all folks, we'll keep you posted!

-Heli

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