And just like that, my time with the Kenya 4 CSC team has come to an end.
We kicked off the final weekend with a team dinner at Carnivore, a restaurant in Nairobi famous for serving game... crocodile, lamb, ostrich, you name it, we tried it. It was wonderful to celebrate the end of an unforgettable four weeks with my 11 CSC team members and our DOT supporters, who have been with us every step of the way.
We spent Saturday exploring Nairobi one last time; we enjoyed the good food and had one final shopping trip at the Masai Market, which unfortunately (or fortunately, for my budget) was cut short by a downpour of rain. Saturday night we went to dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant, and then finished the program the same way we started: drinks at the Fairview hotel.
I must say I am so grateful for my 11 wonderful team members; it's amazing we only met four weeks ago. I have learned something from each and every one of them, and look forward to keeping in touch - and maybe a one-year reunion in Mexico or Portugal?? :)
I am also so grateful for the opportunity to spend four weeks getting to know such a wonderful country. Kenya is filled with passionate and innovative people, and I look forward to watching it's progress over the upcoming years. Everywhere I have visited within Kenya I have been welcomed with kindness and hospitality, and I look forward to coming back to visit in the near future.
Asante sana and kwaheri.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Final Presentation and Report: Done!
It's hard to believe our final week is here; it feels like only last week we were doing our introductory presentation to Emmanuel and the Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat staff!
This week, our team was very busy working to complete our final report and preparing for our final presentation. Both Monday and Tuesday were dedicated to writing the last sections of our 60-page recommendations report and putting together a presentation of our final recommendations. After three weeks of research, interviews, and meetings, our finals recommendations were finally coming together; we had defined key performance metrics, determined a new process for updating the Vision 2030 website with the status of the projects, and designed a user interface for the proposed Vision 2030 dashboard.
Wednesday morning Lotem, Camy, Kensuke and I, along with the rest of the team, left Machakos for the the Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat offices in Nairobi to deliver our final presentation. In addition to our CSC team members, several members of the Delivery Secretariat were also present to hear our recommendations. The presentation itself lasted around an hour and half, and I felt it went very well! The client seemed pleased with our recommendations and ready to begin the implementation process as soon as possible. After all our work, it felt very good to deliver a product that we were proud of and that seemed to meet all the requirements of the client's original statement of work. I hope that our recommendations will be implemented, and it will be very interesting to check the Vision 2030 website over the next couple of months to view the progress.
It is definitely a relief to be done with the final presentation! However, now that our final presentation is complete, it's really hitting me that our time in the CSC program is coming to an end.
This week, our team was very busy working to complete our final report and preparing for our final presentation. Both Monday and Tuesday were dedicated to writing the last sections of our 60-page recommendations report and putting together a presentation of our final recommendations. After three weeks of research, interviews, and meetings, our finals recommendations were finally coming together; we had defined key performance metrics, determined a new process for updating the Vision 2030 website with the status of the projects, and designed a user interface for the proposed Vision 2030 dashboard.
Wednesday morning Lotem, Camy, Kensuke and I, along with the rest of the team, left Machakos for the the Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat offices in Nairobi to deliver our final presentation. In addition to our CSC team members, several members of the Delivery Secretariat were also present to hear our recommendations. The presentation itself lasted around an hour and half, and I felt it went very well! The client seemed pleased with our recommendations and ready to begin the implementation process as soon as possible. After all our work, it felt very good to deliver a product that we were proud of and that seemed to meet all the requirements of the client's original statement of work. I hope that our recommendations will be implemented, and it will be very interesting to check the Vision 2030 website over the next couple of months to view the progress.
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| The team after our final presentation |
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Mid-Term Already??
Sorry for the delay in posting! A looming final report, a weekend trip, and a bout with food poisoning have kept me very busy and distracted!
Last week was a busy yet productive week. In order to ensure that our sub-team is on the right path with our recommendations, we scheduled a mid-term review with our client at the Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat for Tuesday. Consequently, our team was very busy Monday preparing a presentation for the meeting, however by midnight Monday night we had finalized our slides and we were ready!
Tuesday morning bright and early we headed to Nairobi to meet with Emmanuel, our project sponsor at Vision 2030. It took us over two hours to get through our presentation, but (thankfully!) Emmanuel seemed happy with what we had to propose - it seems we are headed down the right track. We left the meeting with several action items, and the daunting task of both starting and completing our final recommendations report, but it was nice to feel confident in our progress to-date. As soon as we arrived back in Machakos, we organized and divided the sections of our final report so that we could get started on the report. The rest of the week was spent finalizing research and writing.
Saturday we left for another trip to explore more of Kenya. We started with a three-hour hike in the Ngong Hills just outside of Nairobi. It was great to be outside and explore, rather than just see the sights from inside a van! The highlight of the hike was when we ran into a pack of giraffes. Even though we saw our fair share of giraffes in the Masai Mara, it was another experience altogether to walk amongst them.
This upcoming week (our final week in the program! crazy!) will be very busy; our group's final presentation was moved from Thursday to Wednesday, so we have a lot of work to complete in a short period of time. By Wednesday, we need to complete our final presentation, and by Friday we need to complete our final report. Should be a very busy five days!
Last week was a busy yet productive week. In order to ensure that our sub-team is on the right path with our recommendations, we scheduled a mid-term review with our client at the Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat for Tuesday. Consequently, our team was very busy Monday preparing a presentation for the meeting, however by midnight Monday night we had finalized our slides and we were ready!
Tuesday morning bright and early we headed to Nairobi to meet with Emmanuel, our project sponsor at Vision 2030. It took us over two hours to get through our presentation, but (thankfully!) Emmanuel seemed happy with what we had to propose - it seems we are headed down the right track. We left the meeting with several action items, and the daunting task of both starting and completing our final recommendations report, but it was nice to feel confident in our progress to-date. As soon as we arrived back in Machakos, we organized and divided the sections of our final report so that we could get started on the report. The rest of the week was spent finalizing research and writing.
Saturday we left for another trip to explore more of Kenya. We started with a three-hour hike in the Ngong Hills just outside of Nairobi. It was great to be outside and explore, rather than just see the sights from inside a van! The highlight of the hike was when we ran into a pack of giraffes. Even though we saw our fair share of giraffes in the Masai Mara, it was another experience altogether to walk amongst them.
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| At the top of the hill before the hike down |
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| Walking amongst the giraffe |
Sunday morning we were up bright and early for a game drive in the Shompole Conservation Area. Again, this was very different than our experience in the Masai Mara; there was not a lot of tourists, so it felt like we had the place to ourselves. At one point, we were able to get outside of the van with our guide to walk around Lake Natron, on the border between Kenya and Tanzania. The lake was filled with thousands of flamingos, it was breathtaking! Following the game drive we headed back on the (very long) drive to Machakos.
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| The group at the Shompole Conservation Area |
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| Flamingos at Lake Natron |
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Life in Machakos
It has been a busy week! Our subteam spent Monday and Thursday in Nairobi for meetings, and Tuesday and Wednesday at the hotel working. The meetings in Nairobi were very productive and interesting. We were able to meet with the project managers of various flagship projects to learn more about their current performance metrics submission process, and we were also able to meet with the Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate in an effort to learn more about their current process to evaluate the progress of government projects.
Based on the information our team gathered this week, we defined the current and recommended processes and began to design the high level framework and architecture of the dashboard. This upcoming week, we will start formally documenting our recommendations to Kenya Vision 2030. On Tuesday, our team plans to meet with our contact at Vision 2030 to provide a mid-term report; I can't believe we are halfway done with our time here!
Here are a couple of things I learned about Kenya throughout the week:
1. Nairobi traffic is no joke. On Monday morning, we left Machakos at 5:30AM for the 45 mile drive to Nairobi, and we didn't arrive until close to 8:30AM. The condition of the roads does not help to make the situation any better, and it is easy to see why the Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat has made the improvement and expansion of the Nairobi roads a priority. Our entire team spent countless hours this week making the drive back and forth from Machakos to Nairobi for various meetings with the client.
2. Hospitality is very important in Kenya, even in business meetings. We were offered coffee and tea in every single meeting we attended this week, and additionally we were often provided snacks or a complete meal. Everywhere we went people went above and beyond to make us feel welcomed.
3. In Kenya, time is subjective. You can decide to be time-driven, and use predetermined meeting times to structure your day, or be task-driven, and not move on to the next part of your day until a task is complete (regardless of the time). From my two week experience, it seems like the task-driven approach often wins out, and meetings are constantly delayed or even canceled; at times, our team has even found ourselves adopting a task-driven lifestyle :)
On Friday, we all stepped away from our project work and spent the day at Daystar, a university in the Machakos area. Our team ran a workshop with approximately forty students and provided general career and job application advice. The two activities I enjoyed the most was a discussion we had on democracy and a speed mentoring activity. For the democracy talk, we watched a short video on the life and assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (our day at Daystar happened to fall on the anniversary of the assassination) and Lotem led a discussion about what this event meant to him and how it impacted his views on democracy. We then broke into groups and had a chance to learn what democracy means to the Daystar students; it was very interesting to hear their views on politics in Kenya, especially so recently after the issues with the 2007 elections. We also conducted a speed mentoring activity, which gave us each the opportunity to talk to the students, answer questions, and provide advice from our experiences. I was amazed and impressed by the passion and drive of each student!
This weekend we decided to stay in Machakos in an effort to get to know the town better (and catch up on some sleep!). On Saturday, a group of us took a day trip to Nairobi and visited the elephant orphanage, where we got to see orphaned baby elephants, the giraffe center, where we got to feed giraffes, and the Masai market, where I practiced my bargaining skills and bought (even more) souvenirs.
In addition to Nairobi, we also took some time this weekend to explore Machakos. Saturday night we ventured downtown to Wizards, the local night club. Sunday we took a hike around the nearby hills of Machakos, which was beautiful! On the hike we got a chance to meet and talk to some of the locals and play with some of the Machakos children; everyone was so friendly and welcoming!
After getting some rest this weekend, it is now time to prepare for another busy week!
Based on the information our team gathered this week, we defined the current and recommended processes and began to design the high level framework and architecture of the dashboard. This upcoming week, we will start formally documenting our recommendations to Kenya Vision 2030. On Tuesday, our team plans to meet with our contact at Vision 2030 to provide a mid-term report; I can't believe we are halfway done with our time here!
Here are a couple of things I learned about Kenya throughout the week:
1. Nairobi traffic is no joke. On Monday morning, we left Machakos at 5:30AM for the 45 mile drive to Nairobi, and we didn't arrive until close to 8:30AM. The condition of the roads does not help to make the situation any better, and it is easy to see why the Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat has made the improvement and expansion of the Nairobi roads a priority. Our entire team spent countless hours this week making the drive back and forth from Machakos to Nairobi for various meetings with the client.
2. Hospitality is very important in Kenya, even in business meetings. We were offered coffee and tea in every single meeting we attended this week, and additionally we were often provided snacks or a complete meal. Everywhere we went people went above and beyond to make us feel welcomed.
3. In Kenya, time is subjective. You can decide to be time-driven, and use predetermined meeting times to structure your day, or be task-driven, and not move on to the next part of your day until a task is complete (regardless of the time). From my two week experience, it seems like the task-driven approach often wins out, and meetings are constantly delayed or even canceled; at times, our team has even found ourselves adopting a task-driven lifestyle :)
On Friday, we all stepped away from our project work and spent the day at Daystar, a university in the Machakos area. Our team ran a workshop with approximately forty students and provided general career and job application advice. The two activities I enjoyed the most was a discussion we had on democracy and a speed mentoring activity. For the democracy talk, we watched a short video on the life and assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (our day at Daystar happened to fall on the anniversary of the assassination) and Lotem led a discussion about what this event meant to him and how it impacted his views on democracy. We then broke into groups and had a chance to learn what democracy means to the Daystar students; it was very interesting to hear their views on politics in Kenya, especially so recently after the issues with the 2007 elections. We also conducted a speed mentoring activity, which gave us each the opportunity to talk to the students, answer questions, and provide advice from our experiences. I was amazed and impressed by the passion and drive of each student!
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| The group at Daystar |
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| Baby elephants at the Elephant Orphanage |
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| At the Giraffe Center |
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| Machakos from our hike |
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| Machakos children we met on our hike |
Monday, October 31, 2011
Adventures in the Masai Mara
Last night we returned from a wonderful weekend in the Masai Mara! After reviewing my pictures tonight, I am still amazed about all we were able to see in just three short days.
The next morning we were up bright and early for a twelve hour day of game hunting; it was an amazing day. We saw every animal I could have hoped to see (and more!). Although the whole day was wonderful, my favorite moment was when our van was next to a herd of elephants ten feet to our right, and a pack of lions ten feet to our left. However, I also enjoyed when a monkey jumped on Camy and stole a banana right out out of her backpack! I took over 200 pictures, and have included a highlight of my favorites below.
On Sunday, we did two more hours of game hunting and then went to visit a Masai village before heading back to Machakos. We experienced a traditional Masai welcome dance, were given a tour of the village, and were able to explore one of the Masai huts. Following the tour, we were given the opportunity to buy some of the handmade Masai items, and I may have allowed myself to be talked into at least one or two more souvenirs than I planned on buying :) Below are some pictures from our visit of the Masai village.
We left the hotel 11AM Friday morning with our safari guide, Sammy, for the long drive from Machakos to the Masai Mara. While the road from Machakos to Nairobi was relatively painless, the conditions became a little more complicated as we got closer to the Masai Mara; let's just say I have a whole new appreciation for paved roads. The last two hours of the seven hour drive were spend avoiding potholes, and the rain did not make the drive any easier. However, we arrived safely at the campsite, and enjoyed a wonderful meal cooked by our safari guides and a much-needed beer by the campfire. Below is a picture of our van (our group of 13 split into two different vans) with our guide Sammy.
The next morning we were up bright and early for a twelve hour day of game hunting; it was an amazing day. We saw every animal I could have hoped to see (and more!). Although the whole day was wonderful, my favorite moment was when our van was next to a herd of elephants ten feet to our right, and a pack of lions ten feet to our left. However, I also enjoyed when a monkey jumped on Camy and stole a banana right out out of her backpack! I took over 200 pictures, and have included a highlight of my favorites below.
On Sunday, we did two more hours of game hunting and then went to visit a Masai village before heading back to Machakos. We experienced a traditional Masai welcome dance, were given a tour of the village, and were able to explore one of the Masai huts. Following the tour, we were given the opportunity to buy some of the handmade Masai items, and I may have allowed myself to be talked into at least one or two more souvenirs than I planned on buying :) Below are some pictures from our visit of the Masai village.
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| Masai before the traditional welcome dance. |
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| Camy and I inside a Masai hut |
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| Me with some of the children of the village |
Following the Masai village, we headed home to Machakos, where we were all able to enjoy a long-awaited hot shower. No rest for the weary though; we were up this morning at 4:45AM for a full day of meetings in Nairobi. It was a productive day, and now we have a lot of information to organize and analyze to begin our recommendations. We hope to accomplish a lot this week so that we are able to present a mid-term report to the client early next week.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Welcome to Machakos
We have arrived in Machakos, our home for the next three weeks! We left Nairobi
As we arrived in Machakos, a small town surrounded by beautiful green hills, it became quickly apparent that life here would be calmer and much slower-paced than life inNairobi
Alex acted as our local Machakos tour guide and led us to the city center. We walked around the shops and restaurants in downtown Machakos. We even made a quick stop in the local club, which was empty despite the DJ blasting music at 5PM. Everywhere we looked, someone was working hard to try and sell something homemade: shoes made from tires, baskets, slingshots. As we explored Machakos, I quickly noticed how friendly the locals were; young children would come up to say hi, and several people smiled and welcomed us to the city. Below is a picture from our tour of Machakos.
Thursday was spent hard at work in a conference room at the hotel. As our part of our work to create a Vision 2030 dashboard for the citizens of Kenya, my subteam and I headed into Machakos to speak to the local citizens about Vision 2030 and how they would like to receive information concerning the program. After talking with almost 20 citizens, it quickly became apparently that although they are aware of the Vision 2030 program, they are not aware of the specific flagship projects that comprise the effort. Additionally, it became clear that a lot of the citizens of Machakos do not have daily access to internet, which would make it difficult to receive status updates from a dashboard; many told us they would prefer to receive this information in a newspaper, magazine, or from TV. This is something we will have to think about as we proceed with our project.
Tomorrow, we head out for the weekend on our first safari to the Masai Mara! I am very excited and cannot wait for the adventure.
As we arrived in Machakos, a small town surrounded by beautiful green hills, it became quickly apparent that life here would be calmer and much slower-paced than life in
Alex acted as our local Machakos tour guide and led us to the city center. We walked around the shops and restaurants in downtown Machakos. We even made a quick stop in the local club, which was empty despite the DJ blasting music at 5PM. Everywhere we looked, someone was working hard to try and sell something homemade: shoes made from tires, baskets, slingshots. As we explored Machakos, I quickly noticed how friendly the locals were; young children would come up to say hi, and several people smiled and welcomed us to the city. Below is a picture from our tour of Machakos.
Thursday was spent hard at work in a conference room at the hotel. As our part of our work to create a Vision 2030 dashboard for the citizens of Kenya, my subteam and I headed into Machakos to speak to the local citizens about Vision 2030 and how they would like to receive information concerning the program. After talking with almost 20 citizens, it quickly became apparently that although they are aware of the Vision 2030 program, they are not aware of the specific flagship projects that comprise the effort. Additionally, it became clear that a lot of the citizens of Machakos do not have daily access to internet, which would make it difficult to receive status updates from a dashboard; many told us they would prefer to receive this information in a newspaper, magazine, or from TV. This is something we will have to think about as we proceed with our project.
Tomorrow, we head out for the weekend on our first safari to the Masai Mara! I am very excited and cannot wait for the adventure.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Jambo from Nairobi!
I have finally arrived in Nairobi! The last four days have been a whirlwind, I can't believe it was only Friday when I left from DC. When I arrived on Saturday - the last of our 12 team members to arrive in Nairobi - I was quickly welcomed into the group. It was wonderful to finally put faces to the voices I had been hearing on our weekly conference calls the past three months. Although we are all from different countries and backgrounds, it was immediately clear that we would all get along very well and will develop a very strong team dynamic. Saturday night we headed to our first team dinner, hosted by our fabulous DOT partners Alex and Muriuki, and spent time getting to know one another (and try our first Tusker beer).
Starting Sunday morning, it was straight to work! We worked with our subteams to finalize our initial presentations to the client, we met with Muriuki and Alex to learn more about the history of Kenya, the challenges the country is facing, and the recent emphasis on innovation, and finally attended in our first subteam presentation with the client. Never a dull moment! Below is a picture of our entire team with Alex and Muriuki before the first presentation.
We were also determined to try our first taste of authentic Kenyan food, and so our group headed to Ronalo's in downtown Nairobi. A live band kept us entertained throughout the evening, and for a special performance of "No Woman No Cry," the band even called Richard onto the stage to perform with them - what a fun evening! Below is a picture of our Ronalo's meal.
On Tuesday, our subteam was finally able to meet face-to-face with our client, Vision 2030, and present our work plan. Following our presentation, we were able to meet with several resources within the Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat to learn more about the the client's current reporting process, the client's expectations, and the Vision 2030 goals, structure, and flagship projects. It was a very productive day, and our team left with a lot more information (and several pages of notes!). The task ahead of us is large but exciting, and I am looking forward to what our team is able to design. Below is a picture of my subteam at the Vision 2030 office.
Tomorrow our team leaves Nairobi and heads to Machakos, where we will be living for the next two weeks. My short stay in Nairobi has been great, but I am looking forward to exploring Machakos!
Starting Sunday morning, it was straight to work! We worked with our subteams to finalize our initial presentations to the client, we met with Muriuki and Alex to learn more about the history of Kenya, the challenges the country is facing, and the recent emphasis on innovation, and finally attended in our first subteam presentation with the client. Never a dull moment! Below is a picture of our entire team with Alex and Muriuki before the first presentation.
We were also determined to try our first taste of authentic Kenyan food, and so our group headed to Ronalo's in downtown Nairobi. A live band kept us entertained throughout the evening, and for a special performance of "No Woman No Cry," the band even called Richard onto the stage to perform with them - what a fun evening! Below is a picture of our Ronalo's meal.
On Tuesday, our subteam was finally able to meet face-to-face with our client, Vision 2030, and present our work plan. Following our presentation, we were able to meet with several resources within the Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat to learn more about the the client's current reporting process, the client's expectations, and the Vision 2030 goals, structure, and flagship projects. It was a very productive day, and our team left with a lot more information (and several pages of notes!). The task ahead of us is large but exciting, and I am looking forward to what our team is able to design. Below is a picture of my subteam at the Vision 2030 office.
Tomorrow our team leaves Nairobi and heads to Machakos, where we will be living for the next two weeks. My short stay in Nairobi has been great, but I am looking forward to exploring Machakos!
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