by Dr John Mulford
Kigali, Rwanda
Another interesting and blessed day in Kigali. Everyone should have a chance to experience the adventure and joys of cross-cultural living, especially in such a beautiful and friendly place. One of my many laughs of the day was Marshall’s e-mail response to my request for his flight details. Referring to my Monday blog, he asked “shall we bring chairs?” He arrives with the Chick fil A team next week.
More from today:
1. Nothing like a long day to ensure sleep—slept deeply but not long enough. Up at 6:30 a.m. with the sun. Found my phone is dead. Charger not working. Put it on the To Do list for today. Later, in town, took three stores to find one. Man at Kiosk hooked my phone up to show me it was charging. When I asked how much, he said free. He thought I only wanted a charge, not the charger. Still, his price was less than half what I paid for one that broke in three months of usage in the Fall.
2. Working with Chrystel, made several long To Do lists for her. I don’t know where she’ll find the time to do all of them, especially since she became my chauffeur today.
3. Chrystel and I met with marketing managers of two hotels—Lemigo and Mille Collines—looking for graduation venue. Asked each of them to consider donating part of the bill as a sponsorship. I told them we would have press, top government officials, and key business leaders which would be great publicity for them. Got very different responses. Lemigo manager said they had plenty of business and attracted all the top business and government leaders already. Said they hadn’t done any sponsorships (only opened in Sep) and weren’t interested in starting. Mille Collines manager said no problem. They would probably donate the hors d’oeuvres.
I mention the difference because it reminded me of the responses we got when I asked vendors to sponsor the Business Plan Competition. The accountant said sure, a good idea. The lawyer said he couldn’t see the benefit, but did it out of duty as an ICCC member. The interesting similarity is that the ones who saw the benefit were both Kenyans, while those who didn’t see a benefit were Rwandans. Dangerous to generalize from a sample of two, but Kenyans are known throughout East Africa as top business people. It is difficult to negotiate a win-win when the other party doesn’t see the win for his side.
4. Communicating in Rwanda. I have avoided texting on my cell phone in the U.S. without noticeable problems. Not so in Rwanda. People don’t answer their phones and they don’t have voicemail. I tried phoning someone to set up a meeting. No answer. I texted him (too cryptic a message because of my slow fingers and the old style keyboard). He immediately texted back suggesting that I meet with someone else in his organization. I really needed to see him. May have to be a two-step process.
Next, I couldn’t find a phone number that worked for the American ambassador’s office or for USAID. So, Chrystel drove me to the embassy. Good thing she was with me. She was able to explain why we were there to the guards. Then a comedy as guards called various offices and either had an easy time communicating if the person who answered was Rwandese or a hard time if American. Got an appointment with economic development officer.
5. Weather has been quite hot for Kigali. Everyone complaining of the heat. I like it after a cold winter at home. The nights are cool, so good sleeping weather.
6. Several students arrived for class 10-30 minutes early. More than half there by official start time. Unheard of with our first cohort. Had fun playing the name game, where everyone chooses a nickname beginning with same letter as first name. They had already done this with Jason. I did it so I could learn names. Mathilda changed her nickname from “mature” to “magnificent”. She said her husband didn’t like the first nickname she chose. Several in the group teased her by using both nicknames. Much laughter and playfulness in this group.
Whenever I asked for examples from Rwanda, students used their own business ideas. Shows they are really focusing. That’s good. This group really follows the material and is visibly engaged in the discussion. Many good comments and questions.
Had quite the juggling act during class. Dona came up at break and said his daughter is applying to Regent Undergrad. Application deadline is today and requires $50 application fee. Could he give me cash and I pay Regent. I couldn’t leave class and our Internet was down, so I gave him my credit card to use upstairs where Internet was working. He reappeared in the middle of my presentation with a note: Home address and telephone number needed. I nonchalantly filled it out and gave it back to him without stopping my presentation. You may wonder why I would accommodate this request in the middle of class. You wouldn’t wonder if you knew all that Dona has sacrificed for our program. Once when our wired funds were a few days late, Dona deposited $170 of his personal funds so we could pay our taxes.
7. Rushed back to Solace after class to skype with Gerhard in Germany only to find that Solace wireless was down to “very low” signal. After 4 or 5 dropped calls, we gave up. I tried to install a Tigo cell modem, but this technologically and manually challenged user messed something up (sim card now stuck in modem and probably in backwards), so Tigo is no go until I get help tomorrow.
Kigali, Rwanda
Another interesting and blessed day in Kigali. Everyone should have a chance to experience the adventure and joys of cross-cultural living, especially in such a beautiful and friendly place. One of my many laughs of the day was Marshall’s e-mail response to my request for his flight details. Referring to my Monday blog, he asked “shall we bring chairs?” He arrives with the Chick fil A team next week.
More from today:
1. Nothing like a long day to ensure sleep—slept deeply but not long enough. Up at 6:30 a.m. with the sun. Found my phone is dead. Charger not working. Put it on the To Do list for today. Later, in town, took three stores to find one. Man at Kiosk hooked my phone up to show me it was charging. When I asked how much, he said free. He thought I only wanted a charge, not the charger. Still, his price was less than half what I paid for one that broke in three months of usage in the Fall.
2. Working with Chrystel, made several long To Do lists for her. I don’t know where she’ll find the time to do all of them, especially since she became my chauffeur today.
3. Chrystel and I met with marketing managers of two hotels—Lemigo and Mille Collines—looking for graduation venue. Asked each of them to consider donating part of the bill as a sponsorship. I told them we would have press, top government officials, and key business leaders which would be great publicity for them. Got very different responses. Lemigo manager said they had plenty of business and attracted all the top business and government leaders already. Said they hadn’t done any sponsorships (only opened in Sep) and weren’t interested in starting. Mille Collines manager said no problem. They would probably donate the hors d’oeuvres.
I mention the difference because it reminded me of the responses we got when I asked vendors to sponsor the Business Plan Competition. The accountant said sure, a good idea. The lawyer said he couldn’t see the benefit, but did it out of duty as an ICCC member. The interesting similarity is that the ones who saw the benefit were both Kenyans, while those who didn’t see a benefit were Rwandans. Dangerous to generalize from a sample of two, but Kenyans are known throughout East Africa as top business people. It is difficult to negotiate a win-win when the other party doesn’t see the win for his side.
4. Communicating in Rwanda. I have avoided texting on my cell phone in the U.S. without noticeable problems. Not so in Rwanda. People don’t answer their phones and they don’t have voicemail. I tried phoning someone to set up a meeting. No answer. I texted him (too cryptic a message because of my slow fingers and the old style keyboard). He immediately texted back suggesting that I meet with someone else in his organization. I really needed to see him. May have to be a two-step process.
Next, I couldn’t find a phone number that worked for the American ambassador’s office or for USAID. So, Chrystel drove me to the embassy. Good thing she was with me. She was able to explain why we were there to the guards. Then a comedy as guards called various offices and either had an easy time communicating if the person who answered was Rwandese or a hard time if American. Got an appointment with economic development officer.
5. Weather has been quite hot for Kigali. Everyone complaining of the heat. I like it after a cold winter at home. The nights are cool, so good sleeping weather.
6. Several students arrived for class 10-30 minutes early. More than half there by official start time. Unheard of with our first cohort. Had fun playing the name game, where everyone chooses a nickname beginning with same letter as first name. They had already done this with Jason. I did it so I could learn names. Mathilda changed her nickname from “mature” to “magnificent”. She said her husband didn’t like the first nickname she chose. Several in the group teased her by using both nicknames. Much laughter and playfulness in this group.
Whenever I asked for examples from Rwanda, students used their own business ideas. Shows they are really focusing. That’s good. This group really follows the material and is visibly engaged in the discussion. Many good comments and questions.
Had quite the juggling act during class. Dona came up at break and said his daughter is applying to Regent Undergrad. Application deadline is today and requires $50 application fee. Could he give me cash and I pay Regent. I couldn’t leave class and our Internet was down, so I gave him my credit card to use upstairs where Internet was working. He reappeared in the middle of my presentation with a note: Home address and telephone number needed. I nonchalantly filled it out and gave it back to him without stopping my presentation. You may wonder why I would accommodate this request in the middle of class. You wouldn’t wonder if you knew all that Dona has sacrificed for our program. Once when our wired funds were a few days late, Dona deposited $170 of his personal funds so we could pay our taxes.
7. Rushed back to Solace after class to skype with Gerhard in Germany only to find that Solace wireless was down to “very low” signal. After 4 or 5 dropped calls, we gave up. I tried to install a Tigo cell modem, but this technologically and manually challenged user messed something up (sim card now stuck in modem and probably in backwards), so Tigo is no go until I get help tomorrow.
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