Christmas in Kenya

Happy Holidays everyone from Kenya. At this moment I am sitting on a bungalow porch at the Rondo Retreat in Kakamega Forest, Kenya. It is my first time here and it is quite a relaxing and lovely place. There is little to no Internet service and my iPhone is pretty just a very nice iPod Touch. I'm not too broken up about this, there is still power and my iPad works just fine.

I'll be at Rondo through sometime Monday afternoon and I am hoping to spend some quiet time just reading, taking many photos, and pondering the next steps for the AMPATH IT department.  Come January, I will start my countdown to when my 2 year contract will end. I would really like it if the team here will be in a position to run the show without the need of a full time outsider in their midst. 

For now, things are very quiet and relaxing. A gentle rain is falling and I am enjoying the view from my chair. I will try to not think to much today.

Hope everyone out there has a wonderful holiday. All the best!

Update: December 27.
More posts coming in the next 24 hours or so. It was hard to submit things due to poor Internet connectivity.* A couple of photos that were taken on Christmas day.

* This mind you was not necessarily a bad thing. 

A Colobus Monkey high above us ground walkers

A Hobart's Red Glider Butterfly

More on Blogpress

A few weeks back I wrote about problems I had with the Blogpress iPad app. Since then I have tried the app Blogsy and have found it okay.  It works well and doesn't crash.*  Really though, I like Blogpress and I have been hoping for an update to fix the problems.

* Sad way to compliment an app by saying it "doesn't crash".


According to the Blogpress page on iTunes, an update was promised that would restore functionality, so I have been holding out hope.  And yesterday, I noticed the update available and there was a feeling of excitement on my part.*

* How sad is it that I am excited about a blogging app?  I gotta get out more!

To be sure of a corruption free operation, I removed the old app before installing the update.  Things seem to go well, everything installed and I was able to set up my account.  No problems.  I even started to write a blog piece documenting all of this.  Then, boom!  Blogpress crashed again just like before.

So much for the update and so much for me using it for a while.  Maybe version 3.1 will work.*  It is really a shame though, not sure what really happened and not sure why things went so bad. I hope the developers care for they app and restore its functionality.

* I have since noted that the app has been removed from iTunes App store.  I guess the crashing problems are really universal. 

Happy 10 Year Anniversary AMPATH

I am writing from the 10th anniversary celebration for AMPATH. I've only been with AMPATH for 18 months now and I feel a deep sense of respect for what the folks here have accomplished.*

* I just wish I had some stats handy to show how effective AMPATH has been with their mission.

AMPATH has done some amazing things in the past 10 years and the celebration is truly warranted. For my part, I feel fortunate to be a part of the first ten years and to be around for a small portion of the next 10.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we are planning the future of AMPATH now. I hope these plans continue the great work and lead to even better things.

To everyone who has made the first 10 years at AMPATH great, I say thanks and all the best!

Road Trip to Nairobi

I'm en route to Nairobi, up at about 20,000 feet above sea level and I thought this would be a great time to try writing an entry.* 

* I'm not using blog press this time, I am not going to risk dealing with the potential loss of what could be a new masterpiece. I am trying out Blogsy, I hope this works better.

The trip today is for the WWAN project that we have been working hard at. I am couriering documents to a few government agencies. Seems like a big waste of resources for me to go down, but this is a critical part of the project and I want to make sure that things get done properly.

I think the best thing would have been to bring one of my colleagues along, but due to a various circumstances we were really unable to plan this trip in advance and it is becoming quite difficult to arrange transportation at a moments notice. As it is, this trip is coming out of my pocket and there is little chance for me to get reimbursed.*

* I don't mind this so much, the project is a huge deal and promises some really great things. Spending money from my pocket is my little contribution. 

As we begin our descent into Nairobi Airport, I am musing about this project and others. Sadly there is no time to go into things, since I have to close down all electronic devices.*

* The flight is only 30 minutes and I spent a bit of the time setting up Blogsy and it left me little time to muse publicly.  I will continue this thread later.**


** It is after 5:00 PM and I am back at the Kenyatta International Airport awaiting my trip home. I'm posting now because it is the first chance I have had to do so. More coming later, gonna sit and muse internally now. 

Planning Ahead

We have been busy the last couple of weeks trying to envision and dream of a future AMPATH. What would it look like in five years. The big reason for this is to help articulate a vision of how AMPATH will Provide Access To Healthcare (PATH). Right now the HIV care at AMPATH covers a wide geographic area of Western Kenya and while we have been moving into areas of primary health care and chronic disease management we are not doing this quite at the same level.  In the coming few years, all this will change in a big way, we want to expand all areas of care (including public health and social services offerings) to all sites that we have presence, right now it is 67 different locations, but that number will change I am sure.

On the IT side, it is one of those moments where we can truly re-define what we do and how it is done. We have been building up the team over the last year and have started implementing a re-organization plan.  The pace of our re-org has been a bit slow, but we recognize that the scope of change is quite large and it will simply take time to do it right.*

* Managing a number of large projects also makes it tough to do any major reorganization. Just not enough hours in the day for everything.

Looking forward, I feel that we have general agreement in the IT group that in five years (well less than five years), we want to see our medical record system be fully available in all areas and that we push out the data collection to the point of care and into the hands of our care providers (medical, social services and public health providers).  We really want to have a paperless and efficient operation where ever possible.*

* Honestly, we want paperless everywhere in five years.

To do all of this will require that completely upgrade all of our operations and our team must really step up our game. We must become a top flight IT organization and we must constantly deliver.  We need to improve just about everything we do. It will test us all and I think the team will rise to the occasion.

It is pretty exciting overall to picture what our piece of the world can be and know that we will get the actual funding we need to start down the path. It is critical that we are flexible in everything that we do, who knows how technology will change in five years.* We cannot be so rigid that we lock ourselves into a plan that will no longer be feasible come 2014.

* Think about the IT world five years ago. In December of 2006, the iPhone, Android and the Kindle didn't exist and tablet computing was a modified laptop running Windows XP.  I was using (and enjoying) my Treo 700.  Really, Palm was still a company back then. 

Things won't officially start until October of 2012, we have time to organize and plan things. It means we also have time to get some aspects of the future started in the next few months.  I'm looking forward this.

Happy Birthday Kenya

Today is Independence Day in Kenya, 48 years ago today Kenya became an independent nation. I am in no way an expert on Kenya nor can I say that I know enough about the people, the culture, and the country's history to offer much by way of commentary about the current state and future of this country.  I will offer up the following observations of a fairly ignorant guest.

I honestly believe that Kenya can have a great future, I think there are so many positives about this country. The people value education, there are seaports on the coast, roadways to the interior, and great year-round weather.  The big issue in Kenya is that so many of the positives have not been harnessed in a way that would allow this country to really take off.  The reasons for this are numerous, I won't go into them because I could not do the history and political-economy proper justice.  I will say that for all the Kenyan's I have spoken to, they all want better for their country.

I can imagine with the right leadership, this country can really take off, but it will not happen overnight and it will require that everyone here work together to improve things.  The new constitution should help things, that is so long as those who have taken an oath to uphold it actually do so.  I do hope that over time Kenyan's speak in terms of benefits to the country as a whole.

I am cautiously optimistic here, I think good things will happen. I just do not know how long it will take. I hope for nothing but good things and I know that I will always pay attention to what goes on here. I look forward to good things.

For now, Happy Birthday Kenya.

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An unrelated postscript, this is my 50th published post. Pretty cool milestone for me. Never thought I would write this much. Hope you haven't been too bored.  Thanks for reading!

A Cool App on a Beautiful Night

Went to a tasty dinner last night at the Sikh Union restaurant and on the way out I looked up at a beautiful full moon.  The night sky was super clear and the moon was brilliant in the sky.  We have been without rain now for more than a week and it is so nice to look up in to the evening or night sky and see a few celestial objects.  On such nights, I reach for my iPhone and open up the Starmap app.*  Starmap is a great app, the authors are not kidding when they say it is "a complete planetarium in your hand". 

* Another cool app is Star Walk for the iPad.  I don't yet have it, but I have seen in it action and am impressed.

I love Starmap because it helps me overcome my celestial body ignorance. I know so few stars and never know where the planets are in the night sky. A quick look and I was able to identify Jupiter, Uranus, the star Aldebaran and a number of other bodies.  Because of the app and being in Eldoret, I can see more stars and I am more curious about the universe around me. As a result, I would love to get a telescope and spend some time staring out into the night's sky.* 

* Last night would have been the perfect time for a power outage. Without light pollution, I am sure the sky would have been even more brilliant and with any luck the Milky Way galaxy would have been visible.** 

* Years ago I went camping a few times up in the High Sierra Nevada mountains, a bit south of Mammoth Lakes.  We would camp around 11,000ft (3,300+ meters) at night the sky was brilliant. It was the first time I remember seeing the Milky Way.  

I am hoping for another clear night tonight, we should get to see part of tonight's lunar eclipse. Looking forward to that and I'll try to rig up something to take some photos.

Solar Install Underway

Okay, yesterday was a real milestone. No delays, no hiccups, no vehicle breakdowns.  The solar power installation for our wireless network officially started yesterday. In fact, it went so well that the team installed at two sites and we are back on schedule and might well finish this phase early.  Everything went pretty smoothly and the installers did a very clean job.

I can honestly say that I was pleased by what happened yesterday.  Happy that we are showing tangible progress on the project.  There is still much more work to be done, but I'll savor the moment.

The Setright team working on the Mosoriot water tower.

Finished Power Box (I like neat wiring).

Implementing Connectivity Phase 1

A bit of a milestone moment today, we are scheduled to begin installing solar panels in advance of our Wireless Wide Area Networking project.  We need to do this at 9 of the 17 sites that we will connect.  It is a really exciting moment for us here.

This project has been slow to come about mainly because no one here is really an expert in all the things that need to happen.*  In addition, it took time to get funding, figure out how to pay our partner Inveneo, there were issues getting the right network plan**, and just dealing with various third parties.

* I've bored you enough with this part already.

** Long story on this one, but in short: we had a design, we didn't have a design, we had a design.  In the wake of all the back and forth, we lost about 3 months on the project.  Lesson learned: do all this up-front before the contract is signed.

We are still finishing up a few loose ends (and a major trip up), but we are comfortable enough with the movement of things to begin installing the solar panels.  Even though we have put a lot of energy into this, I do not find myself very excited.  It is just sort of a preliminary (albeit) important step for the project. I guess the excitement will really begin once we are actually installing radio equipment at the sites. Then I will know we are really underway.

As will all things related to this project a bump in the road is to be considered normal.  The company had a vehicle breakdown early this morning and that delayed them by at least 5 hours, it might perhaps set us back one day.  I'm not too upset, I think I have conditioned myself for such things and I have built in some extra days in the schedule.

Once the installers are onsite, maybe I'll get more excited.

Open Source Project Management Software

I was able to rescue this from my iPad.*  I wrote it all on my iPad using BlogPress. I think it was the second or third time I used the app but right now I guess it is just not usable on the iPad running iOS 5.  I hope the developers fix it, because I really like the app. Well, for the little I have used it, I have liked.

* I was able to get a autosave of the entry after attaching my iPad to iTunes and browsing the "File Sharing" section under the "Apps" menu.  Still frustrated though!

---

Over the past year our ability to take on and execute on projects has really taken off. One of the key reasons for this has been the growth of the team in terms of numbers and their own abilities. I am pretty impressed and thrilled by this development. We are more and more capable of showing that we can deliver value to AMPATH.

AMPATH IT has always had more projects than we can handle and nothing has really changed, we are still inundated. As for the projects that we are currently working on, we are doing our best. Effectively managing them takes more effort than it really should.

We really need help in two areas. The first is to bring on one or more qualified Project Managers and the other is to identify a good multiuser Project Management (PM) software.  As with most programs operating in constrained areas, we don't have vast financial resources to draw on to purchase a piece of commercial software.* As such, I have been looking for the best open source PM software available.

* Even if we had more financial resources, I would opt to invest in other areas right now. Like more infrastructure and better support tools.

We have looked at have tried Redmine and found it to be decent though limited. There is little support for managing resources and well overall I find it to be more oriented to software development tasks than say more general PM needs. I have sort of made it work for us, but I do find it to be a bit frustrating.

I am now starting to test out Project-Open (PO), another open source PM software.*  On the surface this software is pretty powerful and I think it can meet many of our needs. Though the Gantt charting is pretty poor. I am hoping that PO folks improve on this.

* PO also has a commercial version of the software that offers more support options and I assume other nice things. 

So the plan is for me to spend some time testing this software and if it proves useful, I will bring on others to test out the multi-user features.  My sense is that this will provide the features we need, but it will require a fair amount of tweaking to really prove its worth.*

* This is an area where we could really benefit from an outside consultant/implementor to help get this software (or any other PM title we choose) to take on this work. Let them devote 60 days or so of work to get us up and running. It would save us a lot of time and energy.

In addition to testing PO, I will continue my search for good PM software. If anyone has any suggestions, it would be most welcome.

BlogPress Frustrations

Just finished writing a lengthy piece about Project Management software using the BlogPress iPad app.  When attempting to load the draft, the app crashed and I think I lost my work.  I will try to back up and and recover but I am not confident about it.  To paraphrase Kirk from "The Wrath of Khan",  BLOGPRESS!!!!!

Looks like many others are having the same problem.  I guess it is time to look for another iPad blogging app.

Tough and Competent

In an early AMPATH IT staff meeting, shortly after arriving in Kenya, the team expressed their desire to really "own" the IT operations.* Owning really means that they take full responsibility for the whole operations, everything.  The good, bad and the ugly (hopefully not to much bad and ugly).

* In the years prior to my arrival, most of the agenda and the direction had come from the USA.  The few guys here essentially followed, there was little room for them to lead.  

In the last year, the AMPATH IT team has really begun to improve professionally. I have been hammering home the idea of responsibility and ownership.   It has been an interesting road travelled only because some things that I would take for granted in the USA are sort of new for the guys here.*  I am asking the team to be more innovative, creative, critical, and responsible.

Progress is happening and I can see improvement, but there are things that still bother me.  We do not communicate as effectively as we should and this really creates problems.  The infrastructure team took on a project and their performance left a lot to be desired.  There was a real "Cool Hand Luke" problem on this project, you know "failure to communicate".  There were constant delays that lead to major levels of frustration.  Most of it could have been managed through the simple act of sending an email or picking up a phone.  The end result was that the clients were unhappy and our reputation really suffered.

I am not sure why it is tough for some of the team to communicate.  I am trying to understand and find a way improve in this area.  I am working with the guys to better keep on top of things, to inform our end-users on progress and when issues arise.  I would really like to see our commitment to excellence improve.

Recently, I have challenged our team to do better in all areas of their work.  I borrowed some from the book Failure is Not an Option by Gene Kranz.  Kranz was a long time Flight Director at NASA and played an important roll in getting the Apollo 13 crew back home safely.  I was inspired by words he gave to the NASA team in the wake of the Apollo 1 tragedy.*

* The words are better know as the Kranz Dictum.  

Kranz called for the team at NASA to be "tough and competent" and I have challenged our team to be be just that.  So adapting a bit from Kranz, I informed the team that by tough "we are accountable for what we do or what we fail to do.  We will never compromise our responsibilities.  Every time we walk into [AMAPTH] we will know what we stand for."  As for competent, "we never take anything for granted.  We will never be found short in our knowledge and in our skills. We will drive to be perfect."*

* I don't expect us to be perfect, in so far as we never make mistakes.  But our level of server, should be close to perfect.  Our end-users should never have reason to wonder what we are doing. 

I really want our guys to step up and to exemplify professionalism in IT.

Procurement Blues

One of the most frustrating things that I have encountered while working at AMPATH has been the procurement system.  There are a myriad of rules set up and a whole bureaucracy that I will swear exists to keep folks from actually getting equipment or even the most simple things.  In our case, we have funding to expand our core IT infrastructure.  One area where we want to move into is server consolidation using using Virtual Machines.  To do this properly requires that we purchase some decent servers that will allow us to run 7-14 virtual machines on one piece of hardware. 

We were able to get the necessary funding to do this back in May and with the help of HP Kenya we were able to assemble the right hardware, storage and the various parts to tie everything together.  The cost was actually not that bad, very reasonable for our needs and expandable.  We began the actual procurement process in June with a public tender.  This was my first exposure to the Kenyan Public Procurement process.  The process was designed to make procuring equipment transparent and to prevent corruption.  

The basics are that we need to essentially publish a tender or RFP and then we receive proposals from vendors.  The proposals are evaluated and the strongest proposal receives the award.  Sounds simple.  However, the bureaucracy has taken over and what ought and should be a straight-forward process is now something that will quite likely drive most people to seek out some type heavy-duty sedative. 

We have tried our best to follow the rules, though from where I sit there seem to be no guidelines or clear instructions.  There has been way too much back-and-forth and time wasted to do what should be a simple thing and achieve a desired outcome.

It is December 2 and we have no servers, no storage, no various parts and I am seriously running out of Advil.  Things are so bad that we might have to start over again because the prices quoted may no longer be valid or worse the equipment as specified may no longer be available.  I really hope HP doesn't revise their equipment in the next few weeks.

I am all for transparency, accountability and I think it is critical that our work should stand up to any audit.  There are relatively easy ways to do this and I like the idea of doing an RFP on large purchases. Make managers more accountable for what happens and enforce accountability and oversight.  Just make it more efficient, clear and relatively easy.

We are looking to upgrade our core network soon and I have no desire to go through the process again.  Fortunately, we have found away to get what we need without having to go through the process. I will enforce standards that will keep everything above board and beyond reproach.  I just hope to get this done before the end of my second year. 

For AMPATH to continue grow will require that IT create a rock-solid infrastructure.  The whole of the program relies on IT and we can not put up with the delays and barriers.  

Rain Falling on Eldoret

Hey Folks, it is Friday night and one of the many constants about this week has been the rain.  It has been raining a lot over the past few weeks.  This is pretty abnormal for Eldoret, this time of the year is when things dry out and the sun shines bright all day.  It feels cold again here.

The toughest part about the constant rain is just feeling like getting out and doing things. It is really not much fun to go out and about during the rainy season, too much mud and I just don't feel happy.  I tend to feel more lazy, it is hard to get motivated.  I honestly feel I need a certain amount of blue sky and sunshine to function properly.

The other big issue faced by everyone where I live is getting clothes to dry. Given this is Africa and we are practically on the Equator, there is usually enough natural sunshine to dry clothes after the wash.  Even on days when it rains, we can usually get enough hours of sunshine to dry a pair of Levis.  Lately though, this has been pretty much impossible.  The fun part is to get the clothes on the line and then listen for any hint of falling rain.  The first drops falling from the sky prompts a mad dash to the clothes line to get things in before saturation point.  I then hang things indoors until the rain stops and then, well repeat.*

* Honestly, every time I go to the local Nakumatt, I am tempted to look for a tumble dryer.  The little things! 

Yeah, I'm whining about the weather, but if you ask most folks here they will complain right along with me.

One of the main crops grown around Eldoret is maize. I think for those with farms, the extra rain right now is not a good sign.  It is harvest time and many folks here want to get the maize to dry and the rains could lead to a lot of their crop rotting.  I honestly hope things go okay for folks here, otherwise I think a large number of Kenyans will face some hard times.

By comparison my problems are pretty minor and I understand that.  The longer I have lived in Kenya, the more I realize that a lot of problems that I have faced are really not that great.  Sure, they affect my life and sometime make things difficult.  But over all I am lucky and fortunate.  This I have long been aware of, but I really know it now.

Even now, I am lucky.  I'm dry, pretty comfortable and I have the time to write a silly blog entry.  Good night folks, stay warm and dry.

Helpful Government Agencies

Yesterday I wrote about a connectivity project that I am working on here at AMPATH.  As I mentioned it has been a huge learning experience.  I have managed projects in the past, but really nothing close to this. Most of my projects have been within a department and fairly focused.  I have never worked on a project that involved required that I work through one or more national government organization and I have certainly never had to do anything the might have required doing an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

With this project we are working with the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), the Kenyan Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA), the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA), the Ministry of Health Services, and the Ministry of Finance.  They all need to clear some aspect of the project and though you would think this would add an incredible amount of time to the project, so far it has not been that bad.

In dealing with the government agencies, I have found them to be extremely helpful and supportive of our efforts.  They generally do "get-it", they understand that what we are doing is really about helping improve the health of their fellow citizens.  I honestly believe that folks in these agencies want us to succeed in a huge way, well at least their support gives me that indication.

When I think about this, it really makes me smile.  Government agencies are usually stereotyped as being too bureaucratic. sometimes mean and too often capricious in how they deal with folks.  Perhaps others dealing with the same agencies would report this.  But so far I really do appreciate the help and assistance.

The most challenging bit about this all though has been my own ignorance.  In particular this relates to getting the EIA for the project.  At two of our AMPATH sites, our project calls for the installation of a radio tower.  Since this is Kenyan government land, we figured it would be simple to just put up the tower.  No big deal.  In fact, we were moving along making great progress until our partner alerted us to the regulatory requirements. Our partner assumed that we knew the rules and regulations, we assumed that we could do what we want.

We contacted NEMA about this and honestly were worried that the project having to skip the sites that required the EIA for a few months.  Reports indicate that the EIA can take between 2-4 months to complete.  This would not be a complete disaster, we would still connect 14 of the 17 sites, but it was disappointing to have this smack us in the face so late in the game.


Not quite knowing what to do and hearing too many horror stories, I simply called NEMA, explained our situation and asked what do we do.  The main office in Nairobi put us in touch with the local field officers and they will carry out a site survey and let us know if we need the EIA.  If we don't then we're back on track.  If not, then plan B will kick in and we will connect those sites at a later date.*

* We just told that we do not need the EIA at one of the two sites.  Great news and a huge relief.

I suppose much of this could have been figured out earlier if we had taken the time to be better prepared.  As I begin to look back on the mis-steps I can see though that our lack of experience on the ins-and-outs of building a large wireless network was a major factor in all our problems.  Hindsight is 20-20 and if I could turn back time and re-do this project from the start, there would be a lot that I would change.

I'm not down on this though, we are close to getting the implementation phase of the project and when it is finished we will have created something extremely valuable to our programs mission. I honestly hope that this will lead to improvements in care and better health for our clients.