Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Lusaka - Zambia

Well not much going on here really. We've had meetings with the customer, good and bad, but that's to be expected with a customer, I'm the same way with vendors. I haven't had much opportunity to get out and explore, today has been my only down day, we're off until a 2:30pm meeting, unfortunately I didn't get much sleep last night (should have popped an Ambien, I'll probably do so tonight).

So far the people have been nice, though things operate at a different pace here, than in the States, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, since in the States (especially on the East Coast) we run at a torrid pace, that we hardly have time to sit down and have a spot of tea (they do have tea time). I was reminded in what was said in the movie Blood Diamond, they kept saying "TIA" or "This is Africa". If you come here expecting to have things as easy or as quick as you would elsewhere, then you best stay put ;). Personally I don't mind it that much, I realize that things will get done and for some things, I'm in no hurry.

The network coverage in my hotel is spotty. I've been able to do some skype, some IM, but not much. The quality of service I think is in the hotel's network, I'm sure if I could get a real network, then I wouldn't have problems (though it seems what I think of as real and what others do isn't the same). The client we are dealing with have 1mb down and 256kb up and they host on that line, which means that all downloads from their server is at 256kb (not acceptable). I'm thinking that if people really want to expend resources here, they need to work on infrastructure issues, good Internet connectivity will only help improve the quality of life for all.

I might be coming back, I will be in Ghana in two weeks. FYI: I'm told there isn't a McDonald's or Starbucks here, so if you need them stay away ;).

No comments: