Living La Vida Loca

A Global Adventure

General

  • Majochrys Café: Marketing and Business Rigor 101

    Chrys opened a small internet café less than a month ago on one of the local college campuses, with hopes of filling a niche for students who – at a rapidly growing pace here – are going on line.  She did a preliminary survey on this campus and discovered that about 30% of the students… Read more

  • My Zambian Family

    I’ve been here just over a week and it’s time to introduce my Zambian family.  You’ve met Chrys – the awesome SmartCare training lead who got me involved with this project.  She’s from SoCal and has a long illustrious background in technical training and content development.  She came to Zambia a few times on short… Read more

  • Protecting 700+ Dogs and Cats (and Their Owners) from Rabies

    After a very full week at the Cube, I joined Chrys at a free rabies prevention clinic being administered in one of the “compounds” (like a township) in Lusaka by the Lusaka Animal Welfare Society (LAWS). The compound – Matera – is one of the poorer areas of the city, and this is exactly the… Read more

  • Getting an Iced Coffee is Tough in Lusaka

    OK – Comic interlude for the week:    Anyone remember the movie, Five Easy Pieces?  There’s a scene in it where the star tough guy goes into a diner and asks for an order of plain toast…the waitress (they were called that in the ‘old days’) just couldn’t get her head around the idea, saying they… Read more

  • Getting in the Zambian Groove

    It is a totally different experience coming to a foreign country and staying in a hotel…versus living with locals as I am this trip. I am staying with Chrys Thorsen – the lead content developer and trainer for Smart Care. Chrys is here on a long-term contract, a transplanted southern Californian – and she has… Read more

  • Jet Lag is for Wusses…???

    I think I am the very last semi-road warrior to discover a lovely, natural solution to not being able to sleep on planes…melatonin. Many people have told me that melatonin is produced by our body and as we age many of us don’t generally make enough of it to get great nights’ sleep. That’s not… Read more

  • Gordon Ramsay Does It Right at Heathrow – Plane Food Rocks!

    My dear friend Melissa Martin suggested that on my long layover in Heathrow that I go check out the in-airport restaurant (http://www.gordonramsay.com/planefood/) that bears the name of Gordon Ramsay whom the foodies of the world know well. This upscale cafe sits in Terminal 5 overlooking some of the very busy runways and is chock full… Read more

  • The Adventure Starts Now

    I am sitting at SEATAC airport looking out at a very rainy day, and a humongous British Airway plan just pulled up to the window right in front of me…it’s mine…well, mine and umpteen other folks headed to Heathrow tonight.  I had to laugh because the nose of the plane is painted to look like… Read more

  • History of the Zambia Smart Care project

    For any of you who want background on the project I will be working on in Zambia, my blog entries from a couple of years ago and a link to a short video in the use of VSTS as a dev project tool can be found here –  http://estherschorr.spaces.live.com/  Also, read up on the Smart… Read more

  • A Day of Change – A New Beginning

    Today was my last day as a full-time employee at Microsoft. It’s been a great four years working with terrific people, but it’s time for some new adventures. Looking forward…very exciting. Read more