Working for DOT offers up many positives. Yesterday I experienced yet another plus. I made a 'virtual connection' with the new staff in the DOT China office. Now this may not seem like such a biggie, but trust me, it was. For the simple fact that I now 'know' people from China.

I have been connected to the great people of China in many ways, but I have never met anyone from China before. We use a lot of appliances at home that are made in China, some of the accessories and parts for my mobile phone were made in China and many of the clothes I wear everyday have the ubiquitous tag “Made in China”. One of my favourite movies is ‘House of Flying Daggers’. (If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.)

The road that many Nairobians and I travel on everyday is being extended and re-carpeted thanks to the goodwill of the people of the People’s Republic of China. Just a few months ago, I joined the rest of the world in witnessing the great spectacle that was the Beijing Olympics. We marvelled at the great organisation and sheer grandeur that was on display for all the world to see. (By the way, Kenya had its best performance at any Olympics games in Beijing). So, given these ties, however tenuous, it seemed improbable that I don’t know any Chinese people. But after yesterday, I can say that I now know two people from china.

When Anne Williams suggested that Mercy and I schedule a Skype chat with Tracie and Paul, our counter parts in the China office, we asked, “Why us? We do ReachUp! not TeachUp!.” But Anne of course, in her infinite wisdom was right. Other than the fact that the difference in time isn’t too great (5 hours difference between Nairobi and Sichuan), all DOT staff around the world share the same vision and best practice models.

So just after 11 a.m. Kenyan time, we ‘met’ Tracie Chen and Paul Yang. We actually learned more from them than they did from us in the first meeting. We were introduced to a new term - Knowledge Information Sharing Specialist (KISS). I love the acronym and I’m sure they’ll get a kick out of it too :) It didn’t take long, and after a short lesson in Swahili, it was done. But Mercy and I now have a stronger connection to China than we did at the beginning of the day, and we look forward to deepening our ties. And I made what I hope will be great friendships with Tracie and Paul, thanks yet again to DOT and the power of technology.

 

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