No excuse for those who want to learn

Learning can be difficult and expensive.
In many cases adults and kids alike find particular subjects boring, or hard to understand . That is usually because there is no foundation to understand these subjects. I personally have a distate for sciences....my dislike for science started in high school where I found myself lagging behind other students and not relating to what the teacher was teaching. So I grew to resent the subjects.

I have a four year old nephew who has totally amazed me due to his competence. He can read; play technical games, puzzles, surf the net etc. I give all credit to his parents who set the foundation early. He is now learning spanish at a very fast rate.

Foundation in learning is very important. Simple things like teaching a child how to link certain words; provide him/her with simple memory tactics; give him or her items to relate to what he/she is learning is very important.

In this day n age, parents have absolutely no excuse for not setting the right foundation, except for laziness! There are tons of material online and hard copies that a parent can use to lay that firm foundation. A parent does not have to be very educated to teach his/her child. As I hang out with my nephew I am learning new concepts of conveying technical material to him. And the more I do that, the more he enjoys and the more I find pleasure in teaching him. I took spanish for three years in high school; its been over 10yrs, but am enjoying remembering the language as I teach him.

Online schools are many. MIT has been offering free online courses for over a decade. http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/

Another very captivating school is Khan Academy. Sal Khan has loaded over 1400 videos on various subjects online for everyone to enjoy. I used his videos to teach my nephew, I could help but regret that I didnt know of some of the addition, subtraction, division techniques that Sal does so effortlessly.
Sal Khan has taken the time to explain various subjects in the most simplistic manner. And the beauty of the online videos is you can pause, replay, ask a question in the discussion board etc.
It makes learning fun.

check out the website for yourself: http://www.khanacademy.org

Virtual schools are here to stay and you can learn at a reasonable budget which consist of: your time, your dedication and obviously a reliable internet connection.

Kenya Funeral Assurance in the US

Let's face it, many Kenyans abroad do not have medical insurance leave alone plans for their final arrangements. Harambees are popular in churches and community gatherings in the US. These Harambees are arranged to raise fund to send a Kenyan who died in the US without prior arrangements.
Well there is no excuse anymore.
A fellow called Henry in Missouri is now offering Kenya Funeral Assurance.
For USD 119 a year you are guaranteed a transport and funeral in Kenya.
This is an innovative idea and a needed service.

The website is: http://www.kenyafuneralassurance.com/

The company also offers discounted family plan.
I think it would be nice if Kenyans spread the word about the services, so that last minute harambees can be avoided.
It is also comforting to know that you will not burden others when that time comes for you.

Groupon comes to Kenya!

Groupon is a deal-of-the day website that is popular in the US and Canada.
The concept behind it is to empower consumers and retailers within a community.
For example: your local cafe may be willing to give 30% discount on all their drinks if 100 people purchase their product within a given day. At the same time, consumers may be willing to frequent the local cafe if prices were more pocket-friendly.
Groupon is the solution to this problem.
Groupon uses the web to advertise the group coupon offer. Once the minimum number of commitment are met, the coupon goes into effect.
A friend of mine Eston Kimani has brought the idea to Kenya. It is an ingenious idea of empowerment. I have used the service in Atlanta, GA and to be honest am always looking for new offers!
If you are interested check out: http://www.sokopal.com/

So far, Eston has been able to get Cafe des Arts next to the US Embassy to sign up. I hope more offers will be coming up soon.

I wish Eston the best in this new venture and I hope Kenyans will start using the service. I also hope that business will see the benefit of groupon and join sokopal.