Wednesday, May 29, 2013

SEASON OF HOME/KITCHEN GARDENS!

Right after rainny season is gone,I challenge everyone to stop the habit of spending on vegetables.

You do not need a hactre to grow vegetables. If you insist here is what you have to do:
get empty bags,plasting buckets ,
plastic bags and tires lying around your backyard.
Fill them with a good part of rich top soil and abit of manure or just some humus. Plant your vegetable and you will be surprised at how much you will save in your wallet.

Ask Hendrina, my wife. We need vegetables on every meal but this does not mean we have to spend everytime we dine with veggy on the sideplate.
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MOTORBIKE TAXI and KABAZA - A TRAVEL SOLUTION FOR MALAWI

The new budget 2013/14 motorcycle slash on duty or whatever you call it by 15% on 220cc engine is good news.

Iam thinking just like an ordinary Malawian. The changes that pull the strings on the day to day life to feel the pain of the  current unpredictable economy include transport costs. Transport is a neccessity and not a luxury. We go to hospitals , work and sightseeing. The point of it is  to move from point A to point B. This budget slash on duty, may it come with an inflow of motorbikes and ease the burden of transport that come with high costs of it.

Its working in other countries like Nigeria. The argument that in Nigeria they produce fuel does not make this idea irrelevant but it enhences how we may think deeper by looking at its positive impacts on economy.How affiordable transport might be.How safe it might become and convinience. The more traffic we may have into our transport system the better it may become in all corners of the econnomy . The automatic fuel price mechanism in place might have this mode of transport cushion our expenditure because i can surely tell that reduced fares may arise from this development.We may have seasons to benefit longer than we think.

Bicycles have positively and partly helped solve the constraint of safe and affordable mode and fast type of  transport. Its about you from point A to B no other passenger at all.
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Friday, May 24, 2013

SOURCES OF CONFLICT IN THE HOTEL,CUSTOMER CARE SERVICE

Conflict comes in different ways in the hotel business. What matters most is how we reach to the bottom of it by providing well sought solutions that win back our customers. If we know the sources of conflict as Managers we will always have a proactive approach towards conflict.

1.Poor communication;is one big source of conflict.On a typical shift a guest can ring the front desk and book any roomservice. If the. Hotel policy can be no roomservice after 12 o'clock ,this has to be communicated to the client.if the hotel has no 24hour service this has to be crystal clear to the guest or its a source of conflict.
2.Prejudice on racial grounds;staff may complain about asians and how they treat staff. This should never be applied to all Asians because some are very good guests. Such a mindset can cause a withdraw of concetration by a serving staff/waiter then it becomes a source of conflict.
3.Pressure at work;a day or period that your occupancy shoots one should expect a lot of complaints and stress levels can potentially run high. Staff should be briefed about the business flow and demands of customers so that they psychologically get ready.
4. Order taking or booking errors;a guest might not like it to have a different food item or an allergy. This is a huge source of conflict because the guest is paying. So while they might not eat it means we have waisted the food,no sale made in return and customer loyalty is gone to the wind.
5. Time period taken;the longer the time it is taken to respond to an order,technical failure,no feedback and service is the source of conflict.

Those in the hospitality industry will tell you how much they dread a mention of "call your manager"when service goes wrong. To all waiters,Receptionists and housekeepers this was a post for you. Thank I have your tip ready hahah.
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Monday, May 20, 2013

RECIPE FOR THE STAPLE FOOD OF MALAWI "NSIMA"

It may look simple but i have seen a few people getting this wrong.I did not get it right for the first time either.It took my moms' time to have me perfect my poor art of cooking nsima the time i was under her roof.If you still cant produce the lamps in the picture let me know you have my number guys...............its a hotline hahah.In Malawi dinner or lunch is not complete without Nsima.

Requirements/utensils used:

Flat Wooden stick(Nthiko)
Plates
Wooden spoon for serving the mtanda/lamps of nsima
make fire to  make the paste  reach a boiling point
Warning-dont look into un open pot when it starts boiling****************




image:web/internet -nsima in final mtanda or lamps


Ingredients:

Plateful of Maize flour
 1-2 litres of water as maize flour.(it depends how much to serve)

  • Boil a pot of water
  • Whisk flour and water into a paste
  • Make the paste to avoid lumps or mabulu.
  • Stir the paste into a pot of slowly heating water, mix constantly.
  • Simmer just below boiling for 20 minutes for nsima to thicken to the desired consistency.
  • add the rest of your flour while  you mix with  a strong wooden spoon.
  • keep stirring for about until you hear it sound that settles it down to lumpy point
  • Once the Nsima has hardened , allow it to steam
  • dish out the nsima.
Like rice nsima goes well with beans,fish,meat vegetables.

Use hands to form small lamps and each time you deep in the relish above.

LONELY MUG

You admire me for we are both lonely
Your mouth calling my name
Holding your waist
You flirt with me
Winking !
One more you,not now
Am done watching you
Full of your caffine
You infect me with insomania
Thinking about you all night
Watching mosquitoes hover over me
Singing to me mockery songs
Am a man but not now
Let me sleep
Unfriend me on facebook
Never ever poke me
Stupid coffee mug
Its over

UNEDITED
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Sunday, May 19, 2013

AUDITING A NIGHT AUDITORS' CAREER

Checks guests inhouse,arrivals,closes the bar sales and restaurant point of sale and recieves and solves all complaints.Handles Operational safety and health issues.......starts the shift.This is one inspiring story I thought I should share because having heard and listened to this story I relate and some issues picked quickly seem to cross our paths one way or another because iam also a Night Auditor.

Night Auditor is that person all hotel staff leave behind after every transaction from every revenue centre has been collected and this man sift through,analyses,checks and reports the sales into financials of the hotel that day. He goes to work at night ,that's the only time the sales process may give alittle bit of quietness for this man to concentrate. Night Auditor has the last say on sales of the hotel. He has to be careful because all these happen in 8 hrs to audit and report the financials and opinion.

This is a story of that person,that young boy who set out on a trip in search of a nice career.Six years has elapsed on this shift,doing same things. Gooddays and bad days makeup this period of years. A career that was meant to pay well and narture the wellbeing as well. The time this young boy was doing his third year and last attachment, lady luck smiled at him. A norwegian lady called Evelyn Eriksen who was on a research-educational visit in Malawi was happy with the dinner service he gave her at Hotel Masongola.She promised a scholarship but never materialised due to other visa logistical hitches.

This lady marketed the guys' skills to another Hotel where her team had dinner one night. He received a call and that was a life changing call. Both positively and negatively.Firstly because it was a Job,secondly -negative because the career path seemed gloomy. No one takes a look at you when they plan issues of career growth. You are the expert they think you should stay rooted at this job because its acrucial position that involves financials of the hotel.Its my opinion because I have seen most Night Auditors rot at it.

This is bad,worse for career minded individual. Oh ! Back to Evelyn appreciation of service. At Masongola he was just doing what he learnt in school,Malawi Institute of Tourism.In the Food and Beverage department,Restaurant in particular Using their names atleast twice ,asking for feedback,asking them each time they seem lost in the service.They loved every bit of it.

This experience landed him a job. He was headhunted for the next top job at athree star hotel as a Night Auditor.
He did not know the system but he knew the hotel standard procedure this meant he can learn it in days. Honesty paid its dues. He went on trainning for 2weeks and was back as a Night Auditor. Most people did not like it,this young man from nowhere to the top ?, What they did not know is how much he studied atleast and how long he can stick to the industry because its what he studied.They did not know his ambition and how many nights he dreamed about this job.

This was a mammoth task because those with rich experience were his juniors,he had to catch up.Some had to test him through fraudulently playing with figures on sales,thank GOD he caught them,he was a star . A lot happened. In this period of dedication but with the nature of the job,while you know the stuff and know how the hotel is run,reports,technical know how of occupancy,advising the managers on revenue management and whole lot of issues,it seemed that was all.Time stalls when the career starts boring. Routine jobs are uninteresting if you don't change the tasks for long. To him this was a long period to be stuck at Night Auditing.

He might had all the mistakes made in this career but having won supervisor of the year twice in this period it was enough evidence that he was good at his job.Therefore it was wrong to magnify and carry forward some mistakes made on the job to the present. He respected and thanked all who contributed to his success and reminded all who negatively slowed down his career growth that it was just a delay not complete hinderance to his dream of becoming a Manager of a top hotel in the nearest future. Watch the space-thats what he said.

The problem with most seniors in hotels is they want everyone to use the same path they used to go to the top and will do anything to discredit one poised to climb the ladder faster than they did. It seemed the hotel industry was full of people who would not accept and manage change. Were not ready to accept young people who had the academic knowledge and lucked the experience.

There is still a generation in the hotel system that think if you have a degree YOU KNOW every angle. What happens to young graduate is they get ostracised and left out in the process because they are frustrated. Every mistake done by them is regarded a gross sin because they hold a degree or masters ,hold your horses. You have kids they might need these people.

Through this journey no one in the world will stop his destiny for top job but a delay is acceptable.
TO ALL YOUNG PEOPLE KEEP WORKING HARD despite disappointments and politics. Keep serving. Its a story of a young hotelier beating challenges in his career. Keep going the future is calling.
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Wednesday, May 15, 2013

A REVIEW OF LEGSON KAYIRAS' "I WILL TRY"

Title:I will Try
Genre:Non-Fiction
BY: Legson Kayira -Originally from Malawi.
PRICE:USED 325.00 Paperback and MK10,000.00 In Malawian Currency.
PAGES:272
CHAPTERS:13
REVIEWER: Isaac Che-Chikwere Kasenjere-Malawi

image from authors facebookpage




IWILL TRY was first published in the United States of America by Doubleday,1965 and in the United Kingdom by Longmans, Greens and Co LTD, 1966.The latest version was published by Rivonia Media Group (PtY) LTD. Its in English and translated into other languages.


 I am not a publisher of any book-guilty as charged -but am an avid reader of these beautiful things called books.One thing that made me go type this review is the reaction this book gets from buyers or potential readers.Some think its exergeration of the whole story............some think this was a great story.What i felt also belongs to me but i will share both feelings in half or totality.Nice cover indeed with that path leading to no where one gets to pull a few musles on the forehead because you have to be very afraid putting yoursef in the shoes of Legson.Where on earth was this young boy going alone.The picture of the skyscraper at the end of the road sings America but was only in the mind of the  young Legson and only had in a corner of his mind picture such tall buildings .....am thinking in the picture below.

image:cover of the book

The title that was derived from his homeland school of Malawi motto 'I WILL TRY" a motto authored by Dr Robert Laws when he was at LIVINGSTONIA MISSION North of Malawi .This book is a collection of real life stories of a 16-year-old Malawian boy called Legson Kayira, who decided to travel on bare foot to America via Sudan where the American consul made his dream to live and get education in America a reality. He carried food, an axe and two books, he travelled more than 2,500 miles according to this book while his original texts in The Seatle Daily Times indicates "about 2000 miles,  by cutting through the African bushes crossing four countries braving the popular big five of Africa lions,elephants,buffaloes and other fierce animals like hyenas, snakes,It is at University of Washington where I will Try was Published in 1965 it hit the bestsellers records in the United States and England.

Original text, photographs in Prt three of the book The Journeys End will make you realise how true the story is as it was published by The Seatle Daily Times about this determined youngboy.The will power that manifests itself into world of possibilities.His happy times and family ties clearly show .Julie Kayira his widow , wrote a memoir in October 2012 when Legson finally died in England.

It still stands out among several African Stories to look out for if you want to understand what inspired such a young boy to dream this big.It stayed on New Yorks'best sellers' list for 16 weeks.Its a lesson well taught. Page 84 he recounts the ordeal of language difference and determination to learn;”I could not speak Swahili, although I could understand some of it.I was not born an English man ,but I had learn the English launguage"……..he challenges in this book.

He chronicles his emotions in a piece of poetry on page 120.The difficulty will not me offend........ in first line first stanza.Then in the second stanza first line he shows his strength to go on,on this journey;Difficulty is behind,fear is before.This clearly and unapologetically shows his ability to notice and draw a lesson from what he has passed through and not what will come.

This title sounds crystal clear that because of luck of money LIFE was about trying a thing or two.It works to try than to give up.Page 192 this title comes louder when the American Consul writes the Dean of Skagit Collage in the process of sourcing a scholarship "I shall try to induce Mr Kayira to remain in Khartoum atleast until i hear from you".With so many challenges he wouldnt have chosen any other title.

This book inspires the world ,however Legson is not the first African or Malawian to walk on foot to another country. Around 1915–16, Hastings Kamuzu Banda,first President of Malawi left home on foot for Hartley.
Mahoma Mwaungulu as a member of the Youth League of the Nyasaland African Congress, he received a recommendation to study in Ghana, and he subsequently crossed the continent on foot from Tanzania to Ghana to meet Kwame Nkrumah.So if you asked me what i think about the story is just another African child among the many who paid the price of their success by a long distance travel.It was obvious that Africans and in particular many Malawians looked for opportunities elswhere for education and work.Its a book that represents the rest.


One thing that Legson Kayiras' publisher would have included in the book is the Glossary.Having noticed that being African most words need reference at a glance to have this whole book sink in readers mind.Forget about other translated versions,iam talking about this book in English.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

PUBLISHED AND UNPUBLISHED POETRY-WRITING IS A TOURISM PRODUCT IN MALAWI


Nigeria is now popular and economically viable not because of oil and coal and material tourists attractions.Arts in the film industry that stem from the literature,drama and other piece of writing brands Nigeria as another special Nollywood destination.From the bloggers' selected poems,HE thinkS writing can be a tourism product of its kind.