Technical glitch, or ...?

When my best friend, Afrakoma, actually bundled my first-ever mobile internet bundle on the Vodafone Ghana service, I was glad. Being a netizen, it was cost-effective for me. It still is (even though I understand Glo offers better value for money, in that regard).

If you use the Vodafone Ghana mobile internet service, you agree that the service isn't always perfect. There've been times when I've tried for over a week to bundle on the service, without success. Connectivity has also been unreliable at most times.

My latest difficulty with the service was a couple of days ago when I couldn't bundle even though I had the required credit.I wanted to bundle 750MB worth of data, which costs GHS15. I therefore called the help center, and was given a number of reasons and methods to use to subscribe:

• I was asked to cancel my old subscription, which I had already done.
• I was told to restart my phone, because my account (with Vodafone Ghana) was to be restarted too.
• I was told to use *125*5# instead of the usual #700#, for subscription.

All that didn't work as I kept on getting the same response. So I decided to add some extra credit, and was finally subscribed to the data bundle I had requested! So, what was the problem?

Here is a Slideshare of some screenshots of the experience.

Updated phone OS...

I've been in love with Android ever since I won the Huawei IDEOS from Google. It run on version 2.2.
My current phone ran on version 4.1x, until I got a notification earlier this evening to update it!
Here are some visuals:

the update notification

the installation of the update

the upgrade process of the OS

the  success message

the new home screen

the old home screen

RiSE3 event in Ghana -- advancing STEM education

Dr. Trebi-Ollennu introducing the students to the surprise rule

This week, I volunteered again – as an on-site support -- at the Robotics Inspired Science Education (RiSE) event in Kumasi. Two days of inspiration and learning. The RiSE is an initiative of the Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation – the brain child of lead NASA JPL scientist, Dr. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu. The support of the US Embassy in Ghana -- and other donors -- is what has sustained this event, since its inception.

The ladies from St. Louis SHS watch their robot's progress, anxiously

This year’s events held across Ghana is the third. The event is a platform that introduces Junior and Senior High School students to the basics of programming using the Lego MINDSTORMS NXT robotic kit. It’s also an avenue that enhances the teaching of Science, Technlogy, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).

The Grain-sorter robot from Prempeh  College

It’s really encouraging to see how these young ones build and programme robots to do their bidding. The highlight for me was the visit by kids from the Institute of Science and Technology in Agogo. Their visit was just to observe the event, but they ended up building an obstruction-detecting robot!

The young chaps from the IST in Agogo

Konongo-Odumase SHS programming their robot

A lot more support is needed to make this event a ‘Christmas’ in our educational system.