I lived in Nairobi for a few months in 2004, staying with host families. What amazed me was how resilient the people are. The obstacles they have to overcome

I lived in Nairobi for a few months in 2004, staying with host families. What amazed me was how resilient the people are. The obstacles they have to overcome on a regular basis are things we take for granted in the "West." Yet the people don't complain and keep going forward. I thought that if ever the infrastructure could be advanced to reduce those obstacles, we would see places just take off. At that time, there were lots of Internet cafes popping up all around the city and cell phones were becoming quite common. Since then, I know many Kenyans are now using their cell phones for mobile banking and sending payments across the country to relatives and friends. Technology is playing a big role in circumventing slow bureaucracies. Many of my friends are now on Facebook when some of them didn't even have email in 2004. I'm pretty confident we'll see some economically strong countries in Africa in my lifetime.