After many months of uncertainty, my PhD ambitions seem to be back on track. I am one of the worldwide recipients of the 2008 Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho) scholarship. The selection process for this prestigious scholarship is rigorous. Only one person receives it in Malawi every year. And this year it had to be no one else but me. May all the Glory be to God, who makes everything beautiful in His own time. May His Grace abound upon all the people that pray for me and my family. God will surely remember you even as you minister unto my life in your secret places.
I will leave Malawi on 1 April 2008 via South Africa and Hong Kong. I will arrive in Japan on 3 April, 2008. I will be joining Professor Kaoru Hirota’s lab in the Department of Computational Intelligence and Systems Science of the Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering at Tokyo Institute of Technology. I have always longed to work with world class researchers in Computational Intelligence. Working under the supervision of Professor Hirota will provide me a great learning experience and an opportunity to do cutting edge research. I have been a fan of Japanese technology from a tender age. Working with the Japanese people at their own backyard will enable me to master some of the skills that have led to Japan’s dominance in technology. This will be good, not only for me, but also for Malawi and Africa as a whole.
The only sad part at the moment is that, once again, I will be leaving my family behind although it will just be for a while. I have to raise funds for their travel on my own because the scholarship travel funds only cater for me. But I am not worried because the God who has opened this door for me knows that I am married and I have kids. Therefore, He will also provide the finances for their travel, upkeep and fun in Japan! Remember that He who starts a good thing will surely take it to completion!
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30 users commented in " Tokyo, here I come! My PhD ambitions back on track! "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackWow, congratulations Clement! I wish you all the best. I am sure you will make a great success of this new adventure. Pretty soon we will have to make an appointment to visit your site.
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Fantastic! Fantastic news Clement! Congratulations for your scholarship! Enjoy your studies in Japan. BTW the Hong Kong Airport is a marvelous piece of design. I traveled that side a couple of years ago. I had to hold my breath when landing on the airport. It is as if the plane is landing in the ocean!
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Wish you the best in your studies Clement! May God bless you and your family.
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Clement,
You are a very lucky person and with hard work, you will succeed and I don’t doubt. I wish you all the best and remember mother Malawi all the time you are there. The country will need your skills and brains.
Once again, I wish u good Luck and hope we shall meet some other time and share lots of talk. your are a good pal
rgds
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Congratulations Clement. I am really happy for you. It is a good thing to pursue your career aspirations and things look like they are full steam ahead for you. I wish you all the best and I hope it will not mean an end to your blogging.
I was hoping to catch up with you the next time my family and I were in Zimbabwe. I have a brother studying medicine at the University of Malawi and he was going to show us around. Maybe one day I will see you in Japan. My wife keeps on hinting about wanting to visit the country.
All the best.
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Lovely news Clement.Thank God for his goodness and mercy which will continue to follow you wherever you go.Your family’s case is settled, don’t worry about it as God who opened the door of heaven upon you will make a way for your family to join you there.
I hope you won’t stop blogging!
Shalom.
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I am very happy for you. Please keep Malawi in in your prayers. You have done a lot to promote our country. We need more people like you.
I have no doubt you will do well. Once again keep on writing about Technology and how it affects Africa.
I remember your article about Paypal and Africa. I never appreciated the frustrations until I tried to process a payment to Malawi and then it hit me what the incovinience was all about.
Talk to you soon
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Congratulations Clement,
This is great news, I am happy for you, and I am sure that whatever you need to take your family with you will be provided. Good Luck. And keep us up to date with your adventures in Japan…
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Hey Clement,
That’s wonderful. Doing a PhD in Tokyo is just great. They’ve got one of the best environment to study. Wait, how’s your Japanese? Will you be undergoing language program too? When I visited Japan, people barely speaks in English although I know that the Enlish is probably the medium of instruction in the University where you’re going.
Don’t forget to keep us updated with the developments. I want to take my PhD when I have enough working experience, probably 3 years from now.
I’m happy and proud of you man.
Best Wishes,
Rocky
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that’s great. given the opportunity, i’d also love to take post-grad courses abroad.
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Good luck in your studies!
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Congratulations that is a major achievement! My daughter is in high school and studying several asian languages. She dreams of attending school in Tokyo, any suggestions for her?
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Dear all,
Thanks for your compliments and kindness to me in this time. May God richly bless you all.
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@arnold: I will have a stopover in Pretoria. Time permitting, I would love to see you.You are a great blog buddy.
@henry: I will always remember Malawi because this is motherland.
@Gerri: My blogging life will remain intact.My stay in Japan will even give me more impetus to blog. I will have more things to write and with their big bandwidth, expect more posts from me.
@Bola Oluyemi: God is indeed in control.Dont worry!My blogging life will remain in tact.
@Czecho: I will keep you up to date with my adventures in Japan. Watch this space
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@Cryton: Your Hong Kong adventure should have been quite exciting.I look forward to it.
@Bloggingmix: My Japanese is not good. I just know a few basic words.I will do the Language program in the first months.I will keep you updated with the developments in Japan.
@happy: You may consider applying for the Japanese Government scholarship this year. Make an inquiry at the Japanese Embassy in your country
@NewZealand News:I do not have any suggestions at the moment. I will probably have some information for your daughter once I am in Japan
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Sounds like a great trip. Good luck to you, I wish you the best.
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Kile
Ambuye ndi wabwino eti?? Ayi zabwino zonse and God bless you even more!!
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@James: Great to see your comment on this blog.
@Tayani: Ambuye ndi wabwinodi kwambiri. Ankdziwa ndani kuti ife tingamafike maiko ngati ano. I arrived in Japan yesterday. I am enjoying every moment.
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Congratulations Clement — you make the country proud!
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I bet its not overdue to say Congratulations. Its good that you realise that all these good things come from God. He will surely see you through for he is the alpha and omega of everything.
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Congratulations, Clement! Just found my way to your blog via your comment on bo.com.
Here was my response to your question (which you may not have seen, took me a while to reply)
My area is group and organizational dynamics. I was at SFI summer school many years ago… also interested in computational modeling although I rely on others for the programming.
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Well put it!!Clement, congratulations on your PhD Scholarship.
I am also an Asean Scholar selected as a Visiting Research Fellow at JIIA for which every year 2 scholars are selected from the Asean region..and I am the one.
It is with no doubt that’s God’s grace is to where I am. And yes, he who gave you this will make ways for your family to be with you.
I believe that as I have seen this happen. I also have now learned how to pray and get things from the infinite.
Read the book “think Yourself Rich, by Joseph Murphy..this book has made me where I am today.
Cheers again and God Bless
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Clement Nyirenda says:
January 14th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
@ND:Congratulations on being selected as one of the two Visiting Research Fellows by JIIA from the ASEAN region this year. It is a great achievement. We thank God for it. He surely makes things happen in our lives. Actually, I am hearing about JIIA for the very first time from you. I have checked their site. I like their agenda. In Malawi, my home country, many people know JICA but not JIIA. I will find out if JIIA selects Visiting Research Fellows from the Africa region.
Which country do you come from? How long will you be in Japan?It will be great to meet you one of these days.
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Wow, congratulations. I’m in the process of looking at PhD programs and would love to get a scholarship…or at least a generous stipend
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Clement Nyirenda says:
February 1st, 2009 at 12:25 am
@Brian: Wishing you all the best as you continue searching a PhD program. If you happen to come to Japan, ping me. It will be great to meet you.
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Clement
Congratulations. You deserve this grace for you are such a harder worker.
Clement
Congratulation. I wish you and your family well.Lord`s grace is upon you. I delight when i see people which i know progress in their pursuit for a better destiny. I share your achievement. Mwana wa pa chikaya. Did i see you at cross road humbly driving a saloon? Are you still around.
Dexter Mkandawire
Counntry Operations & Marketing Manager
Farmers World Group
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Clement Nyirenda says:
February 28th, 2009 at 9:41 am
@Bwana Mkandawire: Thanks for the compliment. The Lord has been good to me. The Japanese government selected only one person from the whole country and that person was me. I left Malawi in April 2008 and will be in Japan up to September 2011.
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I do not really know you Clement but that does not prohibit me from extending my regards and best wishes while you pursue your PhD in Japan.I am always on the lookout for role models who are fellow country men and African too. I will keep updating myself on your blog so that I am very much in sync with African developments especially those in Technology because I also read a lot about this. Yeah and also those scholarships!!! lol!! All the best my brother.
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Clement Nyirenda says:
April 8th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
@Llazco: No problem. From now onwards, we know each other. One of my aims on this blog is to create new friendships with progressive people like you. As my online life continues, I continue to learn a lot from other bloggers.
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Congrats on the scholarship. Not only will the education be great but the overall experience will be wonderful for you. I was able to go a different route by getting a athletic scholarship to Garber College. I found out that athletic scholarships were available for athletes that took the time to do research.
Anyway, way to go!
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