Interning in a country that doesn't exists on the map

with my students at Abaarso Tech in Hargeisa, Somalia (Somaliland). 

Greeting from Somaliland (a country that does not exists on the map). I am doing my summer internship as part of WDI, self-initiated fellowship. I am teaching a course at Abaarso Tech University and helping the school with curriculum design, deployment of school management system (Open SIS), and establishment of online mentorship program for Abaarso Tech high school students. Abaarso is unique place that strives to provide quality education the region. I have been a fan and supporter of the school and their mission.

Somaliland is semi-independent region in Northern Somalia. Somaliland is trying to get international recognition from the rest of the country, but no nation recognizes it as a country. For the last twenty years, the country has beacon of hope comparing to the rest of Somalia. It is bustling with commerce activities, especially in telecommunication sector. The country has one of the lowest international calling rate and remarkable 3G network that covers most of the country.

Beside my work with Abaarso Tech and WDI, I am working to deploy a voice XML application, where citizens in Hargeisa can access information about government operations and provide feedback. The system is sophisticated application that posts phone call to Youtube and Facebook. I am working on this project in collaboration with Microsoft Research in India and the Somaliland telecommunication ministry.

So far, I have taught three classes and helped my students design a basic site. I am in the deployment phase of my second project. Since I am in charge of all my tasks, I haven’t had much time to relax and enjoy the country. But Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland has grown tremendously. The dusty narrow streets of Hargeisa are jammed with cars, donkey cars, goats, and impetuous pedestrians. It has exploded with commerce activities. the traffic is worse than driving in San Francisco or across the Bay Bridge.

Of the major surprises in Hargeisa so far is the level of the advertisements in streets of Hargeisa. Billboards, large screens and posters are everywhere. The private sector is flourishing the country. Somaliland Diaspora and regional investment has filled a void in lack of international aid and political interventions. The private sector runs all the services in the country except security: electricity, water, trash collection, better and preferred grade schools, telecommunication, and hospitals are all provided by the private sector. This is different if you look at the economic model of developing countries especially in neighboring countries, where the central government controls most of infrastructure and essential services. With all these success, Somaliland is still a weak state with no strong institutions. Government does not have the capacity to enforce regulations and collect taxes. I hope my communication tool will felicitate better communication between the public and the government.

I hope to complete my goals during this summer. I will try to write journalistic pieces that highlights technological innovation in Somaliland and the role of the Diaspora in creating economic opportunities. I am not good at keeping blogs and my schedule is packed for now. I will try to post more detail reports in economic development about specific topics that all WDI and school of Information people can relate to. Here are some pictures from the Somaliland. Here more pictures of my students and scenery picture. The internet connection is too slow (dialup speed), I will post more pictures soon. 

Four of my students at Abaarso Tech

Ayaanle, one of my student and his website project.

Field visit:Namaacha

As part of my orientation to VillageReach and the Mozambique health system, a few weeks ago week I joined Margarida, the VillageReach Field Officer for the Maputo Province, for a field visit to the district of Namaacha.  Originally, we had planned to head to a different district for supervision, however the night before we left we got a call saying that Namaacha had an urgent need for a vaccine delivery and we needed to respond to this request. 

Margarida leaving a health center

We started our trip with a stop at the Namaacha district hospital where we met up with government staff responsible for vaccine delivery in the area.  While I was shown the hospital pharmacy, stock room, laboratory, maternity ward, and the general patient area, Margarida headed to the back of the hospital to go over their records of vaccine use and disbursements in the district.  She quickly identified some incomplete and inconsistent data records and immediately sat down with the staff until she was convinced they understood what was wrong and how to make it better.  Margarida previously held positions as the national vaccine manager for Mozambique and as the director of the Maputo province department of health, and she not only knows her stuff inside and out, but she cares too deeply about the issues to leave a room before she thinks all present understand their role in facilitating vaccine disbursement in Mozambique. 

Once things were squared away at the district hospital we set out to visit the seven health units in the district.  At each health unit, the government made their vaccine deliveries and Margarida met with the health workers to make sure they were giving vaccines on the right timetable and properly recording vaccine use.  Before we left she would check that their refrigerators were functioning properly, check expiration dates on vaccines and rapid diagnostic tests, count their existing stock levels of vaccine and rapid diagnostic test supplies, and verify that the stock matched the records.  A visit of this sort typically took well over an hour. 

Damaged solar panel at Dibinduane

At two of the health centers we encountered refrigerators that were having problems.  The refrigerator at the Dibinduane health center was operated entirely by solar power and its performance had been somewhat erratic as of late.  According to the records, the temperature inside the refrigerator had been fluctuating, but had so far not warmed beyond the threshold that was safe to store the vaccines.  Just to be sure, we checked the vaccine packaging which indicates (via a color changing label) when the vaccines have been exposed to higher than permissible temperatures and thus are no longer safe to use.  Happily, the vaccines were still in good shape, but Margarida left the health center workers with instructions to monitor the temperature in their refrigerator very closely.  As a die-hard supporter of renewable energy, I argued that there was no actual proof that the solar power was to blame other than the mere correlation of the frig being both erratic and solar powered.  However, most of the Mozambiqueans (who admittedly had a lot more experience using solar power than I do) just shook their heads and took this as yet another example of the fussiness of solar energy.

Broken frig being used as a table

At the Kulula health center, we found a refrigerator (powered by traditional sources) that was not functioning at all.  This meant we could not deliver any new vaccines and we had to take away for disposal any existing (and requiring cool storage) vaccines we found at the health center.  Everyone seemed pretty glum about this situation and said a replacement refrigerator was unlikely any time in the near future.  In the meantime, the district would have to send out a mobile brigade (health workers that operate from a truck and carry their supplies with them) to periodically provide vaccines to the surrounding communities. 

Before heading to Namaacha, I had found it hard to grasp the hierarchical structure of the Mozambique health system (the difference between a rural and district health center and how supplies and information moved between them) and what it meant for VillageReach to help with the logistics of getting healthcare supplies to these rural communities.  After two days driving around the district with Margarida, however, I was able to get a glimpse of how far removed many of the health centers were from the district hospitals as well as some of the challenges facing the rural health care workers, the Mozambique government, and VillageReach.

Emeryville diaries - 1

Hello from sunny California! I have spent the last 6 weeks in Emeryville (better known as the home of Pixar) at a global health, non-profit start-up, Zagaya, helping them with their supply chain strategy. The experience right from the getting to work on a great project, having an amazing host family, meeting interesting and intelligent people and enjoying vibrant San Francisco weekends has been thoroughly enjoyable and fulfilling.

I have been busy learning the nuances of a new industry (more specifically donor-funded healthcare), experiencing the dynamic nature and the challenges of working in a non-profit and taking in the myriad of culinary and cultural experiences offered by the city of San Francisco and Bay area. I have had the opportunity to meet and have conversations with very interesting and inspiring people both in the non-profit and technology space. The dedication and support offered by so many people to a cause affecting such a large population in the developing world is a sobering and warming realization.

In upcoming posts, I will write more about my reflections on work, food, SF sights and living in the East Bay. As I am the only WDI fellow in a domestic project, my pictures will be of more familiar yet loved sights:

Telesalud in Quito, Ecuador

Greetings from the middle of the world: Quito, Ecuador.  By way of background, I’m spending my summer with The Quito Project, a group of medical students and public health students that are working on projects ranging from chronic disease research to depression screening.  I’m working on Proyecto Telesalud (Telesalud), a mobile device intervention that seeks to improve follow-up care for new mothers and their babies.  My role is to help enroll patients in our randomized control trial as well as develop a cost/benefit analysis for the intervention.

Thus far, we’ve have been busy getting our the logistics of the survey organized, training Ecuadorian medical students in the enrollment process, and coordinating with the appropriate administrators for health center and hospital access.  Additionally, the University of Michigan organized a great conference on eHealth and Chronic Disease Conference at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (more on that in another post).  The passion that the presenters and attendees exhibited for global health was inspiring.  Furthermore it was interesting to see how presenters from various countries in the Americas were tackling similar problems in different ways.

All of The Quito Project members are living in a rented house in Southern Quito, I’ll post more later on some of the quirks to life in Southern Quito but thus far its been a blast.  I look forward to reading more about the adventures of the other WDI fellows and keeping everyone abreast on the notable goings on here in Quito. 

Down and Dirty with Data in Asia - Part 2

From 16 June 2012

My first “China” Day

When you spend enough time with foreigners in Shanghai, you will most definitely hear the phrase “I'm having such a China day” and today was my first of the summer...probably of many. China days are days when you need to get something done, but the systems and bureaucracy in place just make it impossible. Read on for clarification.

Example of Registration Form.

Being a good international citizen and abiding by the laws of the People's Republic of China, I went this morning to my local police station to register my address. This is common practice, and is required within 24 hours of arrival in any city in China. You have to prove how long you've been in the town (via train or plane ticket stubs), have your passport complete with up-to-date and valid visa on hand, and your original lease for your apartment. Every time you leave China you have to re-register, and every time you go to a new city in China you have to register with the police in that city. This is why the hotels and hostels always ask for your passport when you check in. 

Nobody tells you this when you arrive. It's not stated when you get your visa in your home country, getting on the plane, or going through immigration once you land. Usually you only find out you have to register when you want to renew your visa. At least that's how I did three years ago. In addition, nobody ever knows where you're supposed to go to register. The closest police station usually isn't the right one. You have to ask your landlord or roommates and just hope that they know where to go, cause if you show up at the wrong station, you can't get anything done. You also have to hope that the official working on the desk that day is in a good mood.

It always makes me nervous going in to a police station, as you hear horror stories of people being charged $1500 for registering late or being carted off to jail if their company didn't renew their visa on time. I was registering a few days late as my roommate couldn't find the lease, but risking a slap on the wrist was much better than the alternative if the police showed up at my house and I didn't have my papers. This does happen, and China is currently in a 100 day crackdown on illegal foreigners. A popular bar street in Shanghai was "raided" a few weeks ago, and people that had overstayed their visas were being carted off in the paddy wagon. Some people cry foul, but I say "Don't be stupid! You're not a Chinese citizen! Have a valid visa!"

So I mosey on up to the desk and wait patiently with my paperwork, and the policeman did his thing. He asked if the lease I had given him was the original, and then told me I needed to make a copy of it and of my passport photo and visa pages. He pointed me in a direction and told me to come back with the copies. I was surprised because every time I registered before they just made the copies right there in the police station. Guess he just wanted to be lazy...what government office doesn't have a copy machine!?

With his broken English and my pitiful Mandarin, there was most definitely a communication problem with directions....

I love the tea ceremony.
Especially with oolong tea!

I wandered around the French Concession for about two hours looking for a copy shop. I would have taken my bike, but they're always so inconspicuous it's better to walk and peek into every store window you pass to see if they have a computer on display. Even if I had known the characters for 'copy', there's usually such sensory overload that I never look at the signs anyway. I walked up and down all the streets in the area and must have passed about ten tea shops and innumerable restaurants and electronic stores, trying to find this place. It was like being forced into a scavenger hunt with no hope for a prize at the end. Finally I went in to a electronic spare parts shop and asked where it was, and thankfully the man knew was I was asking, as I didn't know the word for "copy" in Mandarin.  The man politely told me: “Wan qian zuo”. Just up ahead.

When I arrived....nobody was there. A tiny door, two computer screens, a phone, and a dirty old Xerox in the back and no one to make my copies. I wonder if this person leaves their expensive equipment unlocked often.  I could have just made the copies myself and left a few kuai to pay for the paper, but the stress of the day probably kept me from it. Walk a little further, and I saw an old woman in a room with a computer screen. I walked in and asked if they make copies, and success!! She called over her son and I got what I needed.

Go back to the police station, and the policeman I was working with before is gone. Go through the whole process again with someone else. Finally I have my paperwork sorted.

Then I decided. The best cure for a China day is to head home for some tea.

I lost.

------------------------------------------------

In other news, today (May 5th on the Chinese calendar) is Dragon Boat Festival. The one co-worker I have in the Shanghai office forgot, and I assumed that as we're a multi-national organization, we weren't taking the day off. Even though the entire building is empty, we're both working today. 

On the bright side he did show me a really cool Dragon Boat race I could have on the homepage of the Chinese Google, Baidu! You just hit the drum with your mouse to make your boat go. Try it out!

Three environmentalists walk into a bar...

Sometime in the early 1970s, three environmentalists were deep in debate about how to measure the impact humans have on the planet. One of the three, Barry Commoner, argued that the impact was purely a result of technological innovation following WWII. The other two, Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren, argued that the most important aspects of our impact were population growth and our increasing affluence. As all good environmentalists would they created an equation with which to codify this debate. The result was the IPAT equation. For the uninitiated, IPAT is an accounting equation (I = P x A x T) which states that human impact (I) is a product of our population (P) multiplied by our affluence (A) multiplied by our technology (T). Affluence represents our consumption and technology represents how resource intensive our affluence is to produce. I admit that I'm over-simplifying here. For a much more detailed analysis of the equation, its many adaptations, and its limitations, simply google "IPAT equation."

Just a few months ago this was nothing more than a theoretical concept to me. At the time, I argued that the most important factor fueling our impact was population. If you have fewer people, then OF COURSE! you will have a lower impact. My time in India has only cemented that idea. Despite our technological innovations and growing affluence, I believe more than ever that our main problem is population. For example, the city where I'm living this summer (Bangalore) has grown 200% in the past decade compared to the 3% growth rate of New York over the same time period. As I wrote in my last blog post, this growth has led to a number of problems: traffic, air and water pollution, low power quality, decaying infrastructure, homelessness, etc., etc. all of which has had a negative impact on the environment. Ehrlich and Holdren were right! It's population!

Or is it? What do you think? How has your WDI experience informed your perspective on this issue? If it is population, how do we deal with it? If it's not population, then what is it? And how do we deal with it?

Bombay/Mumbai | Mumbai/Bombay

I found a great quote today: “A businessman might go to Mumbai to hold a meeting, but he would go to Bombay to hold a lover.” That’s the best explanation I’ve found for the difference in the semantic choices of overly conscientious foreigners and comfortable locals.

Bombay is a city of stepped levels: intermittent skyscrapers; endless highrises atop rolling hills; groves of flowering trees block the street view. Seas of slums like boxes stacked on boxes; a haphazard adobe of blue tarps, brick, and corrugated metals held together through sheer will. Minute shops line the streets, hawking cell minutes and soda, cloth, furniture, samosas, haircuts. Chaiwallas and bananawallas and pantswallas and all the other wallas cart their wares. Below it all, the fish women and flower women squat with their baskets. The ocean is brown with refuse and feces; the mangroves impossibly tangled with colorful garbage. The roads are filthy and the thought of monsoon flooding terrifies me. Everywhere hoards of people toil, eat, honk, laugh, chat, sleep, shit, buy, and sell. It’s a lot like New York. But the magnitude of the income and education gap is constantly palpable, caste system remnants visible always, a potential deadweight to India’s rapid ascent.

water source for street food vendors

Until August, I am lucky enough to be a guest member of a powerhouse social enterprise team bent on improving the lives of India’s rural and peri-urban poor through access to clean water. Wello’s innovative tool, the WaterWheel, is in its third cocreated design iteration and ready for production. My project involves evaluating end user impact to fully develop Wello’s value proposition, as well as financial scenario planning to define the business model. Our office space is entirely covered in Post-Its. 

We will spend June here in Mumbai, engaging with partners, coordinating logistics, and studying urban water use habits. The entrepreneurial atmosphere ensures fresh questions and challenges on a daily basis, something I missed during my brief foray into corporate life last summer. Risk is allowed, creativity is encouraged, MBA lessons are put to good use. And my daily breakfast consists of papaya, pineapple, mango, watermelon, pomegranate, banana, and yogurt, keeping a smile on my face. Lunch is panipuri, paneer, strangely addictive jeera crackers, and all the fresh juice I could ask for.


In July we head to Rajasthan to work in the field, connecting with our target market and gathering baseline data. While I look forward to lake palaces, camels, and riotously dyed saris, I am not entirely ready to abandon my cityscape. Three weeks ago, I came to Mumbai. I’m still discovering Bombay.

Sharing path with cows in the Silicon Valley of India

Hello everyone! I just spent five weeks in Bangalore for GE Healthcare. While working at a multinational thinking BoP is an interesting yet odd experience, living in India is simply amazing!

As the IT capital of India, Bangalore is a fast growing city with both city and villages mixed together. In the last ten years, the city radius from 12 km to 20 km (12 miles). On my daily walk to work, I bypass a village where mud built houses are commonly found and people wash clothing at the nearby lake. And cows--they are everywhere! There is probably no other country that has cows more integrated to people's life (and not eating them) than India does. Most interesting among all, this village is located between two technology parks.

Village nearby work

Western mall with busy traffic at any given time

Even though the city is going through growing pain (India's rich culture, thousands of dialogs, and traditions such as class system make things even more difficult,) people there are active and hopeful. At a local social enterprise meet-up, entrepreneurs and NGOs are eager to change. While the city doesn't have a good trash collection infrastructure nor recycling system, an environmental NGO has been successfully teaching people to compost. On the other hand, a group of young people spend every weekend at a rural village to build ultra low cost, locally accessible house to see whether there's a better housing solution for farmers. At India, social enterprise is not a buzz word but apply innovation or change at every direction.

Test out new housing solution with using all local materials

At GE, my internship is to create a market entry strategy for a mid-end medical device from India to China. GE India has been developing innovative medical devices for hospitals that require high quality yet can't afford nor have sufficient training to use these complicated equipments. Even though the challenge is less significant in China, the gap between urban and rural is still significant.

Meanwhile, Compare to most of WDI my fellows who are directly impacting the base of pyramid (BoP), my work is yet at the BoP Plus environment, as many multinationals do not have the simplified infrastructure to deliver a quality solution affordable to the BoP... Yet! Witnessing a number of GE initiatives to tackle rural challenges, It's hard not to get excited about what technology and business innovation can bring scale solutions to the BoP!

Getting settled in Mozambique

Rural health center flanked by VillageReach vaccine delivery vehicles

Greetings from Mozambique.  After several weeks in Maputo, I have settled into my apt, figured out the best place to buy the famous Mozambique prawns, participated in several eye-opening field visits with my co-workers at VillageReach, and begun to wrap my head around the Mozambique health care system. 

Prawns at the fish market

This is my first time in Africa and everyday offers a new adventure, however, one of my first great surprises was rooted not in the unknown, but in the European financial crisis!  Finding an affordable apartment in Mozambique was no easy task, apparently thanks to a recent influx of foreigners snapping up lodgings and driving up prices.  Mozambique is a former Portuguese colony and the contracting economy of Portugal seems to have spurred a torrent of Portuguese entrepreneurs looking for new opportunities in Mozambique.  Of all the challenges I had prepared myself for, unemployment in Portugal was certainly not one of them!  Luckily, eventually VillageReach found me a room to rent in the apartment of a young Mozambique professional.  Despite the occasional lack of water and 15 minutes it takes to get through all the padlocks, it is a beautiful apt perfectly located for me to get to work and around the city…not to mention that  I have a private balcony with a view of the city.  

Vaccine transport

This summer I will be implementing a comprehensive study documenting the range of obstacles challenging the reliable delivery of vaccines, rapid diagnostic tests, and medicines to rural communities of Mozambique.  While VillageReach is already actively working to address many of the known challenges in this area (such as lack of transport for vaccine and medicine delivery), the purpose of this study is to quantify the range of logistics challenges and flush out the sources of the problems.  For example, is transport a problem because of lack of vehicles, lack of fuel, broken vehicles, or the bureaucracy of gaining access to a shared vehicle when it is needed?  Where in the supply chain are problems most frequent: eg.,picking up the healthcare supplies from the central storehouses, or delivering them to the rural health centers?  Are health center employees adequately trained in the logistic concepts necessary for effectively keeping track of supplies and forecasting the health center’s needs? 

Data collection at a district health center 

These questions and many more will be answered using a lengthy survey that will be given in every district within the four Mozambique provinces (Maputo, Gaza, Niassa, Cabo Delgado) where VillageReach currently operates.  Last week we began training the VillageReach Field Officers in implementing the survey.  We will had an all day training session in our offices in Maputo followed by 3 days of visits to nearby district health centers to see what surprises we found in translating ideas on paper to workable information gathering in the field.  In the coming weeks, the Field Officers will continue to gather the data (I will join when possible) and send it all my way for synthesis and analysis.  The hope is that this study will provide more detailed information about the current challenges and thus help VillageReach and the Mozambique government prioritize their efforts to increase access to healthcare supplies to rural communities.  

View from a rural health center 

By far my favorite problem we encountered in the training came from trying to explain the concept of a “typical month”.  There are several questions in the survey that ask questions along the lines of  “In a typical month what sort of vehicles did you use to distribute vaccines?”  The concept of a “typical month” spurred a very spirited half hour discussion.  I was told that there was no such thing as a typical month and the question would confuse people.  The Portuguese translation was fine, the difficulty lay in the fact that everything changes so frequently and without notice in rural Mozambique, that the concept of things happening on a regular schedule in a manner that could be expected was just very difficult to digest.  I think there are few moments that sum up the challenges of working on logistics in rural Mozambique much better than this!  

Getting My Routine Down

I decided to take the opportunity to work at PharmaSecure in Gurgaon, India for a number of reasons.  The first reason is that I am very interested in the work that PharmaSecure is doing.  The company allows for drug consumers in India to verify whether medicines that they purchase are authentic via text message – more on this later.  The second reason is that I’ve never travelled to the eastern hemisphere – enough said!  And the third reason is to challenge myself –that’s right.  Not since when I moved from Puerto Rico to the U.S. some 20 years ago have I lived in a place where I’m unfamiliar with the language, am still learning about the culture, and stick out like a sore thumb.

People that know me best would say that I’m a regimented person.  I personally think that developing a routine is a great way to get acclimated to new environments.  So here’s what I’ve been doing for the past two weeks to get used to India.

I start every morning with a workout.  One of my goals this summer is to shed all the weight I put on during the school year so this workout is a must.  In addition, Shaun-T and his crew of fitness freaks shame me into continuing this routine since I can never keep up with them.  They’re great motivators–try it everybody.

After the workout, I leave the guesthouse (pictured above) and walk down the street to the metro.  I lucked out that I live ~ 5 mins walking distance from the metro station.

On my way to the metro I tend to pass one or two of these fruit vendors.  I typically buy something to snack on throughout the day.  In addition, one of these fruit vendors likes to sing in the morning which puts me in a great mood.

On to the metro…

The Delhi Metro system is comprised of six lines with 142 stations and a total length of ~117 miles.  This metro is one of five metro systems in the entire world that operates at a profit without subsidies.  As someone who depends on the metro to get around, I have to say the Delhi metro is both convenient and impressive.  You can pretty much get anywhere in Delhi by way of metro + rickshaw–malls, work, tourist spots, etc.  Also, the trains come every 2-5 minutes.  The best part is that it only costs me ~40 rupees or around 70 cents round trip.

I typically try to get to the metro before 8 am.  If I do that, the ride to work is pleasant.  However, if I show up anytime on or after ~8:30 am, my ability to squeeze myself into the train is tested over and over again until I finally make it on to a train. 

Here’s a look at Gurgaon.  The city is the second largest city in the state of Haryana.  Many multinational companies such as Google, Microsoft, Siemens, Yahoo and Oracle among others have offices in Gurgaon.  PharmaSecure’s office is located at the City Court building –that beautiful building next to the clock tower (center-left in the above picture).

 At PharmaSecure, I’m currently working with the sales and marketing group.  One of my current goals is to develop a system for the company to assess potential customers.  I’ll definitely elaborate more on this in one of my future posts.

 After work, I stop by my neighborhood market to pick up some food for the next day.  I enjoy the convenience of having this type of market nearby.  They also don’t have as much variety as the markets that I’m used to going to so I've turned into somewhat of a minimalist.

After making a quick stop at home, I usually link up with a rickshaw in order to head “downtown” to Hauz Khas Village.  One note about negotiating with rickshaw drivers, always aim for a lower price and be willing to walk away; they’ll still win the negotiation ;-).

At Hauz Khas Village, I typically meet up with whoever is hungry for dinner.  Here’s a pic of a group of us WDI Fellows at Yeti.

On the weekends, I either spend time checking out the sites in or outside of Delhi or hang out somewhere that has AC.  Here’s me with some of the new Ross admits at Ambiance Mall in Gurgaon.

There’s my routine everybody.  Some days I do more, some days I do less. 

Muraho Rwanda!

Murakaza neza! - Welcome to my blog, where I will be updating with news from my project here in Ruli, Rwanda. Like most of my WDI colleagues, I'll be working on a project in the field for the next 12 weeks. In my case, I'll be working with a district hospital and network of health centers to try to understand the complex chain of information flowing between clinicians and administrators and between different levels of the Rwandan health care system.

But first, a little background. I'm working with The Ihangane Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to making sustainable improvements in the lives of Rwandans through community-based projects in nutrition, sustainable energy, economic development, and patient-centered health care. As part of its continuing mission, in March and April of 2012, The Ihangane Project sponsored a team of students from the Ross School of Business to study ways to improve the flow and usage of data at Ruli District Hospital.

This summer, I will be building upon the base of analysis they have provided, and extending the scope to consider the flow of information and patients in the larger context of the hospital and a number of its affiliated health centers in the surrounding villages. In understanding the “big picture”, we will be able to characterize specific processes – the path of diagnosis and treatment of diabetes, or malnutrition, for example – and will be able to make recommendations and implement improvements that are congruent with and sustainable within the existing health care system.

I've been on the ground for about two weeks now, and have gotten off to a great start on the project. At the same time, I've also experienced a warm initiation into Rwandan culture. Everyone has been remarkably welcoming; the faces in Ruli are always friendly and everyone makes time to stop and chat. My skills in the native language, Kinyarwanda, are rapidly improving from dozens of these informal lessons each day. From sampling brochette, (the delicious local goat kebabs), to participating in 5-hour-long church services (at least 3 hours of which seem to be devoted to dancing), I'm learning a lot about how this community works and what makes it special. I already know that this will be a great summer living in Ruli, learning, and working for better delivery of health care in this amazing part of the world. I'll be posting here with updates and insights through the rest of the project, but for now, murabeho – goodbye until next time!

The Life Bangalorian (Part 2)

Bangalore is a construction project en masse. Everywhere you go everything is being built. Homes are slowly rising from empty fields, sidewalks appear or disappear, and streets are in various states of disrepair. It feels like a new city is perpetually being born.

In large part it feels that way because a new city is perpetually being born. In 2000, Bangalore had about 5 million residents. Today it has just fewer than 10 million. That’s a 200% growth rate. By comparison, New York’s growth rate in the same period was 3%. Los Angeles grew less than 3%. Bangalore, and by extension India, is growing very, very fast.

With growth comes growing pains and Bangalore is no exception. As my last post highlighted, traffic is ever present and follows no particular rules. Cows roam the streets. Stray dogs liter the city, sleeping during the day and prowling their territory at night. Trash clogs the rivers, sewers, and sidewalks. Shantytowns fill undeveloped pockets. Homes consisting of nothing more than straw, a tarp, and gravel line some avenues. People are everywhere. Traffic noise, especially honking, provides the city its incessant soundtrack. Auto rickshaws vie for space with trucks, cars, bicycles, pedestrians, and each other. Stores are crammed into every available building space. Smog fills the air (and everyone’s lungs). The power cuts out multiple times a day (thankfully we have back up power). Street vendors hock their wares day and night asking 15 Rupees (10 for locals) for everything from coconuts to mangos to chai to roasted corn. If Charles Dickens were alive today, I firmly believe that India would be his setting of choice.

Despite these growing pains, the city is infused with excitement and a sense that it is going somewhere. Banglore has become the Silicon Valley of India. The IT industry is very strong here and you can’t throw a stone without hitting another start-up. Every professional I meet wants to discuss the latest and greatest idea. Based on the number of lavish hotels, nice cars, and sprawling new homes I see it would appear that wealth is on the rise. India is trying some creative ways to manage this growth. Indeed, the Western world has a few things it could learn which I will highlight in a post later this summer.

This eclectic mix of constant rebirth and excitement is enhanced by India’s deep sense of culture and tradition. Hindu temples and Muslim mosques dot the landscape. Hindu gods are woven into advertisements, signs, and statues around the city. Some women wear traditional Saris, while others adopt more modern threads. And the food (the food!) varies by region, culture, and history. You haven’t experienced Indian food until you’ve supped on Chicken Biryani (spicy chicken cooked with rice) with your hands, dined on a Masala Dosa with curry and chutney (again with your hands), or savored every last drop of Gulab Jamun (slightly fried dough soaked in sugar). It takes every ounce of will power I have to resist having a mango lassi (a mango yogurt drink) each day.

Life here isn’t always easy – even the locals say so – but it’s definitely interesting. I have a feeling that when it comes time to leave in seven short weeks it will be difficult to say goodbye.

Next Post: Oh the places you’ll go: Mysore, the Taj Mahal, and Mumbai