adaptation

India comfort food

We humans are pretty unique in our adaptability. We adapt to new environments, situations, circumstances, and ideas with relative ease (well, most of us, anyway). We can handle a lot, and change makes us physically and mentally stronger.

So why do so many of us shy away from situations where we might test that ability? We have such a powerful tendency to shroud ourselves in comforts and shut out those opportunities that would challenge us. Even those who intentionally push ourselves naturally gravitate back toward a status quo. Change is hard, change is painful, change is scary. Newness can pierce us to the very core, threatening to upend all that we have learned about ourselves and our world.

Close your eyes and picture the house you grew up in. Walk yourself through the front door, to the kitchen, bathroom, your bedroom. Mental models stick with us long after we require them. There's a theory that humans developed the ability to create mental models of their surroundings in our earliest phases. By lending an element of predictability to harsh and dangerous environments, mental models allowed us to survive. 

But mental models can also be limiting and constricting. In the U.S., we create predictability that spills into monotony. We expect what we know, and are upset when we don't find it. We rely on our mental models and material possessions to keep us safe and block out uncertainty. We relish the control given us by the ease of foresight. Close your eyes and picture the nearest highway interchange. Walk yourself from Applebees to Walmart, Subway, Shell. Now picture the interchange five miles down the road. If you're in the Midwest you might get a Dairy Queen, the West Coast an In&Out Burger, but the scenery is essentially identical.

a major part of my Bombay mental model

I have built simple mental models of the neighborhoods I've stayed in throughout India and the basic layout of Mumbai. But it's impossible to apply them elsewhere, and they're in constant flux. My days are unpredictable, my material comforts in limited supply. The change has been hard, painful, and scary. But my need for that level of control and possession has receded somewhere, and been replaced by peace and acceptance. I feel lighter, stripped of some amount of unnecessary artificiality.

That internal lesson - that you truly can live with less, and it might even be more comfortable that way - is one of the huge benefits of traveling and living abroad. I know that tendency toward self-protection will slowly settle back over me when I return to the States, but I'll ward it off as long as possible.
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[Note: I originally intended this to be a post about climate change, but wandered pretty far off target! Main bullet points: I found out that this is caused by this, and also this is happening, which links back to this. I had a closer along the lines of: "How far can we reasonably expect ourselves to adapt?"]

To judge or not to judge? By Mary Fritz & Adam Byrnes

“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality and, instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” ~ Samuel Johnson

For the past month or so, we – Mary Fritz and Adam Byrnes – have tried really hard to judge India, but we just couldn’t do it. The issue on which we wanted to judge our host country is perhaps larger and more complex than India itself: women’s rights. In the end, we chose to acknowledge the queasy feeling in our stomachs and gave up… but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

There was no particular incident that got either of us thinking about how women are treated, viewed, and valued in India. Rather, it was an amalgam of personal experiences, third-hand accounts, and news articles that helped the issue enter our individual consciousness. It didn’t help that halfway through our time here we, along with a few other of our WDI fellows, ventured into a Mumbai nightclub whereupon the two ladies in our party were groped and fondled with disheartening abandon. The next day Mary and I decided we would write a blog post about women’s rights in India. We’ve been struggling with what to write about ever since.

Would we write about the nightclub experience? Or the village Mary visited where women don’t come out of their homes? Or describe the frustration we felt on board the houseboat we rented in Kerala when we were told that we couldn’t watch a movie together in our cabin because we were mixing genders behind closed doors despite the fact that 1) we had paid for the houseboat and 2) we were a group of four adults whose only interest was watching the latest Batman movie? Or would we make it less personal and write about a Guardian article that listed the many outrageous recent public displays of violence against women? Or the Reuters article that ranked India last for women’s rights among the 20 top global economics? Or… well, you get the idea.

We struggled with how to write about our observations in a way that wasn’t preachy, petty or parochial. Each of the anecdotes described above are just that: anecdotes. The statistics are harder to overlook, but like all statistics they present a picture frozen in time and miss the dynamic nature of a centuries-old culture. How could we use these small bits of data to judge an entire society? It felt a bit like judging the artistry of a 1,000-piece puzzle based on the first three pieces out of the box – except judging this culture brought a nauseating feeling in the general vicinity of our conscience. Add to that the fact that the basis of our judgment was our own cultural norms and we were headed towards a thought piece that sounded less like the “educated WDI Fellows” we hope we are and more like the “ugly Americans” we detest and abhor.

Which brings us to our point: one of the hardest things we have experienced in India – harder than the stomach issues, burning trash, stray dogs, death-defying traffic or separation from loved ones – is exercising the discipline required to let the culture exist as it is free from our interpretation or judgment. To let it wash over us like a wave so that we might truly experience the way life is lived in India. This is much, much easier said than done and we don’t pretend to have been good at it, but this experience has shown us the importance of keeping our judgments in check. A difficult standard to be sure, but one worth striving for.

Oh, the places... pt 4: Kerala

“No matter where you go, there you are.” ~ Unknown

For my final trip traveling around India this summer, I talked five of my classmates, one Erb alum, and one friend-of-a-friend into journeying with me to Kerala. For three days we traipsed around the lush hill station of Munnar, floated peacefully around the backwaters of Alleppey, and toured the historic sites of Cochin. These three stories highlight some of the fun we had:

Indians in cardigans. Our first day was spent driving up a mountain as we made our way to Munnar. Along the way we made multiple stops where, among other things, I got to climb behind a waterfall, stand next to the third largest elephant in Kerala, and take a tour of a spice garden. I was ecstatic to reach the top of the mountain because the climate reminded me of San Francisco: 55 degrees, overcast, and quiet lovely. The locals, however, felt otherwise. Everywhere we went Indians were in sweaters, winter caps, and down jackets. Now that’s comedy.

Vishnu. We hired a tour service to get us from destination to destination. Our tour guide, Vishnu, was a great mix of funny, informative, and slightly sketchy. On the one hand he helped us navigate everywhere we went. On the other hand he kept recommending places we didn’t want to go because the shop owners would give him a little cash under the table (this was all implicitly arranged of course). By the end of the trip I was completely fed up with having to bargain for everything and fend off every would-be tourist scam artists. One guy tried to sell me a wooden snake for 1,000 rupees ($20) that was clearly worth about a third of that.

Vishnu’s best quality was that he didn’t kill us while driving. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts the roads in Bangalore are extremely chaotic with very little regard for traffic rules and a LOT of attempts to pass the vehicles in front of you. Well, multiply that chaos by a factor of ten and you’re close to what it feels like to travel on the open highway in India. My travel companions and I learned to ignore the large trucks barreling straight at us as we passed a car on a blind corner for the more scenic views outside our van’s window. Vishnu was more relatively more cautious than other drivers, but nevertheless my blood pressure spiked every few seconds. Still, he got us home.

Houseboat heaven. By far my favorite experience of the trip was floating on the heavenly backwaters of Alleppey. We had the entire boat and three-person crew to ourselves. As the photos below highlight, the scenery was beautiful and completely different than anything I had scene on other trips. We lounged, we ate, we drank, and then we lounged some more. The next time I visit Kerala, I’m renting a houseboat for a week and chilling out.

The only damper on the experience was when we tried to watch a Batman movie late in the evening. Realizing that the living room/dining room/TV room also doubled as the boat crew’s sleeping quarters, the four of us – two guys and two girls - proposed to watch the movie in one of our rooms. Our hosts were not happy about that idea. Citing the area as “dangerous,” they said we couldn’t watch the movie in our room and had to watch it on the deck. It took a few minutes, but we soon realized that the real reason they didn’t want us behind closed doors was because we were of the opposite genders. Frustrated by this ridiculous cultural norm, but nonetheless respectful, we tried to watch the movie on deck. I’m not sure what killed the idea first: the mosquitos or the fact that we could barely hear the movie over the standing fan. In the end, we went to bed without much Batman or satisfaction. Next time we decided we would all act like we were married.

Ultimately what made the trip for me was seeing friends. I’ve made friends in Bangalore, but there is something comforting about being around people who know you and with whom you can be yourself. I’m going to miss my travel buddies, but fortunately I get to see them again in a few weeks back in Ann Arbor.

Learning to Relate

It hardly seems like it, but I’ve now finished 2 out of 3 months of this fellowship, and it’s definitely been busy!  In the last few weeks, I’ve wrapped up the first assignment – the analysis of information flow between different levels of Rwandan health care – and made some recommendations about how to improve the way that patients move between health centers and hospitals and better ways to manage information.  And in the process, I’ve been learning a lot about how to manage different types of working relationships.

I had the chance to pitch my ideas to some of the key hospital administrators, and the conversation ended up as a spirited debate.  In the end, many of my recommendations were accepted, but a couple weren’t.  Coming from a medical background, I found this to be a little bit of an unusual situation.  Sure, there are patients labeled as “noncompliant”, but in medicine –especially in a tertiary care hospital setting like the University of Michigan – patients listen to their doctor’s advice more often than not.  But here, the relationship is very much unlike the patient-doctor interaction I’ve grown used to.  There were good arguments on both sides, to be sure, but in the end this is the Rwandan system, and it must reflect the values of those who work in it every day.  It’s been an interesting change of pace to help build capacity in this system and let go of an idea sometimes, rather than to diagnose and treat in a specific, standardized way.    

Since getting the in-principal approval of the recommendations I’ve been working on laying the groundwork to switch over.  One of the key recommendations that this spring’s MAP team made, and I’ve modified somewhat, is the implementation of an electronic registration and appointment system to replace the laborious paper version that is currently being used.  So to begin the transition, my translator Delphine and I have been giving computer lessons for the better part of the last month and learning about the student-teacher relationship in the process.  We began well ahead of our expected implementation date, and I’m glad we did; we’ve needed every minute!  We’re training a group of employees who work around the registration system, none of whom had ever used a computer before.  And it has been slow going.

I knew I would have to do some computer training going in, but the total lack of experience on the students’ end has proven to be a really interesting and unexpected challenge.  In retrospect, I suppose it was to be expected, but I think it speaks to the nature of our totally technologically integrated society that I hadn’t consciously considered that the employees here wouldn’t have a minimum level of experience with computers.  So I’ve had to learn rather quickly how to impart a skill that comes so naturally to me, but that my pupils have absolutely no frame of reference for.

I tried to start at the very beginning and go as slow as possible.  The whole first session was devoted to turning a laptop on and moving the cursor through the touchpad.  Even the simplest function was totally alien to them, and it’s been a challenging daily exercise for the better part of a month now.  Yet at the same time, these women have made enormous progress.  Yes, we’re still working on double-clicking and using scroll bars, but they’re getting more and more functional each day.  And most importantly, they’ve been incredibly enthusiastic and willing to try new things the entire time we’ve been working together.  And I think I've learned as much from our time together as they have!  Patience, time, and the eagerness to learn are the key factors that I’ve taken away from this experience that will help me to be both a better teacher and student in the future.

Our class in session

We’ve made enough progress that we’re looking at piloting the new system this week.  Within the next couple days, we should have an idea of how well this is going to work in practice, and we can begin troubleshooting the inevitable unforeseen problems.  But for now, I’m just excited to see how the culmination of the work so far looks in action!

Down and Dirty...Part 3. Migrant Streets

CWEF - Shanghai works with the migrant population in the city, and so it makes sense that they have their office down a migrant street. Before I get into what I see everyday on my way to the office, a word about migrant workers. Shanghai is a hub for people from all over China to come and try to etch themselves out a living. Some collect plastic bottles and sell them to the recycle centers on the edge of the city. Some have a fruit stand that they sleep in at night. Some have food trucks that they sell street food from - mostly illegally, and if they haven't paid their bribes they will get beaten up. These people aren't beggars, they're workers. Beggars are usually collected by the police and shipped out to the country side. 

The lonely puppy

It would be typical for a household monthly income to be somewhere between 1000-2000rmb/ month. That's about $150-$300. (To give an idea of the disparity here, I currently pay 2000rmb/ month for my sublet.) A lot of these people send most of the money back home to their parents or their children in the countryside, but some families are lucky enough to live together in a run-down building. Even in one of the shiniest and brightest cities in Asia, there's a whole slew of the population that doesn't have running water in the home. 


For these families that remain together, a huge choice is made. Obviously it's better for children to live with their parents and for the grandparents to be taken care of by their families. But this also means that the children cannot go to regular schools. Chinese are given a sort of ID number called a Hukou, and you can only get a Shanghai Hukou if you are born in Shanghai. If you don't have a Shanghai Hukou, you can't go to Shanghai schools. Shanghai schools are generally regarded as the best in China, but migrant children that live down the street from them cannot go. 


The government up until very recently has left these children by the wayside, but there is movement towards building migrant schools. The government will cover the cost of tuition to these schools, but things like uniforms, insurance, and lunch aren't covered. Even the cost of these things can be prohibitive for most families, and so CWEF - Shanghai provides scholarships to cover those costs. The schools are still very lacking in amenities and quality teaching, but it's better than nothing.

Migrant street

So, now back to this street. It's still very close to the center of town, but the entire street has to share one restroom. Bathing takes place late at night from buckets in the street. Young children crawl on the dirty ground. It's not a great life for these people, but the sight of this puppy chained up every day still makes me sad. I've only seen him taken for a walk once, and he's usually panting from the bright sunlight or struggling to reach the leftover rice his owners have given him to eat. As you can see, it's a very short chain he's on. I almost get hit by cars and motorbikes on a daily basis, and with the narrowness of the street I can understand. 

Climbing Cotopaxi

One of the best experiences that I have had here in Ecuador was a weekend climbing trip to the summit of Mt. Cotopaxi.  It is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world at 19,347 ft.  and on a clear day, its dramatic cone-shape can be seen from Quito.  Due to its location near the equator, the weather is more moderate and predictable than other high peaks.  This plus the relatively non-technical nature of the climb make it a very popular first mountain for people interested in high altitude ascents. 

Our trip started on Saturday morning with a gear check and a two-hour car ride to Cotopaxi National Park.  On the way we stopped for a large lunch and all ate too much.  This would be the theme for the rest of the day as our guides made it clear that we needed as much energy as possible for our climb.  After navigating some washed out roads we arrived at the parking lot for the climbing refuge.  From the parking lot it is about an hour-long hike over very loose gravel up to the refuge.  With all of our gear this was not the most pleasant of hikes, but the views from the refuge are stunning and many tourists make the hike as part of day trips to Cotopaxi.  Once at the refuge, we claimed our bunks upstairs, unpacked our gear, and most importantly ate again.  The meal consisted of hot chocolate, sandwiches, soap, and other snacks and despite still being full I packed away quite a bit.  We spent the rest of the afternoon taking pictures from the refuge, talking to other climbers, and getting nervous for our attempt. 

At around 6 PM, we had another meal and then retired to our bunks to try and get a bit of sleep before waking up at 12:30 AM to start our ascent.  Being completely bloated from the all of the eating, excited, and nervous did not lend itself to very good sleep but at some point around 9 PM or so I must have dozed off.

I awoke to the scurrying of everyone at the refuge getting themselves ready for their ascents.  I pulled on my layers of clothes as quickly as possible, laced up my heavy plastic boots carefully, and ran through my gear to make sure I had everything.  After a quick breakfast and bathroom stop, we were ready to go.

The first hour of the climb is more loose dirt and gravel, always a pain, and our cumbersome boots did not make things any better.  So it was a welcome sight when we got to the glacier, strapped on our crampons, and felt the clean crunch of the snow beneath our feet.  The guides told us to walk slow and with a rhythm: step, step, ice-axe, step, step, ice-axe, etc.  I was thankful for the nice weather, clear skies and low wind and between watching my foot placements I could appreciate the nearly full moon and abundant stars.  We took frequent breaks for chocolate and water and before I knew it we had already been climbing for 4 hours.

After this things got quite a bit harder: steeper grade, narrower path, more need of the ice-axe, and more wind.  We were still on pace to summit shortly after sun-rise (the sun heats up the snow during the day creating dangerous conditions so descents need to begin by 8 AM or 8:30 AM at the latest) and even though fatigue was beginning to set in our sprits were high.  For the next couple hours it felt like we were moving really slowly but the guides said we were doing fine and soon they were telling us that we had approached the final 200 meter push.  This is the hardest part of the climb, but as long as were not feeling sick we had ample time to make it to the summit.  This final section was the steepest yet and we were frequently on all fours crawling up the mountain with our ice-axes.  It was starting to get light our and after was seemed like an eternity of crawling up-hill in the snow we reached the summit!

The view from the top was breathtaking and the elation from having just summited a 19,347 ft mountain is indescribable.  At the summit we took lots of pictures, exchanged congratulations, ate more chocolate, and tried to take it all in.  It seemed so short but after about 20 minutes it was time to start our descent before the sun heated up the snow too much.

The descent was much shorter than the ascent, only about 2 hours compared to the 7 hour ascent, but it was much harder.  The altitude was starting to give me a headache, I was feeling disoriented, and the adrenaline rush of reaching the summit was starting to wear off.  As we plodded along, I could not believe that I had climbed this high up.  My energy level was dropping faster than we were and by the end I was nearly delirious with exhaustion.  Upon returning to the refuge, I ate to try and regain some of my strength and rested.  My body was very disoriented after 9 hours of exertion, little sleep, and being at such a high altitude.  I somehow managed to pack up my things, tromp down with the group to the parking lot, and plop down in the back of the truck.  As we drove away from the refuge my head started to clear a bit.  Looking out the window at Mt. Cotopaxi, I couldn’t believe that only a few hours earlier I had been at the top.  Climbing Cotopaxi was one of the hardest things that I’ve ever done, but it is something I will never forget.

Southern Quito Neighborhood

I’ve been living this summer in a shared house with about twenty other students and doctors working with The Quito Project.  The house is located in the southern part of Quito, near “el Puente de Guajalo” in “la ciudad de Pleibol” which is all of the direction that I’m able to muster.  Fortunately, it’s sufficient for taking a taxi and once I’m in the area, I know my way around.  Life in this neighborhood has been a great experience thus far although it is markedly different than any of the neighborhoods that I’m used to.

What was most initially surprising to me is the lack of zoning in these neighborhoods.  As a result, on our block is a school, a health clinic, a warehouse, tons of little bodegas, a salon, and a mechanics workshop.  This is in addition the construction zone, plywood factory, and gas truck parking that one passes upon entering our neighborhood.  Needless to say, there’s a good deal of dust, noise, and stray dogs in our neighborhood that accompany the community of families that have their homes here.

An interesting note about the houses here is that they are all made of concrete, reinforcement rod and bricks.  Furthermore, they are constant works in progress as owners add on to their homes when they have the resources or need to do so.  As such, the reinforcement rod extends past the current concrete structure in order to add another floor on to the house later.  Even if it does not make for the most polished looking home, I appreciate the optimism it represents to build a better future.  I like to think this is the same optimism I see in workers’ faces as they go about their work whether it be at the hospital, repairing roads, driving buses, or cutting hair.

"Don't Angry Me" and Other Awesome Indian Phrases

I love language. As many of you know my favorite jokes are puns, the worse the better. That’s because at their heart puns are about taking language and twisting it in some unexpected way. It’s no coincidence then that one of things I delight in most about India is the phrases and words people use. Some are funny, some are interesting, and some are just plain brilliant. Here are my favorites (a few of which I intend to help achieve mass adoption in the US):

Do the needful. This means, “Do what you have to do to get the job done.” For example, you and your boss come up with a plan to solve a problem at the end of which she says, “Okay, do the needful.”

Please revert. This means, “Let me know how it went” and usually follows “Do the needful.” English translation: Do what you have to do get that solved and let me know how it went when you’re done.

Don’t angry me. Technically this isn’t a common saying, but it is the catch phrase of an awesome Chuck Norris-like character of the popular movie “Rowdy Rathore.” So the next time someone is about to cut in front of you in line or flips you off say, “Don’t angry me.”

Prepone. Have you ever been asked to move a meeting up (or move a meeting back) and wonder if that means you need to make the meeting earlier in the day or later? India has come up with a way to solve this confusion: Prepone. Prepone is the opposite of postpone. If you postpone a meeting by rescheduling to a later time on your calendar, then you prepone it by making it earlier. Brilliant!

Parcel. There are no doggy bags (how about that for a culturally-specific idiom?) and no one has their unfinished meal “boxed up” at a restaurant. Rather, you must ask to “parcel” your food if you want leftovers the next day.

Carry bag. The first time I heard this phrase at a grocery store I had to ask “What?” three times before I understood. A carry bag is a bag to take your groceries home in. Like some markets in the US, grocery stores in India charge extra for a carry bag.

Boss. In the states we use boss as a description for either 1) a direct supervisor and 2) Bruce Springsteen. In India, we use “boss” as a term for any old person. For example, “Hey, boss, how much for this beer?” or “Hey, boss, how much will it cost for you to drive me to the Koramangala Club”

WRT & PFA. The digital age has brought about a number of interesting – and some would argue useful, but I’m not one of them – shorthand ways to communicate. My two favorites are WRT and PFA. WRT is short for “With regards to…” and PFA is short for “Please find attached.”

So, if I were to write the following email I’d expect you all to know what it means:

Boss,

WRT your inquiry about the Marx Brothers, PFA their filmography. Per our discussion your next steps are to catalogue every pun made by Groucho Marx. If you are able to finish the project by the 4th, then we can prepone our meeting a day.

Do the needful and please revert.

Adam
ps – This project is very important. Don’t angry me!

Social entrepreneur profile: Aneesh Khanna, MyLabYogi

What is MyLabYogi? MyLabYogi is an online platform that enables patients the freedom to book and complete a diagnostic test at their convenience. Aneesh, a MBA with years of diagnostics industry experience, founded MyLabYogi earlier this year and the start-up has already completed hundreds of transactions.

How does MyLabYogi work? Patients schedule a diagnostic test, with or without a doctor's prescription, online. After choosing a lab for the results to be processed, the patient pays online or chooses to pay cash on delivery. Similar to Chachii, MyLabYogi is ahead of the curve on e-commerce / online payments as cash transactions is still common. After the patient chooses to complete the test at home or at the workplace, a trained staff member collects and transports the sample to the designated lab. After the lab has processed the sample, the patient receives the results online.

Why is this important? Currently, doctors prescribe diagnostic tests for patients and refer them to specific laboratories to complete the test. Unfortunately, these laboratories are open during normal working hours and are usually busy. Patients could spend hours waiting to complete a diagnostic test. In addition, doctors usually receive kickbacks from these laboratories thereby further inconveniencing patients. MyLabYogi shifts the power dynamic to the patient, empowering them to choose when and where they would like to complete their diagnostic tests at a comparable cost with exceptional quality. In addition, MyLabYogi has invested in creating a positive customer experience (a rarity in India) to drive repeat business. Despite entrenched interests from doctors, MyLabYogi has successfully partnered with top laboratories who stand to gain additional revenue by reaching additional customers.

What is the impact on society? A decent percentage of MyLabYogi's customers are chronic patients or those who are immobile and have difficulty traveling to laboratories. For these customers, MyLabYogi offers convenience without sacrificing quality. Other customers are professionals who work long hours (the normal working hours here is around 10am - 8pm or later) and usually can't take a half or full day off work to go to a lab.

What is MyLabYogi's vision? MyLabYogi plans to expand into other healthcare and diagnostic services as well as the major metropolitan cities in India. With more than 15000 people per day conducting diagnostic tests in Mumbai alone, MyLabYogi wants to capture more of the market before expanding to other major cities.

The next time that you need to get a lab test (and you happen to be in Mumbai), check out MyLabYogi! 

Oh, the places... Part 3: Hampi

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~ Mark Twain

A week ago I had two of my favorite experiences in India and both of them happened while visiting the tiny hamlet of Hampi. After an overnight bus trip that left us bleary eyed, I joined my compatriots and Simpa co-interns Patrick and Tagg as we made our way into Hampi from the bus stop. We checked into our hotel, signed the guest registry at the police station (required of all visitors), and made our way to the Mango Tree for breakfast. Along the way we met Tippu, Rickshaw Driver Extraordinaire. If there were a “Best Hampi Salesman” award, Tippu would get it every year. Using his near perfect English, Tippu sweet-talked, cajoled, and convinced us to take an all-day rickshaw tour of Hampi. While at first we were certain we would get ripped off, by the end we didn’t care. Tippu took us to nearly every temple in town, offered historical and architectural dissertations, showed us the back way to various sites where we ran into multiple goats and their herders, and offered us delicious Indian cookies not once, but twice along the way. I have no doubt that one day Tippu will be India’s Prime Minister (you heard it here first!).

Formed by centuries of volcanic activity and erosion, Hampi’s landscape is nothing less than magical. The hamlet is filled with beautiful rock formations that look like they dropped from the sky a million years ago leaving a randomly placed, but beautiful collection of rocky hills. At times it reminded me of parts of Arizona where similar ecological forces shaped the landscape over eons. Seeing the landscape made me understand why Hampi is considered a sacred place. If I had lived in the 15th century and came upon this landscape, I would think it was God-given as well.

After the intense daylong extravaganza of seeing a dozen historical sites, Tippu dropped us off at the only beer-serving establishment in town. After putting away a couple of Kingfisher beers, the three of us headed back to our hotel where, at the ripe old time of 7 pm, we tricked ourselves into believing that a 20-minute nap would actually last only 20-minutes. Instead we slept for 14 hours.

The next morning, we journeyed forth from our hotel well rested and ready for another day of adventure. After another breakfast at the Mango Tree (the best place in town both in terms of quality and because there are only three places in town), we took a ferry across a small nearby river. Our mission: to rent three mopeds to explore Hampi’s backwaters. It turned out to be the best 350 Rupees I have ever spent. As the video below highlights, it was a blast. We hopped on our mopeds like 10-year olds who just been given new bikes for Christmas. And, thus, the Bangalore Banditos were born under the rallying cry, “Viva los Banditos!” We rode our “hawgs” for the next eight-hours visiting various temples, historical sites, and towns along the way.

Early in our road trip we noticed a Mosque built into the rocks on the other side of a rice paddy field. Ever the intrepid souls, Tagg and Patrick thought we should take the short walk to check it out. I was apprehensive about walking on someone else’s rice paddy field and about showing up at a holy site unannounced. I couldn’t be happier that Tagg and Patrick won the debate. As we approached the Mosque we realized that a small creek kept us from our goal. Just as we were about to turn around, we heard a dozen small voices shout various phrases of welcome: “Hey, mister!” “Hi!” “Hello misters!” Out of nowhere a dozen kids appeared and, happy at their new found friends, tried to persuade use to cross the creek. Undeterred by our apprehension, they decided to show us how easy it was by crossing to our side instead. I doubt I will ever have as warm and generous a welcome as those kids gave us that day. They enticed us across the river, showed us around the Mosque (perhaps to the chagrin of their elders), and practically mauled us with high fives. It was the best experience I’ve had here so far (see the second video below).

 

Warmed by the welcome and the increasingly hot sun, we three Banditos re-started our hawgs and continued our trip. Soon after, we stopped at the Monkey Temple where we climbed 575 stairs in the mid-afternoon heat to reach the top. Aptly named, the Monkey Temple is home to two types of monkeys that delight in mocking the inability of their human cousins to climb around the temple’s huge and cumbersome rocks. At one point, we witnessed four monkeys trying to charm a banana out of a fellow tourist’s hands. Needless to say it worked. Eating its banana the monkey then proceeded to jump from seat to seat on the nearby motorcycles parked in a row.

The entire “hawg” experience is the other of my two favorite experiences. There was something about the freedom of exploring the area on our own terms and the fun of driving a moped that made the day unforgettable. After a few more hours we dismounted our hawgs for the last time and headed back across the river. We ended our Hampi experience with an extravagant dinner at a 4-star hotel near our bus stop. After a few main courses, desserts, and multiple Kingfishers we got into a great debate about a range of topics including sustainable living, climate change, America’s place in the world, Canada’s place in the world (Tagg is Canadian), and the challenges India faces in the future. The debate raged on as we made our way to the bus stop and boarded the bus. Soon we were fast asleep trying to ignore the bumps before arriving in Bangalore early Monday morning. As the sun rose on another day, the sun set on the first adventure of the Bangalore Banditos. But fear not dear reader. The Banditos will ride again. Viva los Banditos!

Android and development 2

2.   Ruma’s “Market Intelligence” in Indonesia

Ruma is a social enterprise that empowers the poor using mobile phone technology. It started as a pilot project of Grameen Foundation and Qualcomm and has now metamorphosed into an enterprise serving millions of clients. Ruma has recruited and trained over 10,000 low-income entrepreneurs in Indonesia, of which 85% are women, to sell prepaid airtime, electricity and other value added services. Now, Android powered tablets are helping these low-income entrepreneurs act as conduits for gathering market intelligence across Indonesia.

The low-income household market is probably the most difficult market to obtain  information. Goods are sold through 2 million plus warungs (small shops), scattered throughout Indonesia. The distribution of the goods goes through multiple layers of distributors, making information gathering very expensive.

Through the mobile survey product built on the Android platform and administered on smartphones and tablets, consumer goods companies like Danone and Nestle contract Ruma to obtain rapid market information from the Ruma entrepreneur network. Over 70% of Ruma’s entrepreneurs were already selling basic consumer goods when they were recruited to the network. The existing network of thousands of shops and over one million end consumers can provide market research professionals with valuable insights.

Surveys with a broad sample with only a select number of questions can be administered in real time via SMS or through Telesurvey. Whereas an in-depth study of products through focus group discussions or a pilot of the product can be conducted using a customized data collection application.

Ruma believes that by providing companies with better access information to the low-income segment, companies can create products that address the segments true needs.

So why GF prefers Android to other operating systems?

·      Open source - GF can customize the phones for improved use of power and to make applications usable when the phones aren't connected to the network

·      Fastest growing OS - Phone prices are bound to drop

Why GF uses smartphones / tablets when feature phones are cheaper and more popular (especially in the underdeveloped world)?

·      Location data and photographs are possible with GPS & camera

·      Large data can be stored on external memory cards

·      Input and storage of data on the phones is possible even when the user is out of range of a cellular network. This information is uploaded once the user moves within range of the network

·      Improved analytics capabilities (with salesforce.com)

Android and development 1

Development organizations and aid agencies have been struggling for a while now to use technology to improve their efficiency and thereby create an improved impact on the recipients. It is a well documented and researched aspect of development.

Fortunately with mobile phones and their rapid scale to ubiquity, the lengthy pursuit of the development world seems to have met fruition. Currently, no other technology holds as much promise for the development sector as mobiles.

With an aim to empower people in the underdeveloped world and to deliver maximum bang for the buck, increasing number of device makers, cellular operators and development agencies are now coming together to deploy feature / smart phones with text information services and applications on health care, weather, crop pricing, agriculture practices, population studies etc. What really is hastening this process is the availability of a multitude of device and platform options.

Android is one such platform (operating system) that is opening a lot of avenues for data collection and field research management specifically targeted to the development sector. It is a Linux-based operating system developed by the Open Handset Alliance for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Google purchased it in 2005 and has since then led almost a movement towards creating a platform that’s free, open source and stable.

A few instances of successful implementations of technology especially Android in development sector:

1.   Grameen Foundation’s “Community Knowledge Workers” (CKW) in Uganda

400 CKWs in Uganda are using Android phones loaded with an open-source data-collection application that feeds data into salesforce. These phones are powered by batteries that can be recharged via electricity, solar and bicycle. GF offers farmers loans to buy an Android phone loaded with information about when and how to plant crops, care for farm animals and find markets for products.

Those farmers (CKWs) then serve as experts in their villages. Other people turn to them with questions about crops or farm animals, and the knowledge workers find answers in information loaded on the phones. The knowledge workers also gather information about the farmers they talk to.

The workers have interacted with over 25,000 households so far. 75 percent of farmers say they find the information offered by the knowledge workers to be very useful, and 80 percent said they acted on information they received at least once. Information from CKWs have helped them in timing their planting activities based on weather information, asking for better prices from traders, going to markets where they can get better prices and providing better care for their livestock.

The CKWs must buy the phones and charging stations. They can pay them off monthly, a process that takes about two years. They get paid for their work and can earn up to $25 a month.

GF is hoping to make the project self-sustaining and has partnered with other agencies that see value in the network of CKWs. The World Bank, Heifer International and others are now paying GF for data that CKWs collect by conducting surveys with villagers.

Water

Several events converged in the past two weeks that have given me a new perspective on access to clean water. In chronological order:

1. The water purifier in my apartment broke.
2. A day of manufacturing visits left me pretty dehydrated in semi-arid Ahmedabad. I turned even whiter than usual and laid on the floor for an evening, groaning while Cynthia (Wello's founder) forced water on me like a nanny bearing cod liver oil.
3. I finally succumbed to digestive distress and required constant rehydration for several days.
4. A construction project began in my building, and the beloved tap water has become intermittent at best, sporadic and unpredictable and often nonexistent at worst.  

I became a water hoarder. I started boiling water by the potful and decanting into various containers, stowing them around the house. I learned to keep the lids on lest an errant pigeon feather float through the window and sully my hard work. I experimented with iodine, iodine + flavor enhancers, and finally took my SteriPen out of its original packaging. I found that unadulterated Bombay tap water tastes like Lake Huron. 

I've learned to yell paani nahim (no water!) in frustration. Laundry piles up, as does the fine layer of filth on my skin. I've started leaving buckets underneath open taps, to immediately, urgently gather water whenever it becomes suddenly available. I'm working on engineering a rainwater collection method from a 4th-floor window, but haven't yet perfected it...

For me, this annoyance is temporary. I'm leaving India in 10 days. I'll head back West, drink directly from a reliable tap. But compared with the people Wello aims to serve, my situation in Bombay is luxurious. I'm not walking several kilometers several times a day to fill several 20-liter steel mattkas from a pond shared by dogs and goats. I'm not carrying that weight home on my head. I'm not filtering the mattka contents through a cloth and serving the results to my family. I'm not waiting anxiously for the rains so the pond will refill. The fear of the late monsoon does not hover, desperate and constant, in the back of my mind.

These are the realities of life all over rural India. During field visits in Rajasthan, we spoke with hundreds of people whose daily routines revolve around when and where water will come. If Wello can help make those answers a little more predictable, they can devote some of that time and energy elsewhere. 

Introducing student loans in Jordan

In a meeting with the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Jordan, Dr. Wajih Oweis, we discussed a mechanism in which we can establish a publicly funded student financial assistance program. Our discussion was driven by the real need for such a program in Jordan. We estimated that in the academic year 2012-2013 about 40,000 students will require need-based financial aid in the form of student loans.

On the other hand, it is estimated that 80% of university graduates remain unemployed in their first year after graduation, in the absence of a national credit law, and with rising financial austerity how can we address this need? More importantly, our proposed solution must ensure that these financial assistance programs do not exclude the poor.

Over the past two weeks, I met with different financial and economic experts to discuss this and to hopefully prepare a suitable solution in the near future. 

(Photo courtesy of Ammonnews.net) 

Hello all,

Tashichho Dzong, a government and monastic administrative building in the background

It’s been a while since my last post so I’ll make this one a longer one. In my last entry, I listed 5 of my experiences in Bhutan. In this entry I’m going to briefly explain one of the experiences on my list and explain more about my project.

Thimphu Tech Park...my actual photo was not uploading so here is an artist's rendering of the building...lovely

Unfortunately, I didn't dress properly for the occasion

I’ll start out of order with #2 “Planting a bottle-brush tree at Bhutan’s new LEED Platinum technology park.” I had the awesome opportunity to tour Bhutan’s tech-park which is actually housed in one building. As per Bhutan’s regulations, all buildings no matter how recently they are constructed must have a traditional façade. The result is that all of the hi-rises and new construction appears as if they have been fixtures for several hundred years. The Techpark is no different. From the outside it looks like an ancient fortress but all along the tour, our guide showed us the modern and “green” features. For example, the pavement is water permeable so that when it rains, the water gets to replenish the ground water rather than running off into storm drains. Water that collects on the roof is collected in a cistern and is used to water the plants. Solar panels powered the water heaters and lighting. Special materials were used to keep the sun’s heat out and make the building really cool during the summer. There was a whole bunch of other features that I could hardly explain right now. The certification speaks for itself. What I found most interesting is how they used part of the park to house a small business incubator. Yes, they have a special room where prematurely born businesses rest and develop into strong healthy organizations. At least that’s the image I got from the word “incubator.” Basically it’s a large room that actually resembles a hospital neo-natal ward. It is has long tables, internet access and it is rented out to business start-ups. The goal is for all of these start-ups to cross-pollinate their ideas as they work in the same room. When needed, the Incubator will provide loans for these businesses. So far this whole operation is embryonic as they only have a couple start-ups but I look forward to working with them on one project this summer. Oh, I never got to the tree part. So, the building is completed but the grounds still need to have trees and shrubs planted. The groundskeeper gave me a small shovel and a baby tree and I had the difficult task of breaking the fallow ground. One day, this tree will grow to be over 50 feet tall.

Alright so here’s the part where I talk about my project. At first, I mentioned that I was researching avenues for how Bhutan’s Companies Act can be amended to help DHI as it manages its subsidiaries. My project has since changed and I am now researching DHI’s legal status within Bhutan and I am devising ways that DHI can clarify this status. So when I say legal status, I am referring to general categorization of DHI as an entity within the government. For example, we know that the FBI is an agency within the Executive Branch in the United States. Ascertaining this status is important because it determines which laws apply to DHI. DHI’s status within the Royal Government of Bhutan is not so clear cut because it was not created by legislation. It was actually created by royal decree! Essentially, His Majesty, the Druk Gyalpo (the Dragon King) of Bhutan, Jigme Kesar Namgyel Wangchuck in 2007 decreed: Let there be DHI! and there was DHI! …That’s not actually what happened; he consulted with a very limited group of people in the government. The problem was that the royal decree did not comprehensively explain what DHI was and all the laws it should be subject to. This has proven problematic and so I have been charged with uncovering this. The research is a bit sensitive so I can’t explain everything but where possible over the next few blogs both you and I will uncover answers to this mystery.  Until next time!

A preview of what's to come in my next post...

Yannick Wood...without the S

Social Entrepreneur Profile: Tanvi Surti, Chachii

How time flies! I'm more than half-way done with my VilCap internship in Mumbai and I'm excited to report that I've made considerable progress. My main mandate for the summer was to generate a pipeline of interested social enterprises that fit our upcoming VilCap business accelerator programs. Despite this extremely broad and challenging goal, I have fully embraced my entrepreneurial spirit by speaking with more than 100 people, 75% of those are entrepreneurs while the others are associated with institutions  supporting entrepreneurs like incubators.

The sector focus for the entrepreneurs I've spoken to range from energy access and education to health and handicrafts. Each one of them has no shortage of passion and dedication to advance their enterprise while positively impacting millions. Supporting these entrepreneurs is why I am pursuing a career in impact investing in emerging markets.

Every entrepreneur is amazing in his or her own right so I have decided to showcase a few social entrepreneurs for my remaining blog posts. The first entrepreneur is Tanvi Surti with Chachii.

What is Chachii? Chachii is a SMS and online-based platform that connects laborers such as maids and drivers to people who need short-term, temporary help. Tanvi Surti, a recent graduate at Bryn Mawr College, is one of the co-founders of Chachii. After completing college, she decided to move back to India to start Chachii in Mumbai, India.

How does Chachii work? Individuals post tasks online or by phone and Chachii selects a laborer that can complete the task. After receiving information about the laborer, the individual sits back while his or her task is completed. After the task is completed, the laborer pays the pre-determined amount (no haggling!) to the individual while Chachii takes a small cut of the payment. Although e-commerce is still fairly new in India, Chachii is paving the way by encouraging online transactions and payments with online pre-paid credits.

Why is Chachii important? In Mumbai and across India, hiring help like a driver for your car and a maid for your flat is extremely common especially for people in the middle class and higher. Given that Mumbaikars are more liberal and progressive, more bachelor(ette)s in Mumbai live on their own compared to those in other more traditional cities. Although hiring a driver or maid is still common for these customers, they usually cannot afford a full-time driver or live-in maid. Hiring short-term, temporary help is much more appealing. Finding good-quality, reliable, and trustworthy help is difficult though as most people use personal networks and references. Much like Angie's List and Task Rabbit based in the states, Chachii fills this gap by connecting laborers while encouraging customer feedback to increase transparency and drive repeat users.

What is Chachii's impact on society? In India, most laborers come from lower-income groups usually those at the upper edge of the Base of the Pyramid. Chachii connects people from these groups as well as college students looking for extra income. By joining the Chachii network, laborers have the potential to make a sizable monthly income in addition to their full-time work.

What is Chachii's vision? Besides expanding the range of services offered, Chachii hopes to expand to all major metropolitan cities in India and reach an estimated 60 million laborers in the unskilled and informal labor market across India. With its current focus on Mumbai, the most populous city in India, Chachii has its work cut out for them!

To learn more about Chachii, you can view an interview with Tanvi and check out the site.

Getting A Little Culture

I’m at the halfway point in my internship here in Rwanda.  6 weeks down, 6 weeks left to go!  A 12-week project sounds like it will last a long time, but now that I realize that I’ve only got 30 working days left to implement and iron out the bugs in a new system, it seems a little more like I’m working against the clock.  So lately I’ve been focused mainly on the work of teasing out which changes in structure might benefit patients and health care providers at Ruli Hospital and its outlying health centers.  But even so, I’ve been making time to explore the land of a thousand hills a little bit and experience Rwandan culture.

A fine dowry indeed!

I've had a couple notable experiences so far, the first of which was having the distinct pleasure of attending a Rwandan wedding.  One of the younger doctors from Ruli Hospital was tying the knot with one of the other workers there, and they invited me to the ceremony, which was conveniently being held not more than a 3 minute walk from my adopted home.  At first, I was a bit hesitant.  I hadn’t known the couple very long and I certainly didn’t want to intrude on a private, intimate event.  But they wouldn’t take no for an answer, and escorted by the more senior doctors and their families, I made my way to the event.  And what an event it was!  Starting at 8 in the morning, I walked over to the outdoor ceremony at the bride’s home which began the day.  As soon as I entered the yard I was quickly ushered in front of the nearly 200 other guests, where I had the opportunity to see a public negotiation over the dowry – for 4 hours! 

The happy couple

After a brief recess, the attendees moved up the road to the local church, where a religious ceremony was held and the couple formally married.  After a longer rest (time for a nap!), everyone reconvened in a large hall nearby for a reception.  I attempted to hide in the back this time, but I was quickly identified and dragged front and center.  The evening was similar to a wedding reception in the US, complete with dinner, drinking, and of course, dancing.  Around 8 PM, the crowd began to disperse, and I began to walk home, carefully on the dirt road, in the pitch black night.  But before I could get there, I was pulled aside to go to the after party!  This turned out to be the intimate gathering I had imagined, with a crowd of only 20 or so at the home of the new couple.  But after the whole day of ceremonies and ritual, I was welcomed warmly and was able to watch the couple’s family members come bearing a traditional gift of home furnishings and supplies to last for the first 3 months of their new life.  All in all, a special experience that I won’t soon forget.

But not all of my time here has been spent among the Rwandan people.  The wildlife deserves some attention too!  One visit that I made a point to make was to Akagera National Park.  The park is in the East of the country, bordering Tanzania, and its geography is totally different than the plentiful hills and valleys prevalent through most of the country.  In the East, the peaks slowly change into smaller rolling hills which give way to a flat grassland.  There, antelopes, zebras, hippos, giraffes, and many other animals make their home.  I had good company for the trip too – Sean Morris, the Ihangane Project intern and WDI fellow from last year, accompanied me on an adventure through the Northern half of the park.  We saw a good variety of African wildlife from the safety of the car, but we were able to get out and walk around as well.  Standing in the middle of the savannah among a herd of giraffes was an amazing feeling! 

Current and former WDI fellows, plus a few giraffes!

Opportunities like these have made this internship a unique one.  The work is truly meaningful and interesting, and these “extracurricular” experiences are icing on the cake.  I can’t wait to see what adventures await me in the second half of this summer!