living vicariously

Next time this blog goes dark for a couple of weeks, you should check out Christina's blog.

Christina's a great friend from business school. Now she works for mega-NGO Care International, jumping around the globe making sure nobody's wasting too much money. So far this year she's been to Rwanda (!), Pakistan, Madagascar, Tanzania, Peru, and Israel. All without a single case of malaria. She's in Sri Lanka now.

Check it out -- bet you'll learn something.

rockstar

The week before last I shook hands with Bono, who's become a rockstar in the development world (as well) by acting as a sort of people's lobbist for the poor.

I met him because I work for the former leader of the free world and because he wanted to meet me.

No wait, that's not it. Actually, I was in a meeting at the National Reference Laboratory when he came through on a tour. So I popped my head out to say Hi.

Of course, U2 is not quite as well known in Rwanda. The woman that I was meeting with at the lab was pissed that she had to waste work time meeting "some American singer -- we are doing serious work here!" I explained that he's actually Irish and he's actually done a lot for the cause. She said "Well, okay. If he's helping."

three in one

This past week I was hit with a trinity of illnesses. Feeling ill last Monday, I went in for a standard blood test and the doc found that, yes folks, I had malaria for the fourth time this year. Also, the complete blood count (CBC) showed my lymphocytes at 61% (rather than the normal 25% or so) – clear sign of a viral infection.

I’ve learned oh-so-much about lab tests out here.

So I start throwing down the anti-malarials, like usual. Start feeling better. Until Thursday, when of course I’m up all night running for the toilet.

So Friday, Corrie (who also had malaria last week, but was in slightly better shape than me so found herself in a care-giving role) dragged me to the doctor and translated for me. Blood tests came out normal; malaria and virus gone. So I’m on to Cipro for the likely bacterial infection in my gut.

Today I’m finally back on my feet. For those counting, that’s the 3rd time Corrie’s had malaria and the 4th time for me. Quite a week!

zanzibar

A few weekends ago, Corrie and I took a totally-non-financially-justifiable weekend trip to Zanzibar, an island just off of mainland Tanzania.

Corrie had to quietly remind me a couple of times, “you’re not in Rwanda, stop picking your nose.”

And though we tried desperately to avoid learning anything by hiding in a fancy beach resort, Zanzibar is a fascinating place. It’s where the Swahili culture was born, a uniquely East African mix of Bantu, Indian, and Middle Eastern influence. While Swahili is usually a second language in Kenya, it’s a first language for many people in Zanzibar. Zanzibar is known for it’s spices and, historically, for slave trading with the Middle East.

Now it’s known for it’s tourism. It was super-relaxing. Think Carribean vacation, but you get to pretend you’re a Sultan.

And the boat in the picture? It's called a dhow. They actually use them. Granted, they’re now as likely as not to have an outboard motor. But how cool.

where'd we go?

Have we been swallowed by the gorilla mist?

Nay, but I have been slow to blog these days. Much has happened, telling about it will require several separate posts.

My main excuse for not posting lately is that my computer broke during our trip back from Zanzibar. That and our phone line was turned off. And we had malaria. And our camera broke and the pipes are clogged in our apartment, which aren’t really excuses but I thought I’d mention them while I’m whining.

Given the reverse linearity of blogs, most of you will read this posting AFTER reading the ones I will write next. So you get the explanation after the content. But then, I suppose the content will serve as the explanation.

Rendering this post relatively meaningless. Oy.

Cheers. We’re back.

developmentspeak

I’ve now been a development industry flunky long enough to pick up some of the vocabulary. In case you find yourself cornered at a cocktail party by someone like me who wants to impress you with the work they’re doing overseas, here’s a guide to help you understand what they’re really saying.

Sustainability. Most everyone will tell you that they only do sustainable projects, meaning that when they leave everything will keep on working. Sounds great doesn’t it? But let's dissect this one for a second. Doing anything takes 1) motivated, skilled people and 2) money. Take those away and you have no project, no business, no government. It took me a while to figure out that when someone tells you their project is sustainable what they really mean is “I’m only committed for another 2 years, then I hope somebody else takes over.”

Capacity. Developmentspeak for ability, as in, “the government does not have the capacity to do take our money without 25% of it landing in Swiss accounts.” Ability would make sense to normal people so we use capacity to sound smart.

Capacity Building. Also known as enabling. Every grant request says they’re doing capacity building, usually for the government. Perhaps this is why so much of the money in development goes into conferences. The truth is you build “capacity” by hiring good people, not by sending lazy people to a 3-day conference.

Monitoring and Evaluation. This means counting things. Like how many people you help or how many people answer a survey a certain way. Believe it or not, this is a hot new area in development and goes by the hip acronym M&E.

Pilot Project. This means either 1) you don’t have enough money for your project or 2) what you plan to do is explicitly against the policy of the country in which you are working. So you do a pilot, with 50 farmers instead of millions, just to see if it works. Most development projects are pilots – but when do we follow them up with, uh, projects?

Technical Assistance. Technical means stuff that you have to have been trained to do. So development people (like me) justify our salaries by saying we provide technical assistance where the government does not have capacity. The result is a country run by short-term consultants. It’s crazy to imagine any organization run this way, but somehow it seems like a good idea in development.

Now Let's Practice:

Cocktail Party Schmoozer: I am performing Monitoring and Evaluation technical assistance for a grass-roots NGO project.
(Translation: I count things for a small non-profit.)

CPS: We have ensured our pilot project will be 100% sustainable by enabling local partners.
(Translation: We are delusional enough to think our under-funded 2-year project will continue without us.)

CPS: Due to a lack of capacity in the health system we are focused on technical assistance as a short-term solution and capacity building for long-term viability.
(Translation: Right now we do the work, but we think after a couple of conferences at expensive hotels local doctors will be doing heart surgery no problem.)