Days 12-13: Rongai and Pipeline Field Visits

Second project of the trip: Evaluate the current customer service levels and create a standardized Client Engagement Process that can be used as the retailer opens anywhere from 6-8 new stores in 2014.




how water is transported from local boreholes - this is not purified and extremely salty

Wednesday and Thursday were spent in the field visiting the water retail stores, interviewing staff and going to client's home for customer service feedback. They were extremely happy with the product, clean drinking water is not a regular commodity in the area. The organization offers 10 liters of purified water (which they do in their shop) for 100 KES/$1.17 + delivery for an extra 20 KES. Most clients can afford to pay for one 10L jerry can per week, though a monthly subscription for upfront payment of 360 KES (which means 90 KES per jerry can + free delivery) is offered. The discount is incentive to purchase in advance but clients struggle to have the cash up front.

Some staggering facts:

1. In Kenya, only 61% of the population have access to clean water sources.
2. Worldwide, 1 of out 5 deaths of children under 5 is due to water-related disease.
3. 3.5m people die each year from water-related diseases.

Highlight from Wednesday: As we left one of the clients homes and I slipped my shoes back on, I quickly realized that her chickens had left some presents inside…amusing in retrospect but a bit challenging in the moment.


beef pilau lunch in Rongai - 200 KES/$2.35



Pipeline neighborhood, low income and full of students/YPs

Days 10-11: Office time

Both Monday and Tuesday were spent making reports, training the staff and looping in the management team including the CEO (who resides in NJ!).

the backpack beekeeper suit

Tuesday was a bit different in the sense that there was no electricity in the office, then the generator was turned on only to run out of petrol. After my laptop died, we went to the local mall to charge our devices and grab lunch. I was so excited to see thin crust pizza, kind of sad really. Ha! Spent some time with the Head of Internal Ops learning more about the org and life in Nairobi. Always love speaking to locals on international trips, its the best part of traveling IMO.

It’s been a whirlwind and fulfilling experience to come in a little over a week ago, see how the company functions and evaluate the best type of value-added (in addition to BAU) reporting options. Yesterday, the office learned the magic of pivot tables. It was fun to see their eyes light up as they realized how much faster they could analyze data with this small trick!

Tuesday evening, I met with the co-founders of the second organization at a local incubator hub, very cool place! We discussed our goals for the next three days and by the time I got home, the restaurant wasn't serving dinner anymore. It happens, good thing I had a delicious pizza for lunch.


88mph - tech incubator space



Days 8-9: Weekend of work + Nairobi National Park

On Saturday, went over to Nairobi National Park for a few hours. No one had signed up for a tour so it was me, the driver and a 8 passenger  vehicle. Luck was on my side - saw lions, giraffes, zebras, ostriches, an eagle, and various other animals that I can't remember the names of. The juxtaposition of the park with wild animals and the city of Nairobi so close by was striking. Once minute there are two giraffes fighting and the next second, there's a plane flying over them. Unreal.

The rest of the weekend was all about work. Got a lot done! Need to shift gears to the water social enterprise but struggling as I feel very connected to the honey social enterprise at the moment.

My daily struggle: food. Breakfast at the hotel, then lunch is usually skipped as I don't know where to go or who to ask so by the time 230 rolls around and the dizziness hits me, I start looking in my bag for a granola bar. Sometimes I ask the taxi driver to stop at the local mall (it's safe don't worry) and pick up a sandwich for dinner. Eating at the hotel isn't ideal because there are stray cats walking around and they LOVE to sit next to me. Panic attacks ensure. On Saturday, I felt that I deserved a nice dinner so off to the indoor restaurant I went (usually people are in the casual garden areas) and was one of three tables there. Thought I'd do some work while eating but it didn't work out. Found myself missing home (and wishing I was celebrating Halloween)!



Zebra crossing

Days 6-7: Back in Nairobi

The past two days were extremely productive in making progress towards the final deliverable for the honey social enterprise. I did a full assessment of the existing and proposed reports as well as conceptualized a few others. Sitting with the Finance Director helped me put all the pieces together - i.e. field data, sales, production, distribution - and determine what would be valuable to report to the management team.

Last year, the social enterprise brought in a consultant to propose a full management dashboard deck  but to various limitations, it has not been fully implemented. And so here I am, to implement, train, document and create process flows.

Made a list of to-dos, its about 25 items long and I hope to work through them this weekend. I'm currently on #3. Seven days in, seven more to go, though only 2 more with this org. It's crunch time. Wish me luck!

But before that, going to slip away to Nairobi National Park tomorrow from 6-10 am to take my chance at spotting some animals. Hoping for a lion!

BTW just realized that the term "social enterprise" may not be widely known so a little definition might be of use. Essentially its a business that is working towards solving a social need (i.e. adding income to beekeepers/farmers to raise their poverty level) or the fancy wiki version

"A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in human and environmental well-being, rather than maximizing profits for external shareholders. Social enterprises can be structured as a for-profit or non-profit, and may take the form of a co-operative, mutual organization, a disregarded entity,^[1] a social business, or a charity organization.^[2]"

Days 4-5: Sindo

Day 4
Woke up bright and early to 6 am reggae music playing outside the guesthouse. Good thing, because my and the HFO had a meeting at 7 am ! Over a breakfast of eggs and chapatti (massive Indian influence in the food here), we discussed the Field Operation Management Dashboards and the data behind it. The day was spent in the field with hive technicians, meeting farmers and scouting some sites for hive storage. The organization is building out in a new area of Western Kenya and has been gathering farmers to engage in beekeeping but all farms need to be checked out. The manager in the field has spent over 3 weeks doing his due diligence on 140+ farms. Data feeds from the field are a bit limited due to a new technology that they are working on implementing. The field staff have all been given smartphones with an app in which they can input farmers stats, hive inspections, etc. The goal is to use this for impact metrics in the future using Grameen's PPI metric.

The best moment of the day was when we were walking towards a potential site and the school children spotted us. All of a sudden, 50 or so little kids were running towards and swarming us while screaming "how ARE you?!?" and "Mzungu!" They always scream both when we walk by, and then giggle hysterically afterwards. Not sure why they were fascinated by me, but I'll take it! In the evening we were too tired to go to dinner so we crashed early after killing many many malaria ridden mosquitos. Unfortunately one survived and went to town...



Sikimu and fresh fish

Day 5
Another early start. Spent the day visiting around 7 farms and talking to farmers about beekeeping and their challenges. One of the farmers had made his own beekeeper suit with workman's overalls and a backpack for the netted hood. What an innovative idea!


beehive



the baby calf on the left was literally just born

Along the way, our 4X4 got stuck and 5 Kenyan men came to push the car out of the ditch with no luck. We ended up backing up and it all worked out! We decided to drive back to Kisumu instead of taking the ferry. The roads are not fully developed so it was massively bumpy until the last stretch. Passed a street called "Obama Rd." Obama's father is from Western Kenya and the local are very proud of it!



We arrived at Kisumu and checked into another guesthouse which looked huge in comparison to Sindo's! It's all about perspective. After dinner, it was internet time! Bought a small bottle of water at the hotel rooftop bar so I could use the Wi-Fi. Another early start to tomorrow with 5 am wake up to catch a 7 am flight back to Nairobi.

The last few days were a great opportunity to dive into the field operations of the company and see how things work on the ground. I learned a lot from the HFO and we had plenty of time to go over the management dashboards that are under his mandate and come up with ideas for new reports. Looking forward to meeting the rest of the management team and get cracking on the dashboards.


maize

storm is coming







 

Day 3: Nairobi to Kisumu to Sindo

For the next 7 working days, I’ll be working with the honey social enterprise. The first 3 days will be in rural Kenya as we felt that a field visit was critical to better understand the company and that the data that all of the reporting focuses on. As today is a holiday, we took full advantage of spending the full day traveling to Western Kenya.

The Head of Field Operations (HFO) and another mgmt. team member picked me up at 6 am, to head over to the local bus depot. HFO called “his guy” and we got three tickets to the bus from Nairobi to Kisumu (7 hour ride). The HFO and I got acquainted and debriefed on the organization and my project.  After lunch (and some internet time before rural Kenya), we rented a car, had some car trouble which we worked through just in time to drive onto the last ferry. We backed the car in and got out to enjoy the beautiful Kenyan sunset!

After arriving in Sindo, we had an adventurous ride through the dark and bumpy roads. Thirty minutes and several GPS location checks later, we found our contact and checked into the local guesthouse. We grabbed dinner which involved a walk down dark village roads and the perfect opportunity to use my manager’s LED keychain (thanks C!)) It was a long day and one which allowed me to transition into local time, 7 hour time gap conquered! Off to learn about field operations tomorrow.

my 800 KES room

Day 2 in Kenya: Switch hotels and debrief

Late check-out followed by a quick ride to the next hotel. The taxi stand inside the hotel mentioned a rate of 2000 shillings (80 KES to 1 USD) which is an outrageous cost for a 2 km/5 min ride. Once we arrived I asked for a receipt to which he responded he had no receipt pad. I asked for the fare and he said that he was told that they had told me. I asked him to call the hotel to check the rate, he said his phone had no credit. Hm. We settled on 1000 KES, later finding out that it should have cost 400 KES. Bamboozled yes but instead of 5x as much, more around 2x. It happens. The driver promised to drop off a receipt (and change if he found out the fare was too much). We will see!

The Country Lodge – my mainstay for the two weeks – is nice and connected to the lovely Fairview Hotel which has 5 restaurants and a pool. I’ll be spending most of my evenings at their garden café.

Met with the water social enterprise’s main contact to debrief on the project which I’ll be working on for three days + post return to NYC. My goal is to interview clients and sales managers to come up with a Client Engagement Process. Earlier in 2013, they launched a retail storefront and sales program to sell drinking water in a low income neighborhood. At around 500 subscribers, they are in need of a consistent approach to maintain contact with their client base.

Day 1 in Kenya

When booking the flight, I knew the one hour connection time in Heathrow would be tight but it was the only flight choice available since the booking was done a week in advance.

After rushing through the airport, or aiming to as the security lines were backed up, the flight was delayed - the pilot did not feel that he could continue with the scheduled flight. It was nice to have some time to stretch my legs and check out what Heathrow’s Pret was offering (Chicken Raita wrap + Lychee Mandarin juice) but at the same time my concern for 11 pm arrival in Nairobi was looming over my head.

The flight was packed, mainly with Brits. Customs and luggage pick up was smooth. FYI – getting your visa on arrival is pretty seamless, dependent on the line. I got mine in NYC which was also a breeze (after they opened the door to the consulate which took about 45 minutes, long story). The arrivals area was well lit, with many people waiting for their loved ones and a line of drivers with signs. I scanned the sea of Kenyan men to find my ride, he wasn’t there so I took a seat at the café and hoped for the best. After 15 minutes, I made my way back to the line and found him. We arrived at the hotel 30 minutes later, where they searched the vehicle (under the hood and trunk). Quickly went through security check for the bags and checked in.

GCP in Africa: Kenya

Through my company's Global Citizens Program (GCP) in Microfinance, I will be spending two weeks in Kenya with two local social enterprises, both focused on nutrition within the low income communities.

The GCP allows employees to apply for skills-based international volunteering opportunities with partner organizations. I went through a rigorous interview process back in April and am proud to be 1 of approximately 10 people selected.

My main project will focus  on implementing and reviewing the management dashboard of an African honey social enterprise. Also, another opportunity came up to work with a second social enterprise that focuses on water so I took it! They are a fairly new start-up and need me to construct their client engagement process.  I have committed to working with them offsite as well, since two weeks for both projects is a bit tight.

Should be an exciting and challenging two weeks! Over the past few days, I have been reading up on both organizations and speaking with CEOs to understand the history and culture of each.

Overall, my organization is working on a fund that aims to alleviate HIV/AIDS in Africa, Asia and Latin America. At first I wondered how honey fit in, but with so much of the population with HIV/AIDs, it’s critical for the individuals to have proper nutrition for the medication to work. Honey is highly nutritious, an anti-oxidant and affordable. And obviously clean drinking water leads to a better quality of life as there are less health issues overall.

Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon

Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City - time to give Mekong Express another go! Glad we did because the bus half full so we had out own seats, nice cool AC with no dripping situation and a normal bus driver/guide. Everything was going well until about 2 hours in. All of a sudden, we were waiting to in line to get the entire bus on a ferry...the entire bus! So somehow that worked out fine and then began all the cross-border checks. Getting out of Cambodia was easy but we stopped three times in Vietnam, and had to get off the bus twice, with all of our luggage. Needless to say, this took forever and our 6 hour bus ride turned into almost 8 hours.

Ho Chi Minh City is different than any of the other places we 've been on during this trip. Its a bustling city, just like any other major city out there. We grabbed a quick and expensive for Vietnam ($10 each) dinner and passed out.

Our last day consisted of visiting the Opera House, Notre Dame (this one is brick red), the Reunification Palace, people watching in a park, Benh Thanh market haggling, lunch at Pho 2000 (visited by President Bill Clinton in the early 2000's) and a nice night out on the town. We hit up some rooftop lounges and enjoyed the sunset while we recapped our travel adventures. Good times!

24 hours stands between me and my couch.

All in all, it was an amazing journey and so happy to have shared it with one of my oldest and closest friends. There's much to be said about spending 17 days straight with someone and coming out of the experience with lifetime memories, a higher level of respect and appreciation for each other and knowing that we can get through any crisis together with a good sense of humor on our side :)

So, as Het's been saying all trip long, BINGO BANGO (as in done, finished). Another successful trip under our belts!

Cambodia's capital: Phnom Penh

Our bus ride from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh was...interesting. 6:30 am pickup, then transported to a large bus terminal, tagged our luggage and then onto the bus. The guide spoke in english throughout the trip but we could not understand a word of what she was saying. We kept looking at each other and saying "did you catch a word of that cause i have NO CLUE what shes saying?" Which was followed by bouts of laughter. Ha. Then the AC started dripping on us, which was nice in a way since the bus was so hot and it helped me cool down. The bus driver apparently had some errands to run because we stopped on the countryside, he bought some food, called his wife (assumption), then an hour or so later, dropped off the food to someone who was waiting on the side of the road. Also, there were stops for his roadside bathroom break and drop-offs of two women on the bus in the middle of nowhere. Nonetheless, about 7 hours later we arrived in Phnom Penh, all in one piece and luggage intact.

Outside the Central Market

Since we had about 24 hours in the capital city, we decided to forgo lunch and head to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Luckily along the way, we stumbled across an upscale cafe called Brown and grabbed a snack. We spent about two hours in the museum walking around in rooms where people had been tortured and killed. Pictures of victims filled up many of the rooms, along with written accounts of some of their time there. From what I gathered, during the Khmer Rouge Regime, innocent people were captured and taken to the secret prison and interrogation center called S-21. There they were accused of crimes that they had not committed and tortured and beaten until they gave a full confession. Then they were piled into a truck and taken to the killing fields.

After, we walked around the bustling city for a bit, stopping by the Central Market and then sat on the riverside to people watch. We tried out Phnom Penh Indian for dinner (thanks Neeluz!) and it was delicious. Best garlic naan ever.

they would smash babies on this tree

The next day, we took a long ride through dusty streets to the Choeung Ek killing fields. We walked around for a few hours, listening to the audio tour. Just unbelievable how cruel people can be and that genocide has occurred so many times in history...

bracelets in remembrance of women/children

Tried a local fave for lunch - Beef Loc Lak. Very yummy, but only if you like peppercorn.

Next: 2 pm bus from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City. We considered flying but it was more than we wanted to spend and decided that we'd give Mekong Express another go.

Siem Reap: Part II

Day 3 in Siem Reap: We spent the afternoon at Ta Prohm, which unlike the the other Wats has been left in its original condition. Huge trees have sprung out from under the original buildings; it was my favorite of the three sites we went to in Siem Reap. We had planned to see the sunset at one of the hills but it was overcast every day we were there so the sunrise will have to do for this time around! Funnily enough, we had Mexican food for dinner and chatted it up with our waiter who told us about his life in Cambodia and how he makes ends meet.

On our last day in Siem Reap, we went back to Common Ground and to the National Museum which was very nicely done, highly recommend this to anyone going as it gives a comprehensive overview of Cambodian history without being boring. Afternoon break and hit the night market for our last round of shopping in Cambodia. Picked up a few t-shirts and a token item to remember my time in this country by. 

For dinner, we tried some local eats at a nice place across the river called Viroth's. Gorgeous setting and our extravagant meal was about $8 each. The local soup, kind of like a Tom Yum, was delicious. Cambodian food is unlike anything I've had before. Whereas Vietnamese food has a subtle but refreshing taste, Cambodian food has tasty, complex flavors that are hearty yet not heavy like Thai food. Will be on the lookout for a place in nyc.

6:30 am bus ride aboard the Mekong Bus Express to Phnom Penh next. 6 hours with locals and tourists on a bus. Should be interesting...

Siem Reap: Part I

From the moment we walked out the airport in Siem Reap (which means the flat defeat of Siam aka Thailand), I knew that I was going to absolutely love this country. The airport was clean and sleek, with touches of Asian art. The air and energy reminds me of India, but less crowded.

Our ride - motorcycle attached to a carriage

Dr Fish eating dead skin cells off my feet!

We were craving non-asian food so we found as air conditioned oasis called The Blue Pumpkin (Old Market location) had a delicious Mango Fruit Shake and some american food. We walked around the Old Market and Night Market. They both carry the same trinkets though the Old Market has meats and veggies and was  particularly foul smelling in those food sections. We found a small restaurant run by an Aussie and hung there to cool off. It's hot and humid here like Vietnam and Laos so we're constantly popping into cafes to have water or different sodas that are uncommon to us.

 For dinner we tried Khmer BBQ which is much like Korean BBQ but less tasty. We cooked our veggies (cabbage) and meats at a grill at our table with butter as the base. This came with a side of fried rice. Meat, veggies and rice. Pretty simple.

Since we are spending 4 days here, we devised a quick plan to see the sunrise and explore Angkor Wat  the next morning, take a lunch break, rest and head back to Angkor Thom in the evening.

Angkor Wat sunrise

Angkor Wat: 6 am sunrise. Stunning but smaller than the Taj Mahal. The temple is the middle while it is surround by huge moats, making it the largest Hindu temple complex in the world. We took the classic tourist pictures while the mosquitoes feasted on us. A tour guide approached us and we decided to go with it. He walked around with us for about an hour, told us about Angkor Wat and took some fun pictures. Some interesting facts - it means City Temple, was initially dedicated to Vishnu and then to Buddhism, and
faces west instead of east as most temples do which leads one to think it may be a funerary temple.

The temples are pretty worn down and has not been preserved that well. It seems that the aid of many foreign countries (Japan, Germany and France) are helping to restore parts of the complex though even if there were scaffolding up, there were no workers in sight on a weekday morning. Makes you wonder about how foreign aid is used and why the Cambodians aren't spending money to tidy up their cash cow of tourism.

For late breakfast, we hit up Common Ground, which is owned by People for Care & Learning (PCL). PCL seeks to serve the poor by providing opps for impoverished people to transform their lives through education, feeding centers, orphan/widow care and microfinance. Obviously I was excited to support a good cause, especially one that is close to my heart, in a very simple way. 

In the afternoon, after the most amazing lunch at Abacus, we went to Angkor Thom and walked around for a few hours. Apparently this was the location of many Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movie moments though not sure that they filmed on site.

On the way home, we were caught in a rain storm and asked the tuk tuk driver to let us be so were completely soaked during our ride home which was fun! Nothing like a random downpour, there's a calming beauty about it.

look for the faces

Sa bai dee from Luang Prabang

After two flights from Hoi An, we reached Luang Prabang, Laos in the evening. Most of the lights in the airport were turned off which was a bit creepy. We got our visas right before passport control for $36. Our hotel (or shall I say guesthouse) hadn't responded to our emails for pick-up so we bought a ticket and hopped into a taxi. Surprisingly, there's a formal system like in NYC which was a relief since getting ripped off was no longer an issue.

The last two days in the town have been chill yet eventful. Yesterday we walked around town and along the Mekong River which was very peaceful. Then I sent some postcards (to a lucky few whose addresses I could remember, sad to say that it wasn't as many as I would have liked!). Very curious to see how long the postcards take to get back to the US. Hit up a spa (Spa Garden) for a foot massage. The girl who worked on me, Meo, is a 19 year old girl studying law, who is the eldest of 7 children. She was very sweet and asked for my email address so we could become facebook friends!

On the Nam Khan River

Adventure #4: We had signed up for a Sunset Cruise on the Mekong River. Sounds nice right? Yeah, apparently we are the only ones who thought so. We showed up the tour office and they looked a bit confused to see us. So we showed them our tickets and they had a young man escort us to the boat. Except we literally did not exchange a word or know where he was taking us. We just followed. We tend to do that a lot here. He took us down a "death trap," meaning no stairs, huge incline and just dirt and rocks everywhere. I slipped a few times but managed to catch myself just in time. Dangerous! And once we got the boat, there was no one there but us. Private cruise for around $5.50 each. And to think, they must still be making a profit when there were only two of us on it. Ridiculous.

We hit up the infamous night market and night food stalls which starts at dusk and runs until about 10 pm. Bought a few things, ate some dinner and crashed since we had to wake up early today.

Today we took an hour ride outside of Luang Prabang in a tuk tuk, with two medical students from SF, for a morning exploring the Pak Ou Caves and then the Elephant Village. The Pak Ou Caves were nice and the steps to get there were steep. With the humidity, we are already melting each moment of the day, so some steps just made all the more worse. Can't say I'm not getting my exercise in!

 Adventure #5: Elephants. Het's elephant, Sir-Spits-A-Lot, didn't wait to start the tricks. He threw up a bunch of dirt all over Het and since he was on a sneezing fit it was even more of a mess. So for an hour, Sir Spits-A-Lot sneezed and sneezed and sneezed, all of it hitting Het in the face. Gross to have an elephants sneezy bits all over you. Mine did it a few times but not as much. To make the situation even more insane, right when we were about to finish up the ride, the elephants decided to walk through muddy water. And guess who got sprayed with muddy water all over? You got it, Het. What a ride, literally!

We will see some of the Wats today and go back to the night market. After that, off to Siem Reap tomorrow!

I heart Hoi An

We wrapped up our morning in Hanoi by visiting the Dong Xuan Market. The guidebooks recommended to cut the offered price by 50% and then settle at 70% of the original offer. But, for some reason the vendors in Hanoi  weren't so interested in battling it out like I've seen at markets all over the world. In which case, they won at the end because I bought what I wanted without using much of my negotiation skills.

And....off to Hoi An! Our hotel, which is a homestay, is divine. My room is a one bedroom bungalow, with a kitchen, living room and an outside shower! Shout out to The Shahs for an awesome recommendation! Service here (and in Vietnam in general) has been outstanding.

Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (seems like everything is these days!) and caters to tourists since they have been flocking here over the past 10 or so years. With colonial architecture, the buildings and shops are breathtaking. So glad we made it here even though its a bit out of the way but totally worth it.

We đid our part as tourists and ordered some custom made shoes! Dinner at Miss Ly's amazing restaurant - food was on point - White Rose  (dumpling with shrimp/meat in a light sauce) and Fried Wontons were delicious, in fact we may go back again for our last meal here. :)

Fried Wonton w/chicken and shrimp

The next day we took our bikes (regular for me and motorbike for Het) and pedaled/zoomed off to the daily Central Market. Visiting local markets are my favorite part of any trip because you get to see what the town is all about - and the pictures always come out nicely due to the environment.

For lunch, we tried the town's famous Cau Lau noodles at Morning Glory. Have to say, it wasn't my favorite. I think my heart was stolen by Hanoi's fresh rice noodles. Bun bo, yum.

Adventure #2 (of the trip): On the way back to the hotel, Het asked me to wait on the corner but for some reason that didn't register...so I pedaled off. The hotel's about 15 minutes from town so I expected to get there last. After about 10 minutes of waiting and worrying,  I started feeling bad about not waiting to see if everything was ok before i bolted. Back down to town and found each other at the starting point. Turns out that we were both looking for each other...for 45 minutes. Relieved, we headed back and changed for dinner and our cooking class.

We hit up the shoe store before and realized that our class was on the other side of tơwn and it was time to book it! And course, we got lost and it started to raining and the brakes on my bike don't work so well... Adventure #3! We finally found the place and even though the place is Red Bridge's cooking school, classes are held at the Cafe around the corner from the shoe store! So yeah...we laughed it off, took some pictures of the red bridge and head back to the hotel. Lost each other again along the way, 5 minute recovery this time. Dropped our bikes and took a taxi into town for a non-Vietnamese meal at Cargo, overlooking the river on the rooftop balcony.

Quite a day! And happy to say that we got through it in good spirits despite the miscommunication and worries. Planning to check out the beautiful Hoi An beaches tomorrow and pick up our shoes from town.

A day in Hanoi

We started the day with a visit to the Hanoi Prison which was an interesting experience. For some reason, it was hard to get the thought of men and women walking around this prison just a few decades ago out of my head. Men were all shackled to one platform in one room, and to recreate this they had statues in the rooms. It was too real for me. The Prison had much to say about America and Vietnam's perspective during the war. Random but John McCain had been in this prison at some point as well.

After we walked over to the French Quarter, saw the Opera House, the Hanoi Stock Exchange and passed the Hoan Kiem Lake which is in the center of the city. We grabbed lunch at an authentic spot in the Old Quarter - it was all locals and us :)

My lunch: Bun Bo, fresh rice noodles w/herbs and spices topped with beef and crispy fried garlic. 

yummy and less than $2!

We tried to go to the local market but everyone was packing up when we got there so will be heading back first thing tomorrow before our flight to Hoi An!

Hanoi and Ha Long Bay?

After a 24 hour journey, we arrived safely on Sunday evening! Had some luggage issues in that my friend's luggage was ripped/damaged but Cathay was able to take care of it for us.

 Woke up early this morning and boarded the bus for a 4 hour ride to Ha Long Bay for our first junk cruise on the Dragon's Pearl! After an 8 course seafood lunch (clams, oysters, crabs, etc) we were told that there was a typhoon watch and we wouldn't be able to stay on the boat overnight as planned :( They took us to a cave and to a beach for about an hour and then we headed back to the harbor. Another 4 hour bus ride later, we got into Hanoi and finally our new hotel. The cruise people were able to secure a hotel room for us which was nice and very helpful. We are officially calling this Adventure #1.So, unexpected but we now have a full day to explore Hanoi.

Looking forward to finally seeing some of Vietnam and to not be on any planes or buses tomorrow!

And that's a wrap!

Last night, I read through the girls emails telling me more about themselves. The stories are inspirational - being the first in their family to be educated, losing parents at an early age with no where to go, taking care of a large family with an income of a teacher, and one girl has hopes of becoming a doctor. All of this reminded me of my family's story, which is very similar to many of these women.

This morning, I began with my story. It seemed only fair since they had so kindly and openly shared theirs with me.

My grandmother married at 11, had her first child at 13, had 10 children (1 passed away early on), lost her husband when her last child was 2 months, and managed to raise 9 beautiful and wildly successful children. All starting from a village in Bangladesh. My parents were the first in my family to immigrate to the United States, hence I was the first to be raised and be fully educated abroad.

Initially, I asked the Camfed manager (who bears a strong resemblance to Bailey from Greys Anatomy) to tell it for me, worrying that the girls wouldn't understand me. She encouraged me to try as it would be more genuine coming from me. When I finished, there was a round of applause! Not gonna lie, I almost lost my marbles for a moment. Got it together before anyone noticed and charged forward with another typing exercise!

They spent the morning writing about what they learned, how they will apply their new computer skills in their lives and each told me how much their confidence has grown from Day 1. It was amazing to see each girl stand up and speak, projecting their voices and looking proud.

The filming guy arrived in the morning. My coworker and I were both interviewed, as well as some of the girls. We'll be given about 3 minutes of air time on CNBC showcasing my company's initiative and the work we have done in Tamale, Ghana.

We wrapped up with internet exercises and email. Then the women gave me some lovely notes that they had written which was accompanied by a heartwarming speech. Let me tell you, some of these women speak like they belong on the news (but they carry emotion in their voices). Just brilliant.

Group shot


Overall, it was a great experience and am very grateful to have been able to come to Ghana to spend time with these confident and ambitious young women. I wish each of them the best and hope to keep in touch via email.

Thank you for reading, I know this was a long one :)

She said to me "Take a picture and show people how we carry our babies in Africa"

Day 3: a BIG day

As the title says, today was a BIG day in many ways.

In the morning, the internet was only working in the other room, so we decided to swap rooms after lunch to give both groups a chance at setting up email addresses.

We began with another re-cap exercise. Then I showed them powerpoint and excel which was a huge challenge since they were just getting the hang of word.

After lunch, just as I was beginning to feel extremely challenged at the task of repeating myself 15 times per exercise, repeating myself 15 times per exercise...oops, the habit will take a while to go away after i'm back so beware.

Well anyway, after lunch, the girls threw me a bone and told me that they wanted to take pictures with me which felt like a major breakthrough! Maybe the attempt at relationship building actually worked? Or they are just buttering me up so they can have some pictures of themselves. Either way, I'll take it!

I promised them I'd upload the pictures to my computer tonight so I can transfer them to their USBs tomorrow. Its the most excited I've seen them! Ah the little things. :)

At the end of the day, everyone has email though they don't all quite understand how to work it and have been introduced to all of the Microsoft Office applications they need to know.

Review, review, review tomorrow and of course, the filming.

One of my coworkers advanced students ridiculous drawing on Paint


this one speaks for itself

Day 2 of training: Internet and email?

Had a nice chat with my dad yesterday and he reminded me that I need to spend time on adapting to the culture and understanding more about the trainees and who they are. He's right and so that's what I focused on doing today.

The women struggle to understand me because I speak too fast and in an intonation that doesn't register for them. When I speak to them as a group, very few understand what I'm saying. Sometimes one of the managers from Camfed steps in and repeats everything I've said and then they all nod. Ha.

Today began with asking for feedback...which of course could not be an american style blatant question type of way. So, my approach was to have them write down their fave part of Day 1 training, what they wanted to learn on Day 2 and what they felt comfortable doing after Day 1. Then I asked for volunteers to share their thoughts and each one of them wanted to speak! Learned that they LOVED typing.

With the internet working sparingly in the morning, I had them write some "emails" in Word and we worked on using the Mouse (Mouserobics is a great tool!). The whole day was spent on my feet, going from person to person, answering questions. Exhausting but fulfilling! Felt like I made some good progress today, especially with the ones that were behind yesterday. Saying "Good job!" goes a long way! Loved seeing the proud smiles on their faces.

The last exercise of the day was to write me an email telling me about themselves, their lives and their stories. Can't wait to read about where these women are from. To me, that will be one of most interesting parts of this week.

They are eager to use the internet tomorrow and especially to set up facebook accounts. Though I'm not sure how I feel about spending class time on that so we probably won't....