Flying

A series of miracles got us to Accra, and smoothly I might add. Our passports arrived a day early--I still haven't figured out how they got from DC to Salt Lake in less than 24 hours. The Salt Lake airport was almost closed due to bad weather, but we took off just in time. Our flight wasn't grounded in Memphis; we passed through without any problems. And it looks like the Amsterdam airport is clearing out very quickly.

I'm sitting in a cramped airplane seat, flying over the Atlantic in the middle of the night. All I can see when I look out the window is a white half moon. In a way I feel like an astronaut -- flying across an empty place; the earth is far below; nothing to distract me from my thoughts, because I'm not actually in the world right now. I find when I'm on a plane that my mind automatically drifts to the problems of the world. I feel more focused up here. I'm reading the new classics of poverty alleviation: The Bottom Billion and Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. A classmate & fellow traveler doze next to me. The Amsterdam-bound Europeans stare around in a bored, travel-weary way. I'm sure they're glad to be ending their vacations & finally getting back home, given the airport closures of the last week.

I'm always surprised by the awkward combination of boredom and excitement I feel when traveling on a plane. I guess airports are a very anticlimactic way to begin a trip. I'm actually going to a new continent; this magical place I've read about for months; but all airports are basically the same. You sit for hours at a time in a numb state of purgatory, punctuated by brief moments of mild panic: "What if I miss my connection?" "What if my bags don't arrive?" "Will they ground us somewhere strange and cancel our flight?" But for the most part this trip is like any other trip--uneventful. And for once, I'm glad.

I can't get David Bowie's "Space Oddity" out of my head.

Bureaucracy Blues

We've been really anxious over this Iceland thing. Most of the flights in Europe have been grounded for five days because of a lingering cloud of caustic volcanic ash from a volcanic explosion in Iceland. These Icelandic volcanos aren't very nice: a few hundred years ago one went off and the resulting worldwide famine caused the French Revolution. The last time this particular one blew was in the 1820's, and there was no summer that year.

So it blew again last week and European officials instantly closed down the airspace over most of Western Europe. Here's the problem: they never actually tested the ash to see if it would harm planes. Five days later they run test flights and discover that there probably wasn't a need for the ban. Millions of people have been stranded for almost a week; the airline industry has lost over a billion dollars now, and countless businesses from Kenya to Nebraska have been strained or even ruined from this little mistake. Now that the bureaucrats have realized their mistake, it still might not be until Friday until they pull their heads out and get flights fully moving again.

We are flying out tomorrow (Wednesday) at 1:00 pm, with layovers in Memphis and Amsterdam before arriving in Accra. There's a high possibility that we'll be grounded in Memphis for a few days. I'd much prefer Pediatorkope to Tennessee, I'll tell you.

We thought that was the only headache to worry about, but it turns out bureaucracy is everywhere: in order to travel to Ghana you need to pay $50 to apply for a tourist visa. You mail your passport to the Ghanaian embassy in DC, and then they stamp it and mail it back. We sent our applications to the BYU travel office weeks ago, but just found out that they sat on them until it was too late. They paid the fees to rush our applications, but the Ghanaian embassy is backlogged with paperwork right now and says they won't be sending our visas back until this morning (Tuesday). So they will hopefully be arriving tomorrow or the next day, and I have to get on the plane tomorrow. If this delays my flight, I don't know if I'll be able to get on standby or rebook.

This whole week I've been praying that the volcano would stop its antics: turns out I should have been praying for bureaucrats to do their jobs--an even more impossible request.

How NOT to Pitch an Idea

I had an interesting experience today. For the last few weeks I have been talking with a friend about ideas he had for the BYU Experimental Theater Company. Yesterday we were tossing around some thoughts, and we had an epiphany: why don't we turn this club into a student-run immersion program? It could be structured like a real production company, have industry experts on the board to guide us along, and students could take it as a capstone class and gain real experience producing a play. This would round out their skillset and make them more marketable once they are looking for a job.

It's a very feasible idea: the PR department at BYU formed a real PR firm that is run by the students. They complete projects for real clients and gain valuable experience. The PR department was recently ranked in the top five programs nationwide. I am on the executive team for Grantwell, a mock-foundation housed within the Romney Institute that gives students great experience in foundation work, as we complete consulting projects for real foundations. Heck, the student newspaper is run the same way. This is not a new concept.

We put together a proposal and met with the rest of the ETC student board today. I was expecting an overwhelming response, pats on the back, maybe some cheering. I mean, we were pretty much saving the world here. This was a no-brainer decision.

They hated it.

Really hated it.

"We can't make it a class, because the faculty members have too much to do already." "We can't call this a professional theater company, because BYU would have major problems with that." "The department already teaches this stuff: you just have to fill out a proposal and get special mentoring." "I'm talented enough to get a job, I don't care about production." "This completely changes ETC and we don't like that", etc.

I was amazed by how quickly, unanimously, and violently they opposed our idea, until I realized that we had made the mistake, not them. We were dumping a complicated-looking new program on them without showing how it fulfilled their own goals. We also made the mistake of pushing a full-scale program with no warning, on a group of people who were already overwhelmed by the complexity of their current organization.

In the future, here what we should do differently:

1) Highlight what everyone wants to get out of this.

"We want to learn how to produce plays, not just act in them."

2) Describe the problem briefly.

"We do all these student activities but still don't have marketable skills to get a job after graduation."

3) Touch upon the main point of the solution.

"We should create an organization that looks and runs like a professional production company. That way, we graduate already having real experience."

4) Reinforce the idea's feasibility.

"Many departments on campus have used this model successfully. We can learn what worked for them and duplicate their methods."

5) Only introduce the initial tactical points.

"We can start slow, by finding someone in the industry who can help us build the right organizational structure. We will need to change the way we brand ourselves, but we'll mostly be doing business as usual in our day-to-day operations."

6) Outline a brief vision of what the organization could become down the road.

"Eventually, we could be an official capstone experience for theater students. We would be widely recognized and students would want to apply to our department, because of what we do here. We would place more graduates in prestigious jobs, and they could come back and make the company even better."

I wish things had gone better this morning, but I learned a valuable lesson, and hopefully won't repeat this mistake again.

Ghana Plans: Pediatorkope

I've been so distracted by Ghana plans lately that it's hard to focus on school. I'm really excited about a new addition to our trip plans: some of us decided to fly out a few days early and stay a few days late for a layover in Amsterdam. We had been juggling a few options: stay a few days in Kumasi, go up to Tamale and do a walking safari in Mole National Park, or maybe cross the border to Togo or Ivory Coast (not very feasible given visa hassles).

My wonderful uncle Ben suggested a great idea: why don't we just hunker down in a village for a few relaxing days and get to know the people and their lifestyle. It sounds like a wonderful idea--we had been getting a little stressed out arranging the details: if we went to Tamale that involved an 11-hour bus ride plus 3-4 additional hours to Mole. It would have been expensive and stressful.

Ben suggested the island of Pediatorkope. It lies at the confluence of the Volta river and the Atlantic Ocean, about two hours east of Accra. I found a few pictures of the island, and it sounds like a tropical paradise: mango groves on the edge of the river; colorful canoes plying the water, going from island to island in the river delta; the locals live in thatch huts; the women pound fufu and the men fish. There are a few nonprofits operating in the area--we'd be able to visit with them and learn more about what it's like to operate in West Africa. There's a little church on the island, so we could hold a service there on Sunday.

As I constructed this romantic picture of life in the village, I started to see difficulties they face: the Volta River is very polluted, teeming with typhoid, hepatitis, and other exotic diseases; the Akosombo Dam has significantly lowered water levels and fish populations downriver; the people live in poverty and have no power or light.

I am very curious to see what village life is like. We will be staying with families there, probably sleeping on concrete under mosquito nets. We'll eat whatever they eat (and hopefully not get sick), go fishing, explore the islands by canoe, sing with the kids, pound fufu, and learn how to cook.

I'm so excited to go, but I wonder if my current lifestyle is too cushy--I don't know how I'll be able to sleep on concrete, in stifling heat, under a stuffy mosquito net. I probably can't even deal with 20 hours of jetlag. I hope I don't get malaria, or typhoid, or food poisoning.

I'm conditioning myself to sleep on the floor. It's kind of pathetic. I took a nap on the couch yesterday and afterward my hips ached because I didn't have a pillow between my knees. How will I live for a week (or good portions of a month) without a pillow? I guess I have some toughening-up to do.

Packing List for Ghana

I'm starting to feel better from the crazy vaccines this weekend. I'm still really tired, and when I sweat I smell like...typhoid, but I think I'm mostly out of the woods.

I'm getting excited about the stuff I'll need to bring. I guess it's the Boy Scout in me--I like to pack for a trip. I'm trying to be well-prepared but also pack light, and do it on a budget. That can be either the perfect storm for a traveler or a very fun activity.

I had a birthday yesterday (yeah, I'm getting old) and had a few bucks of birthday money to blow on fun stuff. Alisha and I decided to go shopping for Ghana stuff. We first went to Missionary Mall to get ideas about what we would need. The prices there were pretty high, so we made a list and drove down the street to Walmart. We were able to get most of the things on our list at Walmart for half the price.

Thanks go out to my Uncle Ben for many of these ideas.

Here's my list so far. It will probably grow over the next two weeks, but hopefully not by much:

Microfiber towel -- like a shammy; compact, absorbent, and much smaller than a cotton towel. $29.95 at Missionary Mall, $3.95 at Walmart.

Crank LED Flashlight -- Small, clips to your backpack, and requires no batteries or replacement bulbs. $10.95 at Walmart. Ghana is pitch-black at night, and even on the grid there are frequent rolling blackouts.

Twin Sheet -- You will probably end up staying in some interesting places. It's nice to have a little control over what you sleep on. $4.99 at Walmart.

Composition Notebook -- I call the oreo notebooks. They're the perfect journal: inexpensive, easy to lug around, and you can get lined, graph, or unlined versions. $.89 at Walmart

Immodium Plus -- when you leave the U.S., plain Immodium won't do. Take them before you need them.

Baby Wipes -- Sometimes you won't be able to shower, and wipes will be your best friend. You also want these around to wipe off the little bags of drinking water before you tear them open.

Universal Adapter -- a must whenever traveling, unless you don't intend on plugging anything into a wall. $18.99 at Walmart.

Culture Smart: Ghana -- I'm looking for a good guidebook to the culture. This one seems to be the most popular. Haven't made my decision yet. $5.43 on Amazon.com

Bradt Guide: Ghana -- Supposedly the best guidebook. $11.59 on half.com

Security Belt/wallet -- I'm on the fence about this. It's a belt you wear under your clothes that holds your money and credit cards. They're kind of awkward to use, but I guess they can keep your stuff fairly secure. $9.95 at Walmart.

Water Purification Tablets -- You can usually buy bottled water anywhere you go (or those little cachets of water), but I figure these might come in handy. I read a list somewhere of all the stuff in the water over there (typhoid, yellow fever, sleeping sickness, raw sewage etc.) and I'm not dying to ingest it anytime soon.

Ghana pt.1: Vaccinations

My Ghana experience has officially started. I'm still in the states, but I'm sick as a dog. I guess fate is giving me a booster shot of reality. I got vaccinated the other day. After a few weeks of phone calls, waiting lists, and a little panic I was finally able to squeeze in to the student health clinic. The nurse rattled off a list of recommended vaccines, had me read a sheaf of laminated information sheets about various diseases, and I made my selection from the menu. It felt like an exotic sadistic restaurant:

"I'll take Yellow Fever, Typhoid, and the new-and-improved tetanus booster."

"Are you sure you don't want Polio? You're at high risk of Polio in Sub-Saharan Africa."

"No, I'll take my chances. I don't have the money."

"Ok. Take the Typhoid pills home and keep them in the refrigerator. Slight pinch. Don't allow them to freeze or get too hot. Don't expose them to light. Don't eat or exercise an hour before or after taking the pill. Don't take antibiotics or steroids for the next week. And go immediately to the ER if you have any reactions. This vaccination contains live Typhoid. Slight pinch again…"

I could tell that the nurse had done this hundreds, if not thousands of times. I'm sure it takes a certain skill to repeat a memorized script while injecting a person with multiple live diseases. I was glad for her nonchalance; it kept my mind off the fact that my body was now full of African diseases, and there was nothing I could do to stop whatever they would do to me in the next week. I shut those thoughts out of my mind long enough to stop by the pharmacy, pick up my Typhoid and four weeks worth of antimalarials and Immodium. I am now ready to survive Africa…I think.

Later on that day I started to feel flu symptoms. I had read on the yellow laminated sheet that 25% of people receiving the Yellow Fever vaccine actually catch a minor form of the illness (and I stress minor--full-blown Yellow Fever kills you 50% of the time). I thought little of it and went to bed.

I woke up Thursday morning with hives on my arms and legs. My skin felt hot and itchy, like I had slept on an anthill. I panicked, downed a few Benadryl, and drove to the Health Center. $25 and ten minutes later I was told to be careful and keep taking Benadryl (thanks doc), and went back home. The hives cleared up and I thought nothing of it. By this time I was having a bad flu. All my muscles ached and I could barely move. No matter what I did my feet and legs were cold. I put on some sweats, crawled under three blankets, and went to sleep.

I woke up later that afternoon completely covered in angry, red hives. My skin was raised like a bad sunburn and looked like some kind of map. The itching was agony, and my skin had swollen so much it felt like it could rupture. I popped more Benadryl, made a few frantic calls to the Health Center, and was told to go into the ER. I'm not a fan of the ER. I usually feel like an idiot for going there, and it's so expensive. I decided to wait it out, and sure enough, after 45 minutes the Benadryl kicked in and the hives started to go away.

I woke up this morning with just a few hives and the flu has mostly gone away. I think I survived my first brush with Africa, but it was brutal.

Kiva.org and the Pre-disbursement Problem: Bait-and-Switch or Necessary Evil?

Matthew and Jessica Flannery founded Kiva.org with a groundbreaking idea: combining microfinance and social networking to open up a vast new capital market by allowing individuals to connect and make loans to one another. The human connection was the selling point of Kiva, and the idea was wildly successful. Problems arose recently when Kiva revealed that lenders are not necessarily making loans directly to the profiled individual on the site. Loans are actually pre-disbursed to the applicant long before information is uploaded to Kiva. The capital provided by lenders serves to back the loan, but most probably goes to a different applicant. This issue brings up a fundamental question that all public institutions must answer: is it ethical to mislead people if you are accomplishing a greater good?

Other nonprofits have experienced painful lessons after choosing to deceive the public for the greater good. In 1980, Save The Children, a 90-year-old international organization, was involved in a scandal[1] when funding designated for specific children was reallocated to other development projects. The Red Cross came under fire in 2001, when auditors discovered that a majority of the Liberty fund raised for 9/11 victims was reserved for other general Red Cross needs[2]. The public was not forgiving: after an investigation by then NY Attorney General Elliott Spitzer, Red Cross President Bernadine Healy was forced to resign.

On 2 October 2009, David Roodman posted an article[3] on his microfinance blog about Kiva’s pre-disbursement policy, accusing the organization of misleading lenders by overstating the potential for personal connections on the site. “In short, the person-to-person donor-to-borrower connections created by Kiva are partly fictional. I suspect that most Kiva users do not realize this. Yet Kiva prides itself on transparency.” He follows by explaining that pre-disbursement is a necessary and beneficial policy, allowing Kiva to serve a large volume of customers while bypassing the lengthy waiting period normally required for peer lending.

Despite the logical rationale for pre-disbursement, Roodman’s article caused a large backlash in the internet community against Kiva: many people felt that they had been misled when they visited the site, connected emotionally to a specific applicant, and then made a loan that they believed would benefit that individual. While Kiva claims that they value transparency, site visitors will not discover the pre-disbursement policy unless they do some significant investigation. Visitors who briefly skim the text on the site before proceeding directly to the profiles will view statements like this:

“we are using the power of the internet to facilitate one-to-one connections that were previously prohibitively expensive.”[4]

“Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend to unique entrepreneurs around the globe.”

These claims give the impression that Kiva is attempting to minimize the likelihood of site visitors discovering the pre-disbursement policy. Many argue that Kiva should continue to maintain what they term a minor deception in order to function smoothly and deliver as much social value as it can. These comments overlook a glaring problem: Kiva has eliminated a significant portion of its core selling point, and widespread awareness of this issue may have significant negative ramifications. A New York Times article[5] stated it bluntly: “the direct person-to-person connection Kiva offered was in fact an illusion.”

Many now fear that this problem will eventually spell the end of Kiva, despite the near-universal support that Kiva has experienced. Without the personal connection, donors are better off using services like Microplace, where they can at least make a return on their investments. Many hope that Kiva will find a way to be both transparent and successful, but this may require drastic changes. While Kiva may experience a short-term decrease in capital volume by being completely upfront about the practice, they could avert a systemic failure by reinventing themselves.

A worst-case scenario is most likely if Kiva continues to promote the illusion of peer-to-peer lending. Innovations in the last four years have created a clear public demand for a social-media solution to humanitarian aid, and if Kiva is not able to revive itself with a new model, other organizations most likely will. We can only hope that Kiva will continue to utilize its market position in new ways[6].

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[1] http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/nonprofit/2009/11/minor-kivaorg-scandal.html

[2] http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/11/06/rec.charity.hearing/

[3] http://blogs.cgdev.org/open_book/2009/10/kiva-is-not-quite-what-it-seems.php

[4] http://www.kiva.org/about

[5] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/business/global/09kiva.html

[6] Some sites like Babyloan.org have even stuck to the direct peer-lending model, despite the delay between application posting and loan disbursement.