Travel | Codiwompler

3 Days in Nicaragua – 2022.06.03

June 3, 2022

Our shuttle picked us up at 3:30 AM, yes, 3:30 AM and drove us directly to the coastal town of La Union, El Salvador. We arrived around 7 AM, and waited about 1.5 hours in which time we also went through immigration (to exit El Salvador).

At about 8:30 or so we walked out onto the pier and boarded a boat to cross the Gulf of Fonseca from El Salvador to Nicaragua. The boat ride was about 3 hours, with beautiful weather and some great views. Upon crossing the border into Nicaragua, which was in the middle of the gulf, we had to put on life jackets. (I guess the risk of capsizing in Nicaragua than El Salvador. Or perhaps swimming becomes more difficult on the Nicaragua side of the gulf. 😊)

We beached at the village of Potosi, Nicaragua. It was fun to enter the country by walking up the beach from the boat. On shore they made a thorough manual search of our luggage before allowing us to walk up to the immigration office. It took perhaps an hour for the Nicaragua immigration process, but it didn’t matter since our shuttle hadn’t arrived by the time we finished. The shuttle drove us to León where we rented a car. (The alternative was a 110 USD private car to Rivas, so I considered the cheaper two-day car rental a steal in comparison.) Of course, by the time we were driving away with the car we didn’t have sufficient time to catch the ferry we were hoping anyway, so we adjusted plans and headed for Granada, Nicaragua instead.

In the morning, we woke up an went for a walk around town. It had a stereo typical Central American feel with some beautiful parks and splendid cathedrals. It was great to walk around except for the staggeringly littered Lake Nicaragua shoreline. Really? The cause is obvious as we repeatedly saw Nicaraguans just throw trash to the ground, but why they weren’t bothered by it was baffling.

Following our walk I worked for a few hours before we packed up an headed to the ferry to travel to the world’s biggest fresh water island, Ometepe. Unfortunately, we missed the first boat trying to figure out our plans so we didn’t actually catch the ferry (leaving out car parked at the dock) till 2:30 PM – at a total cost of approximately 10 USD for both of us. The boat, however, took a full hour to go the 6-9 miles. At this point we adjusted our plans to catch the 4 PM return ferry leaving only half an hour on Ometepe. Obviously, while not enough to do anything significant but we quickly walked up to the Iglesia Católica Santa Ana, and then, in my wisdom, I casually directed us to purchase some ice cream. My thinking was the surely the boat had arrived late and couldn’t possibly unload and reload in 30 minutes. It turns out, I was wrong. By the time we were back at the dock the boat ramp had lifted off of the ramp. Not deterred, I ran and jumped all the while yelling at Benjamin to do the same. He stopped making the gap longer. I called again for him to jump and he came to his senses and jumped. For some reason, the boat attendants were less than impressed but hey, we made it so.

Upon reaching shore again we quickly went to the car and started the 2.5-hour drive to Masaya Volcano. We arrived after dark and within 45 minutes of closing. Again, I had stopped for food – Nicaraguan Franga – on the drive. Benjamin decided to be principled and stay away from street food which meant I had to eat his portions. Sheesh! Now I must also fear his potential Ï-told-you-so tomorrow if the food plays shenanigans with my stomach.

We were able to look down into the caldera and see the magma bubbling below. This was my first time seeing molten rock (either magma or lava) and it was very cool. I was pretty excited that we had made it.

From the volcano we decided to make the drive all the way back to León at night. This was considerably faster than the journey since there was far less traffic and there are no police at night (and very few during the day as well). We arrived at our hotel by 10:15 and headed for bed. Another great day with a little adventure and some cool sights to boot.

The next morning, we drove to see the Santa Ana volcano. Benjamin took some drone shots before we heading back to León. Next up was haircuts and then a walking tour of León. In addition to seeing a few sites, our tour guide shared about revolutionary history of Nicaragua along with the 21^st century circumstances under Daniel Noriega’s dictatorship and repression. I appreciated his teaching on the failed 2018 student uprising. It was especially interesting to contrast it with our host, who had a belief that not all societies are cut out for democracy until they reach a certain level of education and sophistication. A level that she didn’t believe Nicaragua had reached yet. (See Nas Daily’s, Why Democracy Isn’t Working video for additional thoughts on the topic.)

On the roof of Cathedral-Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By this time we had heard though tour 3:30 AM shuttle back to El Salvador through Honduras was delayed until morning, giving us another night in León and potentially some time in the morning as well. When we finally did leave, it was 11 AM.

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Posted by markmichaelis

GiveDirectly Impact – Questions and Impressions Following Rwanda 2022 Visit

April 27, 2022

My initial attraction to GiveDirectly, and why IntelliTect decided to support them last year, was the studies they did at the onset to show the positive impact of the cash transfers and verification that, in fact, recipients overwhelmingly made positive choices in what to do with the money. Rather than drinking, drugs, or gambling, the recipients chose to purchase a cow, roof, health insurance, a child’s education, home improvements, or something equally worthwhile. Overwhelmingly, the recipients net worth and quality of life improved significantly. During my visit this tip, it was a blessing to be able to see their gratitude, excitement, and accept their thank-yous. While I only visited four or five households this week, I came away with a strong confirmation that these recipients were exceedingly grateful for the cash transfers and that they were not making unhealthy choices about how to spend the funds. In fact, in the Miller, their choice was especially strategic (at least in terms of income generation).

The GiveDirectly team I met with is relatively young and eager about the mission of GD. Everyone had a college/university degree (the academic discipline of the degree didn’t really matter to GD which makes sense to me). Furthermore, based on the team I interacted with, they were all good hires – meaning the GD employees were hard working, believed in the mission, were thoughtful, and eager to improve. In Rwanda, like Uganda, having a degree doesn’t guarantee you a good job, so GD gets to choose the best applicants. (That said, Rwandan unemployment figures are extremely low – less than 2% – which seems very suspicious.)

Two question areas remain, however, and I’m grateful for the ongoing discussion with GiveDirectly as they help me to resolve them:

Is income improved over time and by how much?
GD’s goal is that people would escape extreme poverty. However, remarkably, they don’t have any data/studies to show this is, in fact, achieved. I’m very surprised by this given my initial evaluation of them at the onset of IntelliTect’s donations was that they were data and research driven. As a result, the following questions arise:

After five years (for example) have recipient households escaped out of extreme poverty? GiveDirectly doesn’t have any data to say that they do.
What is the percentage of increased income?
One study in Uganda, which GD provided for me, shows that over twelve years income goes up a total of 17% (I assume this is after inflation as inflation alone in that time period would be more than 25%). A recipient who started at 1 USD/day would, therefore, be earning less than 1.20/day after 12 years. Another study in Kenya concluded that, “At four years, the families that received GiveDirectly’s cash were not meaningfully better off than control families.”
- What is a family’s income to start? (Seemingly, GD was not gathering this information in their census – at least for the one I participated in?)
- What is a family’s income after five years (and more)?

Why had GD not been measuring income improvement both before and at a significant amount of time after, in fact why wasn’t it one of their main measures? One obvious reason for not measuring a long time afterwards would be cost, but surely this is the very purpose of the donations and, therefore, you should verify it is working in the long term – even given the expense. At a minimum, use Rwandan government provided data and verify it with sampling.
The other organizations I met with during my East Africa visit learned that training in personal financial, gender sensitization, marital conflict (especially when money become available), and income generation were critical to escaping poverty. What was GD doing such that this training wasn’t needed and how did they verify it?
I have no doubt that net worth and quality of life improved with cash transfers (even perhaps after five years though I haven’t looked for the research to support this). How do you measure effectiveness of poverty alleviation when considering increased income versus net worth & quality of life improvements?

Why is GiveDirectly’s detection of household conflict 10% of the Rwandan wide figures of domestic GBV in the last 12 months?

Why was GD’s detection on conflict across their clients (~2%) so vastly different from UN Women’s (at the time of this writing, 20% experiencing GBV over the 12 months)?
How much was the emphasis to not have conflict presented during the community meeting skewing their ability to detect the conflict?
Surely GBV was included in what GD considered conflict or, was it not a significant factor in determining who should receive cash transfers? If not, why not?
If GBV was not conflict enough to disqualify a household from receiving a cash transfer, what conflicts were significant to disqualify them (however rarely)?

Why does GiveDirectly’s overhead reporting differ from GiveWell’s evaluation on them?

GiveDirectly claims their “overhead” is less than 10% and yet GiveWell’s evaluation (and by the way, GiveWell rates them extremely well as an organization) shows their overhead as 17%?

GiveDirectly’s response to my email on this topic stated (and is consistent with their website):

The discrepancy boils down to a difference in calculation. We calculate efficiency as Cash transfers ÷ [Cash transfers + cost of delivery] which historically comes to ~90%. GiveWell calculates it as “Cash grants make up 83.0% of GiveDirectly’s all-time incurred expenses.” The difference is that we break out our measures into two distinct business systems, (1) cash transfers and (2) fundraising to deliver as cash, with a core performance metric for each; whereas GiveWell groups them all together.

I’m concerned about this for multiple reasons.

The most significant is that they receive money that is restricted to a specific expense category (namely fundraising) rather than the generally preferably unrestricted donation. And, as such, they credit the donations from you or me as going directly to the recipient (well, except for transferring the money). In other words, while generally restricted funds are less preferable, because GiveDirectly has restricted funds for fundraising and they are crediting themselves as having a lower overhead for your or my donations than everyone else even though, in fact, their fundraising is nothing special, it is just that the unrestricted funds that you or I are donating, are not going towards fundraising (or perhaps even overhead).
GiveDirectly’s fundraising may not be particularly good but they are playing by different rules so, on their website, they look better than other organizations website shows the fundraising as a normal cost. This seems suspiciously disingenuous – and hard to decipher – and outside the spirit of truth in reporting. Help me understand?

Questions:

When, on their website, GiveDirectly doesn’t include their fundraising costs in the measure of giving efficiency and yet compares themselves to other organizations, are they subtracting the fundraising costs from other organizations metrics?
Where does overhead, such as the cost of management cost or accounting, fit in their spending report?
What makes GiveDirectly special such that they believe that not reporting the cost of fundraising the same as everyone else is acceptable? Is it simply that they have a donation restricted to fundraising? What if everyone did the same, would we end up with more truth or less?

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Visiting GiveDirectly’s Recipients (East Africa Day 12: 2022-04-25)

April 25, 2022

Tonight we fly home, Kigali->Entebbe->Amsterdam->Seattle->Spokane. A total of around 30 hours. Before that, however, we get to go meet with some of the specific households that IntelliTect supported with their donations to GiveDirectly(GD) in 2021. It’s about a 4-hour drive to the village of Gitwa, and we will only be able to stay about an hour before heading back, but none the less, it provides an opportunity to hear first hand about the impact.

Upon arriving in Gitwa, we first went to the government village officers where we met with the section head. He had one of his staff present the impact on the community, using PowerPoint and a projector, comparing before and afterwards.

The impact included:

100 percent of the households had purchased government health insurance (no doubt a government encouraged purchase)
100 percent of the households had electricity – supporting a minimum power equivalent to three lightbulbs
The vast majority owned a cow (another strongly government encouraged purchase)
<more data to come>

After the presentation we got to wonder around the community and I was asked to select any household I would like to visit. Note, as your read these description, they are each anecdotes. They can’t be used to measure overall success of the GD program. None the less, I was encouraged, blessed even, by the interactions.

The Miller – Mugabe Moise

The first building we came to was a flour mill and the owner, Mugabe Moise, was outside. Prior to GD he was renting flour mill equipment and leveraging some training he had attended. Using the cash transfer, he purchase the flour mill equipment, and a second one, outright. He was paying ~5 USD/day for the electricity to run the mill and about 15 USD/month for maintenance. In addition, he seemingly employed one person to run the mills. As a result, he calculated his net profit at the equivalent of 5 USD/day, significantly higher than the 1.90 USD/day ppp value set as the extreme poverty delineator. (Although, I confess I didn’t find how many, if any others, in his household he was supporting.) This was clearly a success story. I suspect he was very likely already above or trending above the poverty line even before the GD money, but regardless, it was a huge success and I’m excited about what the future holds for this gentleman.

The Excited Widow – Musabyimana

This woman, Musabyimana, was so excited she invited us into her home. In the corner was a small wooden bench standing on it side. She explained that before receiving the money, that was the only furniture she had. Now, she had this wonderful set, and the bicycle. She also had a cow and an additional room she had added on for where to put her next cow.

The Farmers – Everist Niyonzima, his wife Uwanyirigira Anne Marie, and their grandchild

This family, Everist Niyonzima, his wife Uwanyirigira Anne Marie, and their grand daughter had peas that were drying on a cloth outside. They said they were for themselves but if they every had excess produce, they would sell it. It didn’t seem like they had any steady source of income and they were seemingly living off of subsistence farming. Their grand daughter lived with them as she was a surprise and so this couple was helping out their daughter.

One of the things they purchased with the cash transfer was a new corrugated iron roof. While they were incredibly grateful for the money, it was hard to gather what they had spent it on and the impact it had made.

(When we asked to take a picture the Everist asked if he could please go get changed first as he wasn’t expecting visitors.)

We met a few more folks during our hour long walk. Some of them invited us into their home. All of them were extremely grateful. None of the remaining ones provided a clear indication that they had used the money to establish a stable income. All of them expressed joy at their improved quality of life due to the various spending that included:

Furniture
TV and speaker
Land for their children
Improved stucco walls
Painted their houses
A cow
Additional rooms

On the way back to the car, however, we met two folks that were working to establish a business:

Leveraged the cash for establishing a mobile banking stall within the community
Bought a cow and sold it at double in the town (15-30 minutes from the village), with the intent to purchase more cows from the community that he could sell

Following my visit, I took some time to write up my impressions and questions regarding GiveDirectly. In summary, I can say with confidence that it was a blessing to be able to see their gratitude, excitement, and accept their thank-yous.

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Posted by markmichaelis

Introducing GiveDirectly (East Africa Day 8: 2022-04-21)

April 21, 2022

Traveling Summary: Driving 6h 49 m driving 189 km

After reaching the GiveDirectly office in Ngororero, we switched to their hired car and drove out to the district government offices. We met with the district government leader to confirm permission to go into the community. From then we headed up into the mountains, split up, (Phil and Sean going with their own GiveDirectly field worker), and then want to observe our first census.

Introducing GiveDirectly

“GiveDirectly is a nonprofit that lets donors like you send money directly to the world’s poorest households. We believe people living in poverty deserve the dignity to choose for themselves how best to improve their lives — cash enables that choice.” In Rwanda, where IntelliTect has donated, each recipient was given a little more than 800 USD in two installments a month a part. Interactions with the recipients are as follows:

Community meeting: a section of 2-3 hundred recipients is gathered together and informed about the unconditional cash they are going to receive and how the process works.
A meeting with each household occurs, called a census, where information is gathered to support the process and, if necessary, a phone and SIM card is provided in support of a mobile bank transfer to the recipient.
Recipients are contacted by phone and informed about the cash transfer.
Cash is transferred in two installments separated by a month.
A follow up “audit” occurs in which GD asks recipients how they spent the money.

GiveDirectly Census

The census I observed was led by Priscila and I had my friend Cedric (whom I met earlier) help with the translation. We were accompanied by the chief of the district and two armed police they brought with them. I suggested that armed police might interfere with the census process but I was assured they were for “our protection” and the GD staff acquiesced.

The process went something like this:

Introductions
Explain the program
Confirm that the cash transfer is non-conditional
Caution the household of potential scams
Ask the recipients which of the heads of household would be the official recipient (if no preference is specified, GiveDirectly chooses the female) and get confirmation that both participants agree. About 60-80% of the time the household selects the female and if the couple doesn’t express a preference, GD chooses the female.
Document all income-generating activities – surprisingly, this didn’t record the amount of income, just the various activities (more on this later)
Provide the option for a new Motorola phone (<15 USD value subtracted from the total cash transfer) with instructions on the mobile banking (via which they will receive the cash transfer)
Review guidelines (like no conflict – more on that later) and spending exclusions (which include drugs&alcohol, gambling, and high-interest loans)
Confirm identity and electronically sign acceptance agreement
Photos of both recipients, family, and the house (inside & out)
Goodbyes/thank-yous

Generally, a household census is expected to take around 30 minutes but ours was more like 50 (presumably because of the pesky foreigners that were getting in the home.)

It was a well-run process. In addition to the optional phone, the household was provided with a handout explaining the program and identifying the amount of the cash transfer. The census data was recorded in a mobile-enabled, offline (Salesforce) application which included the recording of all photographs.

Before the census, the recipients didn’t know exactly how much they were going to receive – well except for rumors from the neighbors. The actual transfer would occur in two separate transactions, the first within a month or so and the second a month after that. Regardless, once the amount was confirmed, the joy and excitement of the recipient household was overwhelming. In fact, when we left and passed a second household who Priscila would be taking a census with next, the mom came out and gave me a big hug. As a GD field worker, Priscila’s job was to meet and take a census with 10 households per day, which included the time taken to travel between households.

Community Meeting

By this time we were running late for the community meeting. This was where GD would announce to the next community that like their neighboring community before them, they would be receiving the unconditional cash transfers. As we approached the building — an old auditorium from a private school that had closed due to a lack of paying students — we could sense the excitement. When we walked in everyone was celebrating by singing. The song was a gospel-sounding government song about following the rules and something about security. It was emotional to hear, but upon learning the translation, it seemed eerily like George Orwell’s 1984 — but no one seemed to be aware or have any concern. Interesting!

The community meeting outlined the process, covering much of the same information that was presented in the census (which was next after the meeting for this community). In addition, the district chief presented before and emphasized after, how everyone must follow the rules, watch and report their neighbors for any suspicious behavior, and implied that the GD activity was in some way associated with the government. When GD presented, the fieldworker got the crowd excited with a shout of “Give” to which the audience responded “Directly.” An activity repeated throughout to help keep people’s attention and excitement. The meeting ended with questions, many of which were already answered but there were some areas of clarification.

From my perspective, both GD activities were emotionally charged and the joy and excitement palpable. A few times, especially at the start of the community meeting, I had to suppress my emotional joy bordering on any tears leaking out. I was honored and blessed to be there.

One important point to note: GD highlighted that the key goal of the cash transfers was for these people to escape extreme poverty. As a donor, this was exactly what I would hope. Unfortunately, it actually opened up an important question for me.

What was the increase in income from before the cash transfer to (some significant number like) five years later?

A second question related to the point they emphasized during the community meeting: couples should not have conflict in order to receive the cash transfer. This is important because they want unity in the financial decisions the couple is making. While I (obviously) have no conflict in my marriage :), this raised an eyebrow for me:

Why did the census, which asked about marital conflict, only detect conflict two percent of the time when UN Women had the following statistics at the time of this writing:
- Physical and/or Sexual Intimate Partner Violence in the last 12 months: 20.7%
- Lifetime Physical and/or Sexual Intimate Partner Violence: 37.1%

More on these questions and my GD impressions here.

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Posted by markmichaelis

Walking the Back Streets of Goma (East Africa Day 8 Morning: 2022-04-21)

April 21, 2022

Before breakfast, and like the previous day, I awoke, worked for a couple of hours, and then joined up with Phil and Sean for a walk. This time, however, we decided to be more deliberate in walking into areas that were less tourist and commercial (but staying within the safety boundaries suggested by the hotel). We headed north along the main road until we found a dark enough alley – and in this case, I’m referring to enough of the black, volcanic dirt for a road rather than something paved. It was great. We were able to interact with the locals by playing pool and soccer, and obtain a sense of what the real Goma is like behind the preponderance of NGO buildings on the main streets. (Sean suggested we play NGO bingo.)

(See more journaling below, but there are lots of photos.)

Our time in DRC was brief and World Relief was careful to keep us in relative safety, avoiding taking us outside of Goma. For example, World Relief even avoided letting us see the volcano, which was only 100 miles away. I quickly accepted this (albeit disappointed). However, this short walk around a poorer neighborhood of Goma was a highlight. It gave us a clearer picture of how the urban population lives than our mostly car-limited view the prior two days. Additionally, part of the walk took us along the DRC-Rwanda border. We could see the stark contrast between Goma, DRC and Gisenyi, Rwanda as we walked along the border, with wood “slum-like” housing on the DRC side and brick structures on the Rwanda side. The “satellite view” between on its own reveals the inequalities.

The satellite contrast between Goma, DRC (left) and Gisenyi, Rwanda (right)

Upon our return to the hotel we packed and grabbed breakfast before checking out and meeting our driver from World Relief. Checking out was somewhat painful as getting each receipt, of three, took nearly 10 minutes and yet when I went to the “payment” room they only charged me for two rooms. I questioned them and they said it was fine. Knowing that they were underbilling, however, I repeated and insisted they had made a mistake. They finally went to check and then wanted to reinvoice while I waited. We were running late so I insisted on paying and letting them figure out the invoicing process after I left.

Our driver took us to the border. Here, we left the car and walked through security with our bags while they scanned the car for misappropriate material. We then went through DRC immigration followed by Rwanda immigration. Since we have a multi-entry East Africa visa we hoped they would just let us in, but no such luck. The multi-entry East Africa visa allows you to pass between Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda an unlimited number of times, once you leave those three countries, the visa expires – so we had to get a new visa. And, hoping we were going to Burundi (but no East Africa countries) later that week, we opted for the multi-entry Rwanda visa, paying 70 USD rather than 50 USD. Our driver insisted on staying with us until we had completed the immigration process – which took about an hour, but now that we were done, we said good-byes and continued into Rwanda. Unlike on the DRC side, there were not motorcycle scooters (motos) waiting for passengers. However, we walked down the street a ways and found a taxi area. We negotiated the rate and then each boarded a separate moto for a ride back to the car (totaling 4.50 USD and about 10 minutes journey). I was happy that I finally got Phil on some local African transportation, but don’t tell his Cathy it was my choice to use a moto please.

Unfortunately, since we were late, we had to skip our planned swim in Lake Kivu and continue on our way to Ngororero for our meetings with GiveDirectly.

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Visiting Homes in Goma, DRC with World Relief (East Africa Day 8: 2022-04-20)

April 20, 2022

Travel Summary: 5h 5m driving 32.2 km, 47 m walking 3.7 km

Today, I woke early and spent time trying to catch up at work before heading out with Sean and Phil for a morning walk around Goma. At 8 AM, we went to the World Relief Office in Goma and met with the team there.

They reviewed the various programs that World Relief is running. I was impressed. In addition to our visit to the clinic yesterday where World Relief is funding the fistula surgeries, they also have numerous additional programs. Below are some highlights. Notice the broad “wholistic” focus, with programs covering everything from GBV, couples facilitation, to Savings & Loan programs.

Sexual Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) and HIV programs
Helping survivors with:
- Self-confidence
- Overcoming physical obstacles caused by SGBV (such as providing fistula surgery)
- Help with social and spiritual poverty, including helping them know and believe the truth that they are valuable to God and that he can help restore their life
- Process
  - Train church and community leaders on how to care for survivors
  - Establish SGBV/HIV awareness groups
  - Identify survivors
  - Physical rehabilitation
  - Socio-economic reintegration
  - Psychosocial reintegration
  - Spiritual rehabilitation
Community Empowerment Zones
- Work with local church and community leaders to start collaborating on poverty in the region and how they can help.
- Train the trainer education for local and community leaders with World Relief wholistic program curriculum
Agriculture
200 farmers empowered with livestock and agriculture support
Food Security and Livelihood
Providing seed, tools, and technical training for farmers
Peace training to help resolve conflict
Saving for Live
Saving and Loan programs
Trauma Healing
Community Health
Families for Life (FFL)

For dinner the night before I met with the director of the Families for Life program as was impressed with all they are doing and the impact it is making. I confess there are times that I assume that people in extreme poverty are not ready from programs like this. However, I am just wrong. In fact, when you are living under constant stress and you need help navigating complexities, programs like this provide direction and support that can be crucial.

One of the interesting effects of programs like Families for Life (FFL) is that more couples are going to government offices for civil marriages in addition to their church wedding. Why you might ask? Most couples are getting married in churches which the government doesn’t recognize. And, if something happens to your partner, there is no common law marriage which allows assets to be inherited from one partner to the other following death. Thus, the surviving partner can be left with nothing. However, since the FFL program teaches couples the importance of the civil wedding, more and more couples are going through the process and so they are protected.

Intuitively I fully support the various programs that World Relief has and I’m excited about the impact it is making. My one disappointment is that there isn’t any real data that points to the impact. There is no measurement of things like increased income over time (like Capable has). Even if this metric is not relevant to World Relief, are their other metrics they should be measuring? Discussion on the topic this morning didn’t result in any clear changes or identification of metrics that should be pursued, but I’m hoping for follow on discussions after I leave. I’m trying to be careful to not force Western quantitative ideas onto cultures where they don’t work, but I’m also wanting to push the organizations we partner with to excellence and being able to measure the excellence.

Following out morning meeting at World Relief – DRC headquarters, we headed out to a church to meet with local pastors who have been collaborating with World Relief.

It was interesting that prior to World Relief’s initiative, there was very little collaboration between pastors. Furthermore, the church was essentially only focused on their own congregants. After the training, pastors saw the value in collaborating and reaching out to the community. One church had reached out to widows and provided housing for them. It was a blessing to care for them and the widows were blessed by the desperately needed assistance. Another couple had separated because the wife was disrespectful to the husband because he couldn’t find a job. The situation escalated to such an extent that she had moved out. However, through the FFL program, the couple had reconciled and was living together again.

Of course, this was all good, but the underlying problems were just as insidious as before. The widows still didn’t have any source of income and there was no plan in place to change that. Was the church planning to support them indefinitely. While some of the widows were in their 60s, many were still in their 20s and 30s. What was their long term plan and did the church have any ideas how to help move them to self sufficiency? No one new the answer and no one was even asking the questions. And, while I asked the question, I was no better since I had no answers either. Similarly, while it was great that the couple was back together, the husband still didn’t have a job or even a prospect for one. While harmony was great and all, there was a young child likely going under nourished and a family barely making it from day to day. All the marriage counseling in the world wouldn’t alone fix this. (I’m feeling discouraged.)

Our next stop was to the home of a woman who was underwent fistula surgery at the clinic we saw yesterday. Oh my! We all crowded into her living room and sat on the couches as she shared about how her life had changed. At one point she literally stood up and danced, describing in effect, how she has a new life. For those unaware, I quoted both USAID’s traumatic fistula and UNFPA’s obstetric fistula descriptions here. The first is caused by rape and the second by child birth.

For this women, her marriage had been restored and was no longer ostracized by her community.

The next home we visited was with a couple that has participated in five days of “couple facilitator” training, the focus was to have them be able to help council other couples as the navigated the difficulties of marriage. More immediately, the training had impacted their own marriage, so much so that their daughter testified to the significant difference she saw in her parents. The mother especially, shared how much different things were because of her husband’s new found understanding of equality and respect. As I’ve already commented, not knowing anything about “couple’s facilitator” training, I probably wouldn’t have supported something like this if I’d known up front. In hindsight, however, I can see the impact and the importance on helping improve family collaboration and unity as the navigate the challenges of poverty.

We ended the day having dinner with Jean, the World Relief – DRC country director. This too was a great opportunity to learn more about the day to day challenges faced with serving there. Jean also shared the harrowing situation he lived through as he tried to relocate and protect his staff during the volcano in May of 2021. Lava was flowing into the city of Goma and gobbling up everything in its path, making an already challenging humanitarian situation exponentially exacerbated with a natural disaster. Ughh!!

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Posted by markmichaelis

Entering DRC (East Africa Day 7: 2022-04-19)

April 19, 2022

After entering the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), we dropped our bags at our hotel and headed for a women’s health clinic. Some of IntelliTect’s philanthropy has been supporting fistula surgeries at this clinic, many of which are caused by rape. Here we met with the head doctor and discussed with her the prevalence of gender-based violence (GBV) in the DRC. In the DRC:

For those of you who are unaware, untreated fistula problems can cause you to smell constantly as your bowels are perpetually leaking. Frequently in this part of the world, your husband will disown you. Furthermore, the cause is violence or child bearing (sometimes because of rape). Here are USAID’s and UNFPA’s descriptions (not for the faint of heart):

Traumatic fistula is a condition that can occur as the result of sexual violence, often in conflict and post conflict settings. There are no solid estimates of its prevalence, but traumatic gynecologic fistula can make up a significant part of the overall genital fistula caseload in places where sexual violence has been used as a weapon of war.
Rape, often aggravated by the thrusting of objects into the vagina, can result in a hole between a woman’s vagina and bladder or rectum, or both, resulting in the leaking of urine and/or feces. Survivors of sexual assault may have additional, severe physical injuries and are at an increased risk for unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Survivors live not only with chronic incontinence, but also with the psychological trauma and stigma of rape.
https://fistulacare.org/what-is-fistula/traumatic-fistula/

Obstetric fistula is one of the most serious and tragic childbirth injuries. A hole between the birth canal and bladder and/or rectum, it is caused by prolonged, obstructed labor without access to timely, high-quality medical treatment. It leaves women and girls leaking urine, feces or both, and often leads to chronic medical problems, depression, social isolation and deepening poverty. Half a million women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, the Arab States region and Latin America and the Caribbean are estimated to be living with fistula, with new cases developing every year. Yet fistula is almost entirely preventable. Its persistence is a reminder of gross inequities, a sign of global inequality and an indication that health and social systems are failing to protect the health and human rights of the poorest and most vulnerable women and girls.
https://www.unfpa.org/obstetric-fistula

We spoke with the doctor (in yellow below) at length and she was quite open about her experiences. She talked about how the surgery was not always sufficient because in many cases when the women leave the clinic they are going back to the same crappy circumstances in which they were abused in the first place. She talked about the never-ending line of patients but the limited resources that allowed them to be treated. It was a sobering meeting.

Also, while fistula surgeries are amazing for the patients, they are not reducing the frequency of cases caused by violence. In fact, most women here are stigmatized by the problem and do their best to keep it secret. Only when World Relief (the NGO we partner with in the DRC) meets the women and is able to get to know them, do they discover the problem and persuade the patient to seek medical attention.

Afterward, we were invited to go visit some of the patients – all of whom had given permission for photos and conversations. In addition, we got to see the surgery room.

Notice that these women are still caring for their children while they are in hospital – generally a stay of up to 21 days (14 in recovery and 7 in physical therapy). While we’ve had several sobering moments throughout our trip, this was one of the worst and most memorable.

Here are some more statistics regarding DRC poverty and injustice:

In the evening, we went out to dinner with the World Relief team and discussed the various ways they are fighting poverty in the DRC. It was a great conversation and I learned about all sorts of cool things they are doing.

Earlier in the Day

I confess, that my morning was an embarrassing contrast with the clinic visit. I awoke in time to get up and watch the sunrise. It wasn’t particularly spectacular, but I love that time in the morning and it was good to spend some quiet time pondering our experience so far.

After Swimming in Lake Bonyonyi
(2022-04-18)

Following breakfast, we threw our gear in the boat and headed back to the other side of the lake – stopping of course for a brief swim along the way. Once we made it back to our trusty Toyota Land Cruiser, we headed into town and purchased a SIM card and withdrew some money. I also befriended one of the youth I met on the street and connected with him on WhatsApp. Over the past few days we have had several interesting conversations about the Rwandan Genocide, but more about that when we return to Rwanda.

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Entering Rwanda (East Africa Day 6: 2022-04-18)

April 18, 2022

Travel Summary: Driving 6h 18m for 98.4 mi

Unfortunately, leaving Bwindi required us to backtrack a noticeable portion of the road we traversed the previous day. Fortunately, however, it was daytime so it wasn’t nearly as bad. And, once we were back on the main road, we immediately took a detour down to Lake Bunyonyi so Sean and I could take a quick swim. I was delighted as I assumed no swims would happen due to the prevalence of Bilharzia/Schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease from infected water that can result in serious damage to the internal organs. Fortunately, Lake Bonyonyi doesn’t have any so we went swimming. 🙂

With that out of the way, it was time to head to Rwanda. On the way, Sean pointed out the rock splitting. Large road construction rocks are deposited on the side of the road and then workers are hired to split them into smaller sizes with a small hammer. Wow! Can you imagine?

The drive through the mountains in South Eastern Uganda is spectacular. In spite of the steep, mountainous terrain, it seems like the farms are densely packed together and all arable land is farmed.

It wasn’t long before we reached the border. A couple of things to note, however. Firstly, there is a time change between Uganda and Rwanda, so make sure you pay attention to which way you are traveling and whether the time change gives you an extra hour or subtracts an hour when crossing. Secondly, Rwanda drives on the right side of the road, whereas in Uganda we drove on the left-hand side – so pay attention to when you turn.

For our first night in Rwanda, we took a boat across Lake Ruhondo to our accommodations on a peninsula unreachable by land (we tried).

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Tracking Gorillas (East Africa Day 5: 2022-04-18)

April 18, 2022

Travel Summary: Hiking 5h 10m for 3.8 miles

Hiking through the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest

In spite of the long day prior, we were up, breakfasted, and leaving the Bwindi Backpackers Lodge just after 7 AM. The destination was the Bwindi National Forest where we hoped to encounter mountain gorillas. We arrived late so we missed the dance performance but joined in for the hike introduction.

Suffice it to say, wear good clothes. You are strongly encouraged to take lots of water and a hiking stick.

They had African helicopters (porters) to carry people if needed. In addition, trackers had left two hours prior and headed to the location the gorillas were last seen. They planned to radio us where to go once they found them.

We set out around 8:40 AM and headed straight into the forest with our guide as well as two guards carrying rifles. We didn’t see any, but supposedly there are mountain elephants in the forest. The trails were wide at first but soon dissipated into tracks that I suspect are made by trackers taking shortcuts rather than frequent hikers. The forest was extremely dense – apropos considering the use of the word “Impenetrable” in the name.

It took about 1.5 hours of hiking for us to reach the gorillas. And, when we did, they were lounging around in the bushes and we were allowed to sneak up quite close without bothering the animals. In fact, they mostly ignored us except for a youth who tried to touch me a few times – to which I stepped away). In total we were with the gorillas for about an hour.

In the end, I would describe it as an incredible experience and we felt especially lucky that the troop was on the ground relaxing and unperturbed by us rather than up in the trees where we could barely see them.

I confess, it was too expensive – perhaps the most expensive per hour experience I have ever had – ignoring medical procedures of course. Therefore, I suspect I will never repeat it again, but the one time encounter was awesome and I feel blessed to have been able to see them.

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Western Uganda (East Africa Day 4: 2022-04-17)

April 17, 2022

Travel Summary: 13h 27m driving 483 km, 30 min hiking 1.8 km

One of the organizations that IntelliTect supports is the International Justice Mission (IJM). One of the reasons for passing through Fort Portal was to meet with IJM to gain a better understanding of the injustice fighting work they are doing there around gender-based violence (GBV). Disappointingly, the leadership was traveling over the Easter weekend and we were not able to meet. It wasn’t the same; however, we have one of the victims of GBV coming to visit IntelliTect next month and meet with those interested in the work that IJM is doing in Uganda (let me know if you would like to attend). In lieu of such a visit, we continued on our journey along the Western side of Uganda with our longest travel day yet.

Following breakfast, we drove South crossing the equator (my first time on land), and then on to the Kyambura Gorge. (The latter has chimpanzees but that will have to be saved for another visit.) The gorge is impressive in its invisibility. If you didn’t know it was there, you would never see it. You look across the landscape and it is spotted trees and grass (African veld) as far as the eye can see. However, if you drive across, you suddenly encounter the gorge without any notice. We also stopped by the Kyambura Gorge Lodge to make a quick hike down to the river.

When driving long distances, with little infrastructure along the way, mindfulness of gas stops is obviously important. This is especially true when driving a Toyota Land Cruiser (albeit diesel) with over 200,000 km and a broken gas gauge. Frequently, the stops proved to be interesting, whether it was a manual gas pump or a small fishing village with hippos, sacred ibis, and hammerkop on the beach.

This gives pumping gas a new meaning

The final stretch was perhaps the most eventful with treacherous roads that extended on well after dark. Both Sean and the Land Cruiser were amazing – I’m pretty sold on the latter as my vehicle of choice if/when I drive the length of Africa, and I wouldn’t complain if Sean was my driver either.

Experiencing the Ugandan Roads

The water crossing below was way more impressive when we first drove up and I hadn’t waded through and checked the depth.

Water Crossing

The goal was to reach the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest by nightfall. And, while we could have taken the direct 7-hour drive, we decided to take a “slight detour” through the Queen Elisabeth National Park. Unfortunately, however, it ended up a lot more of a detour than we intended. While we did see a few elephants, giraffes, and baboons, they were brief encounters and didn’t warrant the extra ~6-hour drive over hair-raising, four-wheel only, cliff-hanging roads, and even a river crossing.

But hey, that is what adventure is all about.

P.S. We also had a gender-based violence encounter but it deserves its own post.

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Gender-Based Violence, an in Person Encounter in Uganda

April 17, 2022

In 2020, “Uganda reported the highest number of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) cases in East, Central and Western Africa with 60% of girls and young women aged between 13 to 24 years having experienced one or more types of violence in childhood. In the same report, 72% of Uganda’s young population (aged 18–24 years) have also experienced one or more types of violence before the age of 18 while 25% of young women in Eastern Africa justify a husband beating up his wife” – Increasing cases of Gender-Based Violence in East Africa.

I want to confess at the start I’m afraid to share this story. There were numerous immediate judgement calls throughout the encounter and I don’t know that we always made the right choice. However, if nothing else, it speaks to the prevalence of the problem and for that I’m choosing a little bravery at the risk of potential criticism. I’m not saying our actions were correct, or that we shouldn’t have done more, just describing the situation as we experienced it. Please know that it was difficult and no doubt you, dear reader, would have chosen better in the moment but I’m sharing anyway.

It was after 10 PM with no moon. We (Sean, Phil, and I) were about 30 minutes from the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest when we drove past a couple when the woman, somewhat quietly, pleaded for help through our open car window. Sean heard the plea and asked if she was okay. She was around 18 and the man holding her was perhaps in his early 20s. We hesitated but soon stopped the car and stepped out requesting the man to let her go. He refused, claiming she was his wife and wouldn’t let go. (Obviously being her husband doesn’t give any right to forcibly hold her like he was, but the man was drunk and there was a huge language barrier between us.) The couple crossed the dirt road and we stepped toward them. However, the man would not let go. We tried talking but there was essentially no communication due to the apparent language barrier. We suggested he just stop and let her go so we could talk, but he refused. There was more struggling and us peacefully but physically trying to free her. Everything we tried verbally was completely ignored.

The couple backed up to a wood hut and Sean took one arm while I took the other in the hopes of freeing her. However, his grip on her purse was relentless and she wouldn’t let her purse go. Shortly afterwards, additional men appeared and he seemed to be insinuating to them that we were stealing his wife. Yikes!! What is going on? Dang-it, I don’t speak the language. The man then told us that we could have her but it would be 3,000,000 UGX (about 900 USD). What? Are they seriously implying that we are trying to steal her?

We backed away trying to avoid anyone really getting hurt and she freed herself and ran behind Phil. However, the “husband” grabbed her again and wouldn’t let go this time. There were now a total of five men, all in the low 20s, and drunk. A couple of them grabbed tree branches and stripped off the shoots to create poles which they started swinging at us wildly, occasionally connecting with a hit or a kick.

With the threatening sticks we ended up separated, with the men and the woman on the other side from us. I tried taking one of them aside and talking with him but regardless of what I said, he replied with “go away.” The situation was degrading fast. I so wish the woman had run once she got free but how was she to know that?

The “husband” said something to the woman about knowing that the woman’s stuff was in his house? (Why was this in English? Did he understand more than he let on?) Even if we could free her, what happens tomorrow or the day after? Is she going to be punished worse because we were involved?

They started moving away and a couple of them took the upper road, looking down on us. They started hurtling rocks. They loudly hit the tin roof of the hut or skidded on the road, but they were all wild throws – not surprisingly given their inebriated stated.

With rocks flying past we decided to get in the car. But as we headed in the direction, the man held the woman’s body while two of his buddies lifted her legs and carried her back up the road. Stink! There is no circumstance where that behavior is okay. With the two other men guarding with additional rocks, what were we supposed to do? Should we do everything in our power even if it involves violence or bodily harm? If they are using physical force, does that justify it for us given their violence against the woman? After all, from everything we can tell, she is being forcibly held against her will, but we are also being accused of stealing her.

We drove down the hill, mostly in silence. We felt horrible not knowing what might happen. Even if we could help, would it make it worse in the long run? I don’t know. It’s so frustrating that we don’t speak the language.

15 minutes later, at the bottom of the hill, we reached a road block and spoke with a military guard who called the police. However, the police didn’t have a vehicle and would take more than an hour to reach the location. The guard eventually agree that we give him a ride to the location. Of course, after 30 minutes, the chance of finding them at night was miniscule, exacerbated because we were in very steep and dense terrain. Regardless, the hope seemed worth the attempt.

Once we returned there was no one associated with the events in sight. We went up the road 200 ft. and the guard asked those milling around if they had seen anything, but the response was in the negative. Briefly we saw someone hiding in the bushes and the guard (who was carrying a rifle) lunged at him but the man disappeared into the bush down a steep embankment. So frustrating!!!!!

In the end all we could do was take the guard back to his post and hope that there would be follow up in the morning and the real truth would be told, not some story about us trying to steal the woman.

April 23 Update:

Sean chose to take a detour towards the same area rather than drive directly to Kampala. He had some contacts in security and reached out to them for help. Even though it is almost a week later, here’s what he had to report:

“People talk – so believe it or not – it looks like the police here are gonna find the guys. This cheeky old man I came across had heard all about it and connected me with the police (their place is 1 km up the other road) and provided two of their names and locations. Anyways, more progress than I expected. I’ll keep you posted.
I pulled off and this Mzee (older man) came walking past me – spoke good English so I chatted with him. He is the main guy’s neighbor and overheard them when they got back that night and the next morning. Knew all the details. The guys were all hiding in the bushes and saw us with the soldier when we came back. The woman got taken back to the house, but left the next morning.
The Mzee is going to communicate with her and help her make a statement. I have all the numbers of the police and will follow up.
It was a long shot, but I’m stoked I was able to get the wheels turning to hopefully provide some protection for her moving forward.”

In the end, could we have done better? I’ve gone over it a thousand times and there isn’t a clearly better approach that I can think of. Suggestions? Perhaps if we had more swiftly freed her before others arrived but we were still trying to find a peaceful solution.

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Murchison Falls, Uganda (East Africa Day 3: April 16, 2022)

April 16, 2022

Travel Summary: 10h 16m driving 382 km

The next morning we awoke and broke camp by 6:30 AM in search of lions….

Once we left the park we headed for the top of Murchison Falls. The view was great and we were able to get close enough to get wet – and any closer would have been too close for safety.

What a fantastic way to start the day. The remainder was mostly just a long drive to Fort Portal except for a grilled mielie (corn on the cob) stop along the way.

Stopping for grilled corn along the way to Fort Portal

The one notable reflection for me occurred over dinner. We sat down with a Ugandan pastor whose church is a sister church to Valley Real Life. During the conversation he shared how one of the biggest challenges in his congregation was marriage. He acknowledged that marriage was incredibly hard and he was very open to any training that might be available.

Follow-Up: Later on in the week I met with World Relief in the Democratic Republic of Congo and they shared how successful and critical their couples curriculum was. Each of the countries we visited are plagued by significant gender equality issues and staggering gender based violence (GBV) violence. For this pastor to openly request marriage training was a wonderful testimony to his humility but also a critical call for help.

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Boating on Victoria Nile, Uganda (East Africa Day 2: 2022-04-15)

April 15, 2022

Travel Summary: 3h 26m boating 34 km, 8h 17m driving 159 km

We left Gulu around 11 AM, following our meeting at the Capable office, and headed West to Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda. Upon arriving, we drove through the park slowly enjoying the game. Upon reaching the Victoria Nile, we registered and boarded a boat. Our course headed upriver on the Nile (South) to see Murchison Falls. While you can’t go all the way up to the falls, the view is nonetheless, quite spectacular.

While the falls were cool, what really made the boat ride spectacular was all the animals we saw along the way (plus several from our drive).

Of course, we also spent some time bird watching.

It was dark by the time we were back in the car , so we headed directly for our camp on the Victoria Nile River Delta (see the end of our tack on the map above), picking up a park ranger/guard on the way. Here, we pitched tents along the river for the night. The plan was to cook dinner but we couldn’t get the Whisperlite stove started so we settled for a third meal of white bread and peanut butter (and the same in the morning).

Before burrowing into tents for the night we took a short walk around – not too far from camp mind you, as we know firsthand there really are hippos, elephants, giraffes, buffalos, etc. wandering around. I put on mosquito repellent, planning to sleep under the stars. Unfortunatley, just as we walked back into camp the rain started and transitioned into a thunderstorm with lightening to boost. While awesome to see, I chose the tent after all – since there weren’t any stars to be seen. It poured down much of the night but ceased by the time we awoke.

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