Technologic

Through my time here I have seen many things that make me think that Mali will never change and the chances of “development” working are but a distant reality.  I’ve seen girls who are barely teenagers walk around with their kids, people not wanting to shake my hand with their left because they use that hand to wipe their derrieres after dropping a twosie, and men sitting around in the middle of the day complaining about there being no work and no money while they just sit there drinking tea.  The only thing that gives me hope is that there are those out there who genuinely desire change, people who don’t want to be given handouts but want to improve their lives with their own hard work.

In Mali it’s pretty amazing to see the impact of technology.  Cell phones were nowhere to be found a few years ago and now everyone has one.  I had a conversation with my language tutor Abass who was telling me that it is a terrible idea to become a musician nowadays because people just download the music and share it with their cell phones.  Currently Orange (France Telecom) is starting to roll out “Orange Money”, a program that allows people to go to local shops and buy credit to put on their phone.  They can then send this credit to other people, receive credit, and theoretically convert credit into cash at retail outlets.  One of the things I’m currently working on is the reboot of my mobile bank.  A mobile bank in their sense of the word is having people go around everyday and collect money from clients to encourage them to save.  But here’s the kicker, people actually pay a commission on their savings so they’re getting charged to save money!  That makes no sense to me and is one of the reasons I really don’t like the concept of a mobile bank.

Alternatively I am seeing if we could use this “Orange Money” to turn the new president of my mobile bank into a retail outlet here in Kita.  That way people can still save money but they won’t get charged.  An additional benefit is we don’t need collectors going around every day.  People can save at their own pace and when they’re ready to make a withdrawal they can visit the president of my mobile bank and exchange credit for cash.  Let’s see if it works in sh’Allah.  Doing so would free us up to use the organization of the mobile bank as a means of financial education for all the artisans in Kita instead of worrying about the operations.

I am also negotiating to implement market information systems here in Mali.  With the help of a company based in Senegal called Manobi and hopefully Peace Corps volunteers we hope to deploy a network that should capture real-time units for food and cereals all around the country while simultaneously providing reliable information to those who need it most, the producers.

I’m also trying to see if I can start up a village association with my friend and some of his friends.  It’s kind of like how Yunus started Grameen where I want to see how many people he can get together, how much they need to buy materials for their respective businesses, and then figure out some sort of system for repayment so that we could help other people with other ideas.  Thanks to some friends at HOPE International I have a Village Savings and Loan manual for starting it up.  My expectations are very low but if successful it would be pretty sweet.

Lots of stuff going on right now, we’ll see how everything turns out.  Jaemin comes to visit in less than two weeks!

Pictures from the Past Year

Oh how we knew not what we were getting into....

The first and last time I wore that outfit...

in Dogon, hopefully it's greener this time around.

Justin making friends in Mopti!

Looking pensively into the sunset drinking an ice-cold Gazelle....

All this kid does is cry, poop, and eat so in other words he's like every other baby in the world.

Before construction of restaurant

Patrons inside Restaurant Obama

Day and Nite

an alley in Mopti paved with plastic bricks

unpaved alley in Mopti

The difference between a paved street in Mopti and an unpaved street is like night and day….

What’s next…

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been two months since I’ve arrived in Mali.  I remember being overwhelmed driving through Bamako when we first arrived.  Now, after having been here awhile i’ve become used to life in Mali.  Having spent some time getting used to the people and learning Bambara makes me think that maybe I can pull it off after all.  I go back to my homestay for 10 days and then return to our training site, Tubaniso, for a week, before becoming a full-fledged volunteer.  Swearing in is September 10 so hopefully my Malian clothes are ready by then. Right now I think I might be battling another round of bacterial diarrhea but I’ve resigned to the fact that I won’t be as healthy as i’d like for the next two years.  After all, this is Africa (TIA).

The projects i’ll be working on for the next two years include a mobile bank and a shea butter cooperative.  My Malian counterpart is a very capable guy named El-Haji and fortunately for me he speaks Bambara, French, and a little English.  He’s worked with Peace Corps volunteers in the past so I feel fortunate to work with someone who knows how it’s done.

A mobile bank might also be called a rotating savings and credit association (ROSCA).  Essentially most poor people can’t afford to have bank accounts with your typical bank because the fees are too high and many times banks are too far away.  Furthermore, most poor people might only save 10 cents a week.  So, a mobile bank has collectors that go out to the clients and collect a certain amount of money each week.  Many times clients are illiterate so a visual accounting system is used where the clients might have a notebook stamped upon deposit of money or have pieces of paper taken away.  There are many issues surrounding my specific mobile bank, but there are also many opportunities as well.  I look forward to seeing how this all turns out.

My other main project is working with a shea butter cooperative.  Mali has a large number of shea trees that produce nuts.  When these nuts are processed it becomes shea butter, an increasingly popular skin beauty supplement often seen in soaps and lotions.  The group I will be working with has a good sense of how to produce the butter and has been around a very long time but what they lack is strategy and buyers.  They are very interested in exporting and marketing some of their own products so hopefully I will be able to help.

On top of these projects I hope to take part in a weekly radio show where I would talk about American stances on certain issues.  I would love to build a chicken coop and raise chickens.  I want to work with children in my area.  I want to travel all over Mali too.  I miss snowboarding and since it doesn’t look like i’ll get a chance to go anytime soon apparently there are sand dunes in Mali where you can take a board and go sandboarding.  It sounds pretty fun.  Alright, that’s enough for me.  I’m going to take a nap and pray that I don’t wake up from a creeping eruption.

Bambara phrase of the day – mogo be be boke “Everybody poops”

Song of the moment – “Sister” by Sufjan Stevens

Yunus interview with Knowledge@Wharton

Yunus talks about the successes of Grameen and microfinance.  It’s pretty remarkable the amount of success he’s achieved and how he’s still out there trying to help people.

Soro Yiriwaso

Kiva fellow Jessica Chervin tags along for a solidarity group meeting through the MFI, “Soro Yiriwaso” as they disburse new loans.

Last Day at HOPE Pt. 1

Yesterday was my last day at HOPE International.  It’s bittersweet leaving, but I like to think that this is only the beginning of my time at HOPE.  Now that I’ve had time to think about it, I’m not really sure how I ended up at HOPE.  Back around the time I got accepted to Peace Corps I realized that I would have some time before I left.  I figured I had three options: 1) get a job and work until I left, 2) do an internship in something I was interested in, 3) travel.  I was exploring opportunities to teach English or Economics in Korea but because I couldn’t resolve my visa situation in time I just didn’t feel comfortable just packing up and moving to a foreign country for half a year without a firm plan.

It was around this time I had picked up Muhammad Yunus’ book “Banker to the Poor” and learned about this concept of microfinance.  I thought it was a practical way to help the poor using finance and accounting.  I was hungry to learn more.  After looking around the internets I ended up applying to several internships (mostly with ACCION) but in the process stumbled across HOPE’s website and got in touch with one of the guys there.  After a brief conversation we agreed that I would come on as an intern assisting the programs team and the finance team.

My time at HOPE has been interesting and challenging.  One of the biggest changes I dealt with was going from a very structured, uptight, hierarchical organization to a small, open door environment where people ACTUALLY get along.  Shocking, I know, especially after working as an auditor where every client hated your guts even though they’d flash their saccharine smiles.  Another change was my living situation.  I live about an hour and a half from headquarters so I would drive there for three days/week during which I would stay at the house of a coworker who was out of town traveling.  The first week I was there my coworker was still around so I crashed at another one of my coworker’s place (who at the time had this wicked hardcore beard).  It was strange staying with a complete stranger but he, like the rest of the HOPE staff, did their best to welcome me as one of their own.

(to be continued)

Muhammad Yunus speaking @ Google 1/25/08

Mr. Yunus, the pioneer of microfinance, speaks at Google about his latest book A World Without Poverty which takes the idea of microfinance to the next level with a new idea dubbed social businesses.  Social businesses differ from traditional businesses in that they exist to help others but are similar to traditional businesses in that capital may be raised through the use of a “social stock market.”  Interesting stuff.

HOPE in Haiti

HOPE International is a Christian microfinance network operating in 15 different countries around the world.  This video describes HOPE’s microfinance operations in Haiti and was produced by Nic Mclean.