Picture Me Walkin'

A little bird told me that some people out there think we don't do anything but sit around playing cards and eating any bug that crawls by. Well, I'm here to set the record straight. We work hard. We just don't talk about it, because it's top secret. And maybe a bit boring. So to spice things up, I might throw in a few random pictures. (Lifeguard Man- He dances. He guards your life. Get it?) Basically, as the project now stands, MAPLE works with microentrepreneurs, providing basic skills training to complement the financial resources that have been assembled within the community. We shifted away from trying to work with the larger microfinance banks, because they were bureaucratic and, frankly, didn't always seem to have the borrowers' best interests at heart. This isn't really the place to get into the whole debate over the need for financial sustainability in order to reach to the most people and all that noise. Leave it that we shifted to working with SA...

Sorry for another break in the posting. We are in the process of moving into our new house, so we've been out in the 'burbs supervising the various repairs. But it's starting to come together. We had a nice home-cooked meal of rice and beans last night, complete with the obligatory avocado. Tonight, it's pasta. Luke is giddy like a schoolgirl at just the thought of some good ol' white folk eatin'. The past week has actually been amazingly productive. We met with a local SACCO, a type of informal-ish credit institution. Basically, there are a bunch of members who pay in some small sum, then take turns borrowing a larger portion of the group funds. The one that we have partnered with focuses on vulnerable women and children, and is actually based out in our neighborhood. It's looking much more promising than trying to work with the larger microfinance institutions, if only because there is much less bureaucratic nonsense to work through. Plus, we may have more...

Everything's good around here. We're at the business school just kickin' it. Pat's doing some work revising our project proposal, so that means I'm doing nothing. As per usual. We've been meeting with execs from microfinance institutions in Kampala all week, which is absolutely awesome, We managed to get linked up with someone who is as entrenched in this stuff as you can be and is interested in working with us on a research paper using data from project. The stars really aligned for us on this one. So the meetings have been an interesting thing. We are ALWAYS, no matter where, the worst dressed people in the room. By a wide margin, coat and tie vs flipflops. It was pretty uncomfortable at first, but we're getting over it. I guess people realize that 1) We're here to do field work out in the sticks up north and 2) our little white bodies aren't built for this climate. So anyway, I am for the first time seeing how one could enjoy working in the greate...

Well, Friday is my last day at Industrial Economics , where I've been consulting at the nexus of policy, economics and the environmental for the last 2+ years. Despite the (very) occasional complaint, I have to say that it's been a pretty rewarding experience overall. I've gotten a chance to work with smart and interesting people, made some good friends and learned a lot. I don't want to get too philosophical about these things, so even though it's tough to leave some people behind here, I think we'll just leave it with a 'good times were had by all' and move on. IEc Ski Day - it's been a tough last week at the office Luke is coming to Boston on Sunday afternoon. Clearly, we are just running around like crazy at this point, trying to make sure we have everything before we take off (zero chance of that happening). We've been lucky to get some good advice from people on what to bring and what to pick up in Uganda, but of course if anyone out there ...