Moshin Meeting

Here are the business notes I took during my meeting with Moshin:

Questions and Answers:

What are your operating expenses and how much are they?
Answer:
• Office rent = 50,000 USH ($25) / month
• Classroom = 0 USH ($0)
• To pave the dirt floor of the current classroom with cement = 0? (15 bags of cement @ $$$ a bag + 3 trucks of stone @ 100,000 ($50) per truck,
• Classroom + Office maintenance = 30,000 ($15) / month.
• Examinations are 3000,000 USH ($150) per year. They buy these exams from the Uganda National Examination Board. This ensures that students in Moshin’s school receive a qualified, accredited education.
• Food (monthly):
o 100 kilos of maize @ 120,000 USH ($60) / bag (breakfast porridge)
o Sugar sack @ 100,000 USH ($50)
o Charcoal sack (3 / month) @ 27,500 ($18) / bag = 82,500 USH ($41)
o Salt sack @ 15,000 USH ($7.50)

What are your other needs?
Answer:
• Classroom materials (markets, books, paper, chalk, etcetera).
• Furniture (they were recently given 4 long tables and 8 benches to match with the table)

Would your students like T-shirts made in the USA by schoolchildren? Would that be a good holiday gift?
Answer – Yes, because its practical and students will be able to use new shirts. I can give you a CD with our logo on it. On the back you can put the donating school. Students would enjoy that.

What are some other small gift ideas?
Answer:
• Cheap watches @ 1,000 USH each (.50 cents)

Moshins other requests:
• Digital camera

How can we make sure this idea is funneled through Educate!?
Answer: The students can hand out the gifts or assist with various projects (i.e. helping pave the floor of the class room)

What is your biggest challenge?
Answer: Money. We need money and we need to use that money in a way WE see fit. People come here and they want to donate, but they want to donate in a way that they want. People need to give us the resources and let us manage things from there.

What is your vision for the school? In 5 years? In 40 years?
Answer: In 40 years I’d be 69! I’ll be dead! I cannot think that far in advance but my vision for the school is to open up other literacy centers in slums throughout Kampala and Uganda. I also want to open up a health clinic for the children – nothing big just something so we can treat minor diseases and injuries.

How could we give your organization money? Is it an official legal entity?
Answer: Yes of course. It’s an official “community organization” recognized by the Ugandan government. We have a joint bank account set up – that means it requires two people to withdraw money – me and the treasurer. This way one person doesn’t have access to the funds.

Thursday, October 22nd 2009

            Today I went for a run and afterwards stopped to speak with Mercy.  It had been a while since we’d had a good, long conversation.  We talked about her business.  She told me she owns the entire row of stores / shops / whatever.  She’d saved up money after 20 years at Uganda Telecom to buy them.  So she’s apparently the “big fish” on the block.

            Go Mercy!

            I asked her how she does background checks on prospective tenants.

            “I don’t.  It’s a gentleman’s agreement.”

            I asked her how she enforces contracts if people don’t pay.

            “There is nothing I can do.  If someone doesn’t pay I cant make them pay.  If I do that, or if I kick them out the entire community will say I’m too strict and collude against me.  This is the third world.”

            Wow – imagine how hard it would be to run a business under those criteria?

            She also said people steal water from her (there is a tap outside that people use when filling jerry cans).  They pay for one jerry can, but a lot of times Mercy walks outside and finds them filling two or three.  Again – if she does anything to punish these people the community will see her as being “too strict.”

            Mercy also told me her sister is a pharmacist.  I told her mine was a pharmacist too.  She then went on to tell me her sister, while a successful professional has had a life riddled with misfortune.  She got into a car wreck coming home one night…3 fractures in one leg…2 fractures in the other.  As a result one leg is 2 inches shorter than the other.  Shortly after recovering her husband was shot and killed in a botched robbery.

            We spoke for a half hour and then I told her I had to leave.

            “See you later.”

            “God willing.”  She reminded me.

            How true.  I suppose I assume that there will always be tomorrow.  A next time.  Another conversation.  Maybe when life is tainted with misfortune, tragedy and the unexpected there is no such thing as certainty.  I suppose I could learn something from her mentality.  More than ever – carpe diem.

            Then it was back to the office.  I attended a graduation ceremony for a group of outside teachers we taught according to the Educate! teacher training module (emphasize “thinking” as opposed to “memorizing”). 

            Then I did research.

            Then I had a meeting with Emily and Angelica.

            Then I did some more microfinance research.

            Yay.

            I came across this interesting piece of information – and it got me thinking…when people say all Americans are rich.  Just maybe we are:

 

            Fact:  Almost half the world's population, 2.1 billion people, live on less than $2 a day. They are trapped in poverty so severe they cannot adequately feed, clothe, or shelter themselves or their families. More than half the globe’s population--3.2 billion--survive on less than $400 a year per capita.

Wednesday, October 21st 2009

 

            Well well well – ain’t that Ironic.  One day after reporting that the Iron Fox was nearly infallible…I get food poisoning.  It was not a lot of fun.  It will take me a while to go back to Edith’s restaurant.  I guess I was expecting to get sick so its’ not a big deal.  As my doctors in New York said, “Its not a matter of IF you’ll get food poisoning…it’s a matter of WHEN you’ll get food poisoning.”

            I’m still proud of the Iron Fox for making it more than a month. 

 

            It was POURING rain when I woke up.  FYI – there is a saying that “when it rains Uganda stops.”  Okay, maybe not a saying – but it’s the way things work.  Because a lot of the roads are mud and because a significant amount of travel is done via motorcycle rain is a serious hindrance to travel and just about anything else you want to do.

            So…this whole week was an office week.  Not very exciting for my loyal blog fans – but a necessity to make sure the Educate! funding model is in place when I leave.

            Background - After I left Morgan Stanley and before I came to Africa I went on a microfinance networking tour in NYC.  My goal was to meet as many microfinance people as possible. My time in NYC was productive…I met someone who was a formed microfinance director at AIG and is now at Harvard Business School…a person whose on the board of the NYC microfinance committee…a former microfinance worker at the bank of Uganda.  Hopefully they’ll help turn up some good leads.  Its not what you know but who you know – right?

            I did this so when I came to Uganda, with no microfinance contacts, and limited understand of microfinance I’d be able to lean on them for advice, suggestions and contacts.  I hadn’t emailed them yet because I’ve spent my first month in Africa learning about Educate!, meeting our students, adapting to the Ugandan culture and researching microfinance…but I finally decided to start reaching out to people and asking them to introduce me to local MF peeps.  So yeah.

            At 1:00 Sandrah (one of our mentors) came over with two of her friends that wanted my advice on their business.  They had recently launched a small business-consulting firm.  It was a really productive meeting and they were super happy they came over and I was happy to help them.  After the meeting I turned to them, and said with a straight face, “You can address the check to Joseph Quaderer.”

            Their mouths dropped.

            “Sandrah didn’t tell you about my fee?”

            Their mouths dropped further.

            “Just kidding!”

            After they left I created a questionnaire for out students to fill out.  Basically they fill it out – tell me about their business, its strengths, weaknesses, limitations, potential…etcetera…I review it and help them figure out how to make their business better.  Any revenue is usually given to students struggling to pay school fees.

            At night I agreed to meet Suzi and Baati in Kampala for dinner at a place called “Café Pap.”  I took a matatu into Kampala with Sandrah.  It took an hour and a half.  SIGH!  Patience Joe.  Patience.  It’s a 10 minute drive without traffic. 

            After I got into Old Taxi Park I walked up Entebbe Road, to Kampala road and finally to Café Pap.

            So Baati is a friend with a lot of people in Educate! and Suzi is a German social worker that runs around in the same expat scene as my friends.  Suzi’s organization basically gives money to people with no other resorts – i.e. someone will come to her office and say, “I have no rent to pay our landlord.  If we miss the payment we’ll get kicked out onto the street.”  Suzi will then go and look at the apartment to make sure it exists, she’ll ask some other questions to make sure the person isn’t lying…and if its legit she’ll give the person the required money.

            She’s a real sweetheart.  Baati and I agreed to get dinner with her after learning her boyfriend of three months, A (lets just call him A), was basically a complete fraud.  She was understandably upset, and feeling lonely because she was in Kampala by herself…so we agreed to get dinner. 

            Okay, wow, this guy A is a complete, certified sociopath.  Like, scary.

            So…A was always a SUPER nice guy – a bubbly fellow always quick with a smile and a laugh and a hug.  I pride myself on my ability to judge people’s character and I thought this guy was a real sweetheart.

            Anyways, he and Suzi had been dating for 3 months.  They seemed like a happy couple.  He was a black guy who had lived in Portugal most of his life.  She was a white girl that lived in Germany her whole life.  He had been educated in the Netherlands and the UK.  She went to school in Germany.  He had a job in Kampala.  She had a job in Kampala.  They were living in a house which he apparently had purchased with his old GF, but after their break up his old GF had moved out and A continued living there.  They met in Uganda.  They were happy.  Life was good.

            But then the ball of lies started unraveling.  They were out one night and a woman walked up them.

            “A!  Great to see you!”

            A acted disinterested, or like he didn’t know the woman and excused himself.

            Suzi, curious, inquired into how the woman knew A.

            “Oh, we went to secondary school (high school) together in Uganda.”

            BUT – A was born and raised in Portugal?

            When confronted, A assured Suzi the other girl must have been mistaken.

            Another night Suzi was out when someone told her A was 22.  But he had told her he was 27.  Not the end of the world – but another disparity.

            Hmm.  Curious.

            Then more suspicious things happened.

            “Suzi – I lost my ATM card.  It takes a few months for the card to arrive since my account is in the Netherlands.  Can I borrow some money?  I’ll pay you back.”

            There goes a couple hundred thousand USH.

            And…then…her credit card disappeared for a few days.  But then reappeared.  Hmm curious.

            Suzi called her mom in Germany.

            “Weird.  I found my card again.” 

            Her Mom logged into Suzi’s online account.  “Hmm that is weird because there’s been four purchases for several hundred thousand USH during that time period.”

            Suspicion raging.

            And…then…the bottom fell out.  A’s supposed “ex girlfriend” came back from a sabbatical somewhere.  Turns out A and Suzi were LIVING in A’s girlfriends house.  He didn’t own it.  She let him live there while she was abroad.  A had the audacity to LIVE there with another woman.

            A kicked Suzi out.

            WHAT?!

            A told Suzi she wasn’t allowed to speak to any of their mutual friends anymore.  He told her not to go to any of the bars we all go to.  He told her to get out of her life.  She was crushed, not only by the fact that she was dating a man that turned out to be a complete fraud, but also at the thought she’d lose all her friends.”

            I had to interrupt her at this point.  “Suzi, I’m your friend.  I’m not friends with people like him.  If he has a problem with that tell him to call me.”

            “Do you feel threatened?”  I asked her.

            “Yes – he has his back against a wall.  If he loses this girl he knows he’s out on the streets.”

            Oh yeah – A doesn’t really have a job.

            Poor Suzi.  I cant imagine how hard this is for her.  All Baati and I could do was assure her we were there for her.

            It was scary because this guy had me fooled.  I remember actually thinking that it was refreshing to meet such a nice, happy person.

           

MALCOLM

“What will you do? Let's not consort with them.”

…

DONALBAIN

“There's daggers in men's smiles: The nearer the bloodier.”

Interesting Facts...

Key features of poverty today:

• The number of poor in Africa is rising. While the overall number of people living on less than $1 day has decreased between 1990 and 2001, it has increased in Sub-Saharan Africa, from 227 to 313 million in the same period. 

• The very poor are getting poorer. During the 1990s, the average income of the extremely poor in sub-Saharan Africa actually declined. Poverty has become both wider and deeper.

• Seventy percent of the poor are women. Women work two-thirds of the world's working hours, produce half of the world's food, and yet earn only 10% of the world's income and own less than 1% of the world's property. In the least developed countries, nearly twice as many women over age 15 are illiterate as men. Two-thirds of children denied primary education are girls.

• Setbacks on hunger nearly outweigh progress. There were 815 million hungry people in the developing world in 20024 — 9 million less than in 1990. Yet in the worst-affected regions — sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia — the number of hungry people has increased by tens of millions.

• Conflicts and disasters exacerbate poverty. Out of 13 million deaths in large-scale

conflicts from 1994 to 2003, over 12 million were in sub-Saharan Africa, Western Asia and Southern Asia. Not surprisingly, these regions are also home to three quarters of the world’s 37 million refugees and displaced persons. Over the same period of time, 669,000 people died as a consequence of natural disasters. Nearly three quarters of these deaths were in Eastern and Southern Asia.

• Though there are no exact statistics, it is believed that at least 10% of the world’s very poor are people with disabilities; the number may be as high as 15%, and this does not include the roughly 40 million people living with HIV and AIDS worldwide.

• More than 65% of the rural population in Latin America and the Caribbean lives below

the poverty line and, over the last two decades, the number of poor people in rural areas has increased in both absolute and relative terms. Malnutrition is not usually thought of as a Latin American problem, but in much of Central America, notably Guatemala and Nicaragua, chronic child malnutrition is as prevalent as in Africa or South Asia, and there has been no improvement for over a decade.

Gulu

I might be traveling to Gulu next week.  Gulu is a northern province of Uganda a few hours south of Sudan.  I'd be traveling to IDP (Internally Displaced Person) camps to help disseminate mosquito nets.  IDP camps are primarily created by refugees fleeing to the relative safety of Uganda from other countries (Democratic Republic of Congo...Sudan...etcetera).  In addition to being the site of many IDP camps the Gulu province was one of the worst affected by Joseph Kony's child abductions.  

 

Tuesday, October 20th 2009

Woke up at 5:07 AM to write and do some work. When I walked out the sun had just peaked over the horizon and the clouds stretched tangerine orange into the vast sky. It was beautiful. The clouds here seem higher and more dramatic. On more than one occasion I’ve lost myself looking at them. I went back to my room to get my camera and walked up onto our second floor patio. Akiki the miserable mutt followed me up there and harassed me as I tried to get a good snap. I am extra weary of Akiki nowadays – he has been biting people lately – the prior night he bit Lindsay. He is a flea-ridden dog that is locked up most of the day – I guess I can understand why he’s antsy. We’re in a catch-22 situation with him though – Eric, the founder of Educate!, found him injured and rescued him from life on the street – but he’s not tame so we basically live with a street dog. Great. ☺
Honestly – it wasn’t an exciting day…I worked all day:
- Met with Connie to discuss the troubled Busiro School and typed up my Busiro analysis.
- Researched the cost / benefit of purchasing a cellular “family plan” for our mentors
- Uploaded Educate! photos to our hard drive
- Researched a generator for the house
- Sent out emails to MFI’s in Uganda
- Researched our funding model.
Exhilarating. I’m sure you’re all at the edge of your seats in anticipation (sarcasm). Hey cant all be exciting days I guess.
My day was much better then Lindsay’s. She’s getting worse. She now has blackouts when she stands up…in addition to mental sluggishness, nausea and a whole slew of other issues.
She decided to go to the hospital. I felt bad for her. I know what its like to be injured or sick in another country. It’s downright scary to know you’re over 30 hours away from medical care in the US of A.
When the girls returned from the hospital Lindsay seemed cheerful.
“Well – its not malaria, but they don’t know what it is.” She said. “They took blood samples. They think it’s a parasite or something.”
Yikes.
I turned to Maggie. “How was the hospital?”
“Umm – lets just say I hope I never get sick here.”
I concur.
Later that night I spoke Lindsay and Jodie about living in Kenya. Things are so bad there that the girls have gone through a “what to do if I get raped” scenario. They gave each other the people they want called, what hospital they want to go to (or if they want to be air lifted to the United States), a copy of their international insurance, what tests they want performed…etcetera…
I asked them why they continued to live and work in Kenya if they feared being raped or kidnapped on a daily basis.
“We’re hoping the positive energy will continue to keep us safe.”
“I really hope I never have daughters like you.” I said. How scary.

Women’s issues are a real problem here. It’s very upsetting to me.
Ironically enough…that night I went to eat at Edith’s restaurant by myself (going to Edith’s with a book and reading as I eat, or, talking to the locals is one of my small pleasures here) and on the front page of the “Daily Monitor” (one Ugandas daily newspapers) was the headline:

Rapists on Rampage
• 2,000 girls sexually assaulted in two years
• Rape cases nearly triple between 2007 and 2008
• Police say alcohol and drug abuse behind the spike
• Rapists increasingly also murder their victims
• High cost of medical examination of victims hampering efforts to try suspected victims.
•
As you might imagine the article was disturbing, but there were a few items that stuck out:
“In 2007, 599 rape cases were reported to the Police. This figure tripled last year with the police registering 1,536 cases.
Thus, at a rate of slightly over 2,000 rapes occurring in the last two years, this would suggest that about three females are raped each passing day in Uganda today.
So far only 239 suspects have been arrested of whom just 3 were convicted by court. By December last year, 222 suspects were awaiting trial, according to official records.”

“Ms Aciro says unless the Sexual Offences, Marriage and Divorce, and Domestic Relations bills are passed, violence against women will continue.
There is an increase in impunity…which must be stopped,” she says. She however said the law isn’t an end in itself but government must strengthen the Police’s capacity to combat this crime of violence against women.”

“Matters are, however, not helped by the fact that proving rape in court requires that the prosecution adduces incontrovertible evidence which will “leave the judge without any shadow of doubt” that the suspect(s) raped his victim.
A key piece of evidence is usually provided by a medical report which should prove penetration and establish through DNA testing that semen found on the victim came from the suspect. Uganda does not, however, have adequate in-country capacity to carry out the usually expensive testing, which fact compromises the trying of rape cases.
Also in cases of suspected rape, defilement or other sexual assault the victims are ideally supposed to report the matter shortly after the incident to facilitate the requirement that medical examination be conducted within 24 hours after the fact. Many times though victims are unable to afford fees for this medical examination that ranges between 20,000 USH ($10) and 30,000 USH ($15).”

When I was done eating I went to pay my bill. Edith told me it was 1,300 USH (65 cents) for matoke, beans, rice and avocado. I gave her a 10,000 bill, but she didn’t have change so she asked if she could hold onto the 10,000 and give me change the next time I came back.
Fine.
But then Hassan (young Muslim guy I had a beer with at a local bar) asked me if he could have 1,000 of my change to buy more plantain alcohol.
Moral dilemma here – again I struggled with the right thing to do – Hassan has always been kind to me, and truth be told 1,000 USH (50 cents) wouldn’t have broken the bank…but I felt uneasy. If I gave money to Hassan to buy plantain liquor, then I’d have to give it to the next guy, and the next guy, and the next guy. Ultimately I told Hassan no, and I don’t think he was really pleased. I was going to explain to him that it wasn’t about money, it was about principle…but decided to leave that for another day.

Go buy some Doritos!

A quick blurb about Eric Glustrom, the founder of Educate!, is on the back of 40 million Doritos bags this month!

Front

 

Back