Not an ATM in Sight

Well, actually there is ONE. Can you believe it? In this country of Mali, there is but one ATM at the central bank in downtown Bamako, the capital city where I have returned after a few days training and testing in neighboring Guinea. I was forewarned of this dearth of ATM machines before my departure from the U.S. Cash is King here in Mali, declared the Save the Children Country Office director, Dunni Goodman. It is always a bit risky carrying so much cash on one's person. Travelers checks are not generally accepted, nor are credit cards. My hotel accepted my debit card, but my travel Visa card was not accepted even though it had more than adequate funds.



Enough of the funds stricture here. My work is completed, as I gave my exit presentation and recommendations to the senior managers here at Save the Children. On Wednesday late afternoon, I returned to Bamako from three days of training in Kankan, Guinea with Bamadio and Soro, my Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), and Information Technology (IT) hosts, respectively. I stopped in to speak with Ms. Goodman for what i thought would be a brief moment. Instead, she asked me to sit down and asked if I would provide a presentation on PDA technology to their partner, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) here in Bamako. I said, sure, I'd love to. Save is co-developing a proposal to The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for a Multi Year Assistance Program (MYAP) to alleviate food shortages (food insecurity) in an area to the north here in Mali.

Before I started my presentation, the CRS Director, Karen Kent gave me her paper survey horror story which occurred just the prior week. They had expended much cost and effort to conduct a baseline survey for one of their programs. A baseline is conducted to determine the structure of the program area, i.e. population, nutrition needs, etc. The box of the completed surveys was placed on a bus for transport back to their office in Bamako. That box has still not arrived...

The short of my presentation at CRS was a directive from Ms. Kent, to include PDA's in their collaborative MYAP proposal to reduce overall program costs for data collection and to increase data accuracy.



I took nearly 500 photos of the villages alone that I have visited. Many are posted on my image-sharing website http:\\disaak.phanfare.com. we spent an afternoon testing our PDA survey instruments at the village of Bate Nafadji, where Save has a Child Safety program implemented. As we drove the 4 hours from Bamako, Mali, to the Save office in Kanakan, Guinea, I saw a series of this "safe" houses along the highway. The intent is to inform and make aware the communities of the dangers of child exploitation resulting in child trafficking. A highway is a perfect conduit to obtain and transport children for various purposes, other than what a child should be doing.



As the three PDA-wielding teams dispersed through the village to conduct interviews, I was lead to a large room filled with students. It happened again, I was warmly greeted by a loud recitation of lessons and welcoming speeches. I am always overwhelmed at this reception, in part, because no such acclaim should be given to me; I have a return airplane ticket ot the U.S. The real heroes are the staff and students. i was also shown a room full of old treadle-style sewing machines. A student who had graduated from the Child safety program has remained in the village and now teaches a viable skill to boys and girls (this is gender notable). A marketable skill is still yet another weapon against child trafficking!



I then found the three teams as each team member took turns using the PDA's to survey a head of household. As usual, everyone took to the PDA's effortlessly, respondent as well as interviewer. A post-interview meeting was held before we headed back to the office.

I need to do some packing and head to bed. I return to the U.S. tomorrow

In Kankan - Republic of Guinea

I arrived at the Save the Children office here in Kankan after a five hour drive on an excellent paved highway from Bamako, Mali. I will not be able to write very much, since I discovered that in this large city, there is not a functioning electrical infrastructure. Last evening we drove about in total darkness to a tiny restaurant. We ate by candle light. Of course, the people have battery power for limited lighting, and you may always discern the loud diesel-powered generators. The later we enjoyed both at the Save the Children office and our overnight residence.



We avoided the cost of a hotel by staying at a residence owned by Save the Children. Electricity stopped at 1AM, but I retired under my mosquito net long before. In the morning after breakfast, we arrived back at the Save the Children office. A very capable staff is here. After introductions to the program managers and administrative staff, we utilized a large conference room to begin the training in mobile data collection.



i prefer to place the PDA's in the hands of the training participants as soon as possible. As usual, they rapidly begin experimenting and exploring the devices. Then, the efforts centered on a very lively discussion of the target survey form that we would design and place onto the PDA's for our field testing tomorrow. The form is to collect data from households regarding Child Safety in regards to awareness and education in Child Trafficking.



I always emphasize, that before we build the form on the PDA, we must understand the content, structure, and logic of the form. This is essential, and once again, a couple of hours was spent to arrive at agreement of these characteristics of the form.



I need to upload this blog entry since the generator is about to turn off, and with it, the internet connection.

Getting Connected in Mali

As is often the case in my trips to emerging nations, internet connectivity has been intermittent. It first failed at my hotel the Thursday evening before we left for the field. But, I am not here to connect with the rest of the world, but to connect with my partners here at the Save the Children in Mali – and the families and children. So, I will use the business center here at the hotel for the internet.



I have just returned from two days in the field. We traveled for a couple of hours to the villages of Klesokoro and Diambala in the Bougouni region, or known administratively as the Bougouni Aire Sante. After we left the capital city of Bamako. We traveled across a flat plain of scrub and trees. The roads were excellent with the occasional detour for road construction.



My French language speaking skills are slowly returning from my high schools days. They have increased in quality from listening to speaking, in that order. This area reminds me often of my travels in Haiti. I recall that a Save the Children friend once told me that Haiti is like West Africa transplanted, since many of the present day inhabitants of Haiti were forcibly moved from there. It is true, from what I have seen. I love it here.

Even though I have recovered from the effects of the jet lag, I felt some discomfort the first couple of days. I now believe, that it was the effects of the typhoid vaccine that I received just prior to my departure from the United States. Due to Save the Children’s generosity, I utilize the benefit of a traveler’s health service. Two years ago, I went to see the health doctor and to advise them of the countries I was about to visit. The doctor then advised me of what diseases were endemic in those locations and to administer appropriate vaccines. I was due for a typhoid update, so my travel health doctor suggested the newly approved oral typhoid vaccine which is good for five years. Instead of an inoculation from a needle, it is, as the name suggests, taken orally in the form of four capsules taken on alternating days. The instructions strongly urg keeping the unused capsules refrigerated at all times. They must be taken with food and even the water was to be cold and not warm. The instructions even said that the capsule should not be held in the mouth for too long before swallowing!



The vaccine itself, is termed attenuated, or a live form of the virus in a weakened state. By ingesting the virus, it then invokes an antigen response by the body’s immune system. Then, if the in-the-wild version is encountered, the body has the antigens already available to fight off the virus. Well, on my 2nd day here in Mali, I felt a slight distension of my upper abdomen and I felt chills in the evening. I recall that when I was inoculated with the Japanese encephalitis vaccine, I experienced the same effects. The abdominal distension is due to an enlargement of the spleen as it produces the antibodies. I watched this carefully and I had no apparent fever. If you think, “why would anyone subject their bodies to these foreign bodies”, then just do a Google search on the effects, and usually death, of the real non-attenuated, viruses! The vaccine contraindications are nothing compared to the real thing. Horrible stuff. You can watch a Hollywood version in the typhoid death of John Malkovich in Algeria in the movie Sheltering Sky. That is just too much screaming for me.

From Monday through Wednesday, my Monitoring and Evaluation partner, Modibo Bamadio and I reviewed a paper form questionnaire, called Zinkifura, which we wanted to test on the PDA’s. This questionnaire was in French and was used to interview mothers over their use of a zinc (hence, Zinkifura) supplement to offset the effects of diarrhea on their children less than five years of age. Diarrhea of course, is a response to the body to flush out harmful bacteria in the intestinal tract. In doing so, the body can overreact and lose too much water and become dangerously dehydrated. This is often the cause of death with cholera and other intestinal diseases.



We stayed overnight at a nice hotel in the city of Bougouni. The following morning we arrived at the Save the Children office nearby. Last names are used here in Mali for identifying persons. In Vietnam, it was middle names – all too confusing the first few days for this Westerner! We met Bamadio's M&E peer here in Bougouni, Zanna Daou (his name sound like Xanadu to my ears) to accompany us to the villages. The villages were not far away so we arrived by mid morning. The Bamako Country Office (CO) Information Technology (IT) person came with us. Adama Soro is a very friendly and capable IT person, having skills in Microsoft SL Server (the preferred database repository software located on a protected server), Visual Basic (a high level programming language and application development software).



In the early morning, I handed a PDA to Soro and two PDA’s to Bamadio, with the 2nd for Zanna. When Zanna arrived, I suggested that Bamadio provide some initial training to him in the use of the PDA. Bamadio did all of the right things. After turning the PDA on, Bamadio then came alongside Zanna so that Zanna could see the screen. Soon, Bamadio handed the PDA to Zanna to let him use it for himself. This might seem a small thing, but Bamadio not only transferred his technical knowledge to Zanna, but also enjoined trust with his partner with his subtle body language. This is vital during actual interviews. Paper forms on clipboard in the hands of interviewers often present a large physical barrier between interviewer and respondent. The interviewer will often shield themselves from the respondent using the clipboard.



The PDA’s smaller size allows a closer proximity to the respondent and is easier to show the respondent. Yet, since the screen is much smaller, the respondent often loses interest and then disengages from the data capture instrument and concentrates more fully on responding to the questions of the interviewer.

I always appreciate the IT person’s involvement on my visits. I emphasize from the first day, that we are not placing paper forms onto PDA's, we are building portable databases. The IT person is often pre-occupied with keeping the computers and servers up and running, but their skills are crucial to a centralized data management strategy Often CO’s have data contained in scattered, disparate spreadsheets, multiple Microsoft Access databases and even Microsoft Word documents (see, I have them in Word tables!). I always take the IT person aside and discuss a more centralized data management strategy and include it in my assessment report in order to provide knowledge and support to the managers.



We had loaded the test form onto 3 PDA’s. The form had a total of 70 questions, but we only used about 30 of those questions for field testing. Many of the questions were what are commonly termed skip questions. Skip questioning is, for example, when a mother answers Yes to the question, have you ever administered a zinc supplement to your baby? Then the PDA form screen automatically advances to the next series of questions asking the effects of the zinc dose on the child. If the mother answers No, then the questions pertaining to the effects of zinc administration are hidden automatically (through use of underlying scripts) and the PDA interviewer is then skipped to only the questions relevant for a respondent who has not administered zinc to their child, hence the term skip questioning.



I am finding that the skip questioning capability of PDA forms is a marked improvement over the functionality of paper survey forms. With a paper form, the interviewer must follow the logic of the answers and then shuffle through papers to the correct questions. This slows the interviews and distracts both respondent and interviewer, and at the worst, results in incorrect answers. It is pretty hard to sort through the answers while hand-typing in the data back at the office trying to determine the correct answer. If the mother answered yes, that she administered zinc to the child, why are the zinc administration answers blank! You can not easily return and rectify this problem easily.

As usual, at this point I am mostly observing the PDA users during the interviews. I am also entertaining the children with their photographs in order to make friends with them. Upon entering the village of Klekosoro, we approached unawares a mother and her 3 children in front of their house. When the children and saw the tall, light-skinned person approaching, they ran screaming into the house. I hate when that happens. I had been lagging behind taking pictures. I usually try to stay contained physically within the group so that I do not stand out so much. I blew it.



I spent my time principally with Zanna, while Bamadio and Soro went off to their interviews. Bamadio thoughtfully assigned a local young man to accompany us so that we could be re-directed to a common meeting point post-interview. Zanna began his interviews with a couple of mothers after about two minutes of turning on the PDA. I am finding that everyone takes to the PDA method of data collection quite easily everywhere that I travel.



The Pendragon software that we use for the PDA form design is easy to use, and it has a simple, intuitive interface on the PDA. At the same time Pendragon can be extended with the use of a scripting language such as we used for the skip questioning. Using the zinc administration question logic above, if question Z301 (just a question abbreviation code) is Yes, then skip to question Z306. If the mother answers No, then hide all following questions and advance the PDA screen to question Z310. The script that we used follows:

if answer == Y then
goto [Z306] {zinc administration question series}
else {meaning the answer to question Z301 is “No”}
goto [Z310] {“are you unaware of the zinc supplement available to your baby from the health worker?”}
endif

The following PDA screen imqges show how this works:

If answer is Yes



Then the PDA screen advances to:



On the other hand, if the answer is No:



Then the PDA screen automatically advances to the Title screen of the next section:



If the mother can answer a certain question in more than two ways, then we use a common script form called Switch Case. This allows for multiple answers to a question controlling the PDA user to the relevant screen.

SWITCH answer
CASE "1" {“yes, I give my baby the zinc supplement”}
goto [FS801]
CASE "2" {“no, I have received the zinc supplement, but have never given it to my baby”}
goto [FS504]
CASE "8" {“I am not sure, I have never heard of the zinc supplement”}
goto [FS504]
ENDSWITCH

After the interviews, we assembled where I asked Zanna, Bamadio and Soro how it went. I noted that all heads nodded up and down in the affirmative, then changed to shaking side to side when I asked if there were any problems. For them, they mostly were reporting to me on the technological aspect of using the PDA’s. For my part, I am most interested at this point in the usability by the interviewer and acceptability by the mother. The latter, can often be overwhelmed by the gaze of the interviewer on the small device, and not the usual clipboard and shuffling of paper forms. Here, I noted that the mothers would turn their head away from the interviewer in a disaffected gaze, listen to the question, and then answer with the head still turned. But, after the answer was given, often the mother then would look towards the interviewer to watch the entering of the answer on the PDA.



We then traveled a short distance to the village of Diambala. Here, Bamadio let me know that we needed to first visit the village chief to inform him of the reason of our visit and to obtain permission. I believe that my CTO had to do the same thing and observe correct protocol on his recent visit with Princess Anne in Great Britain. It is the same at any level…



The chief received us graciously, directing chairs to be provided as we reclined on a platform outside of his house. I listened to speeches being traded, then, with obvious permission of the chief, we arose to conduct our interviews. I was happy that I did not need to give a speech, which, from my experience, is often the case with a foreign visitor.



After our return to the Save the Children office in Bougouni, we downloaded the data in about three seconds (the rule is, type it once, and never type it again!). We found all records, with each person interviewing 2 to 3 mothers in each of the two villages. We really did not need to spend more time. Yes, that is me with a sweet potato that was given as a gift to me by a villager.



After the intervening weekend, we will travel to neighboring Guinea to conduct PDA tests at the Save the Children office there.

The Third Day in Bamako

I feel great this morning. This climate is really agreeing with me. It is dry, unlike the high humidity that I usually encounter in other tropical climes. It is helped by the fact that Bamako is distant from the ocean and is situated at over 1,000 feet elevation.

This is my third day at the Save the Children office and all traces of jet lag have disappeared. It does not usually affect me to the degree that I hear from a lot of fellow travelers. The main difficulty is catching up on sleep after traveling for a couple of days.



I asked that, on my return to the hotel last evening, if I could stop at a store. Because of the jet lag, I have awakened each morning at two to three AM. It is curious that the former occurs on the first morning after arrival, then progresses an hour later each successive day. I am now back to my usual four or so awakening time. The stop at the store was to purchase some instant coffee for those early morning rises. Otherwise, I have to wait until the kitchen opens at 6:00 AM (although there is no response until after 6:30 AM) to order coffee. I also paused long enough at the store to obtain, what I thought, was milk for a coffee creamer. One must be careful with dairy products overseas since the can have dubious pasteurization and salmonella is no fun. Well, in my haste, I picked up a tall, slender quart of thin yogurt. Oh well...

this morning, arrangements are being finalized (lodging, transportation) for our trip to the village of Bougouni to conduct our field tests. I love getting out to the field, as I will not really know what ot expect. Not only from a tourist/ traveler point of view, but also from a professional aspect. A mantra has developed in my work of late, "what works in the air-conditioned cubicle will not necessarily work in the field". I see this over and over during my assessment trips for mobile data collection using PDA's.

I first encountered this painfully during my 3rd of 4 trips to our El Salvador office in 2004. Upon arrival, I asked the PDA team how the PDA's were doing for their data collection. They smiled and replied fine. Upon review of their collected data, I sensed that all was not well. I immerse myself into their processes during my assessments so that I embrace the program culture. i could tell that omething was not right. they should of had a higher quantity of records, and there was a curious consistency to the records that were collected. Well, to make a longer story shorter, I pretty much demanded a field visit. I interviewed each of the health workers who had PDA's. They very politely, but with evident lack of enthusiasm, they each replied that they were happy with the new technology. I knew better, since I had learned from my few trips to Latin America that often it is difficult to have problems revealed to you (we do not want you to feel bad!). I pressed the last PDA user rather strongly and she suddenly stood and declared emphatically that she did not like using the PDA's and that they had doubled her data collection work load. I was so relieved to obtain the real situation and I profusely thank her for the feedback, and to heal over my pressing (very un-Latin). Below is a picture from this session



I then found that the PDA collection form had been designed back at the office with a checkbox on the form that required that a respondent answer all questions asked before concluding the interview. Well, this is seldom practical, since a mother has meals to cook, young babies to care for. In this way, field interviews are unlike those conducted in calm, peaceful offices! From this valuable lesson learned, we removed the must answer all questions functionality on the PDA form and all was well. In order to overcome this obstacle, the health worker reverted back to collecting data on paper forms and then hand-entering the data onto the PDA's in the evening in order to satisfy the office. We had, indeed, doubled her work.

I love field testing....

A Small Place...

I have returned to my hotel room after my first day at the Save Children Country Office here in Bamako, Mali. The sun is setting casting a warm glow across the large empty lot stretching behind the hotel. West Africa is certainly different than my only other experience on this continent. I spent a couple of weeks in Uganda for a mobile data collection assessment last summer, and attended a Save the Children education conference at Mombasa Kenya the prior year. The latter was at a beautiful, albeit synthetic, resort. The most stunning sight I saw there were guided camel rides across the sandy beaches for the hotel guests. Uganda, on the other hand, was a much more in-depth introduction to Africa. As in my other CO visits, we were able to spend time in the field, conducting PDA data collection field tests in the Luwero region, north of the capital city of Uganda. during my time there, I began to develop the sense of dire circumstances and struggle in that East African nation. There are so many people and so little opportunity.



Here in Mali, I am gaining a different sense of Africa, perhaps reflecting the great geographic and cultural diversity of this land mass. Once again, I am having the opportunity to shatter long held misperceptions of Africa. After my late afternoon arrival at my hotel room, I drew back the curtains and looked out to the empty lot. It is perhaps two to three acres in size, surrounded by buildings in various stages of construction. as I noted earlier, I have notice most uncompleted building are inhabited by families who are either squatting or function as caretakers. Within this perimeter are vegetable gardens. I believe that there is either a well or piped water near the center, since I see people going to and fro from this spot with buckets of water.

This afternoon, I saw at least a dozen persons working in these gardens, most all of which were women. They were busy watering, cultivating and harvesting - what product, I am not sure. I was struck by the women bent over at their waists in a open safety pin-like angle. It was amazing. I am such a soft person, both inside and out. My back would of screamed at me in just several minutes if I attempted the same posture, and that without working!

I read a small, non-fiction book a couple of years ago. This reading was at a time of my earlier trips to Central America on behalf of Save the Children. I was voraciously reading then, attempting to understand how to comprehend and rationalize my experiences. The book is called, A Small Place, by Jamaica Kincaid. The author describes living on a tiny island in the Caribbean. He describes, in amazement and at times derision, the collision that visitors from larger countries have upon arrival at his island. It is not simply the change from a fast paced lifestyle to one in the tropics. The author also understands that these are tourists and will likely never remain in his Small Place. I still do not feel that I completed an understanding of the thesis which the author proposes. I do continually feel like the tourist visiting a small place and being disconnected from the people about me. I first felt this in Haiti and attempted to articulate it in my first blog entry earlier this year. I am confident that I am just coming to face my own happen chance luck of being born in North America...

You may look at the hundreds of images that I have collected on my overseas trips, and of my personal life, at: http://disaak.phanfare.com

Hotel Kome - Bamako Mali

Well, one never knows how the accommodations will be. The Hotel Residence Kome will be just fine. I have wireless internet and a clean room. More importantly, i noted the sigh to the SC office not more than 5 minutes away. That will save valuable time and expense picking me up. This morning, after 5 hours of blessed sleep, I walked upstairs to the tiny restaurant. Mali, being a former French colony will be delightful. Wonderful french breads and french style place settings. It is a modest hotel, but better than I imagined.



On of the best parts of trip, especially when I arrive at night, is to awaken and look out my window, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz movie after her house landed. It does seem that all changes from a black and white image to one of color. At least, the color of a new place for me.

Arrival in Mali

Our plane landed about an hour late at the Senou airport in the capital city of Bamako here in Mali. I did get a couple of hours sleep on this 5 hour flight from Paris. Interestingly, as soon as the plane touched down, two persons unbuckled their seat belts and darted for the front of the plane, carry-on baggage in hand. I mean, the plane was still decelerating at over a hundred miles an hour. It was fun watching the flight attendants trying to convince them that they needed to return to their seats and to not open the cabin door at this point. I have seen this before upon arriving at remote airports.

The tiny airport was a madhouse. Immigration was easy, but Customs pulled my smaller luggage out for a personal inspection and an interview. This the first time that I have been pulled out. I was bringing a new laptop to the CO. It seems my Save the Children (SC)ID card around my neck did not impress them. But my SC business card they found in the luggage did. I always generously sprinkle my business cards throughout my luggage. I recalled a bit of French, so I uttered something about, pour l'infants (for the babies), which is the only thing that came to my jet-lagged mind from 4 years of french language classes 40 years ago. They let me go. This was one of them most chaotic airport arrival areas that I have encountered. It ranks right up there with the Soviet era airport in Tajikistan. Everyone pushing and shoving with tempers flaring. The luggage porters are competing with each other to grab your luggage once you spot it on the conveyor. I always try to trick them by noting my luggage emerging without displaying my glee, but they frequently can tell. I successful fought them (I dislike strongly the extended negotiations on their fee later) off, only to pick up two of them needed to convey (supposedly) me through the customs interview.

All the while I am watching the conveyor to spot my luggage festooned with bright ribbons on the handles. I am also trying to keep an eye on the line forming in the customs area. More than once, I have seen someone mistaken walking off with my luggage. Frankly, I love this part. At least it is something to blog about!

Is This Paris?

The trip always starts in the mind. First, there is the contacts with the Country Office (CO), and the resulting agreement on when to arrive, etc. Then, Mr. Franko provides a itinerary for my review based on the dates that I need to arrive and depart. In this case, he placed me on a new airline, Air France, and had me waiting in the Charles de Gaulle airport outside of Paris for one of the infrequent flights to Bamako, Mali.



I will be traveling overland to our CO in neighboring Republic of Guinea. But I have over eight hours between connecting flights between Paris and Mali. Even this is more than enough time to explore the huge airport. So, I did my research on how to take the RER train that originates within the airport, and to venture into the heart of Paris. Now then, 8 hours seems like a lot of time, but I can not miss my flight to Mali. What, with the possibilities of getting on the wrong train, passing through security, etc. I figured that I had 1 1/2 to 2 hours at best to wander Paris. I was also hoping to pick up a geocache (www.geocaching.com - think GPS treasure hunt) find a few blocks from the Notre Dame Cathedral on the Isle de la Cite.

The train was a piece of cake, especially since I exchanged some U.S. dollars for Euro's before I left Sea-Tac airport in Seattle, WA (my departure location. I am home-based in Arlington, WA - no, a much smaller town than Arlington, VA)). I knew that from my pre-departure research that most U.S. generated credit cards lack the embedded security RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chip that European Union-issued credits cards have. I needed hard cash. The train whisked me along until I saw a sign outside the train window at an underground station. Hey, I'd better get off!



I popped up from a tunnel and there I was. The courtyard before Notre Dame. Visions of Victor Hugo and Charles Lawton's portrayal of the Hunchback (classic Hollywood movie produced in 1939 - I am a big 1930's film fanatic) loomed before me - in reality!



I was stunned. But I was also tired. I had been up for about 30 hours (not too unusual on my trips). I was lugging around nearly 20 pounds of briefcase. I have developed this habit of becoming self-sustaining during my travels after my last loss of luggage. I keep all that I would need to survive, minus water, to last several days. An extra pair of under garments, medicines, a full set of PDA training tools (cables, chargers, data synchronization docking stations, portable PDA batteries, spare laptop battery, granola snacks, spare contacts, first aid kit. Yes, I have not yet learned to travel light. This is in addition to my fanny pack which is always within 18 inches of my grasp, which contains, cash, credit cards, 3 PDA's, spare PDA battery pack, passport, medicines, tiny first aid pack,etc.

These are not just tourist trips. I always fear that my luggage will get lost, or someone will pilfer my brief case while jammed in a crowded developing nation airport as I try to quickly pull my luggage off of the baggage conveyor. I also carry in my fanny pack a flash drive with all files needed to do my training. With those items and my 3 PDA's, I could get by. I have to be prepared. The expense and time of my trips for Save the Children have to have risks mitigated to ensure that time is not wasted.

So, my arm was falling off having lugged everything around since yesterday morning. It is now early afternoon the following day. I tried to gain entrance to the American Airlines Admirals Club that I am a member of (a great location of respite between exhausting flights). I might of convinced the Club to securely hold my briefcase for me while I ventured into Paris. But, alas, the club was in a terminal that I did not hold a boarding pass for. Ah, security.

I walked back across the Seine onto the right bank. I never did gain a foothold on to the Rive Gauche, or Left Bank. This is more than just wanting to visit the traditional bohemian side of the Seine. Left in French is gauche, which means awkward. Yes, us south paws are always bumbling along in life, twisting our arms and hands trying to accommodate right-handed (dextral) appliances and door frames. The word sinister also is derived from left. Left handed persons in the Middle Ages (not in the Orient, though!)were considered strange and twisted. A snail whose shell is coiled to the left is termed sinistrial. Us left handers do not have a chance, hence my desire to congregate with my sinister fellows on the Left Bank of the Seine....

The geocache which i wanted to locate was in the St. Gervais St.Protais area of Paris. A geocache is typically a small container (an old 35 mm film canister perhaps) that a person with a Geographic Positioning System (GPS) enabled device (I always carry one to record the entrance to train stations) hides and then posts the exact (within 3 meters) location on the internet. This particular geocache internet posting wonderfully described this side street in the heart of Paris which contained buildings from the 15th century.



I never did find the cache, of which there are over 500,000 cleverly hidden all over the world. After one does find a cache, there is typically a small pad of paper and a stubby pencil within to jot down your name and date. Later, you are able to access the caches' web page and record it as a find. I have over 100 finds all over the world, but I know several persons with thousands of finds. My main interest in geocaching is that it takes to places that I would not normally locate. Not the weathered griffins along the edges of the church in the square near the undiscovered cache.



I then happened upon a small shop which offered paper items, such as stationary, real ink pens (the ones that you must dip in a bottle of ink to produce characters) called Melodies Graphiques. The owner was so gracious. After a purchase of a couple of book markers (where did I leave off reading last night?) and a packet of stationary and envelopes crafted from handmade paper, the owner tenderly wrapped them in colored tissue paper.



I then headed or the train station to return to the airport. Wonderful day!

Destination: Mali

In some ways, this is perhaps the most exciting part of any trip. It is early morning the day of the flight. The emails, the work development, the itinerary - and the packing (did I forget anything? is always the question, isn't it?). I shall certainly not forget the research that I do before departure. In some ways, one arrives before the physical setting foot upon the ground. This is how have traveled most all of my life - in my mind. I have used the venue of the library and lately the internet to first travel to an exotic destination.

Speaking of exotic destinations, here is an excerpt from one of my security reports:

Arriving in Mali can be quite a shock. As you step out of the air-conditioned cocoon of a modern jet at Bamako's dusty, decaying airport, you may feel as though you've left civilization behind. But first glances can be deceiving. If you look beyond the rusting terminal, you'll see the real Mali: distinctive mud dwellings inhabited by flamboyantly dressed Malians going about their business. In many ways, little has changed since Mali's days as the site of great empires. Travelers willing to brave the heat and dust will find that they have entered an impressive civilization, where life today is much as it always has been.

My connecting flight is through Charles de Gaulle airport outside of Paris. I am thrilled at this since Air France is a new airline for me and I have only set foot in Paris within my mind. I am indeed a francophile, that being helped along by four years of French language in high school (I forgot most all of it). I am going to see about taking a train into central Paris since I have a 7 hour layover (thank you Mr. Franko! Most persons thinks it odd that I do not mind long layovers to explore airports. I always give up an aisle seat to be able to look out the airplane window). I have been watching the security reports that I receive from three different sources (SOS MedicEvac, Department of State, FlightLock) and it sounds like the youth rights have calmed down. There were only 138 vehicles burned to cinders last night to the north of Paris. Interestingly, my only security concern on this trip is within a developed nation.

THF (Travel Hint for Free): take photos of your luggage and place a printed color copy on your person. It is oh so helpful in convincing a airline luggage person to allow you to search with them in the luggage hold area. I keep a copy of this photo on my PDA along with a listing of the luggage tag numbers (those little tag stickies can fall off of the ticket holder).

I am sensing that our Sahel Country Office (ShCO) can really use some help. I do not have any particulars, but my research shows that Mali is the fifth poorest nation on earth. Mali is north, and adjacent to, Guinea. The latter has access to the Atlantic Ocean. The two nations are collectively, and historically, known as the Sahel. Timbouctou is located in the north central portion of Mali. I would dearly love to visit this fabled trading stop, known for it's early universities filled with crumbling scrolls and books of Muslim learning from the 14th century. This city was a central trading vertex for overland trade of salt and gold (the two are connected!). This trade was interrupted by the Portugese forging water routes, thus bypassing the hazardous overland trade routes.

I feel so confident now tht I purchased my SOS MedEvac insurance. Thoeretically, they will drop a helicopter down anywhere in the world to evacuate one out to a decent medical facility.

THF: Research through your medical insurance the doctors that have agreements in your destination city. Print this list out with addresses and phone numbers and keep them on your person. Give a copy of the list to your host when you arrive. I also keep it on my PDA in Adobe Acrobat format.

Well, I had better head for the airport! The trip has commenced.

The Interior is Not Very Far....

Choices, choices. Is not that what defines being alive. I just did not know what to choose on our "out" day here in Panama during the NetHope conference. There was an all day trip to the Chagas National Park. I am still operating in that pardigm of assuming long distances over horrible roads while in developing nations. I am being continually surprised by Panama. I have yet to hit a gravel road and the potholes are not noteworthy. Disappointed? No.



I chose the 1/2 day trip to the village of San Antonio hosted by the NGO WinRock. In about forty minutes by tour bus from our hotel on the Pacific Ocean terminus of the Canal, we exited from a well-paved highway for maybe ten minutes and parked at the entrance to a reserve. This was jungle like I had not seen before. My forays to Latin American countries that should have had tropical rain forests had all been deforested long ago. How could those people in non-Panamanian countries do such such a thing to the environment, disdaining good environmental stewardship? Oops, I have retreated to my North Ageneralized viewpoint once more. Oh yes, those de-foresters were merely trying to survive....



After disembarking, we soon saw two motorized boats coming towards us across a wide expanse of vegetation-choked shallow waters. Entering these water craft carefully ("stay low"), we arrived within 7 minutes to the dock of a small village called San Antonio, which consisted of maybe a 1/2 dozen thatched dwellings and 2-3 small concrete buildings. The purpose of the tour was to see an internet kiosk developed in partnership with Intel and Winrock to provide internet connectivity to this community of 30 persons. As I have seen all over the world, a more lasting solution to poverty is education. If your school age children lack access to the internet, you are at a disadvantage with your academic peers (e.g. research, etc.). We had the opportunity also to purchase handcrafted items constructed from articles from the surrounding forest.



We afterwards took a short hike into the jungle. I was thrilled to have my sharp-eyed friend Mark from Family Health International spot a sloth up in a tree. I also saw a couple of anteaters. The latter were drawn to the trails of leaf-cutter ants carrying their fungal incubator stock over their heads along the jungle floor. The village is apparently on an island about 2/3 of the way from the Pacific towards the Caribbean side of the Canal. I noted the increased heat and humidity that we lacked on the Pacific side.



On our return to the tour bus across the protective moat, we quickly caught up to the first boat tranversing the lagoon, since we had to take two separate boats for our group. They had snagged a submerged log on their exit. I shouted out a un-thoughful comment of, we'll send food back!. I once again have spoken without thinking, but my comment of dispair was based on the influemce of my recent completion of an account of Theodore Roosevelts' (he is much on my mind this trip - I own, and have read repeatedly, a first edition of his African Game Trails.) ill-fated trip down an Amazon river where this stout heart despaired of such jungle conditions that he contemplated taking his own life to avert negative affect on his fellow travelers.



We all arrived safely, with myself confident of long-term survival in case of mishap due to my obvious well-fed nature (the caimans would head for me first!). Nearby, we stopped at the Gamboa resort hotel who generously provides the wireless internet connection to San antonio. What a place! I need to return here with my wife for an extended stay.

Panama - A Paradigm Shift

I have arrived in Panama City to attend the biannual NetHope conference at the Ciuadad de Sabre (City of Knowledge). I am staying at the Country Suite Hotel immediately adjacent to the Pacific terminus of the Panama Canal.

This was an easy trip, especially to Central America. A short 6 hour flight from Seattle (yes, short) to Miami and then three hours to Panama. I've been flying a lot in the last 4 years so my mileage on American Airlines earned me a coupon to stay free at their Admirals Club. A bit over-rated, but definitely more pleasurable than the main Miami terminal. Plus, free coffee! That's a bonus to keep expenses down, and a boost after taking the 10:30PM red-eye flight out of Seattle!

I always love returning to Latin America. The culture is so easily engaged, plus I have a barely functioning grasp of Spanish (that is in positive comparison to my knowledge of most languages of the countries that I visit). Also, El Salvador, a couple of countries to the north, was my first trip out of the United States for Save the Children. That trip changed my occupation and future outlook on life globally. It also changed how I viewed myself. I am still pretty much a whining, self-centered norte americano fully entrenched in rampant consumerism. But I have noted some changes...

Panama is distinctly different than Honduras, Guatemala or El Salvador. I can see that it is much more stable here politically and financially. This is going ot be fun.

Field Testing in Tranh Hoa

Our training concluded at the Hanoi Country Office in Hanoi on Wednesday. Khahn, the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist caught on very quickly. I soon discovered that he has a broad background in the PC database application Microsoft Access. This helped him to write the form scrips that enabled the skip questioning and other form objects that extends the basic design software.

By the end of the day, we had pretty much completed the test form which we were to take out to two health centers in the Tranh Hoa province about 4 hours south of Hanoi. During lunch I learned that Khahn is married with two boys, the youngest being less than two months old. With less than an hour until office closure on Wednesday, I could see that 90% of the form was finished, but could use some tweaking of a particularly elegant navigation script that was not quite working. I could see Khahn valiantly trying to change it to become functional. He, at last succeeded, but was running out of time to make the form fully usable in small ways. I suggested that I finish it up, but his work ethic was making this suggestion uncomfortable to him. Knowing he had a wife at home with two small children, I pulled rank on him as the consultant and told him it would be complete and loaded on 5 PDA's by the morning.

We discovered that the native Windows Mobile keyboard lacks sufficient Vietnamese accented characters. This was of great concern to me, but Khahn said that the Vietnamese characters are Latin-based, but understandable, to most all people even lacking the accents. The forms were fully translated into Vietnamese, sans accent marks, for our field testing on Thursday and Friday. Ngoc anh would accompany us, and she would provide logistical support for our trip in order to allow Khahn his full focus on the field testing. Ahn is a health program assistant and also very fluent in English. She will also conduct some of the interviews on our first day. I appreciated that I would be able to observe the differences in how the mothers experienced interviewers from both genders. I love this part....

I had also wanted to place a branding logo for Save the Children at the beginning of the form, as well as the form title. This might seem like candy-coating, but those PDA screens are tiny compared to a big sheet of paper. It is simple to determine the form your are going to select while in an air conditioned office, but not so for a health worker in the clinic environment.



We arrived at the Bach Lim hotel, which was rather nice, early in the afternoon. It was very warm and humid, but I was delighted to see an air conditioner in my room. I am finding that hot water is irrelevant in many tropical locations since the water is already warm. After a brief rest, we packed up and headed for the first health center.



But first we would stop at the District Health Clinic to meet the Director and his staff. Save the Children partners with the Ministry of Health providing management of the health program and technical assistance. I was soon to discover that protocol and visibility was important, especially for a foreign visitor - me!



After a demonstration of the PDA's, the director wedged into our vehicle and we arrived at the first health clinic as the mothers were arriving. Pre-planning was evident, with two tables set up outside the clinic for the interviews. One by one, them others sat with either Anh or Khahn and went through the interview.



We had placed a digital signature field on the form asking for each respondents permission to conduct the interview. I have added a data security and data privacy section to my training package, so here was another opportunity to see how trust is engendered between interviewer and respondent with technology squarely in between.





We quickly went through the 20 interviews and I thought we would then depart. Was I wrong. Khahn inidcated that we would have a summary meeting. It was towards the end of the interviews that I saw the director walk over and greet a newly-arrived group of men. I now found out that this was the People's Committee for the village.

Now then, in 1970, after finishing hish school, I awaited my lottery number that would determine if I would be drafted unvoluntarily into the U.S. Army for a trip to the southern portion of this then-partioned country. I had strong feelings, like many students of this era about going, however I am not confident of my altruisitc beliefs at the time. I did not want to go. A high draft number kept me at my production assistant job for an electronics firm (not bad for just out high school. My father had me working part-time with him at small electronics companies since I was 14 (post-high school, I was able to avoid a fast food franchise income like my friends).



So, here I was professionally representing one of the largest NGO's in North Vietnam, and the local Party leadership had come to see what was going. I knew that news of my arrival had been given to these particular men before I had ever disembarked off of the plane. I had emailed my Statement of work and a copy of passport for the visa application process. Now, they wanted to see in person who I was and what I had come to do. This was fascinating.



We all sat at a table as I listened to dialogue which seemed more like speech-making ot me - ery formal and deliberate. It was hot and humid and it had been a long day and I was ready to go. But, I knew that this was, once again, a rare opportunity to represent not only Save the Children, but also America. I am very aware of this representation. I, unlike most toursits, often travel to remote locations where the polite stares tell me silently that, other than on CNN, I am the first glimpse of a Westerner. A chance not to be passed up.

Ahn was translating for me as the speeches continued. I knew what was coming, so I opened up Pocket Word on my PDA and began jotting down a few remarks. Sure enough, Ahn asked me during a pause in the conversation if I would like to say anything.



I do not know how well it translated, since my translators all over the world oft freely adjust my comments to our mutual benefit. After thanking thme for allowing us to conduct the surveys, I told them that I was impressed with their leadership for encouraging this pioneering effort in their village. This seemed to go over well, and smiling faces and eyes turned my way. The People's committee leader directed refreshments to be brought and we soon toasted each with Vietnamese beer (Halida).
Grievences redressed, at least on a personal, local level.



We returned to the hotel and went out for dinner at a nearby eatery. Khahn in particular has enjoyed watching me encounter various foods with an abundance of invertebrates. Aha, but he did not realize that I was passionate about invertebrate zoology in my first college foray. In fact, I described to him how my personal email address is actually the genus of a nearly universally-distributed fresh water snail (the cloak comes off...) which happens to be rare in that it's shell whorl is left-handed (yes, I too, am a south-paw). My rule overseas, is if my hosts eat it, I will eat it. Except for those fried chicken feet in the Philippines (I don't knw where those chickens had been walking!)

The air conditiong went out late at nightr after Khahn and I made some last minutes changes to the forms. all had gone realy well, and my PDA field feedback notes that I took during observation indicated no problems. In fact, I was surprised at how easily the forms worked and the respondents interaction with them. The next morning everyone asked how I slept, partly in curiousity in how a sweating Westerner took the heat. I actually fell asleep quickly and awoke refreshed. A quick breakfast of Pho and we were off for an early start to our 2nd health center.



The People's Committee leadership was noticeably absent, so the beer and my well-translated speech did the trick. This time the interviews were to be conducted by the health workers (HW), therefore we would quickly train the HW's to the PDA's and how the forms work. I just love this part, because it is at this level of interface all of my work proceeds.



I watched as Ahn and Khahn expertly emonstrated the use of the PDA's and the intend and function of the health questionnaires. I noticed four of HW's trying to look over their shoulders, so I grabbed another PDA and gently approached them from the side. Now, before all of this started I noticed a rather severe dispositioned lady walk in. She stood nearly a head taller than the rest (my height) and seemed to be the senior member. When she entered the room and looked and me and made a comment without smiling. I asked Ahn, and she told me that the lady asked if I understood any Vietnamese. Put into my place again. Anyway, as I began to demonstrate, the serious lady moved immediately towards us and displaced me with her newly-acquired knowledge of the PDA form and began instructing the HW's. Instead of a slight, I just moved away and reveled at the success of peer-to-peer training unfolding.



Oops, it is late Sunday night, I must do a little packing before I head into the office for a final bit of training and my summary and recommendations presentation to the CO Director and his staff.

This is why I do this work:



More later on my visit to the huge, elaborate mausoleum/museum (etymologically related, those two words?) of Ho Chi Minh, and the Army War Museum to view downed U.S. planes....