Re-Direction, Alas, Moving On - But Not Gone!

I have decided to split my blog into two and locating them on my own web site.

The reason for this, is that I found that I was mixing content for two separate audiences. This blog contained information for both my mobile data collection efforts, and it also contained content directed towards friends and families. Additionally, at times I have felt the urge to make comments on political and other aspects on my blog which might not have been expedient, especially if I was still within that country!

The two contents did always mix well; there was potential for tedium for either audience, or worse yet, for both!

In splitting blog to my own hosting site, I have greater management over both content and comments, with the aim to providing a richer and more relevant experience.

So, if you would just like to keep up with the personal side of my opinions, thoughts and observations of my life and travels, you may view my private blog at:

One Small Footprint


However, if you are interested in mobile data collection for NGO's in developing countries from a technical perspective, you may view it at:

SixBlue Data


Therefore, this present blog (http://dvisaak.blogspot.com) will no longer be maintained with new content. As an audience member, feel free to choose your content at the blogs referenced above.

Thank you for your comments, encouragement and readership.

Note: the photo on this blog posting is from 1985....

Sincerely,

David Isaak

What Lies Beneath...

Our very nature as humans renders us self conscious, i.e. concerned with what befalls our persons and how we affect those around us - and rightly so. Yet one aspect of the natural sciences that I have enjoyed since a child has been that by acquiring (or rather allowing ouselves to acquire) a passionate curiosity of the world about us, i,e. external to ourselves, we may momentarily lose that sense of self and simply gaze and stare in awe at the world about us. Nowadays, with such a hectic life constantly demanding our attention and efforts, this is welcome relief. Take notice of that which is barely notice in our daily walk in this mortal coil...

“Deer, jumping mice and the oven-birds are denizens of the forest floor by virtue of using it as their substratum, but there is also a host of curious animals which use the forest floor, especially the litter of dead leaves, twigs, branches and fruit parts, as their walls, ceiling and sub-basements.

Looked at from the eye level of the cockroach, this litter becomes a several-storey edifice of enormous extent. The various floors are separated by twigs, midribs, petioles, fruit husks, samaras, skulls, elytra and faeces. The lowers one descends, the more compact is the structure. The leaves become more fragmentary, the faeces of worms which have come up from the soil, of caterpillars which live in the trees and of the inhabitants themselves, as well as grains of sand brought up by the worms and a heterogeneous assortment of beetle skulls and wing covers, become more abundant.

This complex is rendered more intricate by the growth of minute fungus moulds which feed upon dead leaves and organic refuse, weaving it all into a compact amt by their myriad white hyphae.

This is the woof woven into the warp of the woodland rug.”

From preface of Soil Animals, Keith McE. Kevan , H. F. & G. Witherby Ltd. (1968) - attributed to A.P. Jacot

Angola and Nepal

Last March I was quite close to visiting Nepal for a PDA assessment while enroute from Myanmar. Nepal has been engaged in turmoil between the Maoist communist “insurgency” and it monarchy for years. A few weeks before my departure for Myanmar, I received an email that conditions had deteriorated due to the upcoming constitutional elections that would determine the fate of the monarchy, and that we should defer my trip until a later time. The election was held and effectively ended the monarchy resulting in the King leaving the palace and retiring to a nearby house.

After reading that conditions had stabilized, an email to the country office in Kathmandu resulted in a green light to visit. They suggested the latter half of August which works out perfectly for me, since I am finishing the planning for a ten day assessment in Angola the first of August.

I seem to always be working the horizon, as I call it for trip planning. The analogy, for me, goes like this. The shoreline represents airline ticket in hand, bags packed and visa stamped in my passport (oh no! I’m running out of pages again in my passport!). The expanse of swells across the sea between me and the horizon are the trips in progress, e.g. Exactly what date should I arrive? Has my hotel reservation been completed yet? Am I going to receive my passport back in time from the visa courier agency? Beyond the horizon (with the masts poking above the line of time…) are the emails traded back and forth going like this: we will discuss it with our program persons, maybe in the fall. The Sahara is too hot during the summer! What is a PDA??? It seems my mind and email typing fingers rove to and from across this line of sight. The sun never sets, it seems…, but what a view!

The Tale of the Data

I was a simple toolroom clerk working for General Dynamics back in the early 1980’s. My job involved stocking and issuing electronic hand tools to assemblers. One of the tasks was to maintain inventory and ensuring accountability for all tools issued to employees using their employee number. We used a NCR form (multi-paper forms using micro-encapsulated bubbles on the back of each page, excepting the final copy which when written upon burst and produced a carbon copy on the page underneath. We spent a lot of time managing a large box of tool receipts indexed by employee number.

Whenever an employee requested a tool, we would (technically) look first to see if an identical tool had been issued to same employee before issuing another. Well, at the beginning of shift the long line of employees knew we would not have time to rummage through all those slips of paper to see if they had duplicate tool issues. This poor inventory execution not only resulted in behavior by employees not bothering to see if they had a duplicatetool in their toolbox, but it also allowed many nice socket sets and diagonal pliers to find their way home. I had a few employees that pilfered generous amounts of tools knowing the weakness of the paper-based system.

My manager walked in one morning with a large box and a smaller package. He looked at both myself and my coworker briefly, then he handed the box to me (my co-worker struggled with a learning dyslexia) and instructed me to learn how to use this new Apple IIe computer and the DB Master database software. He wanted me to convert from a paper-based tool inventory system to a computerized one. He said that I was relieved of my toolroom window duties, grab a cup of coffee and to figure it out.
I had never touched a computer and I certainly never had even heard of a database. During the next few weeks I found my calling.

Now I had always had a proclivity towards handwriting manual lists of information on everything from notebooks, to ledgers to huge wall-mounted order lists. I was fascinated even as a young child with lists of toys and poring long tables of geographic country data. I loved how a database (albeit, non-relational) could organize data in a logical and easily retrievable manner. I not only learned to use that state-of-the-art personal computer, but how to design simple databases and to build reporting tools.

Well, soon I had my most notorious tool thief approach me for a pair of connector crimpers. This tool type cost over $100 dollars not including the crimping die set that he also requested. I asked him to please wait a moment. I quickly churned out on a noisy dot matrix printer a list of all tools that he had checked out and had not yet returned consisting of several pages. I returned to the counter window and displayed the column of the crimpers. I replied, ”I will be glad to give you another crimper after you return the other four that I have already given you.” He was furious and declared his boss would see about that! Well his manager actually worked with my father at this plant some twenty years earlier. When he returned with this manager, I simply showed him the list of tools issued to the irate employee. The manager laughed and walked away after turning to the employee and saying, “Isaak gotcha!”

Afterwards I went on to develop databases and reporting tools of ever increasing complexity and usefulness. Later, with the Boeing Company I found a new IBM-compatible PC sitting in our main office being left unused. Everyone was afraid to touch it. Well, I found that it had a relational database called Borland Paradox installed on it. Soon, I had access rights to the main frame database (DBII) and I was able to ask any question that a manager asked themselves about our inventory (this is significant, being able to query data for meaningful and useful information. Unorganized data by itself is tedious and largely unusable).

For instance, I was able to summarize the tens of thousands of tools used on the existing 767 airplane and adapt them as an order list for the new 777 program that was just starting. Quantities were added to selected tools after review by each airplane section build group and then we simply let a printer spit out boxes of tool orders to be delivered straight to procurement (this was before email became available). My fellow tool coordinators were delighted since they no longer had to hand type hundreds of tool orders on multilple page carbon paper forms and then later to be hand typed onto order status sheets. Later I learned how databases could be placed on brick-sized handheld computers for our tool rooms with the data uploaded with a docking station connected by wire to the main database.

I was on my way….

During my database career with the Boeing Company I would encounter someone laboring over data management using a spreadsheet. I have seen them all, from Lotus 1-2-3 to the latest products. I recall one gentleman who had an empire of time and cost devoted to a huge spreadsheet complete with embedded macros and images. By that time, I was with an IT group and I had received the request to speak to the spreadsheet designer since he had asked for a third hard drive in his PC. His hard drive order request justification described how he needed the extra storage space for maintaining the multitude of spreadsheets that he had broken his “database” into. Spreadsheets can be limited to 65,000 rows of information, but rarely hit that limit – but not this guy.

I recall the irritation every time that he proudly described his information repository as a database. I cancelled his hard drive request and instead authorized myself to kill this cumbersome set of data that was constantly at risk since it was never backed up. I developed a real database, imported his data and suggested that he return to the duties that he had been hired to do as a tool designer. All is fair in love and data…

Next: when is a spreadsheet not a database?

Save the Children - Yangon, Myanmar

I checked into the Summit Park View hotel late that evening finding one of the better hotels that I have stayed in. this always makes for a comfortable stay but I always have concerns for the cost. Eventually I found it to be a great value, not only in that it was less than ten minutes from the Save the Children office, but the basic room rate amounted to but US$38! It was explained to me that international economic sanctions had hurt businesses who were striving for tourist dollars.




The next morning I awoke and pulled back my hotel room curtains hoping that I might be somewhat near the 2,500 year old Shwedagon Temple which looms over the city covered in over 600 tons of gold. There it was, just to the east! I would makesure that I would be able to pay a visit.

It was, even at this early hour, quite warm and very humid. It was now Wednesday morning and soon a driver would arrive to pick me up for that first day at the nearby office. I had already emailed my Scope of Work and detailed training plans, so my principle contact, Naida Pasion & I both should be ready for the days activities.

Yangon, Myanmar

Note: Cyclone Nargis made landfall in Myanmar on May 2nd 2008 three weeks after I departed from the country.

The cyclone name "Nargis" (نرگس, IPA: næɵr-ɡɵs), is an Urdu word meaning daffodil. It was the second deadliest named cyclone of all time, …and is the 8th deadliest cyclone of all time causing catastrophic destruction and at least 90,000 fatalities with a further 56,000 people still missing.

After my arrival back in the U.S., I had many comments of, "aren't you glad you were not there when it happened!" Things have certainly changed with my mindset. My first thought was one of abandonment and escape from my new friends in Yangon. Honestly, I wish that I could of been there, not only to selfishly experience such an event (probability and the care of the staff would of precluded chance of harm), but to possibly press into service my seven PDA's for some assistance in the disaster relief.

Still, I remain with a shadow of guilt that I did not leave a PDA as is my custom. But, for the 1st time, I was required to sign a customs statement upon entry that I would depart with all of my equipment. I have led a safe comfortable life; I certainly could have endured some bureaucratic pain to possible offer some succor to the hundreds of thousands who experience the bewilderment, loss, and death from Cyclone Nargis.




(for more images, go to http://disaak.phanfare.com)

During my high school days, as I sat in class being instructed in world geography, I knew of this country as Burma. I also knew that it was tropical, situated somewhere to the east of India and adjacent to Siam (Thailand). I was involved with what was then popularly known as rockhounding with my father in the mid-60's in Southern California. I recall being quite young (ten years old) and attending a gemology class where we learned to identify semi-precious and precious gemstones through measurement of their refractive index, inclusions (tiny clay and/or gas/fluid filled specks in a crystal), and of course color and hardness.

I remember Burma as being the place for the finest rubies. Or, at least, there was an abundance there that made them popular. The rockhound club had a shop where you could slice, grind and polish a myriad of stoney materials. Most of our activities involved agates and other non-crystalline geologic artifacts, shaping them arduously into a half-rounded shape called a cabochon. I remember trading "up" for what was a rather large garnet. Due to my gemology instruction, I suspected otherwise. You could, loosely, term a garnet as a low quality ruby. Sure enough the gemological tests discovered it to me as a genuine ruby. Well, a long story short, I still have that ruby in an unfinished cabochon (I had neither the access to, nor skill for grinding facets). That hunk of ruby-red crystal was hard! It is naturally only exceeded by the diamond in the Moh's scale of hardness.



My point is, our knowledge of faraway places are rather two-dimensional. I not only mean the lines and colors on a map, but the disparate threads of knowledge that we glean from various sources. Wednesday morning, I awoke and drew back the curtains of my hotel room and gazed out upon the ancient city of Yangon. I was just thrilled to be able to see the huge golden Shwedagon Pagoda complex to the east of my hotel. In fact, I would drive by it each morning on the way to the Save the Children office.



In order to ameliorate my ignorance of a destination, I try to locate a book to read that will provide some insight before my arrival. I chose a non-fiction book called The River of Lost Footsteps by the grandson of the former United Nations Secretary General - U Thant. I loved this book since the author, Thant Myint-U ("U" is a term of salutary respect) prefaces the book with chapter after chapter of historical background. Myanmar is in a difficult time in its history. It is struggling towards a more open society and movement towards a democratic government. Thany Myint-U acknowledges the countries struggles with different factions on the country, including the bloody demonstrations in late 2007, but he states that to better describe a possible solution to a complex issue, it might be useful to look back at the root and evolution of a countries outlook on itself and it's neighbors. I was prepared upon my arrival to see vestiges of British Colonial rule as well as the effect of U.S. economic sanctions on this beautiful country.

I had concerns of my entry into Myanmar before my departure, simply of the bureaucratic sort of the immigration and customs processes. I was advised to secure a tourist visa before my departure which was securely placed in my passport. During this assessment, I would not be able to travel to any of the field locations to observe the use of PDA forms in actual conditions. In fact I found that data collection and dissemination was not encouraged by the government.



I had just replaced my luggage with a higher quality set. I rationalized this expenditure due to my frequent travels, loss of a piece of luggage in South Africa departing from Malawi in February, and having literally worn out two prior sets of luggage. I also bought three TSA-approved security locks for each of my luggage pieces. Since I was leaving the smallest of the the luggage, I had scratched on the bottom of each of these tiny locks a Roman numeral to designate which lock, and hence what combination, used by each.

Well, things get rather rushed packing for a long trip. I placed the wrong lock on my medium-sized suitcase containing my equipment. There was no chance of forgetting the combination, since I had it secured away within an encrypted program on my PDA (absolutely the most useful computer-type program I have ever used. One password to access ALL of my passwords, credit cards, identification, membership - you name it. It is also backed up multiple times on my laptop, flash drive and several email accessible accounts). Sure enough, exhausted and severely jet lagged I fumbled at trying to open the medium luggage in preparation of a customs search. I was not realizing that I was using the wrong combination. Meanwhile, my SC staffer who had met me at the airport, Peter, was increasingly nervous since here I was trying to gain entrance to my luggage and I was the only person left at the luggage carousel - quite conspicuous!

Finally we approached the customs official locked luggage and all. He did inquire what was in my equipment luggage, so I showed him my 3 other PDA's that I carry in my personal fanny pack, indicating that was what it contained. Since I had arrived on a tourist visa (business visa were not being processed very quickly), Peter conversed quickly with the official, and then he gently jabbed me in the side to sign the customs declaration promising to exit from the country with all 7 declared PDA's. Now, why would a tourist bring 7 PDA's into a country? I had my story - I was here to visit my dear friend Andrew Kirkwood (actually the as yet un-met country office director) prior to a business trip to Jordan on behalf of Save The Children. I was relieved that I was not required to tell my dishonest tale. We quickly left the airport....

There are significant infrastructure limitations in Myanmar such as electrical shortages don't use the elevator!)and US$2,000 cell phone SIM card costs (I saw but two cell phones during my entire stay - mine never worked). Also I encountered numerous restricted Internet sites. When this assessment first came up, my consultancy manager and I agreed, that even though conditions suggested a difficult assessment environment, it further warranted a visit to see if we could improve some aspect of their operations. This was not only from a PDA aspect, but also their overall data management strategies. This latter would prove to be a significant part of my assessment.

Of course, I wanted to visit the Shwedagon Pagoda (not shown above) - a 2,500 year old struture, which now stands at over 600 feet, covered with more that 600 tons (yes, tons!) of gold with a massive 78 carat diamond and innumerable rubies and other precious stones at its spire. The pagoda is actually situated at the center of a massive complex filled with many small pagodas and temples.

Around the World - In 22 Days

Well here I go again. This will be my 3rd round-the-world trip for Save the Children USA. I love to travel. My father worked for an airplane manufacturer, and later for a small airline, as an aircraft electrician. I first flew in an Lockheed Electra turboprop in 1957 in order to visit him with my mother where he was on location in Oakland, California on a contract for U.S. Navy PBY amphibious craft. Even though I was only 5 years old, I still remember arriving at the airport, seeing, and feeling all the hustle and bustle and knowing that this was something special. Later my father worked on the development of the Convair 880 commercial jet airliner at Edwards Air force Base in the high desert of Lancaster California. I recall late one evening he woke me from sleep at the motel that we were staying at and took me on a drive to the hanger where they were preparing the 1st 880 for flight trials. I remember we waited in this cold hanger for what seemed hours. Then, we boarded the plane. My father would function as the third crew member - the flight engineer, essentially watching all the instruments and dials allowing the pilots to fly the plane. When we prepared for take off, my father took me back to the seatless fuselage and strapped me to a bulkhead. I remember being thrilled - and nauseous - from them taking the plane through its air trials. These were maneuvers that you do not normally experience on regular flights. It was exhilarating.

To this day, my Save the Children travel agent, Raymond Franko, knows that I prefer a window seat, so that I can look outside. Also, I seem pre-disposed for long flights since I can sit in a narrow coach seat for hours without having to get up and frequent the locations most travelers need to. Some reference to a cast iron aspect of my anatomy could be in order here.

This trip starts from the Sea-Tac airport outside of Seattle, Washington state, USA on March 30th. I will first fly south to Los Angeles (I dislike that airport), then fly west across the Pacific for a brief plane change in Osaka Japan, then onto Bangkok Thailand for a 9 hour layover. This layover extended from just a couple of hours to over 9 hours, due to a last minute change to my itinerary. So, I decided to book in advance a room at the airport hotel. I was going to arrive the next day to my destination, Yangon, Myanmar (formally known as Rangoon, Burma) late in the evening, then get up early and begin my day at the Save The Children office. The chance to lay down and catch some sleep would beneift everyone.

After a week conducting a mobile data collection assessment in Myanmar, I will return briefly to Bangkok for a direct flight to my next Save the Children destination, amman, Jordan in the Middle East. Upon leaving there on April 19th, I will continue flying west to Chicago and then finally Seattle. 51 hours of flight time (not including layovers) and over 22,000 miles traveled by air. Whew! I love it.



When I first start communicating with a Country Office (CO), I begin planning out my itinerary. Since it usually always involves visits to two or more CO's, I need to figure out all of my departure and arrival dates and times. This is so that I can provide these to Mr. Franko, the travel agent, to secure appropriate flights. Then, I put all of the information in a spreadsheet (shown above), which i print out and keep in my shirt pocket while I travel. it contains all of my flight times, seat numbers, departure and arrival terminals and more. I also load this itinerary and all of my other travel documents onto my personal PDA. I include the actually itinerary sent to me by the airlines in Adobe Acrobat form (a PDF file).

Several times at some remote airport I have had the ticket counter person state that they did not have any reservation under my name. Even though I have a paper copy with me (usually several copies since some immigration officials require leaving them a copy), I usually just flip on my PDA and state that is curious, here is the flight reservation document that your airline sent to me. That always resolves the problem. I also keep printed paper and PDA copies of my passport, including color photos of my luggage. This latter item helped me describe to an airline employee in Guatemala what my luggage looked like when it was misplaced.

On this trip, it will take a total of 23 flight hours and 35 hours overall to reach the airport in Yangon. Piece of cake. It will take me until my 3rd day to recover from the 14 1/2 hours of jet lag. I will not have that luxury, I will start the training the day after I arrive.