New Blood 10-22-08

New Blood – The team is complete 10-22-08

Everyone asks about Obama and the election. There is a tension here, as much as anywhere else in the world wondering what will happen on Nov 4th. It isn’t just about the fact that Obama is black, although that is considered. It is about stability and prosperity. There is a fundamental belief here in TZ that the US government has been a very destabilizing force in the world. The wars we’ve started, the excess that we consume has all led to strain on markets here in particular. On the other hand, there is also a belief that as the US stabilizes and grows; money, energy and prosperity will “trickle” down to TZ offering help and hope. Investment, aid, and assistance it is believed whether true or not flows from the growth of the US. It might not flow directly, but if the US grows, then donor nations, particularly Europe will grow too, and in turn continue to funnel money to East Africa. I can’t full tell whether there is a suspicion on the part of Tanzanians. I wonder if there is a contempt for the help or investment that mazungo’s (rich or white people) bring or a happiness for it. I wonder if people here are annoyed that either they need the investment or help, or desire it. Is there a: “We can make our own country work, who the hell do you think you are sticking your nose here. Haven’t you done enough in the world and caused problems, so stay out.” Or is it “Yes please come work with us and let’s make Tanzanian great together.”

The American election is being followed closely because of how the next President will handle the financial crisis too. The economy of Tanzania, of Africa and obviously the world is so closely tied to America that there is a common belief that the election will put the “giant ship” USS US back on a positive course and settle the uncertainty that exists in the markets here. It hasn’t yet affected life in these rural areas too directly, but people are interested. People complain about the price of fuel. They discuss the level of money and air flowing into the country, but to what I experience there is nothing that has been directly affected. Life goes on almost as it has for a while.

I took the god awful early bus from Kayanga to Bukoba on Monday to meet Dave and Jill at the Bukoba airport. It’s exciting to have them arrive. I look forward to sharing the whole thing with them as much as see their transition. I lived it for myself so it was difficult to discern the actual day that eating loads of gristle goat with rice and beans became somehow normal. I look forward to sharing with them all the large and small things that have made life here interesting and exciting; the dirt packed roads, the crazy drivers. When we walk down the streets I want to see their faces when the hear and understand the shouts of shikamoo (respectful greeting) from the children or mambo (hey how’s it going) from adults. I want to take them to Mama Roida’s Annex for walli and kuku. I look forward to getting caught in the crazy heavy downpour (no pina colada’s), the Pamela Hotel and endless Tusker beers. It all is exciting and new to me still, and so to share that life with Dave and Jill will be exciting too. We are a bit like rock stars here too. Being one of a half dozen white people in a community of 20,000 makes you stand out. Everyone knows your business, everyone know where you have been, and where you are going. Whether they say hi to you or not, they know almost all there is to know about your visit. It’s also so cool to be here starting this project with them. It seemed like yesterday, although it was a little less than a year ago, when we were sitting in Dave and Jill’s kitchen discussing what the project would look like and I began writing the first draft for the World Bank. Now, that we are all here, sharing this adventure with Joel and Cynthia it’s actually coming together (albeit slowly and differently).

William from Kiroyera Tours meets us at the Yasila Hotel. We sit and have a beer on the beach overlooking Lake Victoria waiting for their plane to arrive. We actually see it come in over the lake and all hop in Williams’s Jeep and drive the two minutes to the airport. They are hidden amongst a group of mourners coming to Bukoba for a funeral. After a decompress at the hotel, a nice dinner and a good nights sleep, Mr. Super takes us to Kayanga the next day. On the drive Dave and I discuss the goals of the project. The reality is to use this fantastic opportunity to create a platform to prove our model.

Credit – Poor can pay their bills, and make good on their word
Risk – We can structure the deals to remove, mitigate, or accept project risk
Profitability – The projects have to make money in order to continue to provide the service (in this case lights) to the people.

That’s night we have dinner and drinks at the Diana Annex. I swore I’d never eat there again, but there are few options. The discussion got heated for me as I let my emotions take control. I start arguing with everyone! Later, as Dave and I work it out, he reminds me that I had predicted this at the airport when he dropped me off. He said - I said that this will be quite intense and in all likelihood we’d argue because we are all wrapped up in this project working very hard to make it work. Low and behold it happened not 24 hours into Dave and Jill’s arrival. Jet lag and beer contributed to it, but I realized later that I was looking at this project through my heart so to speak rather than my brain. Not surprising really, as I have invested a lot of my heart in it, but that would not be the best filter to use in making decisions. It was a good short lesson in friendship, trust, and business. Later, sitting in my hotel room, discussing it all, Dave said that to him this was the dream project. He could make a real difference in someone’s life by proving this particular mode.

We pull out the pedal generator today and set it up. Cynthia pedals and starts charging the battery. As she quickly discovers it’s not easy. The generator is effective at making electricity when you are no where near the grid, but the plug to charge the 12 volt battery looks so tempting when you are pedaling and sweating your ass off. However, we’ve all grown up with cheap electricity. Would you use the generator if you had nothing? Or would you stick with candles and kerosene? Or would you walk 10 k instead to get a battery charged? Another thing that we talked about was giving all the bicycle riders or car drivers a small generator and battery and creating a true distributed grid. Could you organize it to be effective and efficient? What would products look like that could use flexible or refined power, like the cell phones that everyone carried? Lights are our mechanism to distribute power in a different way. Another way to look at it is: the life in Kayanga proper is pretty good. People have, for the most part water, food, and electricity. They get most of what they need here, and lack for few things. (Life is generally shorter, and the average GDP is low, but there are few people on the streets starving.) There is entertainment, transportation, religion, and education. Donor groups provide some of these things, and China and importers provide other things; pirated DVD’s, plastic bowls, cheap cutlery, bad electronics, knock off products (SQNNY, TONDA) but they exist here. We are Westerners complain about creature comforts; hot showers everyday, salads, variety of food, bugs and strange creepy crawly animals, bats, and incredibly slow internet. Our lights won’t make much difference for cosmopolitian people living in or near town. A mere 30 minutes walk away from town, away from the grid connection life is dramatically different. Samuel, who always smiles, is teaching us Swahili and has a wife and two children has a very different life. He talks about getting the final 3 tin panels at $6.00 each to complete his roof, or another 150 bricks for his house. His neighbors live in mud huts and use kerosene lanterns. They might walk barefoot, or eat rice and beans for weeks at a time. They may have a radio, but pay a poverty premium (A BOP term) for any products they want or buy. Our lights could make a huge difference for him. Not only would it be light, but it would be power too.