UC Davis Blum Center for Developing Economies

Photo courtesy Kevin Dumler with collaborator NGO representative of Engineers In Action, Ruben Mamani Before arriving in Bolivia, I was unsure of how I would react to poverty.  I had seen poverty before, the homeless of Los Angeles’s skid row or immigrant families where I grew up in San Bernardino, but I knew none of this would compare with the poverty of Bolivia.  First driving from the airport, I knew I was in a place that was putting me far out of my comfort zone and was different from anywhere I had ever been.  I thought my reaction to this poverty was somewhat interesting.  I guess I somewhat expected to be overcome with sorrow at the living conditions of the people in Bolivia.  While I was shocked at the poverty, the only way my body could really take it was turn somewhat cold to it; to just zone it all while I am here.     What, perhaps, was even more surprising than the poverty was the income disparity between Bo...

           Within the first couple of hours of arriving to Quincucirca, we were given a tour of the path of the pipeline.  Just to get to the source was a trek in itself.  Most of the path had been cleared by community members with machetes, but the land was so steep and slippery that walking around was quite a challenge.  To get to the source took a few hours.  To walk the entire path of the pipeline (only 3.3 kilometers) took an entire day.  After spending hours looking at maps and designs, finally walking this terrain was a huge awakening!  Everything I had been studying came to life, and this was really satisfying. Photo courtesy Kevin Dumler Walking the pipeline             As of February, 2012, EWB-UC Davis had the vague goal of establishing drinking water for the community of Quincucirca.  However, none of us knew how unrealistic ...

 Me (Kevin Dumler) with community member Stefan Ander  Breakfast! To the local town mechanic Discussing which way to dig for water pipeline Me (Kevin) with our NGO partner representative Engineers in Action, Ruben Mamani The cleared location for the water tank Walking the path of the water line Quincucirca where we were working Photos courtesy Kevin Dumler, UC Davis undergraduate student in civil engineering

 Photo courtesy Lauren Pincus My field crew of recent high-school graduates after our ritual morning fuel stop. After salaries, fuel was my next highest expense. It took a month of starts and spurts, but eventually the rains came and more and more farmers began to clear land and plant their wet season crops. My field crew and I were ready for them when they did. I had had the good fortune of meeting a particularly motivated recent high-school graduate named Paul. Unfortunately, Paul had a rather typical Ugandan upbringing. He was orphaned at the age of four, and his sister and he were taken in by family members. His family was able to convince the school to waive his school fees in exchange for a portion of their maize and beans harvest, but, as the adopted child, his schooling would be the first to go if the family could no longer afford this arrangement. Fortunately for Paul, it was at school that he met an American man who had decided to spend his two week vacat...

The reality of climate change was yet again foremost in my mind. Normally its effects are relatively hidden away from the average American, but when traveling in a tropical region, you occasionally are hit in the face with some insidious reminder. This time I, along with thousands of Ugandan farmers, was desperately waiting for the rain to start. I was told that the rainy season began promptly at the start of March, but here we were, creeping into June and the dry season bore on. I had come to Uganda to begin my dissertation research for my Horticulture and Agronomy degree. Because of my work as a Graduate Student researcher on a HortCRSP-funded project in Uganda focusing on indigenous leafy greens (link here: http://hortcrsp.ucdavis.edu/main/12Nutrition.html ), my dissertation research would also be centered on this little-studied dynamic of African cropping systems. The questions were infinite: How often are these vegetables eaten? Do women mostly grow them or do men? How are they ...

I am going to miss these two very much. They have been my surrogate parents during my time here and have been the most kind, cool, and funniest people that I could have asked for. I feel so grateful to know people like Ken and Joy. These are two of my favorites pictures that very much capture Martha and the ice addict. Posted 5 days ago by emma shandy , UC Davis undergraduate, Human Development 

I am an optimist and I think it’s largely in part due to my dad, who is seriously the friendliest, most encouraging person I know. I try to hold true to positivity, even in the most difficult of situations, because I find that it produces the clearest and simplest ways of dealing with certain aspects of life. That being said, coming to Zambia was daunting for a myriad of reasons, one of the biggest concern of mine was how much could I really do in barely two months of time? Even though I have people from all corners telling me how much good I would be going, I still questioned really how much tangible good I could do. And honestly, I often still feel this way, as much time that I spend in Bauleni with the kids, or listening to stories of adults I look around me and I see SO much suffering. Zambia is just the size of Texas and it is one of Africa’s fastest developing countries, when I hear this fact I feel astounded.   Zambia does have some obviously developed parts, but when I...

UC Davis Blum Center grantee, L. Carolina Tavarez has embarked upon a project whose main objective is to analyze the relationship between primary students’ multilingual skills and the local economy of Anse-à-Pitres, Haiti, where the Dominican-Haitian market La puerta de la confraternidad serves as the main source of income for many Haitian families. Participants were primary students from the schools Communautaire du Bon Samaritain and Adventist Lysius Salomon, in Anse-à-Pitres. The project presents a holistic analysis by taking into account all the languages learners have in their repertoire: Creole, French, Spanish, English and pidgin. Each student completed a questionnaire measuring knowledge of English and Spanish followed by participation in a three-week intensive program, which aimed to enhance Spanish skills and teach basic English. Results reveal students perform better in Spanish than in English. One reason may be that French is taught in schools and has similar word roo...

Photo courtesy Byron Hoy Beginning this month, U.S. graduate students will travel to developing countries and work with smallholder farmers to solve problems with growing fruits and vegetables — thanks to 14 newly funded projects from the Horticulture Collaborative Research Support Program at the University of California, Davis. The students are participating in the Trellis Fund, which matches graduate students in agricultural sciences with in-country nonprofit organizations that work with smallholder farmers. “With the Trellis Fund, our goal is to engage young people in an international experience — a chance to partner with a small organization working with real people with real needs and apply what they know about science,” said Beth Mitcham, director of Horticulture CRSP. “For a small investment, we’re creating lasting relationships and perhaps changing the career path of a young person.” In the first round of Trellis Fund projects completed earlier this year, 10 UC Davis ...

Photo courtesy Edward Silva We are in the age of information, and there is no better place to see this than here in Lusaka, Zambia. It is displayed on every single kiosk, storefront, and even so many of the very daring street vendors who literally walk between moving traffic to sell “talk-time.” This sign of the demand for information comes in three main colors: green, red, and yellow. These colors correspond to the three main communications and internet providers here in Lusaka Zambia, which are Zamtel, Airtel, and MTN. It doesn’t take you long to see how these companies, most of which are no more than 15 years old, have swept through Zambia. And why? People want information. They want to talk, text, listen to music, email their colleagues, learn how to fix their car, and gather information that before 1991, and their switch to democracy and capitalism, was not so readily available. And in a mere 21 years, these companies have literally stamped their advertisement, service, and na...

One of the biggest cultural differences that has stood out to me during my time here is the immense amount of gender inequality. By gender inequality I don’t just mean that men get paid more than women, it is an all encompassing term in every aspect of a Zambian's life. Here men are superior, it is considered shameful if a man is helping his wife cook or clean, men are allowed to not work and typically spend their money on alcohol while the women go find whatever work they can get. One of the most sickening things here is that abuse is very common and so common in fact, that it has almost become a norm. A discussion that we had with a former teacher at the school had him inform us that if a wife asks a husband if he can help her clean, that gives him a reason to beat her. Awful. A reform against this gender inequality appears to be in sight as there are very prominent billboards all over the place advertising the necessity to stop all forms of abuse, one can only hope that this me...

Posted on August 15, 2012 After collecting the data from the Rushaki and District-recommended sites, we went back to Byumba and spent the last part of Monday and the better part of Tuesday giving lessons on alternators and electric machines, safety issues and ballast loads, turbine design and penstock sizing, and how to perform a comprehensive economic comparison of different small energy-system options. Briefly discussed AC/DC generation and transmission, using induction motors as generators (for a great manual on this, look up Nigel Smith!), but unfortunately didn’t get a chance to cover pumps-as-turbines. Tools included HOMER for economic modelling (with some sample models and an exercise for them), various design manuals (village power, various Practical Action/ITDG publications) and a bit of turbomachinery theory. Between these, seeing Christophe’s site, and performing site surveys, I think they’ve got a good starting point for thinking through the various elements of pote...

When you are a teacher it's probably a good idea not to have obvious favorites, but I think it's okay to have favorite names... Here are some of my lovely kiddos with what I consider to be some of the best names ever!   This is Frank, but because native Nyanja speakers tend to pronounce R as L, it comes off as Flank. Or Flankie. Sometimes I go up to him and say, "Flank!" because that is technically his name here, and in return I get a smile like this.       This is Aaron, you've met him before, he's the coolcat baby with dreads. But his name is also adorable, they enunciate very well here so Aaron is pronounced like Ahhh.Ron. AhpauseRon.    Speeway, Speeway, Speeway. Your name is so cool and you are so cool, and I am 9 years older than you and definitely not as cool. Speeway. (I just found out that it is actually spelled like Sipiwa, but my spelling of her name is how we say it!)  Blessings. I have never met someone so aptly na...

At a near half-way point for Bryan and myself here in Zambia, we are beginning to really take a look into the long-term plan of SMART Light, all the while reflecting on our time here so far. This week we have really moved full steam ahead in meeting with local NGO’s during the day, getting to better know our team at Disacare, and actually going out into local communities and meeting with residents. The visits to the communities, or "compounds" as they call it, have been very interesting in that we are actually seeing what a night in the compound can be like. This is a great opportunity to show the SMART Llight, and gather market research. Photo courtesy Edward Silva. Prospective Lusaka customers trying out the SMART Light. In addition, from a business perspective, seeing the consumer in their own environment really gives us a lot of information about how to position the SMART Light effectively. We have also been able to meet with some local organizations, and some la...

Posted on August 15, 2012 Following the trip to Shyira (Wednesday), we lodged in Musanze and spent Thursday morning planning community surveys and going over some system-related information to learn while in the community (preferred electric load schedules, for instance). While performing community/site surveys, we stayed in Byumba, Gicumbi. Although it is possible to cut eastward to Byumba from Musanze, it was quickest to go Musanze-Kigali-Byumba via buses, so Thursday afternoon and evening  were spent traveling. On Friday morning, we made our way out to the first site of interest, the Nyakeru river in Rushaki.  From Byumba, we went to Maya via bus, then took motos from Maya to Rushaki center.  To our surprise, there was electrification here!  Turns out, a European Commission/USAID/MININFRA project a few years back installed a 45kW system nearby on a larger river.  However, it is not enough to supply all of the villages nearby, and villagers reporte...

Posted on August 15, 2012 Note well – When you meet with officials interested in hydropower development in their district, you might go directly from a formal meeting to the field!  On Monday morning (Aug 13) we met with some Gicumbi District representatives at the office in Byumba, including the Executive Secretary and an EWSA official.  After discussing the idea of training locals to develop their own small systems, and talking a bit over how the UC-Davis/NUR-Butare/Gicumbi relationship might look in the future, they decided that we should see some potential sites immediately — so we all piled into a Land Rover and made our way to two sites. We performed basic head/flow surveys of both sites (Rusumo/Gisiza and Kajero), and met some of the sector officials interested in potentially connecting to power from these sites.  Both had significant head  for being smaller sites, and are near enough to clusters of homes or town centers for our purposes! Rusumo/Gisi...