UC Davis Blum Center for Developing Economies

I’m not a good dancer, literally. But when it comes to subtle interpersonal relations, negotiations, empathizing and responding, I’m usually pretty good. And by usually, I mean “most times but not right now.” The dance right now is the complex navigation of the working relationship with our local partner, Disacare. It’s complicated because of all the usual reasons: we are friends but also work partners, we have different resources to bring to bear, we have different agendas personally and professionally. This has always been the case for the 3 years I’ve known the Disacare team, but for some reason everything seems more complicated on this trip. The power imbalances seem greater. The economic implications of the project seem more significant. The philosophical discussions around charitable work vs. market-based work seem more loaded. The operational challenges of project implementation vs. academic research seem harder to manage. Part of this is definitely a shift in my pers...

Last night I had the opportunity to attend an "Internations meeting": a place for expats to come together.  Apparently, the usual turnout is around 5, but last night there was over 25 expats and Bolivians there.  What a great experience! I met American's from the US embassy, Canadians from the Canadian Red Cross, a Belgian software engineers, a diverse crowd of Bolivians, and many more.  We talked about life abroad, life in La Paz, and many other topics.  One of the more interesting (and much debated) is the direction Bolivia is heading as a country. Currently, the political party MAS (Movement Towards Socialism) has a majority in all forms of government and is led by Che Morales.  As reported to me, there is a sense that the MAS party is improving the lives of the poorest in this country, but there is controversy on how this is being done. The most interesting conversation was one with a student my age on growing up in La Paz.  Not only does he ru...

This is my first respite from travel in about a week, so I finally have some time to jot down some of my experiences for the past several days. For the past week I have been traveling around the Himalayan mountain range interacting with people of all walks of life who live in these parts and seek service from the mobile health care units that Rajbhra operates. The first thing that amazed me was the absolute beauty of the whole place, and the second thing that amazed me was how quickly I would come to trade all my surroundings for a nice warm bed. You see, for the first couple of days everything was exciting, everything piqued my curiosity and I wanted to see all that this land had to offer. However, by day number five, after traveling over a hundred kilometers each day through mountainous terrain, I yearn for perhaps a slightly more stable environment. Nonetheless, I have two days of a brief respite from travel, which I will use fully to fondly reminisce of days at UC...

This is Mary. Mary is awesome. She is the director of RHO Appleseed but prior to this position, she spent years working as a house cleaner. When the Hoffmans met her they immediately recognized how smart and determined she is and partnered with her to start this school. I met Mary less than a week ago, and already she has been added to my list of heroes. Her life has been anything but easy, as it is with so many Zambians. Mary moved to Bauleni when she was a young child, had a daughter and got married at a young age, and then one day her husband told her he was taking another wife, Mary being the strong person she is, told him to leave and has managed to make a living without him. Sadly, many Zambian women are forced to accept this and live as a second or third wife. Despite the poverty Mary lives in and the tragedy that comes with it, she has an incredibly strong spirit and faith. I have learned so many life lessons through conversations with her, and have decided that eve...

Open aired markets are about number three on my list of favorite things in life, closely followed by sunflower fields and fat babies, of course. One of the things that I was really looking forward to about being in Africa was experiencing the vibrancy and bustle of Zambian markets and I was not let down.     In these past couple of days we went to both Kamwala market and Bauleni and let me just tell you, Davis has nothing on these places!   Emma Shandy, UC Davis undergrad, Human Development

I love weddings, they have everything awesome in life; dancing, cake, music, love... So on Sunday when I got to attend a Zambian wedding I was stoked! I now have also decided that I need to either marry a Zambian or incorporate pretty much everything about that reception into my wedding. There was SO MUCH DANCING.     Words really cannot explain it, so please check out the photos and videos below. Also discovered at this event is Zambians can move! In the words of my awesome friend Mary, "Zambians dance as if they have no bones".   Emma Shandy, UC Davis undergraduate, Human Development

Since school doesn’t start until Monday, we have had this week to adjust, catch up on sleep and absorb as much of the Zambian culture as possible. One of my favorite professors suggested that I do a couple of blog posts perspective themed, and I am planning on following through with that. What I want to give you guys in this one is the perspective of a white, female college student from California experiencing her first couple days in Lusaka, I wonder who that may be… Being here so far has caused such a whirlwind of emotions; excited, happy, sad, disheartened, tired, hopeful… There are many things that are so “Africa”, people carrying things on their head, women walking with babies wrapped in colorful cloth on their backs, pick up games of soccer everywhere, trees that may or may not be Baobab trees. However, there are also things that have stood out that I was not necessarily expecting. It is so striking to me is that there is no apparent middle class. In Lusaka, especial...