UC Davis Blum Center for Developing Economies

Finally after two weeks of digging trenches and mapping out the new route for the distribution system, we received the materials for the pipeline. However while we had received a majority of our materials, there were some parts that didn’t come or some that were the incorrect size. While the new order was being taken care of and pieces were being returned, we started laying the first section of the pipeline. We broke down the system into four or five housing sections for engineering purposes. Luckily for us the community members were familiar with the pipe material we were using, Supertubo HDPE pipe, because they had used it for their intake pipeline, which is going to run from the source to the water tank. Their familiarity with the pipe really helped speed up the process of unrolling, laying, and applying the connecting joints of the pipe. While the familiarity made the work run smoother, there were plenty of challenges that would pop up while we were working. One of the biggest ...

I am just about halfway into my third week in this children's home and I've become to feel very familiar with the place. The physical comforts of home that are absent here were surprisingly easy to get used to. Admittedly, there isn't all that much to get used to since this part of Nepal has been very comfortably developed. This particular home has both flushing and squat toilets, a water pump outside, a water filter in the kitchen for drinking, and two showers (although most of the children just use the water pump to bathe). There is no hot water, but I don't think I would use it even if it were available since it's so hot and humid here. Electricity cuts out often, which is a problem for almost all of Nepal, but it's really not so terrible. Electricity here is used only for light, fans, and internet. We only need light in the evening when the sun goes down, fans can be easily substituted with whatever scrap of paper is lying around, and internet is hardly used...

Walking to the future garden at Mukongoro This week has been busy with starting my new projects under the Batwa Development Program. I am first working with the agricultural coordinator to develop a school lunch program at Mukongoro Primary School for Batwa students. Poor nutrition is one of the biggest problems contributing to the cycle of poverty in this village. Many Batwa suffer from poor nutrition and a school lunch program could significantly help the Batwa children by providing them with at least one full meal per day. For the school lunch program, we have realized we need to start from scratch by growing the food. We have a man (named Jumba) specifically responsible for the gardens. He is also being taught how to harvest the seeds so that he can continue the garden for years to come. The plan is to have some students from the school as his helpers so they can learn the skills and share them with their families back at home. On Tuesday, Brian and I hiked up the mountain ...

A few days ago, I accompanied the children to their school. All but two of the children here attend the same public school not very far away. I was under the impression that I was to follow them to school and teach whatever subject where teachers were lacking, so I assumed that the school was fairly small, new, or poorly developed. Instead, the school turned out to be a rather large building with a couple hundred students pouring in from nearby villages. With about two dozen classrooms and just as many teachers, I was more of a guest for the children to stare at rather than any real help. I observed the English teacher and did help teach a couple classes, but with little grasp of the students' prior knowledge and English level, I could only do so much. My greatest contribution was to make the children, who wanted to impress the sister (everyone in Nepal addresses each other as “sister” or “brother”) from America, behave well in the classroom. At one point, a Grade 1 English tea...

Goodness, it has been quite a while since I have blogged. I’m beginning to pack all of these last minute things into my schedule. On Tuesday, I ran an errand for my internship to pick up MetroCards for the clients all the way downtown on 21st and Broadway. I finally decided to try out one of those breakfast food trucks that hang out right outside of the buildings. I finally found the famous Anthora cup! Coffee was only $1, and it was delicious. That afternoon, I met up with my friend, Michelle, from my high school days to catch up and get French macarons at Lauderee with her and took a walk in Central Park. I came across the famous reservoir, and it’s HUGE. Fortunately, we managed to escape from the rain by the time we got home. Fast forwarding to Thursday, I finally had a chance to assist the economic stability workshop at STRIVE. We were helping the students in the class with how to attach resumes, search for their documents on their computer, and how to send an email to a po...

These past two days consisted of me shadowing and assisting the workshops which were mostly about maintaining a healthy relationship with one’s significant other. Yesterday, we explored the definition of conflict and how the participants can solve the conflicts that are going on in their own relationships. On a blank sheet of paper, the participants defined ‘conflict’ to be “a ‘misunderstanding" “miscommunication, “having trust issues", “being selfish" were a couple. An interesting one that was mention was “having no conflict is conflict because if nothing is being said about a problem, then there is no resolution. When examining why people get in conflict, the participants stated that there was a lack of communication, understanding, and clarity, or it could be a matter of ego, expression, and this desire to “push buttons". Using the definitions that the participants came up with, the class was supposed to pick a recent argument and explain how they felt, what mi...

Today was the first time I attended a fatherhood workshop! I was able to watch one of the coordinators host a workshop about healthy relationship building with one’s significant other. There were 4-6 other clients in the workshop. The main intention of the workshop is that it serves as a focus group in which the clients are able to speak about the issues that arise in their relationships with those around them. To start the workshop, the facilitator asked the clients to focus on the definitions of what they think a relationship is. One stated, “a relationship is bond with common ground and association that has long and trust with one another.” Another said, “how a person relates to you with a common interest and relate to one another". Some offered descriptions of what a healthy relationship entails, such as “trust and respect for one another" and “having a mutual understanding with one another is what forms a good relationship". The workshop also focused on discussi...