UC Davis Blum Center for Developing Economies

It is very different going from working on a project with a theoretical focus and with a remote location to working more closely with the knowledgeable folks here in Cambodia, seeing the project worksite, and bringing our project to life. The Wetlands Work! team plus our advisor, Dr. Moore, have been great about helping us out, and pushing us to think outside of the box - to think of simple solutions, to look at the project from a different angle, and to get rid of any assumptions that may be blocking that process.    Image 1: Hakley drilling a connection point Image 2: Hakley doing his master builder thing, with Yao and Virak supporting the st For the last 6 months, Joanne, Yao, and I have been working on a project with Wetlands Work! for our senior design project. Wetlands Work! develops sewage treatment systems for communities of floating houses that live on the Tonle Sap Lake. The area of the project that we directly worked on was developing a fr...

One of my favorite parts about traveling is the perspective shift that often blooms from learning more about the world we live in. One of the areas in which I can see some new growth is the concept of silence and speaking up.    Image 1: Yao in front of a bed with ankle restraints, with an image on the wall of a brutally murdered prisoner on this very bed.  Image 2: Autopsied skulls of prisoners killed at the killing fields in Phnom Penh About a week ago, we visited S21, one of the most secretive and brutal retaining centers of the Khmer Rouge. It was definitely a very heavy experience, that gave me lots of food for thought. The general state of affairs right before the Khmer Rouge took over was one of chaos and fear; the US was secretly bombing the region to try and hurt Vietnamese forces (early 1970's), so when the Khmer Rouge came in and took over, the people welcomed them. Thus began the period of the Khmer Rouge, a brutal time where it is esti...

This first one and a half weeks in Cambodia have definitely been an adjustment. Adjusting to a 14 hour time change, adjusting to a new currency, adjusting to Cambodian moto traffic (if you want to cross the street, be brave) and adjusting to work with a new team.  We made our first trip to the floating village, Phat Sanday, on Friday. On Saturday, Wetlands Work! (the NGO we are working with) was holding an event for the various villages around, to promote healthy practices and to raffle off some HandyPods (WW!'s sanitation solution) as well as buckets of sanitary products. The main focus of the event, and even in the village, is the children; because adults (even including me, yes I know, it doesn't seem like I'm an adult) are very used to living a certain way, I can see how hard it would be to change your practices simply because some foreigners said you should. The idea is to introduce the children to good sanitation practices at school, so they would take those idea...

Three flights, two layovers, five airplane meals, and 23 hours later I have finally arrived in Nairobi! It wasn't an easy journey but it has been a swell couple of days since landing in Kenya and I can't wait to see what the rest of the month holds in store. Thanks to a generous grant from the UC Davis Blum Center and the College of Letters and Science , I am spending the latter half of my summer working on a project with Bright Green Renewable Energy , a startup social enterprise based in Nairobi, Kenya. Bright Green specializes in providing affordable clean energy and fuel sources for middle to low income households and community organizations in its surrounding area. At a little over one year old, the team at Bright Green has been developing its clean burning charcoal briquettes and plans to send out pilot samples to interested clients, which is where I come in. For my project, I will be collecting and analyzing survey responses from the clients on their interaction...

             Many have asked me that same question. I began to think what my intention was at first. The intention was to go to the village and to observe their condition and seek for potential non-timber forest. Then, I would make a report for an NGO to be used for fundraising – collecting funds from investors who would want to help preserve the forest. It was pretty challenging; and what was more challenging was adapting to their lives for three weeks.                Marlon taught me how to walk on steep muddy area in the middle of the jungle. “Look straight!!!” he said repeatedly. Benhur taught me how to set up a trap for moles or boars, and in return I would play soccer and take a shower on his brook. Mr. Alfred taught me a unique way on how to cut the trunk of the tree into firewood logs. Mrs. Woloin showed me on how to make sago congee. These are some people whom I got to...

During our stay at Woloin house in Mlaswat village, we encountered such an unexpected request. Yulius Woloin, the youngest brother of Agustinus Woloin asked Yustin and I to help mediate the dispute that they had with the neighbor tribe, Karet tribe. One of the members of Karet tribe chopped down three Merbau trees at Woloin legal territory six months ago. Yulius Woloin found out Karet’s operation when he was walking around to do a regular check. Amazingly, he was able to stop them before they could take the blocks out of the territory. They have invited the perpetrator to show up in a traditional meeting twice. In Saifi, if there is a dispute or a problem within the communities, they will try to solve it using their own traditional rule – using a sense of kinship. Sometimes, an apology statement like “sorry” would solve the problem. However, in this case, the perpetrator never showed up. I could see how furious Yulius Woloin was when we discuss about this problem, and Yulius kept te...

“It was an unforgettable first-day impression”. I went to Saifi District, West Papua, Indonesia, for summer 2016. Saifi, a district in South Sorong regency, West Papua, Indonesia, is consisted of sixteen villages. Besides having a growing population, many families are trying to get together to form a new village because they would get government aid if they form a new village. Although I grew up in Indonesia, an archipelago country, which is consisted by five main big islands and approximately around 13,000 small islands, it still remains mysterious to me. I joined one of the activities at a local Non-profit Governmental Organization (NGO) in West Papua, Bentara Papua , doing a “community check-up” in Saifi District – I was assigned to two villages: Mlaswat and Sira. To simplify, my job was to observe and analyze the potential of economic growth for non-timber products in these villages. After thirty hours sitting on a plane, doing multiple transits, and six hours sitting o...