UC Davis Blum Center for Developing Economies

My original plan coming here was to have a resource database tailored toward the children who are part of FNE’s program called Salud Para Todos los Niños, which provides specialty pediatric care for children with chronic conditions such as cerebral palsy and Down syndrome. However, I had to alter some parts of the draft after speaking to some of the clinic faculty in Chacraseca and members of FNE who thought it would be a better idea and more useful to construct the database for the general patient population of Le ó n and Chacraseca. After I completed the final draft of the resource assessment, it took about a week and a half before it was approved by FNE. At that point, I was already halfway through my time in Nicaragua, so I had to start collecting surveys right away. My goal was to get at least 50 completed- 1 assessment per family- before I left. This undertaking had its own challenges. I was doing the assessments with Josue, the coordinator of Salud Para Todos los Niños and ...

The jeep was maneuvering its way through the main city of Managua. The air was hot and heavy, but the clouds were starting to roll in. It was rainy season in Nicaragua, and the rain (which was unusually punctual- it almost always came at around 6pm everyday) provided a temporary relief to the heat. I was with Rebecca, one of the board members of FNE International, which was the NGO I was working with. We were on our way to Le ó n, my home base in Nicaragua where I would be doing most of my work. We arrived about two hours later. The first thing I noticed were the women carrying baskets of fruit on top of their heads. I could barely balance a book. The cars’ ceaseless honking, people yelling their merchandise out loud like “Aguacateee!” or “Sapote! Sapote!”, the colorful painted walls of revolutionary heroes, the streets full of locals and tourists, and the sound of reggaeton in the background coming from one of the air conditioned department stores. It was a whir of life and it was re...

Precision Planter project Blum Fellow Stephanie Lew Botswana Summer 2017 Today we hitched a ride with some people into town because we needed to go to the bank to get money to pay for rent. They dropped us off at the bank and told us to meet them at the Kalahari Arms Hotel when we were done. We called and asked them how long they’d be and they said 10-15 minutes. The wait ended up being more than an hour. Also, I was expecting the excursion to take an hour or two but it ended up taking nearly 6 hours—which was basically our entire day. Furthermore, we may agree on a time to meet and do work, but people here are generally 15 min-1 hour late. These experiences highlight miscommunication in regards to time and timeliness that I think stem from cultural differences.  Back at home I’m used to living a lifestyle in which I am always on the go. There are days where I have things booked every hour of the day, so 15 minutes makes a difference. When I’m here I find myself getting...

Precision Planter project Blum Fellow Stephanie Lew Botswana Summer 2017 International aid is something that is so tricky, and throughout this trip I’ve been struggling to understand what my place is within development and how I can truly help others. Historically, international aid has failed, and I think it largely ties into this idea presented in this proverb: If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. From my understanding, development has failed because we simply give fish out; we don’t each how to fish. In the same way, we pour money and resources into a place, and they become dependent on it. All of the money and resources we’ve contributed to the growth and development of other countries has never been sustainable because it doesn’t grow social and economic capital of a country. With this idea in mind, I have been very conscious about how I choose to help others within the community. I don...

Precision Planter project Blum Fellow Stephanie Lew Botswana Summer 2017 It’s been a crazy change going from life in California to life in Botswana. I had a moment this morning where I was really missing home. I figured that I was missing the people I spent my time with and the predictability of my daily routine, but when I thought about what I was feeling even more, I realized that above all, I missed being comfortable. I miss comfort of being surrounded by my closest friends and family. I miss the comfort of showering. I miss knowing the social norms. I miss knowing how to speak the native language. I miss knowing what to expect. I then came to realize the issue with this. I’ve always believed that growth happened when you push yourself out of your comfort zone. This is actually a belief of mine that I picked up from my first, and only international trip before this one, to Nicaragua. I’ve always preached to myself to strive to seek new, different experiences, and her...

Blog Post 3 Week 4 7/15-7/20 By the start of our last week we had finished the construction of the first spring catchment and were putting the final touches on the third catchment. When we conducted the new flow rate being delivered to the community we found that it was twice as much as compared to last year, a huge success! We were using the extra labor we had available to replace old pipeline and connect the new spring catchments to the storage tank. Besides spending our time completing construction related tasks we began completing important assessment related activities. An essential part of the trip was to assess the feasibility of future projects that were in need in the community. Through the first three weeks which included some preliminary data collection we deduced that there were three viable future projects. These included, a new water storage tank, a new pipeline connecting the communities current storage tank to the beginning of the distribution line, and a new...

The second and third week of the trip flew by as our days were jam packed with work. We would get up everyday at 6 to make breakfast at 6:30 so that we could arrive on-site at 8 am. We would have a meeting with the contractor and labor to go over goals for the day and work on site until 5 pm (we would do half days on Saturdays and generally take Sundays off). We would eat dinner right after until 6:30 pm. After that would usually spend an hour or two typing up our field daily reports as well as make any important revisions to our plans that happened frequently due to site conditions. We would usually be completely done with work around 8 or 9 pm. A couple of nights we had to work later due to the necessity of making further design changes. The second and third week of the trip flew by as our days were jam packed with work. We would get up everyday at 6 to make breakfast at 6:30 so that we could arrive on-site at 8 am. We would have a meeting with the contractor and labor to go o...