Quality Time in the US

Summer time in Boston. Is there a better place to be in summer, or a better season to be in Boston? Downtown, you can walk from the outdoor cafes of Newbury Street all the way to the waterfront grass in South Boston, and pass beautiful parks, historic plazas, and picturesque riverside views along the way. In Cambridge, the Red Line is better than any carnival ride, taking you from one fun, bustling square to the next. In the rural areas around my parents’ house there are enough rivers, forests, beaches and waterfront towns to keep you outside all 90 days of summer.

Since I went to Cape Town for Christmas, and visited home only briefly in the early fall, I was really looking forward to my summer visit this year. So different than my last trip, this one had the promise of little travel, and long, lazy weeks around Boston. The furthest I went was New York for a weekend, which was a great kickoff to the trip. I came down with my family (immediate and extended) for my cousin Katelin's wedding, the first of my cousins on that side to get married. To add to the excitement and to-do, Emily also came, the first opportunity for her to meet most of my wider family. The weekend was fantastic, the locations were beautiful, and it was great to spend so much time with my cousins. Katelin certainly set a high bar for the cousin brave enough to have the next wedding.

(Cousin time)

Rather than heading right back to Boston with my family, Emily and I spent an extra night in the city and managed to squeeze a lot into those 24 hours. We were able to spend some time with her friend Deanne, who happens to work in the Empire State Building and took us on a whirlwind tour. We also had an excellent Italian meal with Dylan, a friend from school, and his girlfriend. The next morning we caught the bus to Boston, which was a cheap and comfortable way to travel.

(Deanne and Emily and NYC)

Emily spent / survived the next jam-packed week with me, my family, and my friends. We spent plenty of time around the city, even finding some spots I’d never been to like the Mappariam. We went to a Red Sox game, a nice belated birthday gift, which was pleasantly surprising in both weather and team performance. We ate out in all the key areas (Chinatown, North End, Fort Point, Cambridge) and also had some nice dinners at home. Can you get more summery than clams and lobster (dunked in butter of course) out on the deck? We lucked out with timing and got to see my friend Sarah and her boyfriend in the midst of their bar exam studying. On one of Emily's final days there we gathered friends from all parts of our lives (from high school to Zambia) at Naco Taco, a great outdoor taco place in Central Square, and it couldn’t have been nicer.

(With Angus and Kira, friends from Zambia, at Naco Taco)

After Emily headed home to Seattle, I had a couple days to be lazy before getting back to work. Fortunately, I was able to spend about a week working remotely, which meant I still had evenings and weekends to spend quality time with friends and family. It was time well spent: another baseball game, my first cocktail party at a museum, making my own watch strap from scratch with my cousin, dinners with my sisters, and the list goes on. Much as it started, my trip ended in a flurry of activity, including seeing my friend Thom who was back in the US for our friend Hannah’s wedding after a year traveling South America, as well as seeing (a different) Hannah and HollyAnne, two friends from study abroad in Senegal who I hadn’t seen in years. As icing on the cake, that weekend was also July 4^th, which came together very nicely with old friends on the 3rd floor back porch of my friend’s place in Somerville, with a view of the (top half) of the fireworks and an amazing moonrise. Summer time in Boston…

(Watch strap making)

 (HollyAnne, Hannah and I)

Back at Home and Work, in Zambia

Zambia will always have a special and reserved place in my heart. It’s where I made my first real home as an adult, where I met lifelong friends now doing incredible things around the world, where I worked with dozens of amazing young students, many of whom are making their own first new adult homes at the moment, and of course where I met my wonderful girlfriend. I try to remember what I knew, or what little I knew, about Zambia before I moved there, compared to all the beauty and excitement I’ve now experienced. Every time a plane lands after a very long flight, it’s still strange not to be stepping out into the heat under big blue skies at the airport in Lusaka.

In May, for the first time since I left in August 2014, I did step off a plane in Lusaka. As part of my work I’ve been conducting field visits with microfinance institutions engaged in lending to farmers. We’ve identified such institutions all over the globe, and have set out to collect information on their programs as part of our sector-building initiative. Zambia is a country heavily dependent on agricultural activities, so it’s not surprising it hosts a number of agriculturally focused financial institutions despite the particular challenges of its markets and demography. That's how my first visit back to Zambia came about through work.

Knowing I had already made the choice to work elsewhere made it even stranger being in Zambia in yet a third professional capacity. The work meetings and discussions I had were incredibly interesting, and eye opening in multiple ways. I had worked in Zambia for two years in the microfinance sector, yet I had little idea about these other financial service providers operating in rural areas. At FINCA we were very focused on improving and expanding our outreach in the populous urban areas, so I had little interaction with this other part of the sector. I was impressed with the models and strategies these providers have employed in attempts to overcome uniquely Zambian challenges, such as low population density and government involvement in staple crop markets. There also seem to be some exciting areas of opportunity where One Acre Fund may be able to advise or support the work already happening in-country.

It was a very busy week, though I was lucky that most of the visits took place in Lusaka. There are a number of good friends still residing in Lusaka, and nights and weekends gave me some opportunities to catch up with them. This included an outdoor dinner with my old friends Omar and Liz (now reaching the upper echelons of Zambia expat hierarchy), and seeing our friends Esther and Paul's baby, who was an infant when we left and is now walking and talking. I also caught up with old roommates, who have new homes, new fiancés, and new dogs (Sparta’s still around though). Of course I played as much Frisbee as possible, enjoyed all the good restaurants Lusaka has to offer, and managed to cash in a “buy 10 get 1 free” card at Blue Moon in just a week.

It was incredibly good to be back, to confirm those three years really happened, and that friends, students, places, and traditions carry on. It’s shocking how few traces of those years can be found in my current day-to-day life after moving to Kenya; going back was both cathartic and reassuring. I can only hope that another trip, whether through work or on my own, will soon take me back to that big green country full of open people and open spaces.

A few pictures from the trip, excuse the phone quality

(Blue Moon- office away from home)

 (This backyard has a history of nice dinners)

 (New puppy at Ronnel and Lizzie's new home)

 (Lulu, a new friend for Sparta)

(2 games, 25+ people on a typical Wednesday? Not bad Zamultimate)

Cold War Kids: First

They've put out a lot of good songs, but I think this has to be my favorite with its slow urgency and big, heavy drum hits.

Tournament and Travels

March brought the rains on its coattails. Long rains- named for both the length of the season and the duration of the daily downpours. Roads are muddy and potholed and power is much more inconsistent, but on the plus side, the dust and heat have been minimized. Even though it happens every day, it’s hard not to be awed every time the enormous black thunderheads gather, build tension, and at last release an absolute torrent of water.

The end of March also brought a spell of traveling which has kept me busy and happy. First, we traveled to Lake Naivasha in Kenya to participate in the annual FEAST ultimate frisbee tournament. While weekly frisbee was only recently revived in Bungoma, we had almost 30 OAF staffers sign up to compete, both expats and national staff. We caravanned down to Naivasha, where most of us tented right next to the field where the games were taking place. Our 3 OAF teams made up a full 1/3 of the tournament, and what we lacked in skill and practice we made up in heart. The only games any OAF team won during the tournament were against each other, but those were also the most fun. The other teams were generally pretty gracious, and we typically put up a good fight, so it was still lots of fun. After a full day and a half of games, I enjoyed a much-needed break reading by the lake before heading back.

A few of Emily’s college friends were also visiting, so the following weekend I met up with them in Jinja, a town on the Nile just across the border in Uganda. It was great to meet her friends, and though I had just been in Jinja in March, this trip was mostly new for me. We stayed at the house of OAF Kenya’s country director, which is a really cool, fully solar powered building in the wilderness along the banks of the Nile. It’s a great place to relax, but also located right between some of the rapids on the river. We were picked up one morning on the opposite bank by a rafting company and spent a day rafting our way down the river. It was my first time on the Nile, and while the rapids were fewer and seemingly less intense than the Zambezi, the scenery was really beautiful- green hills, exposed rock, and pine forests all lined the banks of the big, winding river.

(Sunset view from the house's dock)

Back in Kenya, after a quick stop at home, some of Emily’s friends headed for the airport while the rest of us continued east to Kakamega, just a couple hours away and the site of the future One Acre Fund headquarters. Kakamega’s claim to fame is the rainforest that borders the town. It’s a small surviving slice of the ancient Guineo -Congolian rainforest that once spanned much of the continent. We stayed at a quaint and quiet retreat within the rainforest with heavy English influence in the buildings and tea culture. It actually really reminded me of home with its similarities to New England architecture and design. We spent a relaxed weekend there, reading on our verandah overlooking the thick forest and of course taking regular tea breaks. The house even had a fireplace, which was perfect for the cool evenings. On one morning we took a pre-dawn hike. Lucky to find the path in the dark, we made it to a hilltop in time for sunrise. The view was wonderful: orange and blue skies over a misty green forest. Hiking back through the thick growth, we chanced on some black and white colobus monkeys, who, in their decadent get-up, look as though they're wearing fringed white leather jackets. 

A few weekends later was my birthday, and Emily surprised me with a trip to the nearby city of Kisumu for sailing on Lake Victoria. It was awesome to take a boat out on the water, I haven't sailed one so small since college. Emily was patient as I got back into practice, though neither of us were really ready to push it and risk tipping with hippos occasionally in sight. Despite their vaguely threatening grunts, we had a really relaxing time sailing around the lake, and even enjoyed a little picnic on board.

It was a busy few weeks of traveling, and there's another stretch ahead. Work is taking me to Zambia, a homecoming I am extremely excited for, and there's a trip to the US in the near future as well. More on all of that soon!

Back to the Mother City

For Christmas this year Emily and I traveled to Cape Town. What was already a fantastic destination was even more special as the first place I lived abroad and hadn’t been back to since. I was excited to re-visit all the places I remembered both to satisfy my nostalgia and to see how much my perceptions had changed. We also have some friends from Zambia now living there, which worked out wonderfully for us. Though we didn’t actually get to see Hans and Jacquee, they generously loaned us their apartment for our days in the city. And Christmas day with our friends Tommy and Mars made it that much more homey and special.

Our trip took us both all around town and out to other areas of the Western Cape including wine country, Cape Point, and along the Garden Route. I’ve written an itinerary below with our favorite stops, meals and lodging- complete with photos from the journey.

Car rental: I was uncertain whether we should use a budget company, but we ended up going with RentalCars.com, which connected us with a good deal at Europcar and included simple insurance coverage. We were very happy with our car and the process was straightforward.

Day 1

Cape Town

V&A Waterfront area

We spent our first day exploring the waterfront area and immediately diving into some sushi. Beluga Sushi is half price on weekdays, a good deal and only walking distance from the water. The V&A itself is a very busy mall and not a very pleasant place to just hang out unless you're in the mood for some high-end shopping, though there is a big movie theater. For dinner we tried a place down Kloof Street called Black Sheep. Food was decent, especially the tuna tartare, and the atmosphere was good for long, enjoyable conversations. They also carried a range of local craft beers which were fun to try.

Day 2

Woodstock

We spent half the day in area of town known as Woodstock, which has an air of fancy bohemian crafts. We went to the Old Biscuit Mill, which takes place every Saturday and is full of stores and stands selling unique and interesting home goods, clothes and trinkets (though not cheaply). There’s also little cafes plus a whole area with food stalls that was absolutely packed with people. The whole thing was crowded actually, probably because it was days before Christmas, but live music and seeing our friends made it a fun spot to spend the morning. I also bought myself a new watch from Bamboo Revolution.

Camps Bay

In the afternoon we paid a quick visit to the beach not far from where we were staying. The place reminds me a lot of the strip in Miami; fancy restaurants, gelato places, techno bars all jostling for space directly across the street from the beach. A fancy and somewhat overwhelming place- but the beach is nice. That evening we had dinner with Tommy and Mars, our Zamfriends, and a few of their friends. We tried a pizza place called Diva that turned out to be really delicious, and not very expensive. There were all sorts of interesting pizzas with specialty ingredients, highly recommend it.

Day 3

Table Mountain Hike

Table is a very hike-able mountain; with more impressive views than Lion’s Head but not quite as demanding as Devil’s Peak. That being said, we underestimated the effort it would require. We used the Platteklip Gorge trail, a popular route running up the middle face of the mountain. It’s very well marked and maintained, but it’s like doing a stair-master for 2 hours, so be prepared. Once on top, we decided to hike across the plateau in search of a very pleasant reservoir I remember visiting on previous hikes back in 2008. The fog of memory proved thick, however, and though we hiked across the plateau for another 1.5 hours we didn’t manage to reach it. In hindsight, the quickest way to reach it is probably by going up the Skeleton Gorge trail, on the back side of the mountain, accessible from the Kirstenbosch botanical gardens.

One thing to be wary of on Table is the rapidly shifting weather. It's common for thick clouds to completely sock in the top without warning  Even if the day is hot, it can get cold, windy and wet up there. By the time we made it back to the front edge there was no view to be had, but as soon as we descended below the cloud line we returned to a lovely sunny day. For dinner that evening we met our friends again, this time at Hudson’s on Kloof St. It’s a burger chain in the city, but a pretty good one with fancy things like bacon jam and blue cheese. They also had delicious oversized milkshakes and many varieties of potato sides. We left full and satisfied.

(From left to right: Devil's Peak, Table Mountain, Lion's Head)

Days 4 & 5

Stellenbosch

One great thing about having a rental car was being able to get out of town. Stellenbosh is wine country, and close enough to reach in time for lunch, which we had at Hartenberg Wine Estate. There are a number of options for picnicking at wineries, but this turned out to be a great one. A basket of delicious foods plus a bottle of wine for a good price, and the setting was really pretty and not crowded at all. After lunch, we visited another two wineries: Beyerskloof (intimate, nice but nothing fancy) and Simonsig (very nice atmosphere and best wines we tried). While in Stellenbosch we stayed at a guest house called Summerwood, which is really amazing. The whole place is really well-designed, has a pool, and includes an awesome breakfast. You could not visit a single winery in Stellenbosch and it’d still be worth the trip if you stayed here. For dinner we tried Helena’s, which is in the quiet downtown area, has a nice on-street patio and a fantastic mushroom risotto.

On our second day, we did another set of wine tastings:
Spier: a big brand, it has a huge estate that’s very beautiful, but attracts lots of people so it's not so intimate. The chocolate and wine pairing was nice.
Warwick: nice estate with a pond which is also a place for picnic lunch, but it’s a little more crowded.
Fairview: has a restaurant, wine tasting, and cheese tasting all on-site. It's a pretty popular place and was quite crowded- think it’s worth just going for a cheese platter. Apparently there’s a place called Spice Route next door which is a better lunch option.

On this night we had the best dinner of our trip, in my opinion, at Makaron. A little fancy and pricey, no more than in the US, but everything really wowed me- what a nice Christmas gift from my parents!

(Summerwood)

Days 6 & 7 (Christmas Eve and Christmas Day)

Cape Town

After a nice, lazy morning at Summerwood, we traveled back to Cape Town where we managed to successfully grocery shop for dinner, despite not realizing how crazy the stores would be that day. We cooked a rack of lamb and had a cozy Christmas Eve at home.

On Christmas Day we exchanged gifts at home from under our little fake Christmas tree and made crepes for breakfast. We then watched The Hobbit at V&A with Tommy and Mars, and cooked a Christmas dinner with them at their place. We were very lucky to share Christmas dinner with friends while being so far from our families.

Day 8

Cape Point

We made the drive down the peninsula to the tip of the continent, making some stops along the way. First was Muizenberg Beach, which was very windy but we were still able to admire the iconic colorful changing houses. Next we went to Simon’s Town, having lunch at a really pleasant place called Lighthouse Café (make a reservation!) and then seeing the famous penguins at Boulders Beach. We made it down to Cape Point national park by the afternoon, visiting the lookout and the beaches. We gave ourselves some time to get back up the west coast so that we could catch sunset just as we were reaching Chapman's Peak Drive, a beautiful scenic stretch of road just before Cape Town. For dinner we went to the Codfather in Camps Bay. Fair warning, they've got a clever deli-style set-up that facilitates expensive dinners. However, the fish was excellent, particularly the tuna.

(Muizenberg Beach)

(African penguin at Boulders)

 (Southern tip of the continent)

(Hout Bay, from Chapman's Peak Drive)

Day 9

When I lived in Cape Town I interned at an economic research institute. On this morning we met my old boss and his wife at a very pleasant place called Sidewalk Café for breakfast. In the evening, we hiked Lion’s Head, which is a very accessible 45 minute hike that’s great for sunset. We had dessert that night with Tommy and Mars at a place just around the corner called Bombay Bicycle Club. It was crowded (make a reservation!) and very hip, but the ice cream cigars we had were delicious.

Day 10

Highlights of this day included awesome sushi (what a treat!) for lunch at Willoughby at the V&A, and a picnic dinner at Kirstenbosch with live music. You can buy tickets for their concert series in advance here. We ended up seeing Hot Water, a South African band with catchy songs and a big stage presence.

Days 11, 12 & 13 (New Year’s Eve)

Garden Route

We wanted to explore more outside the city, so we blocked off a few days to drive part of the Garden Route, which runs all the way from outside Cape Town past Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. We didn’t have time to do the whole thing, but we decided to go halfway at least halfway to where the popular destinations start.

To break up the journey, we overnighted in Oudtshoorn, a little town on the inland route away from the coast. We weren’t there for long but tried to see a bit of the place once we arrived. Unfortunately the olive tour we went to turned out to be just a shop selling olive products. On the plus side, the B&B we stayed at, Earthbound, was very cool; eccentric but still comfortable. Oudtshoorn is known for its ostrich, actually it's the "ostrich capital of the world," so that night we had an all-ostrich meal at Nostalgie, which was cheap and tasty.

The next day we arrived at our destination: Knysna. It’s a holiday spot for South Africans so the town was pretty jammed up. Despite the traffic and some light rain, it was pleasant walking around and grabbing a seafood lunch by the water at 34 Degrees South. There are lots of cool little shops along the waterfront, and we picked up a few things for home before heading to our AirBnB- the Tree Studio. It was a very cool location, a studio house built into the side of a valley below the house belong to the owner (who was very friendly and helpful). We had a great sunset view from our porch, and a gas fireplace, though it was a little too hot to use it. It was a very positive first experience with AirBnB. That night we ate at Prembreys, which, despite an older crowd and comically large chalkboard menus the poor waiters had to cart around, was definitely the best dinner we had on the Garden Route.

 (View from our patio)

The next day we had lunch at a place called East Head Cafe, good food with a nice view, and then explored the town and surrounding areas a bit more. It’s kind of a boring place, but the beaches are nice, especially out a little way to Buffels Bay. We went out for dinner, as it was New Year’s, at a place called Olive Tree, which was decently good but not standout. We made a token attempt at finding some NYE’s activities in town, but it was either too early or too quiet of a place, so we retreated home and enjoyed a nice evening there.

(East Head)

Day 14

On our last full day, we headed back to Cape Town, ringing in 2015 with sausage egg mcmuffins at McDonalds along the way. We drove along the coast this time, which allowed us to meet a friend from Kenya in Hermanus on the way, and also afforded us a pretty spectacular drive along Route 44. We had a lot of time to work with on this trip but I don’t think we could’ve crammed another thing in if we had tried. It was awesome to get back and see the place after 6 years, and felt good to see it really is as stunning and enjoyable a place as I remembered.

Input Delivery

This time each year, One Acre Fund gears up for a massive logistical undertaking. It involves hundreds of trucks moving massive quantities of farming inputs around warehouses across the country. And it's all for one objective: supplying our farmer clients with the high-quality inputs they've ordered, on time, within a day's walk from their homes.

This guarantee is a crux of OAF's program model, and addresses a key challenge faced by smallholder farmers worldwide. When everyone in the farming business is looking for these same goods at the same time each year, finding them anywhere, let alone those of high quality at a reasonable time and price, is no easy feat. By meeting this need, we're ensuring farmers can start planting on time with the best inputs. By pairing this with intensive training throughout the season on correct use of these inputs, we're maximizing their impact on farm productivity and ultimately, harvest yield.

That's why so much depends on the logistics behind moving these goods running smoothly. Thousands of staff hours are spent facilitating this, from price negotiations at a high level down to the people unloading the trucks at the pick-up site. I was able to see a few parts of this chain in action: the loading of trucks at one of our warehouses in Bungoma, and the unloading of a truck on the day one group of farmers received their goods. I've included some photos from these days below.

(Warehouse jam-packed with inputs)

(Truck loading)

(Delivery day and truck unloading)

(Bonus: my highly public struggle eating sugar cane)