David Grudda

Christmas

2008-12-27T21:13:00Z

This was my first Christmas away from home and my first Christmas back in the Ivory Coast in 8 years. Things are a bit different than the Christmas I missed at home in Maine so I figured I’d outline my time for you so you can get a picture of my Christmas. Pastor Metanhan has been staying with us over the Christmas season as he visits members of his old church here in Bouaké. He has been getting used to the American style Christmas and has been a good sport throughout. We had a bit of difficulty explaining “Santa Clause” to him and a bit more explaining that Santa and Satan are not the same thing. =) After a few days, however, he was fully into the swing of things:

Christmas Eve we went to town during the day to finish some last minute shopping and meet a few people. We stopped by at the orphanage and gave them some stationary and a CD of pictures from over the past year.

In the evening we had two Christmas parties to attend. The first was with the French, were we attended a mass in the chapel and then dined with them for the evening meal: stuffed Lobster, smoked salmon, shrimp, and steak. It was quite a feast. After dinner with the French we headed to church. Christmas is a bit different in Africa in that the biggest celebration is the night of Christmas Eve. Everyone gathers at the church and stays up the entire night in a worship service. There is singing, dancing, a full sermon, and even drama skits. We never stayed more than a couple hours when I was younger and so I enjoyed getting to see all that went on. Christmas morning we were quite tired and slept until almost noon. I was able to get online with my family and Nicole for about an hour as the opened presents in Maine. Skype video worked now and then and it was great to see them.

In the afternoon we decided to take a trip out into the bush for a bit. We went to an old, abandoned rock quarry in hopes of finding a few partridge. We did not find any but enjoyed sighting in the .22 and eating the picnic dinner that Angelika brought along. Afterward we lit a fire and just relaxed

Moving On

2008-12-04T12:41:00Z

Transition seems to be developing into the tagline of my time in Africa and so it is again. With a week left before I leave for Cote d’Ivoire it’s time to start wrapping things up here in Bujumbura. Today I visited the only store in town with any sort of touristy items and tried in vain to find something “extraordinary” by which to remember my time here. With so little Western interest in Burundi there are very few visitors and as a result there is very little in the way of souvenirs. In the end I settled on my customary tea glass and decided my pictures would help me remember the rest.

I will walk through the market tomorrow to make sure they have not received any new shipments and check one last time for inyams. This weekend I am visiting an all Kirundi service with one of my Burundian co-workers and I hope to get to the beach (I know that hurts a few of you that are shoveling snow right now ) for some sun and a bit of volleyball.

I have enjoyed my time here in Burundi and I believe that God orchestrated this detour for my benefit as well as His glory. I have learned a lot about micro-finance and the way in which World Relief runs their programs around the world. I have also been able to work extensively with a software program called “Micro-fin” that I will be able to teach to the staff in Goma, if God opens the door there. Another benefit has been the community of “Muzungus” (white people) that has helped to ease my transition. As I work on re-learning French and living in Africa on my own, there have been others around making similar transitions. It’s been fun to make some Burundian friends, as well, and I have particularly enjoyed discussing a few cultural differences with then (especially in regards to dating and marriage)

More importantly, however, has been the time I have had to focus on God. Without television, Playstation, a demanding work schedule, or endless social obligations, I have been able to maintain consistent devotions and read several books dealing with our walk with the Lord. It has helped me to internalize some concepts much clearer than in the past as well as begin exploring a different way of addressing a few others.

On Tuesday October 14, I woke up in a guest bedroom in Baltimore, ready to leave the next afternoon for Goma. Over the space of about 24 hours my plans were completely changed and I received confirmation of my flight destination change to Bujumbura about 3 hours before take-off. I arrived the morning of Friday the 17^th to find: A free place to live with a fellow college grad, an established network of interns about my age, an organization with identical practices to the one in Goma, an accepting office of co-workers ready for help, and a peace that these were not coincidences.

God’s design brought me to Bujumbura, of that I am sure, and now He is moving me on to Cote d’Ivoire. I still pray that Goma is in the future but that is out of my hands for now. I am grateful for the time I have had here and I am looking forward to seeing what comes next.

Mr. President

2008-11-18T12:33:00Z

Last week was a busy one here at Turame. With the board meeting on Friday, the week was spent finalizing the business plan, compiling the financial projections, and gathering promotional material for the shareholders. I spent a few days in the meetings for the financial projections as I focus on learning the software so that I will be able to teach it when I get to Goma.

Then I travelled “up country” Burundi for the first time on Thursday with another intern to finish gathering stories from our clients for Turame’s investors. The community bank meeting out in the country had a much different feel than the ones in Bujumbura.

It was good to see the contrast between the city and the rural clients. The money is well used in the city and keeps people from becoming beggars or criminals. But in the country, a very small amount of money can drastically change someone’s life. In Gitega we were told a story of one man in his 50’s. He received a loan that is equivalent to about $50 for his business. After he received the loan he broke down crying. When they asked him what was wrong he told them that he had never seen this much money in one place in his entire life. Not only had he never had this much money in his life, but he had never seen this amount anywhere. Now it was his.

I was also excited to hear the stories of spiritual conversion and renewal as a result of the loans that we give out. Many people live with so little that when an institution like Turame comes along and provides for them it is a powerful example of God’s love. That love, coupled with the training that Turame does about peace and reconciliation, has opened the door for many of our clients to receive Christ. Others have been strengthened by the stability that the investment brings to their lives and several are now giving back to the community, both physically and spiritually.

We met with our local manager (below) and had lunch before returning the same day to Bujumbura.

On the way back we had just passed the Gitega city limits when a truck full of military guys came up the road in front of us and flagged us over to the side. Then another truck, this one with a mounted 50 cal on the front, pulled up on the other side of the road. We sat there wondering what in the world was going on until an official looking car drove by so we figured it was over. We went to pull away but the military guys started yelling at us as soon as we moved.

We sat there for another couple minutes until we saw a very slow moving procession coming up the hill. As it got closer we could make out a single figure riding a bike in front of yet another armed truck. Closer still and we could make out his full body biking uniform and sleek metallic helmet. Finally, as his face came into view, one of our Burundian friends leaned over and told us that it was THE PRESIDENT OF BURUNDI! The drive from Bujumbura to Gitega takes about 2 hours in a car, up some very steep and winding hills. The president, a former sports minister, apparently makes this trip at least once a month on his bicycle! Just try to picture the US president taking a three hour bike ride up the same route through a known rebel area at least once a month…. It was pretty cool.

A Glimpse of Goma

2008-11-14T14:50:00Z

Last week I had the chance to travel to Rwanda with a colleague of mine from World Relief. The 40 minute flight from Bujumbura to Kigali would hardly be worth mentioning if not for the beautiful countryside over which we flew. Burundi’s mass overpopulation means that almost every inch of available land is cultivated. That includes straight up the side of every hill and mountain in the entire country. From above it looks like one big checkerboard of cross-hatched plots. We arrived in Kigali just in time for dinner with the Bennetts, a WorldVenture couple that was nice enough to take us in for the time we were there. The next day we caught the 9am bus from Kigali to Gisenyi, right across the border from Goma. The ride snaked through the hills for almost three hours before depositing us onto the shores of Lake Kivu.

Sam Ferguson and his wife Dawn had been staying a hotel about 400 yards from the border with Bruce and Anita Paden so this is where I first met all of them. Gisenyi is a very scenic town with many resorts and a beautiful view onto the lake that belies the troubles that simmer right across the border. We all sat and talked most of the afternoon and it almost seemed more like a vacation than an evacuation. But the topics of conversation and the stories they had to tell, quickly shattered that image. Many of the Baptist ministers in the area have been displaced in the most recent fighting and several of the Hekima (my micro-finance office) have family members that are missing. The people of this area have been living on the run for almost two months now.

This is the volcano right outside Goma. An ominous sight to see as you fall asleep huh?

In the morning Sam and I crossed the border into Goma with my World Relief friend from Burundi. My first impression was that this is not as bad as I have heard. I was picturing bombed out buildings and shell casings on the street. As we went further, however, I got a much better picture of just how dreary life is in this place. When the volcano erupted six years ago, the people where not equipped to deal with removing the lava that it deposited throughout the town. Gravel was hauled in and dumped on top of the lava to form roads and houses were rebuilt with the lava serving as the foundations. As the roads have eroded the lava is prevalent all over the city and huge chunks of it line every walkway and yard. Some neighborhoods that did not get gravel for the roads commute daily on what equates to a cobble stone road, without the cement filling. There is almost no color at all except the gray of the lava.

I met briefly with the World Refief staff and also with the staff at Hekima. They seemed in good spirits and happy to be returning to work for the first time in a week. I also go to see the house where I will be living with the Padens. It is a small building on the back of their property with two rooms and a bathroom. It is going to a good place to escape sometimes but nothing extravagant. About one in the afternoon we received a call from the Embassy that some shelling had started outside of town so we quickly crossed back into Gisenyi. That same afternoon we caught the bus back to Kigali. The rest of the weekend I toured several of the ministries that Gary Bennet is involved with in Kigali. I visited the Biblical training center that he helps run and discussed their plans to turn it into a full university soon. We also got the chance to travel into eastern Rwanda to visit a goat keeping ministry with an organization named “Send a Cow.” They give goats to people with AIDS and create a support group for them to meet and share their successes. I also got to enjoy the Bennett family’s many creations (such as a solar powered water heater, and a “Tilapia tank”) and see downtown Kigali.

I am very grateful to have had the chance to make this trip. Having met Sam and the Padens I am excited about the work they are doing in Goma. Crossing the border was definitely worth the hassle as it allowed me to get a mental image of where I will be living and working. The trip renewed my conviction that the Lord has a ministry for me in Goma and I am continuing to pray that the door will be opened soon. Until then…. back to waiting. =)

* I had to borrow a couple pictures in this post because we could not risk getting out a camera with the present situation in Goma.

Community Banking

2008-10-30T13:29:00Z

So I am settling into my work now with Turame. This is out office in downtown Bujumbura

Because I have no transportation of my own I have to walk over to a friend’s house to get a ride in the mornings. It only takes about 10 minutes and the day is still cool so it’s not bad. They have a beautiful view from their porch when it’s clear and even looking behind the house is quite nice

It’s about a 15 minutes drive from there to the office, depending on traffic. We are supposed to arrive about 7:30 but the driver’s timeliness usually gets us there about 8:15. Then from 12 until 2 pm the city shuts down as everyone goes home for lunch. We usually visit a nearby restaurant or just bring something as the trip home takes too long. Then we work until about 5:30 or 6 in the evening.

This is a really good picture of the road driving away from Turame. The office is to the right and town is back to the left.

I am helping construct the annual report right now but we got a real treat this week when we travelled to a suburb of Bujumbura on Monday to gather client stories from a community bank repayment meeting.

We gathered in a small room with about 30 women and 3 men that comprised the group. Everyone was sitting on the floor except for myself and another girl that came to do the interviews. Through a translator we were able to gather stories from several of the women about how micro-finance has changed their lives. We were collecting information for the annual report but it was really encouraging to see that our work does make a real impact on a personal level. They have businesses ranging from small restaurants and juice stores to donuts and cell phones. This girl and her brother run a business selling beauty products in their neighborhood and have used their first loan to purchase some items from Congo that people cannot buy in Bujumbura.

I was feeling a bit down yesterday, though. I was walking near the market and a couple guys tried to slash my backpack so that everything would fall out. Luckily I could tell they were up to something so the first time one of the bumped me, I quickly took off my bag and held it in front of me to discourage anything further. He had cut it slightly on the outside pouch but too high for anything to fall out. Because they did not get anything I decided not to chase after them but I have been a bit discouraged since then. It just felt like a betrayal of trust even though I had never seen these guys before. Please be in prayer for me now as I start regaining my confidence about walking through the market alone.

Burundi

2008-10-22T16:50:00Z

I thought it might be nice to follow up my brief notes in the last letter about Burundi with a more detailed account of its history and life here…

Burundi is right in Central Eastern Africa, directly south of Rwanda and bordered to the west by DR Congo and to the east and south by Tanzania. It’s a beautiful place with Lake Tanganyika on the coast here in Bujumbura that goes all the way to Zambia. Standing at the lake you can see the Congo mountains to the right and the Burundi hills to the left. The mountains of Congo are beautiful, especially when the setting sun highlights them. They also have the southernmost source of the Nile River here, where it all begins.

Originally colonized by Belgium, Burundi is plagued by the same Hutu – Tutsi conflict that is made more famous in Rwanda. The sides have exchanged many a fight since independence and countless Burundians have been killed and displaced in the process. Their president was in the same plane as the Rwanda president that was shot down to begin their war. It began more fighting here as well. Now that fighting has subsided for awhile, many refugees are returning from all over East Africa and adding to the population problems.

The country itself is slightly smaller than Maryland and mostly very mountainous. Bujumbura, however is in the lower parts by the lake and tends to be very hot and humid. This is alleviated a bit by the beginning of rainy season and showers that are coming almost every night now.

The town reminds me of Bamako a bit, for those of you reading with a background in West Africa. Its bigger than Korhogo, maybe about the size of Bouake but not as developed. I think that the main things that draw my comparison to Bamako are the long, divided main roads leading the center of the city with the densely populated market. There are vans running into town, similar to in Bamako and taxis and moto-taxis are also common.

There are some stores in town were basics can be purchased and also the central market that I hope to visit tomorrow. The town is grossly overpopulated and this causes numerous road problems and difficulties with transport. Like in most of Africa, a license is available with a small cash payment and almost no training so driving is treacherous. Today was my first day walking around town and I actually got hit on the arm by a passing truck. It bent their mirror backwards but no real harm to me or them. Fun, huh?

My French is coming back quite well until deep conversations are in order or if I have been try to listen for over 20 minutes or so. French is not actually that widely spoken here, so that complicates it a bit. The second national language and the one more used by the less educated is called Kirundi.

The exchange rate is about 1,200 Burundian Francs to $1USD. That means that the $200 dollars that I had to change upon arrival left me with over a quarter million Bf! They do not seem to have any coins that I have seen yet. Bills go as low as 10Bf, which is less than a penny, so you can carry quite a wad sometimes. Everything in Burundi is done on a cash basis so that has taken some getting used to. Nothing is done on credit or anything so even large purchases such as cars must be in cash. A friend of mine recently bought a small motorcycle that cost 1, 300 USD. With the exchange rate he had to have cash of 1.56 million Bf !!

Cell phones work the same as in West Africa where you buy one phone, and then get a new chip in every country. You buy what is like a phone card worth about $10 and then program the number into your phone and it receives the minutes. It will last a couple weeks if you don’t call until needed.

Internet is wireless in some stores and at work. At home we have to buy a thing that plugs into the USB port of the computer and then you transfer phone units to it and it works on those. It’s relatively quick and I can upload a few pictures, though it takes some time. Nicole is able to Skype talk with me with limited interruptions but the video does not work.

I am staying with missionary by the name of Paul Mosley.

He is returning to the States for about 2 months and I will stay in his house with another WR intern, Isaac Barnes. If I have not been able to travel to Goma by January, I will need to find another housing option.

We have a mango tree, guava tree, and papaya in the back yard. The house itself is rather modest but definitely a nice place for Africa. You can see my room and the bathroom below, note the lack of a shower curtain?

We have a night guard named Jasper and a garden worker in the day called Pacific. Our house girl does all the cooking, shopping and laundry, her name is Marceline. Here in Burundi you must iron every article of clothing after it is washed to avoid some sort of larva and infection. So Jasper irons all our shirts, socks, pants, and ect. in the evenings.

I am working now at the Turame office in downtown Bujumbura. We are right behind the US Embassy, which will make some of you a bit more comfortable with my safety. It’s a two story building that is undergoing some construction. About 35 employees in the office here in Buj and they are quite good at what they do. I read through their business plan and they have a very good plan for the future. So, I hope this helps you get a bit better picture of what my life is looking like these days. I am getting settled in here and hopefully God will show me the next step soon. You can read a bit more about Burundi at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/by.html Also, lizards have blue heads here!

Micro - Finance

2008-10-17T17:09:00Z

So, having finished a very busy two day of training at World Relief in Baltimore, I can get a lot more technical about their practices and my role with them…

WR focuses on early response in disaster and post-conflict zones with a variety of programs ranging from re-settlement and childcare to AIDS relief and, of course, micro-finance. The focus of the micro-finance programs is to begin re-establishing financial networks where they have been decimated. The goal is to empower vulnerable people to improve their lives. With this in mind over 90% of their clients (people taking loans) are women because they are often victimized in these settings. World Relief enters an area shortly after the break down of systems and institutes their numerous programs as soon as possible.

The micro-finance operations however, unlike the other relief and care programs, are intended to separate from World Relief after a period of time. Nationals are trained to run the program and it is able to register as an independent organization once it finds its footing. “Hekima”, the micro office in Goma, DRC only just recently made this separation and are beginning to make the transition into maturity. The “Turame” office in Burundi was able to make the transition earlier and has been expanding rapidly ever since. They hope to begin offering savings opportunities to businesses that develop the capacity. This structure of a separate entity allows the World Relief office to focus on their other programs while still offering advice and guidance to the micro-finance operation. I will be working directly in the locally run “Hekima” and “Turame” offices.

The loan system is structured around “community banks”, a collection of 15-30 individuals that will be liable for one another’s loan totals. These community banks are formed largely by word of mouth but also by some advertising by the organization in the form of flyers and radio ads. Each member must approve the inclusion of all the other members of the group to avoid complications in the repayment of loans in case of default. Once the group is formed, they begin a strict training class to ensure their understanding of the practice. Meetings are held twice a week for around a month and a single absence by a client results in their evictions from the program. An agent of the micro-finance office called a loan officer leads the meetings and will watch over the group and ensure repayment of debts throughout the term of the loan. A typical loan officer is responsible for 3-5 banks at a time. During this process the group elects a board from within that will provide leadership and accountability.

Loans are usually set for a term of 4 months with an interest rate of about 3%. This equates to the astronomical sum of 36% annually, however, over the term of the loan, it comes out to between 10% and 12%. This rate is quite attainable for a growing business in this setting. The revenue of the interest covers the operational costs of the business as well as generating a modest profit for re-investment. This has allowed Hekima (DRC) to transition from its beginning as a totally grant funded operation to 55% self-sustaining.

Individual clients may return as often as need be for increased loan amounts, providing they have paid all previous balances in full and on time. A first time client is usually given a loan of $30-$40 but returning clients can be granted amounts up to $2,000 before being referred to a traditional bank in the area.

Should a member of a given community bank be unable to pay their loan amount, the rest of the group is then liable for its coverage. Social pressure is immense in Africa and this results in strict accountability, accounting for a very low default rate and an at risk rate of less than 1% at both Turame and Hekima. Above the loan officers are the branch managers, then the operations/finance manager, and finally the country director.

I will be mostly serving at the branch manager level to begin with. Each individual client is tracked throughout their loan history in the data base. Performance of the group as a whole most also be monitored and risk management and portfolio diversity are key activities as well. I will provide technical help on the database as well as support data collection and decision making.

I hope to add a fresh set of eyes, with special attention to operational efficiency, as well as a willing heart to help in any way I can. I know this is a rather long and detail explanation but hopefully you find it informative about micro-loans as a whole. Please let me know is anything is unclear or if you would like further details about something specific. I will be glad to give it a shot at drogba11@roadrunner.com

Practice

2008-10-03T20:42:00Z

This is my first shot at blogging! I hope this turns out well on the display. I am going to be using this blog as a way to get some more detailed information out to those that are really interested. We can start with a few pictures from Goma...