Kimironko Market in Remera

Kimironko is the market's market in Remera near the Kigali airport. We made a brief trip to grab extra ingredients for a Christmas party tonight; we're taking Macadamia Meltaways.

$0.86 = 6 eggs
$0.81 = 1 kg tomatoes
$2.50 = 2 kg flour
$1.25 = 1 kg sugar
$17.89 = 26 Christmas ornaments

DIY African paper bead necklace

Interested in making your own African jewelry? I know my mom is. Here are the steps to Doing It Yourself.

Materials: colorful magazine pages, scissors, toothpicks, and glue.

Step 1

Cut colorful magazine pages into long triangles.

Step 2

Apply glue to one side of the triangle.

Step 3

Roll the triangle around a tooth pick, starting with the base.

Remove the toothpick once it is rolled, and now you should have yourself one bead, African jewelry style. This is the beginnings of a beautiful necklace if you keep going and thread the beads together. You may add some finishing touches like some kind of sealant and some accent beads. Here is what the final product should look like:

African paper bead necklaces: 3500 RWF, $6.26 USD each

SILC – Savings and Internal Lending Communities

I am getting debriefed on HOPE's savings-led programs every day, but while that picture comes together I am also looking at other models. SILC is a model very similar to ours, and it is outlined clearly and I just read it, so here is the synopsis:

SILC, a soft approach to microfinance, is a Catholic Relief Services (CRS) model of an accumulated savings and credit association (ASCA), developed by Guy Vanmeenen. The notes below are sometimes paraphrased, sometimes direct quotes, of Guy's paper:

Guy Vanmeenen, Savings and Internal Lending Communities, a basis for Integral Human Development, Nairobi, Kenya, Catholic Relief Services, October 2006.

Guy is the Senior Technical Advisor for microfinance in Africa, and he is based in the CRS East Africa Regional Office in Nairobi. He also attended the SEEP conference and was very helpful; I plan to visit their savings-led operations here in Rwanda at his invitation.

So, the guidelines below for SILC are very representative of the ASCA models we use.

Group Formation

• 10-25 individuals, self-selected: trust, honesty, reliability, punctuality, hard working, savings potential, similar social stratus.
  
• If mixed gender, at least 3/5 elected committee members should be female; members who hold some public office outside the group are ineligible for committee leadership but their advice is welcome.
  
• Groups that grow larger than 25 are encouraged to split.

Fund Development

• Members' savings becomes loan capital for group members.
  
• Savings-led finance provides access to financial services otherwise limited by high transaction costs or other entry barriers.
  
• When savings are sufficient, members can borrow and repay with interest so the fund grows as do members' share values.

Ownership

• Groups are owned and managed by their members.
  
• Self-reliance is the basis for group operations and long-term sustainability leading to group and financial independence.
  

Governance

• Members elect 5 governing committee members: chairperson, secretary, treasurer, and 2 money counters.
  
• Committee members are reelected annually at the start of a new cycle, or by extraordinary means when necessary.
  

Self-regulation

• Members agree on a constitution that governs the committee members and provides a framework for dispute resolution.
  
• The constitution specifies terms and conditions of savings and lending, and the operations of any special funds.
  
• Each group member has one vote.
  

Transparency and Accountability

• All transactions are carried out in front of the group during meetings.
  
• A lockable cash box holds excess cash and record books.
  
• Loan requests are made publicly before the entire group.
  
• The group approves loans for consumption, investment, or household expenses, depending on the terms set in the constitution.
  

Duration

• Savings and lending cycles are time-bound for an agreed upon operating cycle.
  
• At the end of each cycle, accumulated savings, interest earnings, and earnings from other economic activities of the group are disbursed to members according to shares.
  
• A minimum of a 6-8 month cycle is recommended, and meetings usually occur weekly.
  
• Regular meetings and a longer cycle are important for the first cycle, after which groups may graduate to more custom schedules.
  
• At the end of a cycle, groups may reorganize and individuals come or go.
  
• New cycles may correspond to seasonal needs.
  

Insurance

• Groups are encouraged to create a social fund with some agreed upon regular contribution.
  
• Social funds may address emergency assistance, educational costs, funeral expenses, et al.
  
• Social funds are not included in end-of-cycle share-outs and not included in lendable funds.
  

Savings

• Minimum and maximum savings contributions per meeting are set by members and fixed for the entire cycle.
  
• The maximum permissible contribution should not exceed 3-5 times the minimum amount.
  
• Members may agree to suspend savings during lean periods, though loan or social fund activities may continue.
  
• Weekly contributions in Africa tend to be from $0.20 to $0.60.
  

Credit

• Members' savings and group earnings become funds for internal lending, and members set the loan terms.
  
• Loan terms typically span from 1-3 months; agricultural loans may require up to 6 months.
  
• Interest on loans falls due every 4 weeks, normally set as a flat rate from 5% to 20% as set by the group.
  
• Fines and accrued interest are assessed if the principal is not repaid on time.
  
• The amount a group member can borrow is something more than that member's total savings, but less than double or triple (some agreed proportion) of that member's savings.

Bourbon Café

Downtown at the UTC complex, where the Nakumatt is, sits a beautiful café that resembles a Starbucks in its style and atmosphere, but does both better with a wider menu. Here are some prices, and don't forget, 1 hour of Internet with any purchase.

$6.36 = bacon cheeseburger
$6.36 = milkshake
$5.45 = croque monsieur
$4.91 = omelet
$4.18 = beef tenderloin brochette
$4.18 = crepe
$2.73 = slice of apple pie
$2.18 = coffee
$1.82 = french fries
$0.91 = 6 cookies
$0.91 = coke (glass bottle)
$0.73 = chapatti (best of pita and tortilla ~ torpita)
$0.55 = samosas (beef or cheese)

1 hr free internet w/ purchase

Rwandan bank accounts

I have two bank accounts in Rwanda, now: one at the Bank of Kigali (this is where you can wire me money, if you'd like), and the other at Urwego Opportunity Bank (UOB).

Bank of Kigali requires a minimum deposit of 10,000 RWF (Rwandan francs) for a new account, but there is no minimum maintenance amount. My payroll is directly deposited here. My USD becomes RWF and I walk them over to UOB.

Urwego (UOB) requires a minimum deposit of 1,000 RWF, also. At this bank, I can never have less than 1,000 RWF unless I am closing out my account. I am allowed 4 free withdrawals per month. The money I deposit here is used to lend to the poor so that, along with supporting savings groups, I am doubly supporting economic development in Rwanda. Many of Urwego's poorer clients begin with a group account, and their loan officer supports the economic, social, and spiritual transformation of the group members.

Between the two banks, I spent much more time wandering around, waiting, not being spoken to or looked at while I was at the Bank of Kigali. I was handed an information booklet about my account but which I was not permitted to read before I had to sign my contract. They took one signature profile and 1 passport photo. At Urwego, I was greeted warmly; they answered all of my questions, and issued an ID card. Also, they took my fingerprints and two signature profiles.

At Urwego, I met Patrick and Daniel and was greeted by the branch manager who continually checked in on the quality of client care. I think the manager must have been pleased.

Local markets

We had previously decided that Nakumatt, the Kenyan grocery, is too expensive for our daily groceries, so Danielle and I took a guided tour of the local markets and their respective specialties. I think, however, that we are still unsure what we will eat, and from where, and for how much …

BCK (pronounced "behseka")

Another grocery store, closer to a Piglet than a Piggly Wiggly. Similar to Nakumatt on most prices, but this store would contribute more to the local economy. BCK and Nakumatt are close together and close to where we live. It is also right down the street from the Chinese store …

T2000, "the Chinese store"

Cheap chocolate, only Christmas trees in town, maybe a radio; they have everything non-grocery for great prices. You should expect to lay down about $30 for the smallest pre-lit fake Christmas tree, which is quite more substantial than our Charlie Brown Christmas tree at home. Bonus: a friendly Filipino friend gives us free paper bags for our purchases (it usually costs extra).

Frulep

Great place for vegetables and lots of fruit. I think a lot of foreigners come from the fruit. Here are the Frulep prices:

$6.42 = 1 kg tilapia
$5.50 = 1 cheese wheel
$4.59 = 500 g coffee
$2.94 = 400 g peanut butter
$1.83 = 500 g jam
$1.56 = 50 bags of tea
$1.47 = 1 kg rice
$1.15 = 500 g pasta
$0.73 = 1 kg oranges
$0.73 = 1 kg bananas
$0.64 = 1 kg pineapple
$0.18 = 1 kg avacados

La Gallette

French name, German subtitle: "the German butchery." Good meat and bread. Smaller store, full range of groceries, also quite a package shop, to boot. Close to town, closer to the prison, so we can take the back way home and pass through the Muslim Quarter.

Ndolis

Good place for butter, meat, and fish. It's on the way to the provincial office, on the way to Kimironko Market.

Kimironko Market

Wow. This is what an open-air market should look like: endless piles of bananas and potato with bountiful islands of every green been, onion, fruit and vegetable you could want on your plate. In addition, you can shop for any manner of clothing, cookware, or other normal need.

We drive about 15 minutes to Remera – another Kigali neighborhood, ours is Biryogo – and we pass the Anglican provincial office where the savings program is based, and we pass the best chapatti in Kigali, and there's a sports complex/soccer stadium back there by the office, too, and then you arrive. When we arrive, we are surrounded by 15 young men in yellow vests offering to help us park, watch our car, and/or carry our bags. The market used to be so loud, with vendors talking/yelling over one another, that vendors are now encouraged to pacify themselves with small radios. I can only imagine how loud it was before, but I have to say this strategy is effective – and it's still loud. The market is overwhelming and wonderful.

The prices are better than Nakumatt, as you can see with a couple of comparisons below, but most vendors are definitely skewing prices towards Nakumatt level when they see us coming.

850/kg Tanzanian rice (1744/kg at Nakumatt)

750/kg sugar (790/kg at Nakumatt)

Details: Nakumatt grocery prices

Kenyan grocery chain Nakumatt has everything from furniture to pharmacy, cookies to milk. We decided to shop around and see what the prices were and plan a budget. These prices are certainly higher than what we can find at a local market, but this will help later when we are shopping for bargains. Rwandan francs (RWF) and U.S. dollars (USD) exchange around 550 to 1, so a 2 L coke would be 1700 RWF and spinach is only 60. Some of our favorites so far are the bread, pineapple, small bananas, macadamia nuts, and chips (french fries ... best in Africa).

Below is a summary of what groceries cost. By the way, if you asked Danielle after pricing the rice, we can’t afford to live here. I think we’ll find a way to make it work.

Nakumatt grocery store
$19.20 = 6 fruit/nut breakfast bars
$15.85 = 5 kg rice
$9.84 = 500 g ground beef
$9.67 = 1 box of cereal
$9.27 = 200 g bacon
$8.98 = 4 sticks of butter
$8.84 = 900 mL mayonnaise
$7.35 = 2 L corn oil
$6.73 = lg. bag of mixed nuts
$6.44 = 500 g beef sausage
$5.45 = 500 g coffee
$4.82 = 800 g peanut butter
$3.67 = 1 mango
$3.13 = 10 scouring pads
$3.09 = 2 L coke
$2.91 = 12 eggs
$2.87 = 2 kg sugar
$2.73 = sleeve of chocolate chip cookies
$2.62 = 1 kg oranges (green local variety)
$2.55 = 750 mL dish soap
$2.45 = 1 L passion fruit juice (any juice really)
$2.36 = 4 rolls of paper towels
$1.64 = 1 kg cucumbers
$1.45 = 25 tea bags
$1.27 = loaf of bread
$1.18 = 1 kg tomatoes
$1.05 = 1 papaya
$0.96 = 1 L water
$0.91 = 1 pineapple
$0.89 = 2 rolls of toilet paper
$0.84 = 1 kg onions
$0.78 = 1 kg carrots
$0.75 = 1 kg bananas
$0.65 = 1 kg green beans
$0.40 = 1 head of cabbage
$0.35 = 1 kg potatoes
$0.20 = 1 avocado
$0.11 = 1 bundle of spinach

Details: moving to Rwanda

UPDATED: November 13, from Rwanda

72 hr, 27 min = Total time from Fisher House [Lancaster] to Mercy House [Kigali]
34 hr, 5 min = Total time from Philadelphia to Kigali
17 hr, 15 min = Total time flying

We left with 8 bags. I know how Jon & Kate Plus 8 feel when they go to Disney World, you’re always counting. 4 checked bags, 4 carry-ons, 3 laptops, too many books. Everything was the right size and the right weight except the one. One bag was barely overweight (and oversized, but they fixed that by ripping of the handle somewhere in a back room). I suggested to both United and Kenya Airways that we were serving a nonprofit organization helping the poor in Rwanda – each generously offered our overweight and oversized baggage transportato gratis (no extra charge).

From Lancaster, PA to Kigali, Rwanda: here are the details. So far, these are just flights and times, but I'll go back and insert the actual details of traveling for three days as we move to Africa. I'm including real time departures and arrivals, travel time, and costs for two.

Day 1: Trains
Sunday, 9 November 2008

Amtrak: Keystone 664
10:03 am Lancaster
11:10 am Philadelphia (30th St)
1 hr, 7 min
$36

Septa R1 regional rail
11:34 am 30th Street Station
11:50 am Philadelphia Int'l Airport - Terminal B
0 hr, 16 min
$0 ($12 regularly, but we road at the grace of one sympathetic – yet brusque – ticket puncher)

Philadelphia Airport Marriott - connected to Terminal B by sky bridge.
$76.12 ($60 bid on Priceline, 3 stars, regularly $199)

Sunday night update: We caught the Eagles-Giants game at the Linc (a surprise for Danielle). We enjoyed a pre-game concert with ribs and a turkey leg. We also had the great pleasure of meeting three genuine Philadelphia fans (one with a classic Eagles knit cap) Jeff, Ed, and Dr. Rob. (I say Dr. Rob to distinguish him from myself; I usually go by Dr. Bob.) We had the subtle displeasure to experience the spitting of an Eagles fan upon a Giants fan. It is not as fun as it sounds when you’re in between the two. I almost saw two Eagles fans fight each other; it’s known to be a rough crowd. Our experience with Jeff, Ed, and Dr. Rob, however, was redeeming enough to believe in Philadelphia still.

Another Sunday night update: For Tech fans … I met Bill Weaver at the Marriott. You may know him as some very successful CEO, but I have the personal privilege to know him as one of the 1990 Yellow Jacket college football national champions. I thanked him for his service.

Day 2: Planes, part I
Monday, 10 November 2008

United 7218
6:50 pm Philadelphia (PHL)
7:59 pm Washington (IAD)
1 hr, 9 min

United 924
10:04 pm Washington (IAD)
--overnight--
10:15 am London (LHR)
7 hr, 11 min

Day 3: Planes, part II
Tuesday, 11 November 2008

Kenya Airways 101
7:00 pm London (LHR)
--overnight--
6:30 am Nairobi (NBO)
7 hr, 30 min

Day 4: Planes, part III
Wednesday, 12 November 2008

Kenya Airways 472
12:30 pm Nairobi (NBO)
12:55 pm Kigali (KGL) 1 hr, 25 min

Total approximate airfare cost, roundtrip (returning June 2009)
$1,865

As we finish our travel, I'll update all of the travel times and maybe some more costs of travel. Also, you cannot move to Rwanda without vaccinations and drugs: typhoid, yellow fever, polio, meningitis, (hepatitis we’ve had already), and we’re taking malaria prophylaxis – $1,125
not to mention a serious checklists of what to remember before you leave the country. I should have friends help out with this one . . . Bentleys? McDades? Strykers?

SEEP Conference

SEEP: Small Enterprise Education and Promotion

Danielle and I will be in Washington DC next week to begin to meet micro-finance professionals and get up to speed on field issues we'll be applying in Rwanda. Danielle and I have the advantage of splitting up and doubling the sessions. Here's what's on our agenda:

Wednesday
Savings-Led Financial Services Working Group

Plenary Session:
Poverty Outreach and Microfinance

Thursday
Business Process Management: A Tool for Increasing MFI (micro-finance institution) Efficiency
Consumer Protection in Practice
Hunger Crisis: How do we help our clients survive and thrive?
How Can Networks Support Their MFI Partners' Quest for Social Performance Management?
MICROFINANCE AND THE POOREST (this is my job)
Market Development Mitigating Conflict

Friday
Breakfast Session:
Youth Enterprise & Financial Services: What's new and how does this affect your work?

Plenary Session:
Marketplace for the Retail Microfinance Investor: What microfinance can learn from eBay

Reducing Missed Opportunities: Capitalizing on microfinance service delivery for improved health
Practitioners as Knowledge Workers

Plenary Session:
Mainstreaming Sustainability: How large corporations change the way we do business


Some of the contributors for this conference:
USAID, Freedom from Hunger, Oxfam America, Accion, Brookings, Grameen, World Relief, Finca, Unitus, MEDA, Mercy Corps, and for the large corporations plenary session: Starbucks, Unilever, and Mars.

Thick descriptions or specific notes may follow after the conference. Then again, we'll be flying to Rwanda.

Details: moving to Lancaster

770 miles, 5 days of U-Haul

[Atlanta, GA] We rented the U-Haul on Thursday, October 23. Art helped a ton with our first day of loading, and Mark Fifield put his knee through some cheap piece of furniture, which also helped a ton because we hated it.

Friday, October 24, we kept loading the U-Haul. 14' truck, interior space of 11'4" x 7'5" x 6'9" (LxWxH) and a mom's attic. This space is the size of our worldly possessions because it all fit exactly. Friday consisted of jigsaw puzzle packing of assorted boxes and bikes and chairs; running to the Post Office to get a book that I ordered and they wouldn't find for me and will now be lost in space; running around to find somewhere to dump extra trash (thank you Washington Mutual); and more packing. Finally we loaded the car onto the tow dolly and set out. The time? 7:20 PM. My goal, my life aspiration at this point: make it to Gwinnett before we stop and get a hotel room.

Did I mention it was raining all day? It rained all night, too, as we drove through the dark to Statesville, NC. The Holiday Inn was so hospitable, especially after their unnamed neighbor hotel tried to sell me an expensive jacuzzi room at 1:00 AM. That lady had a bad attitude.

Saturday, we leisurely advance our U-Haul from Statesville to York. After gassing the truck in the rain, being denied a bathroom, and almost getting hit by a speeding pickup truck burning rubber in the raining parking lot (I literally dodged out of the way), I felt we had traveled enough that day. York, PA is just across the river from Lancaster, PA, but nevertheless, we were done for the day. Quality Inn.

Sunday, we arrive. We are staying with host families, very kind and generous ones, first in Mt. Joy and now in Lititz. Monday we were able to score a storage unit for our belongings while we are in Rwanda.

Monday evening, the U-Haul was returned. Did I fill the gas back to 1/2 tank?