This is what American taxpayer dollars paid for me to do this week:

Play with cute kids...

Look at elephants...

and hyenas...

and wildebeest...

and hippos...

and beautiful lakes...

and flamingos...

And watch a traditional Maasai dance.

Seriously, though, what I did this week was head south of Nairobi to the area around Kajiado to monitor some nutrition programs. The area is populated mainly by Maasai pastoralists, who lost a huge proportion of their cattle in last year's drought. Even though the drought is over now (at least for the moment), without the cattle they don't have enough to eat. The kids especially are suffering, since milk is usually a big part of their diet and now they're mostly just getting porridge. So over the past year OFDA has been funding NGOs to work with hospitals and clinics to improve the way they treat people with malnutrition, and during the height of the drought we provided supplemental feed for some of the animals and seeds to plant some crops for the next rainy season, so that people didn't lose their entire livelihoods. In some areas we also provided monthly payments to the poorest families (of about $15-25) so that they could buy food.

These are some of the women who received monthly payments for their families, which they said allowed them to feed their kids and keep them in school.

When I asked them if I could take their picture, they said Yes! But instead of just standing there like I thought they would, they insisted I wait until they were properly posed, and then they started singing a traditional Maasai song (in the video above), which I was told is about what a good day it is.

As part of our monitoring, we also watched some babies and mothers being weighed and measured to check for malnutrition, which reminded me a lot of my time in Peace Corps:

We also inspected the supplementary food that is given to the malnourished children and mothers:

So it was a really good, interesting trip, and hopefully I did actually earn my salary for the week. The lovely scenery was just a bonus that we got to see on our way from one village to the next. I feel so incredibly lucky to have this job.

You can see more pictures here.

The past two weeks I have gone on some more monitoring trips, this time to Coast Province, to check on some more of the projects we're funding. These projects are also for dealing with, or preparing for, drought - we classify them as Disaster Risk Reduction - but instead of boreholes these projects are focused on capturing and saving rainwater for the dry season.

The first set of projects we looked at were gutters installed on the roofs of schools, with the water from the gutters directed into big storage tanks. In many of the villages we went to, that rainwater is the cleanest water they can get - otherwise they're getting water from the river, which can have all kinds of bacteria and parasites in it.

Our NGO partner is also building latrines at the schools and piloting giving some plastic latrine slabs to villages, to try to improve sanitation and reduce disease. Without the latrines, people just go off into the bush to use the bathroom, and then when it rains the drinking water supply (mainly the river and sometimes some shallow wells) can get contaminated. So latrines may not be flashy and exciting, but they are important. And they seem to be a big hit in the villages - in some places where they only have latrines at the school, which are supposed to be just for the students, everyone in the village is coming over to use them. It's not exactly what we were hoping for - the ideal is to get people interested in latrines and then they go and build their own. But I guess it's a start.

This past week the main thing we went to see were rock catchments- basically big rock mountains popping out of the desert, and then our NGO partner build short terrace walls on them the water coming down them when it rains into a dam at the bottom, from where it can be piped into storage tanks and saved for the dry season. I was really impressed with these projects and the villagers were so excited about them - it almost made me want to become an engineer so that I could be the one out there running around on the mountains and designing the catchments.

But then again, one of the rock mountains was so steep that I don't want to be the person having to climb up and down that one (although I did do it once).

We got to participate in handing over ceremony for a rock catchment project that was just finished, where the NGO formally hands over the project to the village. It was a pretty cool ceremony, complete with traditional dancing and a hygiene skit that reminded me of Peace Corps.

And then my favorite part: my colleague who we all tease about becoming a politician someday got to practice his speechmaking skills. (Also, I was relieved that he didn't make me do the speech. Instead, I danced with an old lady - but no photos of that one, sorry!)

You can see more photos here and here. I've got some more trips coming up the next few weeks - maybe enough to satisfy even travel-hungry me!

I'll write a proper post later about my trip this week, but I just wanted to tell this little story first:

At one of the schools we were visiting, the kids were especially friendly (and very excited about having their photos taken, even though they didn't smile for the picture). They were hanging around and playing while we were trying to inspect the water tank our partner is building for the school, and one of my colleagues told me that the boys were teasing a couple of the girls (who chose not to be in the picture), telling them that they should study hard so that they could grow up to have a fancy job like me.

I never thought of myself as being a role model like that, especially not just by showing up, but it was really nice. So I told the girls that the boys were right, if they study hard they could get a job like mine too. I told them my (maternal) grandparents were from poor farming families (these kids are pastoralists, but close enough, they can relate), but they worked hard and my parents were able to go to school and become teachers (which, besides nurses, is the highest status profession the kids come into contact with on a regular basis), and they worked hard and helped me get a good education, and now I'm a diplomat/aidworker.

So that's my happy little story for the day. I'll write about the rest of my trip soon.

Yesterday I went to the elephant orphanage and giraffe center on the outskirts of Nairobi. I got to see lots of cute baby elephants and feed a giraffe out of my hand. I really wish I could ride a giraffe, and I asked if that's possible anywhere, but the guide said giraffes are too sensitive and won't stand being touched, much less ridden. Too bad. But here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure!

I'm going on another monitoring trip this week to check on some more drought relief projects. Should be interesting!

Lately, I've been spending a lot of time reading quarterly reports from our partners. For example, last year OFDA (the office I work in) gave money to several NGOs (non-profits) to do projects in areas of Kenya that were affected by drought, to help people survive without hopefully having to migrate or sell off all their assets (mostly animals) to be able to buy food. And now, every three months the partners have to send us reports telling us how the projects are going and what they've accomplished. So I've been spending the last few weeks reading the reports, making sure that the partners are doing what we agreed they would do at the beginning, that the projects are more or less on track, and that overall US taxpayers' dollars are being well spent.

Also, I go to a lot of meetings. Lately, a lot of the meetings have been about the weather and forecasts - for example, what regions have had good rains and therefore have had a good growing season for crops and subsequently the people are better nourished, and what areas haven't had good rains (or have had too much rain which caused flooding), leading to poor crops and malnourishment. And then all this information helps us to figure out where people are in need and where we should be implementing projects.

So that's a snapshot of my life in the office. I'll be going out on another project monitoring trip in a few weeks, inshallah.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, a few pictures from my trip last weekend to Lamu, an ancient Swahili town on the Kenyan coast:

You can see more pictures here. Credit for all the best photos goes to Diana.

Kenya's new Constitution came into effect on Friday (now known as Promulgation Day). There was a big ceremony in Uhuru Park, attended by Kenyan and many other leaders, including, unfortunately, Sudanese president and war criminal Omar Hassan Al-Bashir (who's been indicted by the International Criminal Court, which means as soon as he landed in Kenya the Kenyan authorities should have arrested him).

So Friday was declared a national holiday in Kenya, which meant U.S. government employees here got the day off. So my friends and I celebrated by going horseback riding out in tea plantation-land.

You can see more pictures here. It was so, so much fun, and I am hoping to make this a regular weekend activity. I was super sore afterwards, though!

Then yesterday I went on another embassy-organized trip to a place called Bomas of Kenya, which is kind of like the Kenyan version of colonial Williamsburg. The government set it up in the 1970s when they saw that the country was really starting to develop and change, so that Kenyans wouldn't forget their cultural heritage. Of course there are lots of tourists that visit, but it's mainly for Kenyan schoolchildren to see how their ancestors lived.

They have traditional huts from different areas of Kenya; for example, this is the style used by many ethnic groups along the coast of Kenya:

Besides the traditional houses, at Bomas you can also see performances of the traditional dances of the different ethnic groups:

You can see more pictures of Bomas here. Unfortunately the lighting in the auditorium wasn't great, and it was only towards the end that one of my friends pointed out that sometimes the pictures will actually turn out lighter if you turn off the flash.

Then yesterday I went hiking at Mt. Longonot, which is not just a mountain but a volcano! I've never been to one before, so it was very cool. In the morning it was very foggy, so we couldn't see much, but we finally got some good views at the very end of our hike.

You can see more photos of Mt. Longonot here.

It may not seem like it from this blog lately, but I do actually do some work in Kenya on occasion, when I have time in between all the fun stuff. I'll write about it soon.

Finally my car is here! I'm so excited to be able to go places now, without having to spend a million dollars on taxis or beg for a ride from other people.

Tomorrow I have to get the oil changed and take care of a few other maintenance things, since it's been sitting on a boat for almost two months. But after that, I'm going horseback riding and hiking and all kinds of fun stuff! I feel like a teenager getting my first car (although in actuality I didn't get my first car til I was 21 and in grad school).

I just drove it from work to home today. I thought I'd gotten used to the whole driving on the left side of the road thing just from riding in cars around here, but it's definitely going to take a little getting used to as a driver.

In case you are still wondering, this is what my job is about. (Although the video makes it look a lot more exciting than it is most of the time).

This past weekend I went on an embassy-organized trip to visit a tea plantation just outside Nairobi. It was beautiful and made me think again that I understand why the British colonized Kenya.

I also found out that there's a place nearby where you can go horseback riding through the coffee and tea plantations. So as soon as I get my car (hopefully next week!), you know where I'll be spending my free time and money!

You can see more photos here.

An overwhelming majority of Kenyans voted to adopt the new constitution yesterday, and today William Ruto, one of the politicians leading the No camp, conceded that "the Kenyan people had spoken". So it's all over, no violence so far, and none expected in the next few days. We have been lucky.

Now if we can just be so lucky when the International Criminal Court indicts the leaders of the 2007 post-election violence (expected in the next few months I think) and during the next elections...

I think this article gives a pretty good summary of what the main issues are in the Kenyan constitutional referendum.

Today Kenyans vote on whether to adopt a new constitution. I haven't studied the proposed constitution, or the current one, closely, but my understanding is that one of the most important differences is a decrease in the power of the presidency, which has long been called for in Kenya. However, (and unfortunately I think), politicians and the media have instead tended to focus on two sections in the proposed constitution: one which allows abortion if the life of the mother is endangered (compared to an absolute ban currently), and another provision which allows Muslims to go to Muslim "Kadhis courts" for marriage, divorce, and inheritance matters, which they are already able to do anyway under the current constitution.

In any case, after all the violence following the elections in 2007, there is a lot of nervousness that there could be violence again with this referendum. But this time the government, the Kenyan Red Cross ( which is the designated first responder for humanitarian crises), the UN agencies, NGOs, and the USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (where I work) are prepared.

So we are praying for peace, but ready to respond if things go the other way. I'll update later when we know more.

And for those of you who worry about me, don't worry, I'm very safe.

I've been reading a perhaps overly-long but interesting article by Andrew Natsios, a former USAID Administrator, about how bureaucracy, in particular requirements to measure and report on activities, is preventing USAID from being effective at development.  Natsios describes how initiatives to promote accountability and improve government performance have led to an emphasis on more-easily measurable activities, like vaccination campaigns where you can easily count the number of people vaccinated, over less easily-measured activities that would likely have a more sustainable, long-term impact, like building the capabilities of developing nations' ministries of health so that they can vaccinate their populations on their own instead of needing our assistance.  He also shows how spending money quickly has also come to be considered good program management, (who hasn't heard criticisms of USAID or the Red Cross after big disasters like the tsunami, Katrina, or the Haiti earthquake for only having spent, say, 15% of their money allocated to the disaster within the first year?), even though, for a program to be really effective and sustainable, you need to consult with the local population and government, which can take a lot of time and means that you will spend money much more slowly.   Unfortunately, while Natsios points out the problems with the way USAID does things now, there don't seem to be any quick fixes.  (While USAID is fighting for its life as an independent agency, how likely is it that we'll convince the President and Congress to let us spend less time reporting results and being accountable, so that we can spend more time actually working on development problems? Fat chance, I'm thinking).  But Natsios does have some interesting recommendations, which I'm copying in below (and hoping that it's not violating copyright).  I will admit upfront that I'm only copying the recommendations I like and find interesting, and not, say, his recommendation that USAID technical staff should have to work 30 rather than 20 years to qualify for retirement, which obviously is not in my self-interest!   Okay, here are his (selected) recommendations:   Measuring foreign policy results. Critics of U.S. foreign aid have long argued that it has failed on three counts: not connecting aid with U.S. foreign policy objectives, moving too slowly to implement programs, and not producing measurable results. It may not have occurred to these critics, but these objectives are mutually exclusive demands. Political aid programs frequently do not produce good development results because they ignore both good development practice and theory; they have other objectives, which make diplomatic and military sense, but not much else. Political aid programs are not going away any time soon because they are needed to carry out U.S. foreign policy, but they ought to be judged using very different standards than traditional development aid programs.

USAID should develop, with Congressional assent, politically based evaluation standards for aid programs in war zones or where U.S. foreign policy interests are of central importance. Examples of such situations include Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, the West Bank, Gaza, and Afghanistan, where the Defense and State Department micro-manage aid programs for purposes that are unrelated or counter-productive to good development theory or practice. These are political, not development, aid programs and should be judged by whether they win hearts and minds, attract the

support of particular warlords or political factions, prop up fragile allies, or send diplomatic messages. We should stop applying development performance standards to these programs, and dispense with the polite pretense that they are development programs at all. Development professionals have little control of how they are designed, implemented, or managed. We should judge them for what they are.   The End of Time-based Measurements. Using program spending or disbursement rates to judge the success of aid programs, whether by OMB, GAO, OIG or Congressional oversight committees, undermines the ownership and sustainability principles that have long been central to good aid practice. The regulator's assumption that appropriated aid money is not being spent quickly enough, and thus is being poorly managed, misses the point of good development practice. This kind of work cannot be done easily or quickly, if it is to be effective.  Moreover, it requires a much longer time line to achieve results when the institutions of the recipient countries are weak or non-existent. Disbursement rates

should be used sparingly as a means for judging aid programs. The weaker or more fragile a state, the longer the time lag will be in showing program results, and allowances must be made for this lag in evaluations.   Aligning programs with organizational incentives. I suggest that only direct hire aid officers with advanced technical expertise should design projects and programs (now contractors design them), the length of which should be coterminous with the designing officer's assignment in the country where the project is being implemented. Moreover, that designing officer should manage the project to its conclusion. At the end of the project an impact evaluation would be done that should be included in the personnel evaluation of the responsible officer and be used to determine promotions and annual salary bonuses. These field evaluations would have to identify factors that were beyond the control of the aid officers. The officers would have to have much greater mobility to visit projects outside their imprisonment in USAID and U.S. Embassy compounds, caused by the draconian security measures required by the Embassy Security Act of 1998. This reform would align program design and management with the personnel system and incentive structure of the agency (and would require amendments to the Foreign Service Act). Other process heavy systems required by the counter-bureaucracy would have to be scaled down or eliminated wholesale.   A concluding thought, again courtesy of Andrew Natsios:  T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia) wrote in his celebrated memoir Seven Pillars of Wisdom about his exploits organizing Arab desert tribes against their colonial masters—the Ottoman Turks—who had sided with Germany and the Austro-

Hungarian Empire in World War I: "Better to let them do it imperfectly than to do it perfectly yourself, for it is their country, their way and your time is short."

I went hiking yesterday in Hell's Gate National Park, just about an hour outside of Nairobi. Besides being very pretty, there are zebras and antelope and warthogs and baboons, and other animals which we didn't see. And it's a volcanic area, so there are hot springs and steam vents, which I've never seen before.

The zebras were just hanging out by the side of the road.

Steam vents. Our guide Hassan carried a stick for fighting off baboons, just in case. But we didn't see any until we got back to the car. We did see hyena tracks, though. Luckily we were following it instead of the other way around!

You can see more pictures here.

This morning a very kind colleague took me along with her to the Kitengela glass factory, about an hour outside of Nairobi. She had told me you could see them blowing the glass there, and then you can buy glass stuff. And I have to admit, I thought, "big deal, we have glass blowing at the Appalachian Center for Crafts not far outside my hometown." So I was expecting shelves and shelves of vases and other glassware, which were indeed there:

But she didn't warn me at all that this place is like a fairytale hobbit-land with art!

Also it reminded me a bit of the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore.

And to top it all off there was beautiful scenery.

Excellent field trip! You can see more pictures here.

Today I went on an embassy-organized trip to an ostrich farm about two hours outside of Nairobi. Apparently ostriches are pretty curious animals, but I think they look mean.

Turns out they are fun to ride though!

The ostrich was making angry noises when I got off:

Also, we had ostrich stir-fry for lunch - tastes like beef, but the texture is a little different.

Overall, a fun day, but I think I will stick to horseback riding. You can see more pictures here.

This past week I traveled up to northeast Kenya (around Garissa and Wajir if you want to look on a map) with several colleagues to monitor a project OFDA funded to rehabilitate boreholes (really deep wells that require pumps to pull the water up) and truck water to villages with insufficient water during the drought last year.

So for several days we drove over bumpy dirt roads (I started to feel like I was getting Shaken Baby Syndrome from all the bouncing around) from one settlement to the next, asking the people living there, who are mostly nomadic but some settled, ethnic Somalis about their boreholes, water quality, and the health of children and animals.

Used as I have gotten to the very formal, long-winded West African way of doing things, our quick interviews with the Somali-Kenyans felt strange, but we did get a lot of good information.

In one settlement after the next, we were told that they need another borehole, a new generator, and often that the water coming from the existing borehole was too saline. In one village the water was so saline that the animals are dying, because drinking the salty water just makes them thirstier, so unless the people force them away from the water, they keep on drinking until they swell up and die.

So things are tough. If we had had more than 30 minutes to spend at any one site, I would have wanted to have a more frank discussion about priorities and needs - if they did get another borehole, it would probably just deplete the groundwater even faster, leaving them in even more of a fix in ten years or so. And if there's any increase in water availability, then people will just get more animals, and more families will move into the area, and the people will end up right back where they are now, with the bare minimum of water required to survive. And the generators are always breaking down, and getting the equipment and expertise to repair them is expensive and takes a long time, and the fuel to run them is expensive, so overall it's just not very sustainable. The problem is, what's the alternative?

So I don't have any big answers after this trip, but I at least was able to get an idea of what life is like out there, which I think is important. And on the fun side for me, driving around out there was like being on a safari.

We saw giraffes (which I hadn't been expecting), antelope, dik diks (which are tiny antelope the size of small dogs, and for some reason every time I saw them, I thought "Ooh, I bet those taste good!"), warthogs, baboons, and one roadkill hyena. And to accompany the sights, our driver told us stories about his village boyhood adventures hunting giraffes with arrows (they have the tastiest meat!) and fighting pythons.

Overall, a very good trip. Now back to the office to pay the price for all my fun with a week of mind-numbing training.

You can see more photos from my trip here.

Yesterday I went to the grocery store for my first real shopping trip. (My social sponsor took me just after I arrived, but I was jetlagged and didn't want to take up her time so I just grabbed a few quick things and we left). But yesterday I took my time, wandering around and checking out everything. And they have pretty much anything you could want, from Kellogg's cereal to Heinz ketchup to at least five different brands of milk to choose from.

I liked this one, just because its name strikes me as an oxymoron. And also, tigers live in Asia, not Africa (but maybe they are marketing to the Indian/Asian population here).

Kenya is a big horticultural exporter, and there are lots of beautiful flowers all around, even now during "wintertime". This one is in my backyard:

These were in my house when I moved in, and a week later they still look great:

Someone told me you can buy a dozen roses for about 300 Kenyan shillings, which is a little less than $5. Nice deal for the husbands and boyfriends!

...And now I have internet at home! Just need to get my wireless router and it will be perfect!

Had my first day at work today - starting at 7:15am! But at least I get to leave at 4:30, and 12:30 on Fridays.

The OFDA team I'm going to be working with had my cubicle all set up and ready for me, which was nice:

It was a good, busy day, mostly spent meeting people and doing paperwork. But I found out I'm going on a trip next week to northeastern Kenya to visit one of our partners' projects, which is very exciting! And it sounds like there will be lots more trips and interesting work to come, so I'm very happy.

Now if I can just get internet at my house, and maybe some food in the fridge... (please note that internet is the higher priority).

This morning a colleague (new friend?) took me to Hawkers' Market, which is a big outdoor/covered market with lots of individual vendors selling vegetables, fruits, etc, just like I was used to shopping at in Senegal. It made me so happy, especially as I'd been feeling weirded out by how patron/expat-y my life here is so far. The market wasn't crowded at all, and was a lot more laid-back than they ever were in Senegal, so that was nice, but my colleague said it was just because we went early on a Monday. So we'll see what it's like next time (and maybe I will take some pictures). But in any case, I'm much happier having found that place. Now I just need to find a special favorite vegetable lady like I had in Senegal.

This morning I went to brunch with some other DLIs (new USAID staff like me). Everybody was really nice, and I may be on my way to making some friends! Then my social sponsor took me around town a bit more - I am really liking Nairobi so far, except have I mentioned it's freezing cold? The last two days have been very gray like it's about to rain, and I'm wearing a shirt, a sweater, and a jacket. Weird to come from America to Africa and have to bundle up more.

Still working on unpacking and fixing up my house, but I'm not being very diligent about it - the internet is so much more interesting!

Just a quick post because I'm jetlagged and I'm supposed to be unpacking:

I got in to Nairobi airport last night around 8pm. The airport is much bigger and nicer than Dakar airport, so that was nice. I got to go through the "fast lane" at passport control (finally my dip. passport was good for something!), but then I discovered that that was pointless because that just meant I had to wait longer at the baggage carousel for my bags to come.

The Embassy "Expediter" met me at the bag carousel (apparently she'd tried to meet me before passport control, but I didn't know to look for her there so I didn't notice her) and then helped me get through customs. There I was met by a woman from the OFDA office (where I'll be working) who bargained with the money changers to get me a good rate on Kenyan shillings, and then we hopped in the OFDA (right-hand side drive) car driven by an official driver, and they drove me to where I'll be living. They said that even late at night traffic can be bad and sometimes the trip will take several hours, but we got lucky and it only took 15-20 minutes.

Then we arrived at my house!

The OFDA people soon left, but my "social sponsor" who is another new-ish USAID employee like me came over and showed me around the house. It's very weird having a kitchen big enough to fit my entire DC apartment inside it; I started getting a little tired of it today while I was unpacking - in DC if I needed something, no matter where I was it was only about 3 feet away. Now I have to walk all the way upstairs/downstairs to the other side of the house. But I'm sure I will get used to it!

Today I am just hanging around, unpacking/being jetlagged while everyone else deals with official 4th of July celebration preparations. Hopefully soon people will start to get back here and maybe I can start making friends.

The past month has been crazy. Somehow it ended up that my annual employee evaluation, the paperwork for the student loan repayment program, and all the paperwork and other errands for getting ready to move happened all at the same time. So I’ve spent a huge chunk of the past month just doing paperwork and stalking people in our HR department to make sure that everything was moving along as it should be. I got in a little “real” work as well, but not much.

But all the stress and running around and craziness finally paid off. Monday last week the movers came to my apartment and packed everything up to have it shipped to Nairobi for me. They were supposed to show up at 8:30am and finish within about three hours, but of course instead they didn’t show up until 11:30 and then didn’t finish for seven hours. But it got done, which is all that really matters, and I was able to turn in my apartment keys and stop worrying about whether I would really get moved out of my apartment by the end of the month before the management threw my stuff out in the street so the new resident could move in. Yay!

I stayed in a hotel for ten days, courtesy of the government (thanks, taxpayers!) to make moving out of my apartment easier. I had looked forward to it, thinking it would be like being on vacation except that I would still have to go to work, but as it turns out I prefer sleeping in my own bed and having my clothes on hangers in the closet rather than rumpled in my suitcase. Maid service was still nice, though.

Finally, Tuesday was the big day. I went to the airport early, lugged my three suitcases to the Delta counter to check in, and then was told I had to go check in with KLM, Delta’s “partner” for this flight. (Apparently this partner stuff is how they get around the Fly America Act which requires flights paid for with government money to be on US carriers). So I lugged my three suitcases across the airport to the KLM counter. The KLM check-in woman told me my suitcases were too heavy, so I would have to move some things out of the checked luggage, which gets weighed, to my carryon bag, which doesn’t get weighed. This doesn’t make much sense to me since the same amount of weight is going to end up on the plane, but fine. I rearranged things, got my boarding pass, got through security, and finally made it onto the plane. Yippee!

The flight to Amsterdam was fine, no incidents. The landing was super smooth, prompting some of the passengers to break out into applause, which I thought was funny but kind of sweet. I’d hoped that there would be a line at passport control for diplomatic passport holders, just for fun, but no such luck. But I made it out of the airport hassle-free, and then went to wait for the 5 euro airport shuttle. It was 8am in Amsterdam, which equaled 2am in D.C., and I was exhausted. After about 30 minutes I finally gave up waiting for the shuttle and went to get a taxi. I was staying at the Marriott airport hotel (thanks again, taxpayers!), so I figured it would be close by and the taxi ride wouldn’t be expensive. Big mistake – the 10 minute ride cost 30 euros, and my regret was compounded by the shuttle arriving just five minutes later. But you live, you learn, and my five minute head start put me at the head of the line for getting a room as soon as the maids finished cleaning one (an hour later).

I’d hoped I’d have the energy to go out and do some touristing around Amsterdam, but I ended up sleeping til 4pm, so I only went for a short walk in a residential area around Central Station. But it was a nice way to get an idea of what it would be like to live in Amsterdam – live on a houseboat, ride a bicycle everywhere, hang out at cafes – in short, European heaven, except that there isn’t enough sun for me, so I’m still be glad to be heading back to Africa.

This morning it was back to the airport for me for my flight to Nairobi. I tried to check in at the automatic kiosk, but it gave me an error message about my flight status requiring me to check in with a real person. So I waited in a long line to speak with a real person, and then she told me that my suitcases were too heavy, and she also weighed my carryon bag and said that was too heavy. Also, apparently the flight was overbooked and so I was going to be bumped to another flight – maybe in the evening, and maybe not til tomorrow. Not good news, especially when I am jetlagged and haven’t had any coffee. So I rearranged my luggage, this time taking everything heavy out of my carryon and putting it in a checked bag, and then I still had to pay a 100 euro fine. Boo. I guess the overnight stopover in Europe wasn’t such a good idea after all.

The check-in woman gave me a standby boarding pass so I could get through security, and then I was supposed to talk to the airline staff at the gate to see if I could get a seat or if I would have to get bumped. I got ready to use my very best African bargaining skills to try to get on the plane, and I even considered trying “I’m holding a diplomatic passport and I’m on government business” to see if that would get me anywhere. (Amsterdam is nice but I’m ready to get to Nairobi and get settled in).

But before I had to pull out my African bargaining skills, the woman at the gate gave me a real boarding pass with a seat assignment. Yay! And then as I boarded the plane, the flight attendant directed me to my seat “upstairs” (it’s one of those giant planes with a small upstairs cabin). So I hauled my suitcase up the little stairway, and discovered that they gave me a seat in business class – awesome! (Definitely worth the 100 euro luggage fine). I don’t think it’s because of my diplomatic passport since none of the check-in people looked at the cover that says it’s a diplomatic passport. They just went straight to the picture page with my information on it. So I guess I just got lucky, and I will have to see if the diplomatic passport has any power some other time.

I’m sorry to say that business class airplane food still tastes like airplane food, even though they put a little tablecloth on my tray table and serve the food on real dishes.

The reclining seat with the footrest and the nicer pillow and blanket are much appreciated, though, as are the better headphones (movie selection is the same as for the proletariat). All in all, I have to say I wouldn’t mind flying business class again someday! No more unnecessary overnight stopovers, though – getting real sleep is nice, but not really worth all the hassle of having to check in and go through airport security again.

Next blog post: from Nairobi!

The Plumpy CrusaderA new resource offers hope for the hungry, but Congress still holds the keys to food aid. As Navyn Salem starts up the machines for the first time at her factory in Providence, R.I., this month, she has all the anxieties of any new business owner: whether the equipment will work, who will buy her products, how to cover her employees' benefits, and how to raise the profile of Edesia, the food-manufacturing producer she's launching. To that list, add a few more unconventional ones: how to make Edesia the first successful nonprofit provider of ready-to-use therapeutic (RUTF) food aid in the United States, how to revolutionize treatment of childhood malnutrition, and how to transform decades of counterproductive U.S. humanitarian aid policies, which place fiercely protectionist requirements on the food products that can be sent abroad during emergencies.

Read more...

On my way to dinner tonight, I saw House minority leader John Boehner having dinner at another restaurant across the street. The photo I took isn't very good since my camera phone doesn't have zoom, but he's the guy at the left side of the table on the right:

The guys at the table just to the left are his security guys, probably Secret Service. When I got out of the car, I was just looking over at John Boehner for a bit, which apparently made the security guy mad. So he started glaring at me, and then he took a picture of me with his camera phone, probably to run through the FBI database later. I thought it was pretty funny. I wonder if they'll figure out who I am? (If they're smart, they'll google "John Boehner" and probably find this blog entry).

An article about Rajiv Shah, the USAID Administrator, in the Washington Post:

Rajiv Shah, USAID director, on tackling global hunger and why women lead the way

By Mary Beth SheridanWashington Post Staff Writer

Monday, June 7, 2010

The number of people suffering from hunger has now topped 1 billion globally -- the highest since 1970, according to the United Nations. U.S. foreign-aid director Rajiv Shah, 37, recently presented the Obama administration's strategy to tackle the food crisis.

"Feed the Future" will focus on improving the agricultural systems of at least 20 countries. It's part of an international effort that could benefit 40 million poor people over a decade, officials say.

Read more...

Paid my last rent for possibly a very long time today. Feels good.

Kenya’s Constitution Becomes New Front in Culture Wars - NYTimes.com

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

Published: May 13, 2010

NAIROBI, Kenya — The push to pass a new constitution in Kenya, a cornerstone of the effort to correct longstanding imbalances of power and prevent the kind of upheaval that followed deeply flawed elections here, has attracted some unexpected interference — from more than 7,000 miles away.

Before Kenyan lawmakers had even finished drafting the proposed constitution, American Christians organized petition drives in Kenya against it, objecting to a provision recognizing Islamic courts.

Now that the draft is done, three Republican members of Congress contend that it significantly expands abortion rights, and are accusing the United States Embassy in Kenya of openly supporting it in violation of federal rules.

Keep reading...

This morning when I walked into work, a man behind me asked the security guard, "Is this where the Sarah Palin breakfast is?"

!!?

I didn't hear the guard's answer, but when I got my computer turned on I googled "Sarah Palin" and "Ronald Reagan Building", and sure enough, she was in my building this morning for a "Celebration of Life" breakfast.

I mentioned it to my supervisor, just to say that this is a very weird life I have where Sarah Palin might randomly show up in the building where I work, and she said that if I wanted I could go and try to "accidentally" bump into her. I thought about it, but then I decided better not, because I would want to heckle her and that's probably not allowed during the work day.

So I didn't see Sarah Palin today, but I was for two hours in the same building with her. Thinking about it still makes me feel like I am having some sort of Twilight Zone experience.

I was really excited when I started at USAID to discover that they have a library - full of technical books about development, as well as novels and movies set in other countries. Basically, my version of heaven, except with bad fluorescent lighting. And, to make it even better, we can request books if they don't have something we want.

So, a month or two ago, I requested a book about feminist movements within Islam, which they ordered for me. And then, the secret catch came: they wanted me to write a book review about it for the library newsletter, so other people will want to read it too.

So, since I did all that work, and it was a pretty good and interesting book, I thought I'd post my review here. (Many thanks to my editor who made it sound much more nice and literary than when I first wrote it).

Review of Paradise Beneath Her Feet by Isobel Coleman

Much of the discussion about Islam in the West today seems to assume an incompatibility between Western values and Islam: from a religious defense of violence, to the subjugation of women, to the near sacralization of domestic abuse, Islam is often portrayed as backward and repressive. But in Paradise Beneath Her Feet Isobel Coleman showcases an Islam which not only affirms women, but has a long and rich history of defending them.

Among the insightful jewels in Paradise Beneath Her Feet are: in 1898 a Muslim scholar from India published a treatise called The Rights of Women, which one year later was followed by The Liberation of Women being published in Egypt. Also, Grand Ayatollah Saanei, one of the ten highest-ranking clerics in Iranian Shiism, has said women should be able to hold any job, including president or supreme religious leader; women's testimony is to be of the same value as a man's; and women have the right to abortion on the grounds on "compassion". And these are only some of the examples.

That said, this book does have its limitations. As the author points out in her introduction, she began researching the book knowing nearly nothing about these topics. And, accordingly, much of her insight about women and Islam in the Middle East come across as a debutant fascinated and surprised by her findings, rather than a wizened master who is able to thoroughly or exhaustively parse her topic. The first chapter 'Why Women Matter' leaves one wondering, if a chapter on 'Why Women Matter' is required, and the following case is made solely in economic terms, has not the battle for the defense of women in Islam already been lost? Or is the self-evident value of women today just a dead Western dream, buried as a Paradise Beneath Her Feet?

Today I had lunch with the woman who will be my supervisor in Nairobi (she's in DC for meetings this week), and it's gotten me all excited about the work I'll be doing in Nairobi! It sounds like they've really put a lot of thought into coming up with a good training plan and projects for me to work on, and there is a good chance that I'll get to travel a bit around the East Africa region.

Also, today my MOA (memorandum of agreement) - which is part of the paperwork I've been stressed about getting done so I can go to Nairobi on time - finally got sent to me to look over. So hopefully things will keep moving and I will be able to keep to my (made up) schedule for getting to Nairobi.

A good, good day!

This is a good article about the power struggle currently taking place between USAID and the State Department over who gets to control development policy.

Opinion: USAID needs more autonomyhttp://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/worldview/100509/USAID-hillary-rodham-clinton-center-for-global-developmentHillary Rodham Clinton in Hillary Clinton speech at Center for Global Development said she would prioritize development aid In order to raise international aid USAID needs more autonomy

I got my black diplomatic passport yesterday. It still feels cool to me, even though all it really gets me is to go through the shorter line at the airport, which has never really been a big issue to me anyway. But I guess it means I am one step closer to moving to Nairobi. I also have a tentative "packout" date scheduled, when the movers will come to my apartment and pack up all my stuff for me and ship it to Nairobi, but there is a good chance that that will get postponed if some of my other paperwork, which seems to have gotten stuck somehow, doesn't get done soon.

Otherwise, I am just toodling along in my rotation in the Food for Peace office, which I am enjoying way more than I ever expected to. Besides having what seems to me one of the friendliest staffs at USAID, their work is much more interesting than I had thought. Of course it doesn't hurt that I've gotten to go to a couple of meetings at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, the big palace-style building next to the White House (although it just looks like a regular old office building on the inside).

One more week, and then I'll be down to my last rotation before I leave, on the Somalia desk.

Today we had a "town hall" meeting, essentially a giant staff meeting led by Administrator Shah. He made a speech and answered a few questions from employees. I hadn't met, or even seen in person, the Administrator yet, so that was kind of cool.

But even cooler was the "special guest" who came by to give us a pep talk and tell us what a great, important job we're doing: First Lady Michelle Obama.

I haven't written much of anything in a while because I've just been busy studying French, so I could pass the language exam that is required for me to keep my job (even though I won't be using French in Kenya). So there hasn't been much going on with me, just French and procrastination. But on Monday I took my French exam (for the second time), and this time I passed! Woohoo! (I really hadn't expected that I would, because the test is as much about public speaking ability as about language ability, and public speaking is not my forte).

So now with my language requirement out of the way, it's back to a regular office job for me. I'm going to be working for about six weeks on the Somalia and Ethiopia programs in the Food for Peace office (FFP is the office that sends American-grown food to places around the world where there are famines, etc). Hopefully it will be interesting. I'm excited about it anyway!

After my FFP rotation, I'm hoping to do another month or so rotation on the Somalia desk, which basically means I'd be coordinating/information sharing what's going on in the part of the USAID Mission in Nairobi that's dedicated to Somalia with the people in DC who do the same thing.

And then, inshallah, I will be moving to Kenya! I'm planning for mid-June, but that's just a date I made up, so who knows if it will actually happen then. But anyway, after so many months of what felt like stagnation in French, it is nice to finally feel like things are moving again.

Court Authorizes Inquiry of Kenyans - NYTimes.com

PARIS — The International Criminal Court has given the green light to open formal criminal investigations of the political leaders who organized the violence that shook Kenya after its disputed election in 2007, the court announced Wednesday.Two of three court judges said that the clashes, which left more than 1,100 people dead and drove hundreds of thousands from their homes, could amount to crimes against humanity. The judges’ decision will now allow the prosecution to bring a case.

I just ran across this interview/article from the Council on Foreign Relations about Somalia, and it's really excellent. A good explanation of the real situation in Somalia (unlike what you'll read in New York Times or Washington Post).

One thing that I didn't know and which rather shocked me from the article, is that apparently AMISOM troops (African Union Mission in Somalia) haven't been paid in nine months and some have died from malnutrition. I knew the situation of international troops keeping the Transitional Federal Government in power was unsustainable, but that's just so much worse than anything I'd imagined.

For Pennies, a Disposable Toilet That Could Help Grow Crops - NYTimes.com:

"A Swedish entrepreneur is trying to market and sell a biodegradable plastic bag that acts as a single-use toilet for urban slums in the developing world. Once used, the bag can be knotted and buried, and a layer of urea crystals breaks down the waste into fertilizer, killing off disease-producing pathogens found in feces.

The bag, called the Peepoo, is the brainchild of Anders Wilhelmson, an architect and professor in Stockholm. “Not only is it sanitary,” said Mr. Wilhelmson, who has patented the bag, “they can reuse this to grow crops.”

In his research, he found that urban slums in Kenya, despite being densely populated, had open spaces where waste could be buried.

He also found that slum dwellers there collected their excrement in a plastic bag and disposed of it by flinging it, calling it a “flyaway toilet” or a “helicopter toilet.”

This inspired Mr. Wilhelmson to design the Peepoo, an environmentally friendly alternative that he is confident will turn a profit."

A couple of photos from my trip to Hong Kong last summer (which I finally copied off my friend's memory chip).

I am just copying and forwarding this from the Friends of Senegal and the Gambia listserve:

Dear Friends,

Before the holidays we asked for your support to provide Senegalese and

Gambians with 60,000 mosquitoes nets, throughout the PCV communities. *PCVs

still need your support to raise $30,000, which will reach the target of

another 20,000 nets.

*

“We need as much help as possible from all interested be it $5 or $100. *

100%* of the donations buys nets – not a cent comes off the top. Funds

raised are matched dollar for dollar by the Against Malaria

Foundation.” Against

Malaria Foundation is a 501c3 organization providing nets all over the

world, www.againstmalaria.com

Please visit the links below to make your donation and see what others are

saying about theirs.

Senegal: http://www.AgainstMalaria.com/NetLifePCV2009<http://www.againstmalaria.com/NetLifePCV2009>

Gambia: http://www.AgainstMalaria.com/PCTheGambia<http://www.againstmalaria.com/PCTheGambia>

We can help protect our African communities from Malaria.

GIVE WHAT YOU CAN - TAKE ACTION NOW!

For further information about how to help fundraise please contact; Rob

Mather CEO of AMF, rmather@againstmalaria.com or Chris Hedrick, PC Country

Director, Senegal chedrick@sn.peacecorps.gov

I finally made it out of the house yesterday and got some real food (made in a restaurant). Anyway, this is my contribution to DC's snowpocalypse photo collection.

Empty shelves, just like in Communist countries. Proof that a Bolshevik revolution is indeed happening in America?

No, but it might snow tomorrow.

Only two weeks left of language training! And then, if I pass my exam (inshallah, knock on wood!) the countdown begins for moving to Nairobi. Although I'm not exactly sure how long the countdown will be, and if it will be left up to me or if a date will be imposed on me by the Powers That Be. Also I still have no idea what I will be doing in the month (or two?) between the end of language training and time to move. I need to spend it doing a "rotation" in one of the offices at USAID, but I haven't gotten anything organized yet. So knock on wood for figuring that out too.

In other news, it was getting really nice and warm last week, and I was starting to hope that spring would come early (it may be that I am not entirely opposed to this whole climate change thing), but then Friday it got super cold again and yesterday it snowed. Poo. I am really hoping I get to see the cherry blossoms before I leave DC again...

Why aren't we talking about the new accusations of murder at Gitmo? - By Dahlia Lithwick - Slate Magazine

The author thinks the mainstream media is ignoring new accusations of murder of Gitmo detainees by soldiers because we're tired of this whole "torture problem" and just want it to go away. And it's true - I'm tired of hearing about our troops torturing and doing other bad things, because I don't want to think that that's the kind of country I belong to. But if it is the kind of country I belong to, then I want to face it, deal with it, and make it stop. So here is my little bit of "doing something" - if the major media is ignoring it, then I'll post it on my blog.

From MSNBC.com, by JoNel Aleccia: "More than a week after a magnitude-7 earthquake devastated the country, disaster organizers say they’re seeing the first signs of a problem that can hinder even the most ambitious recovery efforts: good intentions gone wrong.From volunteer medical teams who show up uninvited, to stateside donors who ship boxes of unusable household goods, misdirected compassion can actually tax scarce resources, costing time, money, energy — and lives, experts say." Those best suited to help are probably already there, experts said. They’re trained crews who not only have experience working in disasters, but also in developing nations, Kirsch said. The best teams also have a command of Haitian Creole and French, if possible. When teams arrive without those skills and without their own supplies, they drain resources that could better be used for actual victims, said Dr. Kristi L. Koenig, an emergency physician at the University of California, Irvine, who specializes in disaster response. “Unless you’re part of a team before the disaster happens with a formal mission, you’re going to be part of the problem,” she said. Even worse, certain volunteers have required emergency intervention themselves, Kirsch noted. A different but equally pressing problem is the flood of ill-advised donations that aid agencies already are facing, organizers. “I would strongly recommend that no donation drives be conducted unless there’s an existing organization on the ground, in Haiti, that has asked for the help,” Rothe-Smith, executive director of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, a coalition of agencies, said. “It does pile up very quickly.” Donations of old clothes, canned goods, water and outdated prescriptions are accumulating. While such items sound useful, they’re actually expensive to sort, to transport and to distribute, she said. Cast-off drugs can be dangerous. Oftentimes, the household items donated are simply not useful to the disaster victims they’re intended to help. “I guarantee you someone is going to send a winter coat or high-heeled shoes,” Brooks said. In fact, after the tsunami in Indonesia in 2004, aid organizers in Sri Lanka were forced to deal with donations of stiletto shoes, expired cans of salmon, evening gowns and even thong panties, according to news reports. In Florida, a truckload of mink coats showed up during the 2004 hurricane season, Rothe-Smith said, a likely tax write-off for a retailer having trouble pushing furs. The compassion behind some donations is understandable — and laudable, she added. People see dire images on television or in news reports and they want to help. “It seems to make logical sense to go through your own cupboard and gather those items,” Rothe-Smith said. The reality, however, is that inappropriate donations actually do more harm than good. “If you buy a can of peas and it costs 59 cents, it’ll cost about $80 to get it where it needs to go,” Rothe-Smith said. Many agencies try to motivate donors with the mathematics of the situation. Jeff Nene, a spokesman for Convoy of Hope, a Springfield, Mo., agency that feeds 11,000 children a day in Haiti, urges cash donations that allow his group to buy in bulk from large suppliers and retailers. “When people give $1, it translates into $7 in the field,” he said. “If they spend $5 for bottled water, that’s nice and it makes them feel good, but probably it costs us more than $5 to send it. If they give us $5, we can get $35 worth of water.” That’s a sentiment echoed by virtually every aid agency. “I would really say at this point, honestly, right now, money is the best thing to give,” Rothe-Smith said.

I should have written about this a long time ago, but it's a complicated subject, and I kept putting it off. Now I am taking the lazy way out, and copying from the Center for International Disaster Information website (http://cidi.org):

Why cash donations are best for responding to an emergency:

The professional relief agencies use monetary contributions to purchase exactly and specifically what the victims need. Staff for the organizations work directly with the victims at the disaster site and are in the best position to know not only what is immediately needed, but also when it is needed and where it is most needed. In addition the experience of the relief workers enables conversion of cash donations into items that withstand cultural and religious sensitivities, as well as environmental issues.

Money is easy to transport. Moving a container of commodities can incur costs in excess of the value of the items. Getting a donated commodity into containers and onto a ship, across the sea to the disaster site, through the port costs and the customs' tariffs, quality checked, quantity checked and sorted, and organized into warehouses, requires payment at each step. Invariably, there are basic needs materials close at hand to a disaster site and purchasing locally provides savings in many ways.

Money used to purchase available items local to the disaster has a double benefit. First, it provides an infusion of cash which supports the economy at a time when it may be reeling from the effects of the disaster. It assists in providing confidence and a sense of normalcy as shops and services recover. Secondly, a container load of commodities placed freely for the use of victims has the negative impact of competing with the recovering, local markets.

A couple of examples to try to make this absolutely clear:

People often like to donate used clothing and packaged foods, like, say, canned vegetables. They figure that they're not wearing the clothes anymore because they're out of style, or don't fit anymore, or whatever, but they're still perfectly good and some poor or disaster-struck person will be happy to have a decent outfit to wear. And who can go wrong with canned vegetables? They're nutritious and they stay good forever. Right?

There is nothing wrong with this logic, and I do not at all criticize those who attempt to help out in this way. The problem is in what happens next, which an average citizen generally doesn't realize (except now you're reading my blog, so now you know!).

So imagine you have a clothing drive, and you get lots of perfectly good clothes, for men, women, boys, girls, babies... and all in different styles and sizes. Now those clothes have to get to the people who need them - let's say, people in Haiti who have lost their homes and their possessions, including their wardrobes. So those clothes have to be put onto a boat or a plane and transported over there. The problem is that the cost of shipping those clothes is often more expensive than it would have been to buy the same amount of brand-new clothes in Haiti (or if they're not available in Haiti, in neighboring Dominican Republic). So it would have been a lot better use of the money that paid for the shipping to just buy brand-new clothes locally, and then maybe you would have been able to afford more clothes overall.

Okay, now let's imagine that the area is just so devastated that clothes just aren't available locally, or that shipping is super cheap, so the previous scenario doesn't apply. So it still seems to make sense to send a boat-load of clothes over. So you send your boat-load of clothes, but (just like in Haiti now) the port and airport are damaged, and so only a few boats can be in port at one time. So your boat gets in line, and eventually it gets its turn at the port to unload all these clothes. Meanwhile, the boat full of much higher-priority medicine and food is having to wait out in the ocean for your boat to get done unloading and get out of the way. If you had just sent money, it would be easier for the aidworkers to figure out what people's needs are and to prioritize those needs, to get the medicine and food and water, and then to get the clothes after that.

Okay, so now your boatload of clothes has arrived and been taken to a warehouse. Now how to get those clothes to the people who need them? Remember, it's a big assortment - all different sizes, men's and women's, shirts and pants all mixed together. So do you just let people into the warehouse for a free-for-all, where they have to spend lots of time sifting through the clothes to try to find something in the right size? Or maybe there are so many people coming in looking for clothes that everyone just starts grabbing whatever they can get their hands on, to make sure that they at least end up with something. And then people end up with clothes that aren't what they needed at all. Or people start fighting over the clothes and then you have a riot. Not ideal.

Now let's talk about the packaged foods. There are the same problems with the cost of shipping often being more than it would cost to buy food locally, and the same problems of distribution - if it's a big assortment from a canned food drive, people won't be happy if they don't each end up with the same food. There are also cultural appropriateness problems - packaged foods that require a microwave or an oven sent to an area where people are cooking over open fires are just going to be wasted. Same for spaghetti sent to a place where people are used to eating rice and don't know what spaghetti is or how to cook it. And canned food when people don't have can-openers? Not handy.

You might think that if someone is hungry enough, they'll be glad to get whatever they can, and that may be true. But making sure that disaster-affected people receive culturally appropriate food helps to show that we respect them and think that they should be treated just as we would want to be treated if we were in their situation. If I were in a disaster and pretty desperate, I might be willing to wear an ugly, frilly pink 1980s prom dress and maybe even to eat rat meat, but I would definitely feel more like a normal human being with dignity if you gave me a T-shirt and jeans to wear and a hamburger to eat. And I would like you better for making the effort to give me things that I would feel comfortable with rather than just whatever you happened to have lying around and didn't want anymore.

One last point: buying stuff locally, in disasters as in normal life, helps keep the economy going. If there are still local warehouses and stores full of food and clothing after a disaster, buying from them instead of shipping stuff from the U.S. or somewhere else helps them stay in business. Which means the businesses can continue to employ people and pay their salaries, they can continue to pay taxes which the government can use to rebuild the country, and as people recover from the disaster and are able to buy things again, they will still have local stores to buy from... All of which helps people and the country to rebuild and get back to normal after a disaster.

So hopefully I have convinced you: if you want to donate to disaster relief, cash is best! It is the most efficient way to get people what they need, with no money wasted on unnecessary shipping costs or unnecessary stuff that people can't use.

Click here for a list of InterAction member organizations responding to the earthquake in Haiti (in case you're feeling inclined to donate). And no, for all you cynics out there (I would normally be one of them), I don't make any money if you click on the link. However, I will give the disclaimer that I used to work at InterAction and may be a little biased in their favor. But if anything, that should make you feel better about them, because I know the inner workings and have no incentive, financial or otherwise, to recommend them if I didn't believe it. So hopefully I can say with a fair amount of credibility that I think InterAction's members are good organizations that do the best they can with the donations they receive from the American public. Also, to become a member of InterAction they have to meet all kinds of standards, including on how they spend their money. So if you feel like donating and don't already have a preference, I think they're a good option, although I'm sure there are lots of other organizations who would also be good choices.

Another coffeeshop in my hometown. This one's new, so I haven't been here before. My dad recommended it, and I am exiled from our house this morning while it's being cleaned, so I thought it would be a good time to come and check it out. I'm supposed to be studying French while I'm here, but so far I've managed to avoid it by reading the news and sending emails.