Making Dinner for my Botswana Family

I have really enjoyed getting to know Kagi's family. They are really sweet and great -- I'm sure in the future there will be lots more to share.

Last week, on my 5th day in Bots, Kagi thought it would be a good opportunity for us to make dinner for the family. His favorite is Honey Baked Chicken and figured they'd love it too. We determined that there would be 12 people there, and set to work in the early afternoon. I prepped 6 cups (dry) of rice, which I expected would be sufficient for the group (each person would have a full cup to eat), and made 13 pieces of chicken in the luxurious buttery, honey, curry sauce. We also made a large pot of butternut squash and some cookies.

Kagi asked everyone to be available at 5:30. A little later he told them 5. We were going to have it at Grandma's house because of the table there, but then when it neared 5 we decided to change it to his mom's house when we realized that there would be numerous unexpected guests at Grandma's house (particularly because she kept inviting people:-)) and we hadn't prepared enough food for them. He suspected we might actually eat around 6:30 or 7.

At 6:30 when we went to pick up the table from Grandma's house, a discussion ensued resulting in the decision to have the dinner at Grandma's after all. We went back to his mom's to finish and bring the food. By this time, I was panicking because I wasn't sure that there was enough rice. I forgot that, although Americans use rice as more of a side dish, most of the world fills their plates with rice and puts other things on the side. This is certainly true in Botswana. OOPS! I was praying that God would miraculously expand the amount of rice, and that there would be enough chicken to go around.

At 8 we had all 12 family members around the table with the food (amazingly) still hot. Although no one said much during the meal the rice did miraculously seem sufficient and I have heard since that they really liked the food. I was SO relieved and thankful.

After the meal, in order to thank me, all the ladies sang me a beautiful song English and then a few more songs in Setswana. I'd love to upload a video of it, but am having trouble doing it right now. It was a really nice evening-- full of cultural lessons I'm glad I was prepared for!

Off to Africa

I am headed to Sub-Saharan Africa for the first time today! I am scheduled to fly to Johannesburg where I'll meet up with Kagi and then travel by bus to Gabarone, Botswana.

Kagi and another friend Patricia have told me that I MUST bring warm clothing because it is winter and cold. Apparently people tend to not bring clothing for cold weather since it's Africa and everything.

Because of their advice, I am bringing some warm clothing. But this morning when I searched the weather for Gaborone I found this:

In case you can't see, the weather is expected to be in the 80s (degrees F) all week and very sunny.

Needless to say, I understand why people don't bring winter clothing. Even so, I'm going to trust my Botswana friends, and will have to let you know how it goes.

I'm Getting Married!!

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the delay in writing! It has been a CRAZY month of getting engaged, two trips to Wales, a trip back to the States, a week in Seattle, and now, finally, being back in Spokane with my parents.

Today I'm trying to get caught up with a variety of things, and realized that I haven't even written here in way too long. Instead of telling you about my engagement here I'd like to direct you to kagiandlaura.wordpress.com, which has lots of pictures and as much information as we have so far.

Our wedding is going to be August 18th in Niagara Falls, ON, Canada. There's more about that on the blog.

I love the Yorkshire Dales!

This weekend, the Global Cafe team went into the Yorkshire Dales near Harrogate and had a really nice time together. The drive up was difficult (for the drivers) because the fog was so thick you could barely see a car length ahead. The picture below were from when the sun was thinking about breaking through. I hope you can get the idea of how dreamy it is up there!

Cake:-)

I made a cake yesterday after finding a picture on Pinterest and following the guidance of its creator's blog. Here is a link to the actual instructions and recipe: http://www.raspberricupcakes.com/2011/11/purple-ombre-sprinkle-cake.html. It is such a cool cake.

Although mine definitely was not as great as I hoped... and did take a lot of work... it gave me hope for future fancy cakes I'll make!

Simple on the outside....

CRAZY on the inside!

Chinese Investment in Africa

The conference I went to last week, Conference on Entrepreneurship and Economic Development in Africa at the University of London, was SO good. I learned more than expected, rubbed shoulders with people I never expected to be in the same room with, and really enjoyed the talks and ideas shared. It is so encouraging to have experiences like that which affirm what our new organization, Anda Leadership, is doing. It seems that the things God put on our hearts are timely and needed. Our task is to manage the opportunity well.

I'm going to post this week about some of my favorite talks.

The first was the one I tried to record after it got going and I realized the information is critically important... not just because of what the speaker said but also because of the response he received from the audience. Sadly I exited the recording app on my iPhone before saving it, but thankfully was sent the slides so I can remember more of it!

In the world of African business and development, the fact that the Chinese government and Chinese companies have been investing there has gained a lot of attention. Before the conference, I heard that the Chinese are there to take advantage of business opportunities and are not known to have many scruples about how they do that. There is concern that they win business because they might not have a problem with corruption, and are not known for highly ethical work. It has also been said that China is trying to use the continent for its abundant natural resources.

At the conference, this came up throughout the morning. I think a majority of the attendees were African, and the emotion in the room was perceptible when it came up. People who care about Africa feel strongly about China's presence in Africa.

In the afternoon, William So, from China Unicom Africa, took the stage. He holds a high level position in international leadership for China, particularly in business and investment. I was extremely impressed by his presentation and poise throughout his time presenting and being cross-examined. He honestly and directly explained China's position in Africa... the good and bad parts. He continued to do this even though the audience laughed at him and scoffed at much of what he said. 

Here are my notes:

- The major source of funding investment in Africa are government owned businesses. Gradually, private businesses are investing more. During the question and answer time, he said that government sponsored businesses generally produce the low-quality goods Africans expect from Chinese companies. He thinks private investment is much better.

- Funding from the government comes in two forms. The first is sovereign loan/donation, which is infrastructure focused. Sometimes this is done in the form of non-cash donations, which are usually infrastructure focused. So, maybe China would come into an African country and build a road or rail system. Because one of African development's most important physical need is infrastructure (according to most speakers at the conference), this is important for Chinese businesses working in Africa. As one participant pointed out in the Q&A time, this investment might also be why Africa is the greatest growth-market in the world. The second way the Chinese are investing is direct investment. These are business acquisitions or new local entities focused on resources. Apparently this has become more popular in recent years.

- Funds in the form of sovereign loans/donations from the Chinese government usually go directly to local governments. China sees the reigning government as the legitimate one, and are hurt that they have been accused of supporting evil regimes like the former Libyan government when, in fact, they were supporting the only recognized, legitimate government at the time. He pointed out that Americans were supporting rebels. (Interesting cultural valuation difference, huh?) Then the African government can invest money back into Chinese companies, which can then build infrastructure.

- Funds from the government in the form of investment are put directly into the Chinese companies. They then support local economies in the normal ways, and taxes go to the benefit of local governments. The African government is able to access natural resources and then sell them to the Chinese. (I'm pretty sure this is what he meant).

- The benefit of funds from the Chinese government to Africa is that Africa reaps the long-term benefit of infrastructure development. However, local economies don't see much short-term benefit since they bring in the companies from China, so not everyone is initially impacted. Mr. So seemed to think this is a reason the investment isn't appreciated by the masses.

- Funds from the private sector "inject cash into the local economy." Chinese companies begin an African operation, buy from African suppliers, hire African employees, provide goods for African consumers and by providing jobs create more ability for Africans to be consumers, and then those consumers can purchase from the Chinese company again. Mr. So believes this is the better way for Chinese investment in Africa.

Mr. So also explained why China got involved in Africa. They wanted more friends at the UN, and by making friends in Africa they figured they could get a lot of support with little resistance. I assume you can see some of the problems with this -- friendships could turn into political strong-arming if a government owes significant money to a strong country like China. He said later they realized that the natural resources would be good for China as well and started investing to that end. China is not shy to say that they are investing for their own benefit, but also will point to the ways their input is of benefit to Africa as well. He pointed out that other superpowers have done the same thing, but lacking the honesty (think colonization).

The question and answer time was emotional and informative. It is clear that things have not been done perfectly and there is debate as to whether the outside involvement is good or bad. One African journalist asked to speak and thanked Mr. So for being so honest about China's selfishness and then admonished the Africans in the room to take control of the future of their own continent, and not be mad that others are using them.

At Anda Leadership, we would like to be a part of helping African entrepreneurs to evaluate opportunities and do as the journalist suggested. We think that African leaders are fully capable of managing their communities in a way that will benefit them now and for generations to come. It is our mission to help them to that end in the ways they identify that they need... not in ways that makes us feel good.

I recently posted internship opportunities on our web site. Take a look if you or someone you know might be interested!

Packing Light

As I packed for London, I knew that I wanted to do a lot of walking and would need to keep my stuff with me almost all of the time. So I decided to pack carefully. I managed to get everything needed for two days (including formal clothing for a conference and reading materials for 10 hours on buses) into this bag:

Fully-packed bag for the conference trip.

Here's how I did it:

This is just about everything I took. on the left is my packing cube with all clothes and underwear, and my belt, shoes, clutch purse, and make-up bag. In the middle are the essential toiletries for a shower (which went into another packing cube), and a London tour book (actually wasn't necessary, oh well). Behind is my backpack which I think already had a few snacks in it. On the right are the clothes I actually wore the next morning.

Here is the main section of my bag. See how neat packing cubes make everything? The shoes and belt went on top.

I could have taken a lot more, but was thinking I'd probably need to carry whatever I took for up to ten miles of walking over the two days in London. I love walking in general and especially like seeing a city that way. One of my rules of thumb for exploring is that it is done best with as little baggage as possible.