Fundraising!

I am currently working on a fundraising project for Insight Resources International. This proved to be both fairly simple (setting up the site through GoFundMe was really, really easy), and really hard (creating the video for the fundraiser was something I have never done). It was definitely an interesting experience, and I think the next fundraiser I set up will go a lot smoother after I work out the bugs through this one.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to set up the fundraiser the way I wanted. I would have preferred to have the money sent directly to IRI, and that is how I plan to set up all the future fundraising efforts, but GoFundMe only sends funds to the charity once a month, and we don't have time to wait for the funds to come in. As a result, I had to set up a personal fundraiser - I hope people aren't turned off by sending me the money so I can get it to IRI. It's the only way I found to get the money where it needs to go quickly enough.

If anyone is interested in donating, the fundraising page is here:

http://www.gofundme.com/3bp20w

The video for the fundraiser is also on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoKCKupk2HQ

Back From Africa

I'm back in the U.S. after my time in South Africa and Mozambique. I've already posted about
the seminar in Mozambique, but there were a few other things that have happened in the
meantime.

More Breakdowns

Our car broke down again...and yet again! Upon our return to South Africa from Mozambique, our first stop was the repair shop to pick up our newly repaired car. We then went to SARS to extend the permit to keep the car in the country for another two weeks, at which time Al planned to head back to Mozambique with Leonard. Unfortunately, during a trip to Potchefstroom the next week, the car broke down again. Moreover, it turned out to be the same problem as before - no financial worries there, as the transmission (gearbox, in South Africa) was under warranty, but it really put a dent in our plans. As a result of the breakdown, Al had to stay in South Africa longer than planned. Leonard went back by bus, while Al waited for the car to get fixed so he could drive it into Mozambique. Just before our extension deadline was about to expire, the car was repaired - only to have the transmission blow again as it was transported from the shop! It turns out something other than the transmission was broken - and since that isn't under warranty, we will have to pay for those repairs.Al is still in South Africa, and will remain there until his return to the U.S. in mid-August (his return date was moved up once we realized he wouldn't be able to make it back to Mozambique before returning, regardless of his departure date).

Contacts

We have made several contacts in South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe who are interested in our work. Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned car troubles and the accompanying time and budget impact, we don't know when we will be able to follow up. We are hoping we will be able to meet with some of the interested organizations when we...

Return to Africa

Al and Vel are currently planning to head back to Africa in December, while I am currently scheduled to head back in January. I will spend about a month in South Africa, then head up to Mozambique to help with presenter training again. I don't have a scheduled return date yet.

Cancellations

Unfortunately, we have had some disappointments beyond the car. Due to low enrollment, the seminar we had planned for OK this month was canceled. In addition, our seminar in Haiti has been postponed a year, as our hosting organization is undergoing a restructure right now. We do plan to be in Haiti next year, but I don't know when our next seminar for the U.S. will be scheduled.

Disappointed?

All this could seem pretty disappointing, but honestly, these are simply setbacks, not defeats. The time that has opened up as a result of the cancellations gives me a chance to meet with supporters and other interested organizations in the U.S. Currently, we are in the process of setting up my fall schedule, so if anyone would like me to come out and speak at your local organization/church/group of friends/multimillion-dollar IRI charity concert, please feel free to contact me (via my e-mail, through our website, or even by leaving a comment below), and I will be happy to try work out a time to visit.

Since I didn't post last month (sorry about that!), I plan for a few additional posts this month - keep an eye out!

Making a Way Through Zimbabwe

As I mentioned in my last post, we have made it to Mozambique. The trip up was generally very nice—I hadn’t thought too much about it until I was discussing it with a friend of mine in the U.S. His response was “that’s the kind of thing you should talk about in your blog!” So if you find this uninteresting, go blame him.[1]

With our car out of commission[2] (see last post), we realized that if we were ever going to get to Mozambique and be able to accomplish anything, we were going to need to find an alternate way to get there. Our associate from Moz. had come down to South Africa by bus, so that seemed the most reasonable way to head up. The bus doesn’t actually go to Chimoio, but instead goes to Mutare—a city in Zimbabwe on the  Moz. border that is about 95 kilometers[3] from Chimoio. The plan was to take a bus to Mutare, then cross the border and take another bus to Chimoio. As we went over the details of the plan, we discovered an interesting financial fact: it costs approximately R300 in toll fees and about R1000 in gas to travel from Johannesburg to the boarder of Zimbabwe, while the entire bus ride to Mutare (just under twice that distance) costs…R300 per person. Not only was the bus a viable alternate plan, but it saved us a lot of money! At that point, the bus trip was our confirmed plan B, and if it went well, we thought it might even become our primary means of traveling between Chimoio and JoBerg.

Once we had formally decided to take the bus, we went to get tickets. It turns out that the bus to Mutare is not run by one of the major bus lines that are found in JoBerg’s large bus station. In order to get tickets, we instead traveled to another bus terminal a few kilometers away. We discovered that this was a “national” terminal—that is, it is used primarily by blacks. Al and I were, therefore, a bit of a curiosity, though the only time we were inconvenienced were when the people there saw Al’s beard for the first time and everyone wanted to get a picture with him. After a brief discussion with the very helpful staff of our chosen bus line, we went back to our flat to prepare for our trip the next day.

When we returned to the bus station, we discovered that we had beaten our bus by an hour or so. This gave us some time to watch other people arrive, and generally see how the bus company handled itself. What we discovered was a great amount of commotion that centered around a well-organized system for handling buses and cargo. From the outside, this system might be difficult to see, but when we took the time to consider how many people and how much cargo was being loaded, we realized that the job got done much more quickly than we expected. Our bus was run by a crew of three drivers, who were very helpful in keeping the ignorant Americans[4] out from underfoot. Once the bus was loaded, we went off to the larger and more well-known bus station a few kilometers away to pick up some more passengers and have a complimentary meal—then we hit the road.

Our drivers worked in shifts so that no one would become too tired during the 18-hour ride. The trip was very nice, by just about anyone’s standards.[5] We had a rest stop break about halfway to the Zimbabwe border, and got to the border crossing just after dark. That’s where we encountered our first real obstacle.

We had been informed that the border crossing would take no longer than two hours. To the credit of the bus crew, we did, indeed, get through in two hours—no thanks to Al, myself, and the Zimbabwe immigration office. The crew actually managed to get everyone through the border in about an hour’s time (quite excellent, considering how many people they were moving through). Unfortunately, Al and I were not South African, Zimbabwean, or from any other nearby country—we were from a country the bus company had apparently never had to deal with before. It took several minutes to figure out which form we needed to fill out, who to give it to, who to go to next, and where to finally get the passport stamped so that we could get through. Add to that difficulty our desire to get a double-entry visa and…well…it took a bit of doing. The attitude of the immigration staff was particularly interesting—complete disinterest. Our visas were repeatedly ignored, transferred, checked, ignored, passed over for three or four other entrants, and so forth for about an hour. We got the distinct impression that they were NOT impressed by the Americans.[6] The bus staff was extremely patient and very helpful dealing with the rather unexpected challenges, and managed to get us straightened out in much less time that it would have taken us alone. With their help, we only caused the bus to lose an extra hour at the border (instead of the three or four we would have spent there on our own). Hopefully, going back will be a bit quicker with our double-entry visas.

Once through the border, we took a straight night trip through Zimbabwe to Mutare. We arrived around 6:00 in the morning in an open square that served as a bus station. Our Mozambican associate called a friend of his who owned a taxi we could take to the border. The Mozambican border proved to be our second major obstacle.

Like Zimbabwe, Mozambique has a completely different set of rules for Americans. Our associate, being Mozambican, didn’t require anything to get in—we required a couple of hours to process, including a visa with a photo id (taken at the immigration center). As in Zimbabwe, the staff was less than enthusiastic about dealing with Americans, though in this case, we were generally treated with no less preference than any other person coming through…we were just more trouble for them than most.

After that, it was (relatively) smooth sailing. We walked down to the local bus station, and loaded ourselves and our luggage on a local bus, called a chopa. The chopa was relatively cheap to ride, though the ride itself was a bit more…exciting…than we expected. Apparently, our driver was in a race with some unknown, possibly invisible monster that was going to kill us all if it caught us. At least, that’s what I inferred from his driving. Race car buses aside, the trip was uneventful, and we arrived in Chimoio around 11:00 in the morning.

Our conclusion: yes, the bus is a viable way to get from Chimoio to JoBerg.[7] We expect to get a bit better at handling immigration and customs over time, and the money we save will probably amount to several thousand dollars a year. A final point worth noting: everyone involved in this operation was black. For Americans readers that may not sound like much of a point, but in Africa, I have repeatedly encountered an attitude toward blacks that amounts to: “if they try it, they will break it.”[8] This trip demonstrated that Africans are perfectly capable of handling a complex operation and doing a good job of it. Not that we’re surprised by this, but it is good to have another example in our arsenal to refute the prejudice against African nationals—prejudice we have encountered even from other nationals. The fact is that Africans can and, we believe, eventually will build the kind of economic, social, and political structure necessary to make Africa a world leader in the 21^st century.

---

[1] If, on the other hand, you love this post, feel free to give me all the credit.

[2] Update: our car’s transmission is fixed…but now it won’t shift into 4-wheel drive. Life goes on…

[3] About 62 miles

[4] To anyone from the Americas who is reading this and is not a U.S. citizen: yes, I know you are also an American—unfortunately we poor U.S. citizens don’t have a clever country name (Mexican, Brazilian, etc.) that we can use, so I’m kind of stuck with either U.S. citizen (which is a pain to type) or Americans (which is easier, and much preferred by my lazy typing fingers).

[5] My only note on comfort: the nationals appear to like their in-drive music loud—seeing how I’m the visitor, I consider this less of a problem with service, and more of a problem with my cultural volume preferences

[6] I realize this is difficult to quantify, but our associate from Mozambique seemed to agree about the general attitude of the office staff.

[7] Also, I like footnotes!

[8] Again, difficult to quantify, but definitely a common attitude.

Car Troubles: A Summary

Here I am, back in Mozambique. Despite repeated transportation issues, we finally made it. As I reflected on the trouble we’ve encountered the last few weeks, I thought it might be educational to summarize how our original drive to Moz. became a three week stay in JoBerg and an extra $3000[i] in repair expenses. I hope this will help people in the west understand some of the issues you can run into when working in a foreign country on a limited budget.

Back in 2010, we were looking for transportation to get us around Mozambique. Given the states of many of the roads in the country, we knew we would need a 4-wheel drive truck with a good suspension system (some roads have potholes over a foot deep). We also knew this would be an expensive proposition, if we wanted a vehicle that would last. The difficulty in Moz. is that, while you can find vehicles that are relatively inexpensive, none of them really have any durability—that is, cheap cars are cheaply made. After looking around, we found we could get a decent 4-wheel drive vehicle for around $20,000-40,000 dollars, or an extremely cheap 4-wheel drive vehicle for around $4000 dollars. Given the terrain we would be dealing with, the choice was clear: we needed around $40,000 for a solid truck that could handle the environment with a minimum of long-term maintenance. A well-cared for Land Cruiser, for example, would be able to last for hundreds of thousands of kilometers without needing much more than routine maintenance. Unfortunately, this was difficult to communicate to our supporters, who, like many people in the west, suffered from two common misconceptions about Africa: 1) Africa is poor, so things are cheaper, and 2) all you need to handle rough terrain is a 4-wheel drive truck. Sadly, neither idea is true.

The result of these preconceptions, we were encouraged to buy the cheaper option – a 4-wheel drive car that was available for $4000. The car seemed to be in reasonable condition, although the suspension on the vehicle was not really up to what we needed for the roads. It was cheap, however, and that should save us money for other things, right? Plus, the economy back home was doing poorly, and a more economical vehicle should be a good buy, given the limited ability of our supporters to provide donations. We were running out of time—we needed transportation soon, so we made the decision to purchase the $4000 car ( I will refer to it as “Little T” from now on) in December of 2010.

As it turned out, however, saving money on the front end is not always a good savings for the long-term.  The difficulties with Little T turned out to be considerable:

• The car was a Japanese import, with no local production facilities. This means that every part used to fix the car either had to be scrounged up (for a fee), or imported (for a significant fee).
• Little T had some suspension issues initially. The Mozambican roads did not help substantially. While Moz. is working hard to improve their infrastructure, the current condition of many the roads ranges from poor to outright dangerous. Within a few months, our suspension system was completely shot, requiring us to replace the shock absorbers and struts—we only had money for the shocks, initially.
• By the time we were able to repair the struts, the shocks had gone out again – about a month or two later.
• After repairing the entire suspension, the car lasted another couple of months on the Mozambican roads until the entire system went out again.
• We took Little T to an off-road specialist shop in South Africa (CRD), and they were able to fix the suspension—by rebuilding part of the frame of the car to accommodate the degree of suspension necessary to survive the Mozambican roads.
• We haven’t been able to test the new suspension, however, since shortly after getting Little T out of the shop, the transmission went out. This was the most recent issue, and the reason we were stranded in JoBerg for three weeks.

While this list is not exhaustive, I believe it gives a good overview of the kinds of difficulties we have had with this vehicle. About the time we fix one thing, something else breaks.  Given the mileage on the car, it is likely the fuel injector will go next. Altogether, the repairs to the car (this most recent breakdown included) amount to over $20,000. Moreover, the car has spent months in the shop, hampering our efforts in Moz. and South Africa.

To summarize: the last 1.5 years, the car has ended up costing over $24000, and has disrupted months of work in Mozambique and South Africa.

I am not relating this to blame anyone or to relate a sob story about how much trouble the car has caused. I relate this so that people can understand that road conditions and economic factors in African countries frequently require higher-cost, higher-quality vehicles to overcome. Had we initially invested $20,000-$40,000 in a vehicle, we would have substantially fewer repairs and, more importantly, far fewer delays in our work. The fact is, the weaker the infrastructure of a country, the more expensive everything is. I hope that by relaying this people can better understand this truth. I love what we are doing, and I want to be able to do it as effectively and efficiently as possible, but the simple truth is that good work requires good money, and this vehicle has not turned out to be a good use of money.

When the car is repaired this time, we will be taking it back to Moz. There, we will either relegate the car to local use, or simply sell the car to raise funds for a better vehicle. We cannot afford to let Little T’s breakdowns continue to interfere with our work.

---

[i] All prices are in U.S. dollars

NMC Expenses and Follow-Up

Happy New Year!

It appears the holidays kept me a bit more distracted than I had anticipated. I was planning to post the expenses for the Lexington, KY trip in November after the National Missionary Convention, but I see it is now the 1st of January. My apologies.

I have the totals for the November convention expenses, and a quick summary of how things went at the convention:

NMC Expenses:
Transportation: $518.00
Lodging: $449.16
Food: $85.90
Misc: $89.00*
TOTAL: $1097.56

*Misc. expenses include cash food purchases and other untracked items. As not all misc. expenses may be convention-related, the final total only includes half of these expenses.

Post-Convention Debrief:

Going into the convention, I had three main goals:

• Meet with organizations that have expressed interest in seminars to see if they would like to pilot a seminar.
• Identify new organizations who express interest in the seminar.
• Identify organizations with resources that can help Insight International advance or promote the seminars.

So how did we do? Pretty well, I think.

During the convention, I was able to follow up with organizations that have expressed interest in the seminars in the past. As we expected, there was a unspoken concern regarding the effectiveness of the seminars. Everyone was too polite to straight out ask us to prove our claims (that the seminars create lasting change in the participants's perspectives and lives), but the implication was clear. This was far from discouraging, however, as we expected this response, and most people still seemed interested in the potential to do what we claim. We just need to provide some "proof-of-concept" in order to get people on board. I think the data we gather in the 2011 seminars will help us tremendously in providing the kind of data these organizations were looking for.

I also identified a few organizations who may benefit from the seminars in the future. I plan to keep their contact information and speak with them again once we gather some of the aforementioned data. For the most part, I looked for education-focused or lifestyle-focused organizations, including orphanages and inner city missions. Many of these organizations have programs that could benefit from using the seminars as a foundation. I have also targeted a few select colleges to ask to sponsor or host pilot seminars.

Finally, I have identified several organizations whose resources can help us. These fall into two main categories: logistics (travel agencies, insurance, etc.), and what I will call "networking" groups - groups which help other organizations coordinate and share resources in the field. The first can help us keep overhead down or give us access to better resources - the latter can put us in contact with additional organizations who may need the seminars.

Eventually, I plan to invite representatives from various organizations to pilot seminars over the next several years. I find it is much easier to explain why the seminars are important once someone sees what the seminars actually do. Once we get through our first seminar in San Antonio (see below), we will start planning additional seminars based on the feedback we receive there.

That's the end of the convention summary - it was a great experience, and I look forward to going back next year armed with some real data from the 2011 seminars. The first of these is coming fast - our San Antonio leadership seminar hosted by the Heart of Texas Evangelistic Association (HOTEA). The seminar is scheduled for February 9-13. Registration will be available on the Insight International website; there is a $295 registration fee that covers the seminar, lunch and snacks for all five days. Registration will be capped at 30 people on a first-come, first-served basis. We will have a standby list for anyone who is interested but registers after we have reached capacity. More information coming soon on the Insight International website.

Have a happy new year, everyone!