Recently, I had the opportunity to go through a brief cultural orientation held by the talented folks at ACI Baobob Center in Dakar. During the meeting, besides learning a couple of basic words in Wolof and eating a traditional meal around the “bowl” we are introduced to an incredible cultural orientations model that attempts to explain cultural interaction with the analogy of an iceberg. I found ACI’s interpreation of the”iceberg” model, which was first introduced in 1995 in the book Doing Business Internationally, to be an extremely effective model for attempting to understand cultural perspective and I’m frankly quite shocked that after +$180K and two college degrees later (from great international schools) I hadn’t come across this model.

Image copyright © TMC

How it works
In brief, I this is how the model works. When you first arrive in a foreign culture, you start at the tip of the iceberg. Above the waterline, which represents your level of cultural awareness, are the actions, thoughts, and words (observational behavior) of a culture. What you don’t see, however, until your waterlevel lowers revealing more of the iceberg is the beliefs, values, and assumptions of a culture that motivates the observational behavior above the surface. Thus, the waterline is one of the reasons wars are fought and you can’t help but feel lost when exposed to a new culture.

Correspondingly, one of the keys to cultural orientation is understanding the three elements of human behavior since we tend to pack or own beliefs, values and assumptions along with our bags when entering a new culture. The human dimension is that we are all common in that we all need to do things like eat and drink to survive. The cultural dimension explains how and what a culture prefers to eat. Lastly, is the personal dimension that influences things like when you are used to eating dinner. In a foreign land, understanding your own personal dimensions (much of it driven by your culture) is important to help avoid the stereotypes which are often seeded and nurtured at this level.

“Black Lies”
One of our instructors claimed that “white lies” should be renamed to “black lies” since perhaps nowhere is the art practiced more then in Senegal. There is a popular expression in Wolof that goes, “a lie that keeps people together is better then the truth which breaks people apart”. From a westerner’s cultural perspective you can begin to see how quickly we can begin misconstrue Senegalese culture. Take for example the meaning of “liar”. If I was having an affair and my friend who I had confided this information divulged this to my community, I could rightfully call him a liar within the Senagelese cultural context. From a Westerner’s perspective, while clearly I would be angry at my “once friend” for betraying my trust, internally I would not be able to consider him a liar for revealing the truth which I had been trying to hide. This is not the case in Senegal, where the greater crime is not keeping a secret that potentially threatens the social fabric of the group.

One Campaign Update
If you haven’t done it yet, you still have time to sign the One Campaign.

Nelson Mandela has just contributed this powerful message calling for us to be part of the great generation. If you have the chance, I highly recommend you take the time to listen to this man’s words.

Featured in eThunder
I recently found out that my blog has been featured in eThunder an e-newsletters that Thunderbird sends out to prospective students. I guess they feel that I fit a certain T-Bird mold which is something I consider an honor. In any case, if any prospective students are reading this and you have any questions about Thunderbird, I would be happy to give you my frank response or try and put you in contact with someone who may be better suited to answer your questions.

Also, I have been somewhat blown away by the positive responses I have gotten from friends and family who have been following my blog. I’m glad you are enjoying it and I truly help it helps you gain some insight of the Africa that many don’t get to see. I enjoy hearing from you and thanks for coming back!

Internet Crack
My brother Mike just sent me the link to 3D-SF Cave its a first person worm like game. Why are these stupid internet games are addictive!?! I think its the whole competitive/self betterment thing. At least this isn’t as bad as mini-putt, the game I found while prepping for the GMAT, that that almost kept me from getting into business school.

At sporting events in Africa, the game is only have the package.

Senegal distraught with tie
I had the opportunity this weekend, to see Senegal (the quarter finalist in the last world cup) play in a 2006 World Cup qualifier against Togo. The game was a great experience despite Senegal blowing a first half lead to the underdog Togo.

The lines were big…

But it was worth it!

My first tip comes from my brother Ryan a systems analyst at Epic Systems in Madison, Wisconsin. He sent me a link of the best 46 free applications organized by category. I agree largely with most of their selections. It is definetly worth a look.

Surrender or Starve
I just got through Robert Kaplan’s book called Surrender or Starve which focused on the horn of Africa where millions have died over the years due to human wrought famine. Well extremely well written, there is only so much human misery you can deal with in multiple reading sessions. Nevertheless, I have to admit, I was completely ignorant of the Mengistu and the Dergue and I have a much stronger respect for Eritreans.

Mengistu Haile Mariam along with Hitler, Pol Pot, Saddam & Charles Taylor
Five people you will NOT meet in heaven

On the topic of politics and famine, here are two particular passages I found so poignant I thought I would share.

During the famine in the Ukraine, according to Robert Conquest in The Harvest of Sorrow, the Kremlin kept figures for livestock mortality but not for human mortality. p29

and

In reference to the 1985 “We are the World” Ethiopian Famine

The famine was good business for the Dergue. A port fee of $12.60 was charged for each ton of donated grain. The United States paid $5 million just to hae its first 400,000 tons pass customs inspection. It appeared far from coincidental that the costliest ever offensive against the Eritrean guerrillas was launched in July 1985, on the heels of the massive influx of relief supplies from the West.

Simply amazing, huh?

Nascar, coming soon to Dakar?
Living in Africa is wonderful in that nearly everyday provides an experience that just makes you really appreciate life. Take the other day, when I was coming home from a long day at Sandaga. My cab driver pulls into Shell hands the gas pumper (self-service and Senegal’s unemployment rates do not mix) a 1000 CFA note ($2) we fill up an off we go. After spending nearly a decade as a poor student, I can attest that I too at times have only had $2 to put in the tank. But never did I manage to do it with the car running, in a slow roll, in under 20 seconds!

One Campaign Update
You probably have heard the wonderful news, that the G8 has agreed in principle to eliminating te debt of 18 of the poorest countries in the world (many in Africa including Senegal). However, the One Campaign still needs your support to ensure that our voice is heard.

View of the Phare (lighthouse) near Les Almadies.

Getting into my work
I realize that it has been a while since my last posting. Things in Dakar have been busy but good. I have finally started to make some headway on my work here, nailing down the project I will be working on in with my remaining time here.

The last week at DFI has been interesting with the arrival of about 15 new Senegalese Volunteers, who I helped interview the week before (DFI relies heavily on volunteers both international and local on 3-4 month contracts). While having the constant turnover, provides some challenges in terms of overall program efficiency, it gives a lot of young talented Senegalese a chance to gain valuable experience which will hopefully improve their chances of later finding jobs. From the perspective of an international volunteer, one of the true pleasures is getting to work with them.

Sokhna and Facoumba fellow members of the Leuk FOSS/CyberLouma Team

Raffaele, a fellow GeekCorps from Italy, and I

Project Leuk

New leuk.buildafrica.org - Project Website

When I came to Dakar, I was assigned to work at DFI’s CyberLouma, a computer center downtown in Dakar’s Sandaga market. While the CyberLouma’s intended mission was is provide busines services to local merchants, it currently only succeeds in providing internet access along with basic computer training. After spending some time talking with merchants in Sandaga our team began to notice that many merchants, while running successful shops, involved very little accounting into their business practices. In particular, merchants had a difficult time keeping track of their inventory and would often have to close their shop for at least half a day a week to do a stock count. Additionally, by not keeping accounting records, merchants had very little idea of their costs and hence cannot gauge their profitability. Most merchants, for example, cannot tell you how much they earned in the last year, much less the last month. Their daily business operations are marked by a constant stream of transactions (purchasing & selling) with their financial health being measured by how much they have in their pocket.

Based on this, we came up with the idea of creating our own open source web based application which we’ll use to offer a basic accounting service from the CyberLouma to the merchants in Sandaga. Given the timeline, it’s admitedly a very ambitious project since we’ll have to not only develop the application but do the necessary market research then package it as a business service. However, I’m very excited by the fact that I think it is quite innovative in that its delivery will be paper based. Since most merchants do not have computers nor do they have time to visit the CyberLouma during the day, our software under the Leuk brand (Wolof for rabbit = wisdom) will create paper forms which the merchants will use to keep track of their daily transactions which will then be collected on a biweekly basis to be entered by the CyberLouma staff into the software. By using this, we can greatly extend the reach of our service. If this model proves to be effective, it could hold very exciting developmental implications for other software applications in developing countries.

The following is a project description of Leuk from the SourceForge page for our project:

Registration Description: PHP/MySQL Application to provide basic accounting (inventory) services for African merchants in informal markets. The system will create PDF printable paper forms (available in local languages) allowing those with out computers access.

The purpose of this program is to create a replicable, financially sustainable business service which can be offered by cyber centers in developing nations. The goal of this service is to provide the merchants a framework for learning basic accounting principles which in turn will lead to increased profitability and business efficiency.

In a Music Heaven
For those that know me well, you’ll probably know that I am a huge African music fan/freak. Since leaving Africa, I found African music as a powerful way both to reconnect with and gain a better understanding of the Africa I grew up in. My time in Zimbabwe, when I had the priviledge of seeing Oliver Mtukudzi perform on a frequent basic, really ignited this passion and inspired me to create the BuildAfrica.org Music website which has become a pretty popular source for African music online.

An Essential Album to Own

Anyways, one of the reasons, I was eager to come back to Dakar was the fact that is considered by many a mecca for world music. When it comes to access to live musical performances, Dakar borders on the ridicilous. On a weekly basis, some some of Africa’s top performers like Youssou N’Dour, Orchestra Baobob, Baaba Maal, Cheikh Lo, Papa & Cheikh and Omar Penne perform. Take for example the legend Youssou N’Dour (famous in America for singing backup to Peter Gabriel on the song In Your Eyes) who routinely pack large concert halls all across Europe and America, still performs in his club whenever he is in Dakar at least two nights a week.

I got my first experience into the local music scene this Saturday. I started the night by going to a restaurant (no cover) to see Cheikh Lo a popular local singer and member of the Mouride Sect of the By Fall (Muslim Rasta’s) . While I have long been a big fan of his music, I was quite suprised that Cheikh Lo was actually the lead drummer of the group (quite odd for a lead singer). At 1AM we went to the Sahel to see Orchestra Baobob one of my all time favorite bands. They played from 1-4am in a small club with an audience of only about 30 people. Orchestra Baobob, one of the top Afro-cuban bands in the world (they were recently featured on VH1 with Dave Matthews and Tre from Phish) to my enormous pleasure play three times a week at the Sahel. They will definetly be a mainstay when I’m here. Orchestra Baobob has a wonderful story which I definetly recommend you read if you get the time.

Things I’ve Learned So Far

• You can’t buy firewood or salt at night here (bad luck)
• I should never, ever take for granted having a washing machine
• When drying clothes, turn your shirts inside so the dust from the clothes lines only marks the inside.
• I’ll be lucky if my labtop survives the dust for another 2 months.
• I have far more crap then I need

Congratulations To

• My parent’s Jon & Jeanne Berg who just celebrated their 30th anniversary. Their relationship and willingness to travel and adventure together (they were crazy enough to have their first kids born in a small village in Africa!) has been a wonderful inspiration to me. It’s definetly a trait I hope to find in my future partner. To celebrate, I just found out they are going to come visit in Dakar for two weeks in the end of July!
• Julie Mathew, Jen Christoff, Rachel Cyrus and Rebecca McEntee very wonderful women, good friends of mine, and now (gulp) doctors! They just graduated this Saturday from Rush in Chicago. If you ever complain about how much doctors make, don’t. You could not even begin to realize how hard these girls worked to get this far. Now the real fun begins for them… residency. Keep them in your prayers!

World News
If you haven’t noticed, I am a huge fan of the Economist after becoming hooked on it at Thunderbird. I recently splurged and treated myself to a subscription. In my opinion, its barnone the best news publication in existence and does a wonderful job in focusing on and providing context to many of the issues facing Africa.

The following is a very interesting and sad article entitled Africa’s Unmended Heart relating to the current state of the tenous peace in the Congo. Few indeed have suffered more then the Congolese, who despite living in an enormous country, immensly blessed in mineral and natural resources, have had to endure a horrendous civil/regional war (largest conflict since WWII) and a series of parasitic despots of epic proportions (King Leopold, Mbotu Sese Soku and Kabila).

The One Campaign
Thank you for those who have signed the One Campaign. For those, who haven’t please take the time and do so before the upcoming G8 meetings.