To begin, let me say that Internet in Africa Sucks with a capital S. When it is working (so far 75% of the time, but never when I really want it), it is soooooo slow. As I download our November data from Google, I have completed 2.8/11.6 MB, with a mere 27 minutes left! I can't upload my pictures without first converting them to a much smaller resolution image (does anybody know how to do this en masse?) and forget about watching any Jersey Shore. Anyway, I am extremely grateful to have my Blackberry functioning extremely well for the most part, and I will do my best to set much lower expectations for my Internet speed.
Now, onto the loving. For those of you that don't know exactly what I am doing here, I am working for a company called Innovations for Poverty Action. It is a nonprofit economics research group that sends people all over the world to evaluate various interventions in developing countries. Essentially, people hire us to tell them whether or not their product/approach to help people works. (sort of like a really cool consulting engagement, right?) The product I am evaluating is a new technology MTN (a large African telecom carrier) is providing that allows people in Uganda to send SMS messages asking questions about sexual and reproductive help and receive an almost instantaneous SMS response. We are partnered with Google and the Grameen Foundation for technological and financial support. (I think that's about as in-depth as I am allowed to go!)
IPA conducted a baseline survey about a year ago and collected a great deal of data on the demographics, health, and information level of Ugandans to understand how people obtain information related to health. MTN began the SMS service in the summer, and I don't think I can legally disclose how we have our treatment and control groups, so let your economic minds wonder :) Now, we're here to do the follow-up survey and evaluation to see how the service has been working and if it is changing the way people obtain health information.
Right now, I am appending mass .csv files into a beautifully labeled and formatted Excel document so we can understand the uptake rates (the percentage of people in specific groups that are using the services) and create some base assumptions for our follow-up survey. I am proud to say that my fingers have not lost my consulting-trained Excel touch, and I am even learning some new commands. While I was disgraced to see the state of some of the documentation we receive, it was a delight to transform it into a spreadsheet masterpiece.
On a more personal note, I think I am going to turn into a peanut from eating so much peanut butter. Today, I mixed it up by making a PB/Nutella (off-brand) sandwich for lunch...highly recommended. It is my fuel for my planned return to Kampala jogging tonight, which will happen as soon as this next set of data is downloaded (will let the final set download while I'm running).
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