FairAway is all about faraway and distant places (more on the FairAway.org blog). Obviously that’s relative to where you are…so for everyone visiting NYC from far away…I’m passionately in love with my neighborhood which has been my home since October 2014 - Williamsburg & Greenpoint in northern Brooklyn, NY. Here is my current list of local favorites:
Brunch
Park Luncheonette The new favorite. Best known for their delicious Oslo coffee and the breakfast pizza. And nice outdoor seating with a view on McCarren Park.
Smorgasburg Only on Saturday. Not for you if you don’t like the masses. Amazing food selection. Grab something and sit down at the nearby beach.
Egg Go really early (like 7am) otherwise the line gets too long. Touristy but delicious grits.
Five Leaves Usually a long line too. Great food and outside seating. Don’t forget your cool shades.
Esme Cool design. Delicious food.
Coffee shops
AP Cafe Walk into an a beautiful gallery.
Devocion Welcome to Colombia.
Toby’s Estate Welcome to Australia.
Budin Welcome to the Nordics. Danish rye bread & smoked salmon.
Blind Barber You might want to get a hair cut too.
Grady’s Coffee Cart Mo-Th 8am-noon. Cold brew coffee served on the streets of Greenpoint.
Bakeri Beautiful setting in two locations. Bread and cakes.
MatchaBar The delicious green alternative to coffee.
Dinner
Fette Sau A carnivore must-do.
Bozu Most innovative sushi in town.
Samurai Mama 2nd best sushi in town by the same owners of Bozu. Also Udon heaven.
Maison Premiere Ladies night out. Oysters oysters oysters. And really strong cocktails. Takes you back to the Golden 20s.
Cafe Mogador A classic.
Marlow & Sons Made Williamsburg hip.
Greenpoint Fish & Lobster Co. Freshhhh fish. Only seats at the bar & on table for 2.
Le Fond Your own dinning room. With simply amazing French cuisine.
Le Fanfare Incredibly stylish interior. Black squid pasta. Music.
Glasserie Worth the journey. Mediterranean-Middle Eastern treats in an old glass factory building. So Greenpoint.
Rye Elegant American food in an authentic old-school setting.
Zizi Limona Another Mediterranean local highlight with tables on the sidewalk.
Drinks
Ides Bar Breath-taking view over Manhattan skyline. You are not the only one who wants to enjoy it. Expect a long line.
Berry Park Relaxed rooftop with wide beer selection. Watch Fussball.
Northern Territory Berry Park’s hipper big brother.
Shanty Classy freshly distilled cocktails.
Spuyten & Duyvil Charcuterie, cheese and wine in a big backyard.
Other to do’s
Nitehawk Cinema Get stuffed and drunk while watching indie movies.
Take the East River Ferry to Dumbo or Wall Street
Visit Eclectic Collectibles & Antiques
Shop at Alter, bird, Madewell, J.Crew, Concrete + Water, Liloveve,…
One of the leading German business newspaper Handelsblatt published a profile about women working abroad on Jan 22, 2015. I was one of them!
The text is in German but here the English translation.
Nora has always had a soft spot for foreign cultures. "I’m driven by curiosity," says the 29-year-old consultant. The German works in New York for the consulting firm Boston Consulting Group. From there, she runs social projects - in Africa among other places. Her current one is about innovative ideas for sewage systems in refugee camps in Uganda and Ethiopia.
The consultant then exchanges her carry-on, high heels and costume for a backpack, outdoor pants and rubber boots. Because in Uganda they had to inspect toilets in refugee camps. "I have no reservations to navigate unfamiliar environments. Africa especially is fascinating” says the economist with an MBA degree from Yale.
Currently, Nora works for two weeks in New York, where her German boyfriend lives. The remaining time she is on the road. "Abroad, I learned a lot about myself and my German identity," she says. For example, how problems can be solved very differently. "The lack of public transportation or wide-spread accessibility of official financial institutions is often more efficiently solved through informal channels or e.g. with innovative mobile technology," she says. Microloans provided by mobile phone, for example, are common there.
Nora oscillates between very contrasting work environments. In the US, diversity generally plays a greater role. For instance, there are more women on teams. Also she mentioned that "Many of my colleagues have grown up in other countries and bring different perspectives to the table. After all, everyone has an immigrant background.” She perceives the working style in the US as more informal and thus more personal than in Germany. However, someone also said once: "Nora, I love your honesty!" A nice way of saying: "You are too direct!"
The German original text:
Nora hatte schon immer ein Faible für fremde Kulturen. „Neugier treibt mich an“, erzählt die 29-jährige Beraterin. Die Darmstädterin arbeitet heute in New York für die Unternehmensberatung Boston Consulting Group. Von dort aus betreut sie soziale Projekte – unter anderem in Afrika.
Da geht es etwa um innovative Ideen für Abwassersysteme in Flüchtlingslagern in Uganda und Äthiopien.
Rollkoffer, Pumps und Kostüm tauscht die Beraterin dann gegen Rucksack, Trekkinghose und Gummistiefel. Denn in Uganda muss sie durchaus auch Toiletten in Flüchtlingslagern inspizieren. „Ich habe keine Berührungsängste. Afrika ist faszinierend“, betont die Volkswirtin mit einem MBA-Abschluss aus Yale.
Momentan arbeitet Nora zwei Wochen in New York, wo auch ihr deutscher Freund lebt. Die restliche Zeit des Monats ist sie unterwegs. „Im Ausland habe ich viel über mich und meine deutsche Identität gelernt“, meint sie. Zum Beispiel auch, wie unterschiedlich Probleme gelöst werden können. „Wenn in Afrika öffentliche Verkehrsmittel fehlen oder offizielle Finanzinstitute, wird das oft effizienter auf informellen Wegen gelöst oder mit innovativer Mobiltechnologie“, sagt sie. Mikrokredite per Handy zum Beispiel sind dort verbreitet.
Die Arbeitswelten, zwischen denen die Beraterin pendelt, sind sehr verschieden. In den USA spielt Vielfalt in allen Facetten generell eine stärkere Rolle. So gibt es oft mehr Frauen im Team. „Viele meiner Kollegen sind in anderen Ländern aufgewachsen und bringen andere Sichtweisen mit. Schließlich hat hier jeder einen Migrationshintergrund“, sagt Nora. Die Arbeitsatmosphäre in den USA findet sie informeller und dadurch persönlicher als in Deutschland. Allerdings sagte ihr auch einmal jemand: „Nora, I love your honesty!“ Eine nette Umschreibung für: „Du bist zu direkt.“
Angkor Wat is a must-see when traveling South East Asia and truly amazing. Unfortunately, Siem Reap, the surrounding city, isn't the most authentic place. Hence, we were particularly surprised when we entered the little oasis created by the founders of Haven. They train young unemployed Cambodians and serve the most delicious food!
My last day in Kenya turned out to be an extremely long day...
Last day in the office
I ended my fellowship at Kiva with the Kenyan traditional cake feeding procedure. One of my colleagues birthday coincided with my last day in the office. So I got a typical coffee cake with cookie monster blue colored frosting. Not the most delicious cake but definitely more fun! Pascalia, one of the Kiva Zip full-time staff had brought her son to work. Cutest kid ever! So energetic! The office was continuously filled with laughter. Especially when it was Warren's turn to get cake. We headed out to a fancy hotel right next to Nairobi National Park to get some cocktails overlooking jumping buffaloes. Afterwards, I sent the last e-mails before a week offline and had to pack up my stuff from three month in Kenya.
Nairobi Airport...freezing cold after burning down
Nairobi's international airport got destroyed by a huge fire just a week ago and all the operations got shifted to the domestic airport which obviously hasn't the same capacity and security requirement which requires the arrive three hours in advance. So we stayed up all night, got picked up by my fabulous driver Saidi around 2am. At the airport there was some issue with my ticked which I had changed earlier to an week-long layover in Addis Ababa. While I was bargaining with the Ethiopian Airlines manager I learned about how challenging the Airport situation is for all the employees. Every passenger needs to checked twice, much of the operation takes place outside in the freezing Nairobi cold and it requires a lot of overtime. Flight went well, we arrived in Addis almost on time.
A fancy welcome in Addis Ababa
We headed out, directly found a Sheraton counter and got offered a free ride! Why not? I had arranged in advance that I could store my big suitcase there since we are planning to stay there for the last night of the trip.
Lost in translation I/II
At the Sheraton the very professional but slightly arrogant concierge helped us with arranging transportation to Gheralta Lodge where we wanted to stay outside of Mekele to start trekking Tigray. First real challenge... The driver didn't speak English. Unfortunately he also didn't speak Ameheric, Ethiopian's main language. After some back and forth with involving staff from both hotels we found out that we were discussing pickup from Axum. Not quite right since we wanted to fly to Mekele. So starting all over, new city, new driver.
Tesfa - a wonderful tour company
From our stop at the Sheraton we wanted to head out to meet Tesfa the tour company. Got a cab called, bit pricey 200 birr and it turned out to be a black big shiny Mercedes. Great car to drive around a country which ranks 176 out of 184 in the Development Index...next ride would be in another car...
We arranged our trip with Mark and his lovely team over the first taste of delicious Ethiopian coffee. Three days hiking in the Gheralta Mountains with stays in local communities and a scenic ride to Lalibela was our choice.
We hadn't had enough cash to pay directly so Mark recommended to go to the Hilton hotel to withdraw money. And that was the beginning of more hilarious taxi experiences. The first ride was in an at least 30 years old Lada with an about 90 years old driver who was extremely slow and would just honk (instead of drive) to get through a roundabout. But the ride was 50 birr only - at least something. On the return trip we met Farsi who seemed to be more Italian than Ethiopian with all his passion. Initially passionate about the price we would pay him but eventually about Ethiopian's historic treasures and German tourists.
Some more trouble
Before we returned to the airport we stopped at The Lime Tree a nice expat restaurant with fresh lunch options and free wifi. Unfortunately, the first email I downloaded was from Expedia. My flight to Germany got cancelled! What??? Totally shocked I called Expedia over Skype. Couldn't resolve it because the connection broke off...terrific.
Off into the wild
Next stop Addis Airport again. After long nervous minutes the airport staff confirmed that the flight was actually ok and not cancelled. What a relive! We got through security to our gate for the flight to Mekele.
Missed flight?
While waiting at the gate we weren't really able to understand the announcements. So I walked up to the staff 3 times to ask whether we are boarding. "Not yet, soon".... A bit later we look at the screen with the flight status. "Mekele - departed" what??? There was also another Mekele flight 2 hours later, so did the Ethiopian rep mean that we are not yet boarding for the next one?? But it turned out that it was another system error and the plane was actually still on the ground. Phew! Yeah, and being totally exhausted after a night without sleep might make you experience for emotional up and downs probably a little stronger.
Wrong airport?
We got on the plane, I loved that I had a window seat and spent the flight enjoying Ethiopian's landscape. Everything is lush and green and there was a big lake shortly before we started going down. Interesting, I had envisioned the Tigray as quite dry and mountainous and hadn't heard about a big lake close by... And the airport sign says Gondar for some reason. Weird. However, the stewardess welcomes us to Mekele airport so everything seems fine. But no. Everyone on the plane looked around a little puzzled. It turned out that the plane needed some spare part before we could continue to Mekele. I was pleased though because Gondar to Mekele means flying across the beautiful Simien Mountains. I was even convinced to identify Abi Adi and the Abuna Yussuf, a stone church build in a tall steep wall.
In Mekele we wanted to achieve three things: getting cash, buying a ticket for Lalibela to Addis and finding our driver. Sounds straightforward but by now not surprising anymore that it would be very challenging. We couldn't find an ATM, Ethiopian Airline's system was down and no person was holding a sign saying "Nora" or "Gheralta Lodge".
Lost in translation II/II
After half an hour the security told me that there was a minibus waiting outside for us...Father and son with a bus. We just called it the Porno Bus. Dark red curtains, pink fur carpet and loud, Ethiopian music. No English, extremely slow driving, not very fast person in general. The small boy had to manage everything. Putting on the father's seat-belt, picking up the phone and getting under the car to exchange a part. Yes - we stopped to get the car fixed. We were very unsure whether we were in the right place, especially because Gheralta seemed to be a famous very professional place.
We continued our ride and it was very very interesting. We continued very slowly, always driving on the left side - and no, Ethiopia is not a former British colony where this is normal. But when a car was coming from the other direction he pulled all the way over to the right. Since we were in a mountainous area there often were steep rock walls along the road. Very tense moments....at some point we actually hit some rocks at the right side! My friend who was sleeping in the back fell off the bench and from then on the drive was accompanied by a very strange sound of metal clanging to the tarmac... But everything was ok apart from that. Thanks to the Chinese, the streets are fairly well maintained and we soon passed all the cities we were supposed to pass on the way.
Once I asked where we were and the driver said Hawzien. I got very excited that we would get to the lodge a little earlier then expected because Gheralta is just outside Hawzien. But I should have remembered that he didn't understand English...a looong wait started. After 20 min it was clear that it must have been way before Hawzien and that it at least would be another hour. So disappointing.
A last shock
By that time it was pitch-black outside and got increasingly scarier because there was just nothing except for an extremely muddy road with great potential to get stuck (hello rainy season). No houses around. After about 40 minutes cars passed by and stopped. What now? The people in the other car started shouting at our driver. Slight arousal of nervousness and alert. Are these guys Eritrean kidnappers? We were less than 80km away from the war-torn border with Eritrea and had not yet considered that possibility....thanks, fantasy, doing great.
And arrived
The Eritrean kidnappers actually were staff sent by the lodge to look for us because we were so late. After a while we finally arrived! Beautiful setting. We had a delicious Italian-inspired dinner and spent the night in an extremely stylish cottage. And the next day was enchanting. We got picked up by our lovely female guide who was about our age and headed out to our memorable hike through the Ethiopian Tigray...
Kiva Fellowship - Trough of Disillusionment and Slope of Enlightenment
During our Kiva training we got introduced to the hype cycle (yeah, it was developed for technology adoption but why not applying for an fellowship or MBA summer?). I guess I'm currently somewhere between the Trough of Disillusionment and the Slope of Enlightenment.
Trough of Disillusionment because (start-up style) the workload is pretty crazy and the opportunity costs for every extra hour in the office are just too high. And, I don't know if you have noticed, Nairobi is really really far from home. Whether I call Germany or the U.S. East Coast my home...it's far.
But back to Kenya adventures ….last week I completed my first long field trip to Western Kenya to do borrower audits and trustee acquisition in more remote regions. I'm still trying to find the right words to describe it...Kiva's training team was probably right… it's somewhere between disillusionment and enlightenment!
Disillusionment because everything I have learned about third-world challenges in my development class seems true. Why using a bed-net when you wake up and have at least 5 new mosquito bites because the net has the biggest holes ever? (I did a home-stay with a family on a small island and took over the kids' bunk bed). Yeah, treating water (from Lake Victoria) for drinking purpose is terrific but if it's an insufficient method you still will suffer from diarrhea.
Disillusionment because the conversations I had with borrowers weren't all uplifting. Sometimes the business does not grow just because you get access to capital. And sometimes you don't see the advantage to replace your smelly paraffin lantern by the renewable energy offered to you because you don't trust the new technology.
Enlightenment because my threshold for not so comfortable conditions has been shifted dramatically and I appreciate the previous standard much more. Just a few examples from this week: huge spiders next to the bed, ants on the pillow, a smelly hole in the ground as toilet, bathing in a lake which probably gets you parasites and eating from dishes which were washed in that same lake. Man, I really got high on the hot shower back in Nairobi which felt like birthday cake, halloween candy and Xmas presents at the same time.
Enlightenment because of receiving a warm welcome from a local or even a whole village council, because of the feeling of freedom riding on the back of a boda-boda (motorbike), because of kids screaming mzungu (literally "someone with white skin") which reminds you about being a foreigner even though you start feeling pretty adjusted to the new environment.
Enlightenment because of inspiring conversations with individuals who benefited greatly by the Kiva Zip loan they have received
This roller coaster will certainly not slow down soon. It is, however, the most rewarding aspect about stepping out of your comfort zone and leaving behind the place you call home.
I just came back from a crazy week of travels and I have so many new memories and impressions that still need to be digested...
Part of the my fellowship with Kiva Zip is understand and analyze the impact of the microloans we helped funding. Our target is to reach the "underbanked" with Zip loans.
This means we partner with organizations which are in the most remote parts of Kenya. One example for this is Organic Health Response. OHR is located on Mfangano Island in Lake Victoria. Is a beautifully secluded place with no access to running water and few locations with energy access. The about 26,000 people on the island mostly work in fishing, related businesses and subsistence farming. Unfortunately, there are huge health challenges Mfangano's people are facing: Due to the location in Lake Victoria Malaria is extremely prevalent and about 30% of Mfangano's people are HIV positive. OHR came up with various programs to support the community and one is the partnership with Kiva Zip to provide local entrepreneurs with additional funding to grow their business.
Four of our borrowers had just completed the repayment of their first Zip loan (whoop whoop) and we visited them to see how they are doing and to capture data on how the loan has improved their business and what the impact on their life in general has been.
Joseph who could reduce costs by buying larger amounts of cereals
Michael and Patrick who used their loan to buy more hooks and nets for their fishing business which they sell to Caroline...
...who used her loan to rent a cooler and buy ice which allows her to store fresh fish for extended periods.
Apart from the borrower visits we also spend some time on trustee acquisition which took us to
an incubator space and training center in Kisumu
a remote village in Katito which involved 1h on a packed matatu from Kisumu and 20min biking through a field with 3 people on a boda-boda
Rusinga Island where we saw some awesome wind-solar hybrid installations (the technology comes from a Yalie-run social enterprise called access:energy)
We had an awesome time by meeting our borrowers in person and getting into their heads. This was not only insightful for the experiments I'm running for Kiva but also on a very personal level. Sleeping in a hut without electricity or water with quite a number of ants on my sheets and spiders on the wall definitely has an affect on how I perceive and value my clean apartment back in Nairobi.
That was the route we took (including the weekend trip to Jinja):
Wow! It has been four weeks already that I have arrived in Nairobi! Time is really flying by and there is still so much to explore. So why not visiting another country? We took the overnight bus to Jinja in Uganda where River Nile has its source.
It's a pretty bumpy 13h road trip that included a land boarder crossing in the middle of the night...but we were rewarded with one of the most beautiful office locations (we left on a Thursday night and had lots to work on Friday) at
Nile River Explorers Camp
.
Next day - rafting! We went through an intense training...for some reasons I often heard the words "injury", "drowning", or "death"...seriously? When I went rafting in the past (Northern California or the Elbe in Saxony) it was fun but nothing to concerning. Turned out the Nile is actually a different story and level 5 rapids are quite powerful. Our boat flipped 3 times out of the 8 rapids we went through.
One of Nairobi's must-do's is a trip to Karen (named after the Danish writer Karen Blixen who is the author of Out of Africa).
At the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage you can get very close to baby elephants and watch them get fed and play around. Visits daily between 11am and noon only unless you adopt a baby elephant for $50 a year which allows more flexible visiting hours...definitely something to consider because who can call themselves an ellie-dad or -mom?
Next stop for us was the Giraffe Center. When you are brave enough to deal with very slimy spittle in your face...some of the giraffes are up for making out with their guests...
Wandering Bizarre Bazaar @Karura Forest | Met Bootie Shake Queen from last night’s concert @Alliance Francaise | Beautiful treasures from metal craft designer Nyokabi (friend of Bootie Shake Queen)
Let's do a little bit of recap about what has happened so far in my professional life in Nairobi (no, it's not all about travels).
We started the first week off with an intense Zip Kenya orientation. This included the handover from the previous fellows, getting to know systems and processes Zip currently operates with and most importantly meeting some Kiva Zip borrowers and trustees.
We started with a day about Kiva Zip trustees and visited RefugePoint which is a great example for an organization that endorses borrowers and by that facilitates lending through Zip.
Why is that the case? Kiva Zip targets individuals who don't even have access to traditional microfinance products. Reason for that could be that they live so remotely that there are no MFIs operating in the area. Or they are considered as too risky because they don't have a credit history or savings or even a job. All that is the case for refugees from Ethiopia or Somalia who try to start a new existence in Kenya. And this is exactly the audience RefugePoint is working with. Additionally, RefugePoint has a wide reach in this target group which is important for scalability of Kiva Zip.
The next day was all about Kiva Zip borrowers. For me it was like entering a a whole new world. Even though I have traveled extensively to places that are considered as developing countries, I have never been in a neighborhood that was that poor. Kiva Zip partners with Shining Hope for Community which is an organization focused on community development and women empowerment at a place where it is most needed. This place is Kibera, the second largest shantytown or slum worldwide. SHOFCO how it is known in the neighborhood has already received quite some media attention. We briefly met the two founders Jessica and Kennedy and took a tour through the facilities like a library, the girls school and the community center. Nathan and Virginia who are the two Kiva coordinators made it possible that we could meet many borrowers. We saw how Joseph could make his donats business more cost efficient by buying supplies in bulk and how his friend and neighbor George used his Zip loan to build a new shaft to farm more rabbits. George also explained us very knowledgable how he thinks about the new opportunity and how he adjusts his strategy accordingly. The most time we spent with the tailors, artists and businesswomen who are based at SHOFCO's community center. One of the incredible examples who actually graduated from being a Kiva Zip borrower to a borrower-trustee who can endorse other borrower was Rose. She acted as the translater in the big group of about 25 people and was so confident in talking about the very complicated processes and could explain the smallest details of the loan products. Really impressive! These examples really give hope about what impact Zip loans can have in the future.
We wrapped up the week with some tools and techniques for our experiments to scale Kiva Zip in Kenya. First, we went through a human-centered design workshop led by Tyler who works on scaling an IDEO.org project for clean water supply called WSUP. This was followed by an experiment design and implementation training given by James from Innovations of Poverty Action on of the most rigorous research institutions in the development space with an emphasis on scaling market interventions.
Big thanks to Bryanne and the Kiva Nairobi team for putting together this memorable week!!!
After a packed week of Kiva Nairobi Orientation we took of for the first hike in Kenya. Not far from Nairobi is the Rift Valley which has a couple of awesome volcanos to hike. We picked Mt. Longonot which is an about 5 hours hike where you hike up to the volcano rim, walk around the crater, up to Longonot’s summit on 2780m and further along the rim and back down.
Entering the Longonot National Park
Kiva bottle also made it to the crater point
Tree donut?
African tree style which is pretty spiky in the close-up
Summit of Mt. Longonot
Very far away but I saw my first real life giraffes and zebras!
