Munene, the journey...

The day began with a 7.30am breakfast, and at 8.45am, we left the cottage to see rice fields and subaks. Our host for the day was Prof. Widaya and Dr. Sedana (from Dwijendra University). We met at a subak, and they explained to us some of the features of the subak system: Tak tak: the allocation of water between farms. It consists of blocking water from the main drainage canal to a field for a specific time period. The water is termed as borrowed from the downstream farmers Tak taks also determine how much each farmer contributes to the subak for communal ceremonies, rituals etc. Subak heads: elected every 5 years; he is an unsalaried official who helps coordinate a subak Its contact with government, private millers market, nonprofits etc. Water allocation during meetings Conflict resolution about water allocation Rituals, and inter-subak coordination Calendar: Balinese have multiple calendars: religious, mark...

I'm rooming with Noah in Bali. Roomie: Noah The morning began officially at 8.45am after taking coffee. I joined the rest of the team to leave for a tour of some parts of Bali. We drove and drove and drove, up the hills, down the valleys, into sharp corners and narrow passages. Most of the ride was uphill. At the lobby of Permana Cottage is Ganesha, the god with the head of an elephant At the summit of our drive, we were able to see Mt. Batur. Unfortunately, due to cloudy conditions, the (in)famous Agung mountain was not visible from our vantage. We had guides who took us around some farms and some highlights are as follows: Various tastes of coffee A meme about Luwak coffee Visited a coffee farm where   the highlight of the production is Luwak coffee i.e. coffee produced from the poop of a mongoose. The mongoose feeds on ripe (red) coffee beans, and the beans pass through its system with...

We spent most of new year's eve in transit. We left Ibis Styles Hotel at 10.30am, got to Jakarta international airport, got our tickets to Denpasar (in Bali) and left for Bali about 2.30pm (about 30mins late due to air traffic density at the airport) In transit at Jakarta Airport domestic departures; after check-in on the way to Denpasar Photobombed by Tom Hilde and Tom Jones We arrived in Denpasar around 7pm, where we met with Sunday who had arranged our transportation to Ubud. It took us the next hour and a half weaving through ever narrowing roadways towards Ubud, which is our home for the next six days. The driving in Bali immediately reminded me of Nairobi. Traffic wasn’t too bad, but driving a car involved checking both sides of the mirror because scooters, mopeds and motorbikes weave in and out of lanes at breakneck speed, with little warning or caution. Further, while passing huge vehicles like buses and lorries, our drive honked twice to let the other car know...

With Renuka at IAD before departure for Doha Our journey began at IAD at close to 3pm on Dec. 28. I met up with a couple of my fellow travelers at the airport, including Renuka, Tom Jones, Noah, Jackson. On transit in Doha We got to on Dec. 30 Indonesia about 7 am, on time, aboard the Qatar Airways flight 958 from Doha, Qatar. Duty free cars in Doha! Passport control, baggage claim and passing through customs was a breeze. It took us no more than 20 minutes to alight the aircraft and meet Matt Regan, who had arrived a day earlier, to prepare the way for us. And prepare he did. A section of Soekarno-Hatta Airport di Jakarta Matt gave us the brief on what to do, and how to do it. We withdrew cash from ATM (Matt recommended 1 million rupiah!!!). It felt like a lot, but it turned out to be about $74 bucks (with the conversion being $1 = 13,500 rupiah). The notes were in 50,000s or 100,000s crispy ones. We then got into taxis a...

I recently completed an assignment for an International Economics Policy class which entailed designing a carry trade. A carry trade is a financial transaction that involves borrowing (short) in a low interest currency, and lending (go long) in a high interest (yield) currency. For instance from Bloomberg 's rates for bonds, this would involve borrowing in Swiss francs (rate is -0.15 percent) and lend in New Zealand dollars (rate is 2.83 percent). All else remaining equal, the carry trade would yield a rate differential of 2.83+0.15 = 2.98 percent. Note: this is an unusual case where the interest rate we are borrowing from is negative; usually, this would involve subtracting the first interest rate from the second. For instance, borrowing in Japanese yen (0.04 percent) and lending in Kiwi dollars (at 2.83 percent) would yield 2.79 percent as profit. My carry trade in this case involves borrowing in USD at a rate of 2.33 percent, and buying bitcoins. But, what, you may ask, is the...

If you read my previous post on surviving graduate school, you would have been thinking that there's probably more to surviving than what I posited. Well, I think there is, here are some more thoughts. Connecting the dots Early on in graduate school, I have learnt that I need to connect dots. There's a lot going on here, and no one will decode it on your behalf. Graduation starts when you are admitted; and so the job search begins as early. Keeping up with the email This is the most common means of communicating news and information from the school. Professors use it, administrators use it, the President uses it, sports and activities use it, the health center uses it, the police department uses it. About every department, and there seems to be a lot of them in the University, sends information via email. Going through it, making sense of it, ignoring some, archiving others, responding to others is an important task I have learnt to do at least once a day. Working in...

Graduate school is different from other levels of education, more so the intense American system that requires constant vigilance on the part of the student. As an international student pursuing a public policy program that requires a lot of study, I have learnt some skills to survive. Prioritization The best intentions are for the student to get all the readings done on time, and then read some more extra on the side. This, however, is not possible with the amount of writing, research, practical work one needs to do. Learning to prioritize on what needs to be done as the most urgent is the only way to keep up with all the activities of graduate school. Writing well Writing is a core aspect of graduate studies. Writing well, however, is required to survive and avoid rewrites and poor grades. Obviously, the more the practice, the better I get at it. Reading, fast and wide With tomes and tomes of required reading, I have learnt to read faster than I thought possible. I have vora...