Welcome to Rwanda

Welcome to Rwanda

I can’t recall just how many times I’ve heard that statement in the last 4 days. The phrase comes in two main varieties: 1)From Rwandans, a quiet but incredibly warm and welcoming people; 2)From westerners working in Rwanda with regard to the flexibility of time and schedule among Rwandans which can be frustrating for those of us from more scheduled cultures.

Saturday, 20 March 2010

The travel day went swimmingly. We caught our early morning flight from Gothenburg, transferred in Brussels, and flew strait to Kigali, Rwanda. The flight was at most half full, offering a rare chance to stretch and lie down to sleep on a 9 hour flight. I have to say, one of the most stunning things I have ever seen is the Sahara desert. I have always heard it described as an Ocean of Sand, but never had any grasp on what that meant until we were flying above northern Africa, and the only color I could see on the ground was tan. For hours. And Hours. I can’t even begin to imagine what it looks like on the ground, nor how people have survived in such a desolate climate for thousands of years.

Though the travel day went swimmingly, we needed a hero to rescue our traveling evening. Upon landing in Kigali, we collected our bags, exchanged our money, and looked for someone from the National University of Rwanda (NUR is in charge of this e-waste project) here to pick us up to take us on the 2 hour drive to Butare. Through some kind of miscommunication, we never connected with the driver. We maintained good spirits, purchased cell phone cards, and I was able to call John, who lives in Kigali volunteering with a medical group, to ask for some advice on what to do next. In an incredible act of generosity, John and his wife Rachel welcomed us into their home for the night. I can’t express how calming that was for our group; instead of ending up at some hotel in Kigali and finding our way to Butare the next morning, we were in the home of people with whom we shared a language, and they even helped set us up with a taxi to the bus station in the morning. THANK YOU!

Sunday, 21 March 2010

We took a taxi to the bus station, and promptly were surrounded by various people hawking trips to Butare, once they found out that’s where we wanted to go. I must say, it was a bit intimidating, but never once did I feel unsafe. There’s a way Rwandans interact that is different than many other places, and I’m sure had I been in a similar situation in other places, I would have been more concerned for the safety of my luggage and money (don’t worry Mom, I’m not being cavalier).

We boarded one of the buses going to Butare, a 2 hour drive that costs about $4 a ticket (no, that’s not a typo). The drive was actually quite comfortable, and in retrospect I was glad we were doing it in the day, as opposed to the night before, because the scenery was incredible. I had refrained from taking pictures up to this point, as I had heard many Rwandan’s weren’t too keen on having their picture taken. I took the opportunity of the bus ride to take some pictures of the villages, landscapes, and goats. I tried to capture a few pictures of various reminders of the genocide, which are quite common, either in small memorials along the road or in large painted words across buildings such as “genocide, never again!” but we were moving just a bit too fast to get any of those pictures to come out.

The bus ride was also our first exposure to music common in Rwanda. It’s very much like reggae, in fact most of it I would call reggae. I never expected to hear a version of a Faith Hill song with steel drums and African beats, but I liked it! Rwandan music, as far as I can tell thus far, is quite different than western African music, which relies much more on djembe, and is more similar what I was expecting.

We arrived in Butare, and quickly found our way to the Hotel Ibis, where we decided to grab a coke and some lunch, still unsure of where, exactly, the house was or how we were going to get there. We contacted one of the people at NUR, who got us in touch with another of our contacts, just in time to see Kent, the other BTH staff member here now, walking down the street. We had lunch, and Olivier, the NUR staff with whom we have most closely worked, showed up to take us to our house. We had all tried to temper our expectations for the house after what we’d heard, but after seeing John and Rachel’s house, which was quite nice, I allowed myself to hope it would be something similar. The place is beautiful, with a gorgeous porch and balcony, front and back yard gardens, and a very comfortable living room. After a nice coffee break getting to know Olivier (who works in the ICT department at NUR) a bit better, as well as the weekend house boy Cassian, my thesis partners and I got to work.

Monday 22 March 2010

Monday was a whirlwind day. Starting at 9 am, we were in meetings with the staff of the Center for Entrepreneurship, Environment and Sustainable Development at NUR. The CEESD was established to cross disciplines at NUR and try to implement environmental and sustainability awareness into education across the university. The goal is to create a new generation of entrepreneurs who are conscious of the environment and sustainable development from the very beginning. Visionary? I think so, especially given that NUR is the largest and premier multidisciplinary university in the country.

After a morning meeting with the staff, including Francois, the director of the CEESD, Esperanz, the deputy director, and Joseph, Emmanuel, Dieux, the heads of the Entrepreneurship, Environmental and Sustainability departments, we had some changes to make to our presentation, and I was panicking. We then went to meet with Jawahar, the director of the ICT department. He took us on a tour of the rooms here at NUR where old computers have been piling up. The campus is beautiful, with a large park and forest area attached to it.

After the meeting with Jawahar, we were able to connect to the NUR internet just enough to gather our emails and gather some information for our presentation the next day. We then went back to another meeting with the people at the CEESD, and talked specifically about our workshop sessions, which we were planning to host in the style of a World Café. After some explanation, they seemed to like the idea, and it was nice to know we would have some people in the room the next day to help us along. The rest of the day and most of the night was spent finalizing the presentation.

Tuesday 23 March 2010

PRESENTATION DAY! Even after all of our hard work, we still went in nervous. And then Rwandan time and flexibility struck again. The room that was reserved for our workshop had been taken over because the auditors were coming from Kigali to assess the education at NUR. So while we stood around waiting for ideas on what to do, we started to relax. The workshop was supposed to start at 9, and at about 8:45, the news came that perhaps the auditors weren’t coming from Kigali, so we took back over the room, now much more relaxed than before. At about 9:30, we got underway. The attendees included representatives from numerous departments, from ICT to Art, to CEESD, and Management, even a couple of deans were there.

The presentation went quite well, especially after we paused and waited for questions a couple of times. We had heard that culturally, people were likely to say yes, or that they understand, and it may not be that they understand or understand what they’re saying yes to. So we made sure to make it as simple as possible, and take it slowly. After people started asking questions, the presentation felt great. We conveyed the information we wanted, and people were engaged. But the World Café was looming, and I was still unsure how well the group would react to it.

I couldn’t have placed my fears in a more wrong place. The ideas, conversations, and connections that came out of the sessions were incredible! We asked two questions, the first session was focused on “What can NUR be for Rwanda with regard to e-waste?” The second question, which we had intended to ask for 2 sessions, but it ended up being one long one, was “What can NUR do today to address its immediate e-waste challenge and lead Rwanda in e-waste management?” I was so happy to see everyone drawing, talking, creating ideas and plans. I can’t wait to begin to see what comes out of those plans.

Even more exciting for me was that Raymond, the SIDA project manager that initiated this project, was very excited about the prospect of systems mapping. We had initially planned to put a systems mapping exercise in our workshop, but decided to take it out in the interest of simplicity and time. I am so excited to get to work on one with Raymond, as well as several other deans who were able to show up to the second half of our workshop. That we now have planned for Thursday, and I think it will be much better to have a planned system mapping session, rather than squeezing it into the greater presentation.

Wednesday 24 March 2010

I had hoped to have a blog posted by Wednesday, even had it all written up and ready to go, but internet access is a rare commodity here. Wednesday was a nice lazy morning; I spent some time reading, writing, and recording data and reflections from the day before. Emmanuel, the day house boy, cooked us a fantastic lunch as he did the day before. It’s been very nice to get to sample some true Rwandan food.

In the afternoon we went back to campus to give a presentation to students about e-waste. After briefly waiting at the NUR Faculty of Medicine, we realized that’s not where we were supposed to be and made our way down to the NUR main campus. Our presentation that day was in the Grand Auditorium, and though it seated about 2000, only 50 or so showed up. It ended up being a great discussion; students were interested, some even working on solid waste projects of their own. We stayed for quite a while after the presentation, answering questions, talking one on one with students, and sharing a bit about our program.

Wednesday evening we had dinner at the house of one of the staff members with whom we’ve been working. We met her baby, whom Ece quickly fell in love with, and her friend. After a wonderful dinner, we wandered home to finish our final preparations for our Thursday meeting, which would be the systems mapping session.

Thursday, 25 March 2010

We decided to change the systems mapping just a bit, as it was clear the goal of the meeting was to understand not only players, but exactly what projects those players would be a part of. We created a template upon which we could write out ideas in discussion. We didn’t know exactly who would be at the meeting,

It ended up being only 3 people, but the three most involved and important to the project people. We had a great 3 hour meeting going over major project areas that we took away from the Tuesday World Café session. Each of the six areas we spent 15 minutes discussing and thinking of immediate actions necessary to move towards the larger goal in that area, with the 6 areas each working towards the vision of NUR as an intellectual leader in all of Africa with regards to e-waste management. We then mapped out who would be necessary in and out of NUR to accomplish those tasks and areas. It took a couple of minutes for everyone to warm up to the idea, but once we were all talking, the ideas were strong, and we were connecting how different ideas would help serve many different areas.

We finally had an afternoon free, and we took advantage of it, walking through town, taking pictures, and enjoying the beautiful, sunny afternoon. Though it is the rainy season, up to this point, it really had only rained briefly a couple of times up to this point. The weather on Thursday sure looked like the height of the sunny season. We explored a church, got to actually take the time to see people moving in the city in the day, instead of just quickly passing through.

After lunch, we went to the National Museum of Rwanda, which has an incredible collection of western African artifacts, both from archeological sites and modern traditional crafts to illustrate the culture of the region. It was nice to get to know a bit about the history of Rwanda, as much of the history commonly known among westerners starts when Belgium took over as the colonial power from Germany. The even had a model of a traditional Rwandan house that we walked into, and it was quite nice, though I would have had a difficult time living in a grass hut, as even a minute in one began to set my allergies off.

The five long days of work had taken a toll on the team; especially given we were staying up well past midnight sometimes to finish the material for the following day, only to be awake again at 6. We decided to take Thursday night to recuperate personally, get some work done that we had been putting off in the interest of completing the project, and relax at home. I cooked up a curry and rice dinner, and we watched a movie together before splitting off to get work done on our own.

Friday 26 March 2010

Finally! Some fun time just for us! On Olivier’s recommendation, we drove the 100km to the Nyungwe National Forest and went on a hike. It was amazing! The rainforest is at about 7,000 feet, and we left early in the morning, hoping to get there before it got really rainy for the day, which usually happens in the afternoon. We got to see a whole new part of the country, much more rural than the trip between Kigali and Butare. We saw large groups of people in pink work uniforms going to work in the rice fields, and a few new towns along the way too. The road was windy, hilly, and occasionally bumpy, but in pretty good shape overall.

Once we crossed into the national park, we still had another 30 kilometers left to go, and the road started to deteriorate. Though it was still paved, there were landslides that had come down from the uphill side to cover half the road. Occasionally, we passed a broken down truck. After a few kilometers, we began to see Rwandan troops patrolling, and the road kilometer markings, counting up from Butare, were joined with spray painted numbers counting down, staring around 75 or so. When we saw a troop of UN South Korean troops, we asked what they were there for, and our driver responded that this road continued all the way through the national park to the Congo, and that these troops were returning from there. The white numbers on painted were counting the kilometers down to the border.

Just as we got more and more nervous that perhaps we were accidentally venturing into a part of Rwanda we had been told to avoid (both Congolese and Burundian rebels occasionally cross the border into Rwanda by a few kilometers and have skirmishes with Rwandan troops) we reached the visitors center in the park. From there, we registered, chose our trail, and were assigned a guide, who works for the National Park Service. The interpretive center, a USAID project, was a great idea, because more and more people are coming to this park, and Rwanda seems to be doing a good job managing it, but the buildings built by USAID look like they’re taken strait from the slopes of Mt. Hood, not the Nyungwe National Park.

Our guide, Aime, has been guiding in Nyungwe for 8 years, and was incredibly knowledgeable about the scientific aspects of the plants and animals, as well as traditional, art, medicinal, and other uses. We started by descending the trail into the jungle, and quickly came upon a group of monkeys eating in the trees above us and dropping small red fruits on us below. Though I can’t remember the name of it, he made a particular point of directing our attention towards a yellow flowering plant that grows EVERYWHERE and is choking out the trees in the forest, and blocking light on the floor, so new trees are not able to start. I asked if it was invasive, as it reminded me of English Ivy on steroids, but he said it was native. The plant is apparently the favorite food of mountain elephants, the last of which in Rwanda was killed by poachers in 1999. Thankfully, Rwanda has been doing research on how to repopulate forest elephants, and has been doing genetic testing to determine which population would be the best match to the ones that had lived in the forest. Cameroon appears to be a match, and negotiations are under way to bring a population back to Rwanda. Wouldn’t that be cool!

About halfway through the hike we got to a waterfall, and took a brief break. Just as we got up to leave, it started to rain. However, just as we passed a giant Mahogany tree (at least 400 years old according to Aime) we passed into an area covered under a thick canopy of leaves, and we were more or less sheltered from the rain. We climbed and climbed and climbed, reached a beautiful vista. Apparently on a clear day, one can see Congo and Lake Kivu from this point, today, it was just a beautiful mix of trees, mountains and clouds, and the swarming yellow flowering bushes.

We finished the hike on 2 kilometers of strait uphill, at 7000 feet. Needless to say we were exhausted. We climbed back into the car, drove home, and just as we started to take some naps it started to rain. And I mean RAIN. It finally felt like the rainy season, with solid streams of water pouring off the roof. It lasted for about 20 minutes, then slowed to a drizzle and eventually rained itself out for the night, leaving the streets muddy for our walk to Olivier’s house for dinner. His wife made an incredible spread of food, perfect after a long day hiking. Olivier’s two daughters are growing up speaking 3 languages, something of which I am very jealous.

After dinner, we went to campus to watch a student performance of dance, comedy sketches and freestyle rap. Though we missed the dancing, we did get to see some of the others.

We're back in Kigali now, will be here until Tuesday. When I get back to Sweden I'll add some pictures, the internet here would take too long to support that.

AN UPDATE: I'm now home in Sweden (It's Thursday April 1) Here's a link to a picasa album with a bunch of pictures from the trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/wglarson/Rwanda#

Thanks to Ece, Matt, and Tony, who took some of those on their cameras.

Love to all at home,

Wyeth

Traveling to Rwanda

Well, we leave for Rwanda today. As much as people have told me to expect the unexpected, I feel as though today we really got the message full force. Our workshop, which we've put serious effort into, is now a one day workshop followed by a presentation to all of NUR in the Grand Auditorium, a terrifying and at the same time electrifying opportunity.

Anyways, I'll keep you all up to date on the new surprises with pictures and updates from our time there. Hope everyone enjoys the weekend!

Wyeth

An update

So it’s been quite a while since my last post, and I thought it was about time to update everyone on what’s been going on here.

It’s been a busy month. After finishing up the projects we were working on in December with our presentations in Malmo and here, I headed down to Barcelona to meet up with Danielle for a few days there before Christmas.

What an incredible city! After spending some time exploring around the Gothic Quarter and Las Ramblas, we picked up the scooter I rented to explore the city a little better. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we spent the evening enjoying some tapas and the lights in the city. We spent the next day seeing some of the famous sites. The Sagrada Familia is an incredible cathedral, and it was fascinating to see some great wonder like that still under construction. We spent the next day exploring the closer vicinity, and checked out the Picasso museum, which was incredible as well. I particularly enjoyed the part showing how many paintings he could make out of just one scene. The next day we headed out to the Gaudi Park, and picnicked at the top of the hill overlooking the city. A little rainstorm came in, so we headed down and hopped back on the scooter. By the time we were back to the hotel, we were in the middle of a downpour, and dripping, but laughing it off.

We arrived home (a day late thanks to a bit of a train mishap and missing the flight) just in time to catch the end of Christmas dinner here at my house. We spent the next few days enjoying the frozen land of Karlskrona and hanging out with my wonderful friends from here.

After Danielle left, we hit the ground running hard again for classes. After finals, we moved on to full time thesis mode, and I’m excited at the direction ours is taking. We work on our thesis project in groups of 3, and we’re looking at electronic waste in developing nations and how it can be addressed on the ground there, as well as in the design of new electronics.

As a part of our thesis, we’ve been given the very exciting opportunity of working with the National University of Rwanda on a project funded by the Swedish International Development Agency. We’ll be heading down to Butare, Rwanda on March 20^th for a site visit and to work with NUR staff to start setting up a pilot project for e-waste management. We’re all looking forward to seeing a new place, working with some new people, and some warm weather, as well as getting to practice some of the skills we've learned through the training here from the program and from Art of Hosting. (see the next few pictures for the gorgeous and freezing last few weeks we've had)

But I’ve made sure to be enjoying myself here in Sweden as well. A group of us went cross country skiing a few weeks ago, and then made it to the local downhill slope the weekend before last. That sure was an experience! One small hill serviced by a rope tow was all it was, but it kept us entertained all day long, and it felt good just to be out there.

And for the hockey match to finish the Olympics, we had a good group over to watch the game. The mostly Canadian crowd was quite happy with the outcome.

Anyways, I’ll do my best to keep this more up to date, and let you all know how the progress is coming on the Rwanda project.

I'll post a link to some Picasa albums with more pictures from Barcelona and Sweden shortly.

Ciao for now,

Wyeth

The top five foolproof ways to stop climate change (according to people/things on the street in Copenhagen today):

1) Stop launching spacecrafts. Launching spacecrafts punches holes in our atmosphere which makes it warmer and rain more. If we stop launching them all our climate problems will disappear.

2) Be Vegan. The quote for this one was something like “Here read this easy guide it’s all you need to do to stop climate change”

3) Stop trusting business (dude!), they never respond to anything but money!

4) Go back to using horses, we don’t actually need to travel like we do anyways.

5) This one really caught me by surprise, and yet I think it might be the solution I like the most:

It’s been an interesting experience to say the least, absolutely incredible, educational, inspiring and humbling. My first stop today was the Belle Center, I had to really see if they were checking credentials to get in (it’s worth a shot right?) and sadly they were. I decided my odds of making it past the 6,500 (seriously) police officers probably weren’t very good, so I headed downtown.

I decided to take the scenic route to city center, and took my time exploring old sections of town, and looking through several churches on the way. You really can tell a lot about a culture from its churches. Every church here had a model of a ship in it, a reminder of Denmark’s naval prowess during the colonial era. At the recommendation of Tue (he and Agnette have been overwhelmingly generous and hospitable in opening their home to me for these days in Copenhagen) I wandered through the Christiansholm, an old military complex turned hippy compound. Though I didn’t actually enter the compound itself, I must say the culture and people in this part of Copenhagen were noticeably different than in other parts.

Once I got to the Kings Quarter, my focus shifted, pretty much starting with seeing the Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise tied to the pier in downtown in the Kings Quarter. Here the city was living and breathing COP 15. On nearly every plaza, tents, booths, art displays, and information centers were set up. Some, like the 100 places to see before they disappear exhibit was brought in by the government to augment the COP15 conference. Others, like the WWF tent were set up by organizations to hold speeches, seminars, concerts, movies, and information about climate change, sustainability, and policy. Siemens even went to the effort to rent a whole square for themselves (the Hopenhagen square) which was a great demonstration of some technology crucial for new people-focused cities and smart energy grids. But it was clearly a concerted marketing effort complete with a demonstration electric motorcycle that weighs a mere 750 pounds (good luck taking a corner on that).

Though I can’t speak for what’s going on inside the conference, it’s clear the focus here is environmental challenges facing us today. Those challenges are epic and certainly worthy of a conference of global leaders, but I hope their discussions also include the enormous challenge our world faces with regard to social sustainability. These challenges are inextricably linked. One cannot hope to solve environmental issues such as deforestation without raising the standard of education and living in those countries still using carbon based natural resources for mere survival. Furthermore, those of us in developed nations cannot expect our neighbors to care about environmental issues until their human needs are met; and despite our incredible lists of false-satisfiers, many people in our very own nations are not meeting their needs.

For me, this conference highlights the challenges those of us working towards complete, systematic sustainability face. There is often an under-valuing of social sustainability by the environmental side, and an under-valuing of environmental sustainability by the socially interested groups. In my humble opinion, they must come together, which makes the issue all the more complex. However, solving one will only highlight issues in the other, and make the first harder to solve.

My time in Copenhagen has been a great experience in self-awareness and the culture of activism. Though I don’t consider myself an activist, I certainly understand how my deep commitment to sustainability can be perceived as such. The environmental evangelism that caught me by surprise today is good reminder to always remember there is some level of validity in all serious arguments. While I don’t believe becoming vegan will save the world, I do understand that meat, particularly beef, is a high CO2 impact food, so I must exercise moderation. And with the exception of Brad Pit saving the world and halting all Space Travel (an atmosphere is not a shell, you can’t punch holes in it, nor do rockets make it rain) the earth saving ultimatums I heard today do contain some element of truth. It’s a great reminder to reflect on our passions, to ensure we’re not becoming so enthusiastic that we’ve lost sight of the facts, even if those facts dispute your point of view. Everyone is entitled to their view, but when it comes to forming policy that affects great numbers of people, facts, not opinion and emotion, should shape the debate.

After such an eventful day, I was ready for some time in a chair. I headed to a book release by Adam Kahane where he discussed the interplay between morality and power (what he refers to as love and power). It was an interesting talk, filled with anecdotes of his time working to create cohesive movements and overcome barriers in developing and changing countries. I am looking forward to reading the book (everyone who attended received a free copy of Power and Love) and hearing more about his theory.

Now if only we could get Brad Pitt to stop the space program, and our environmental power and love would be in perfect harmony.

So tonight I leave you with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr., one used by Mr. Kahane in his presentation “power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic."

When I get home I'll post more pictures of the conference. Ciao for now!

The Beauty of Progress

Can cultural change really happen? Can people learn to accept ideas different than their own? Can healing from traumatic challenges really create better collaboration and solutions? I think nearly all of us would agree that the answer to any of these questions is unequivocally yes. Today, however, that feeling really struck home.

We’ve been talking about the challenges associated with sustainability, and moving our economies, societies, and cultures towards being in harmony with natural laws we seem determined to try to break. It’s astounding to me how often there is incredible push back against these sustainable ideas. There’s a certain sense that some sort of dramatic climax is near with regards to sustainability. With the Copenhagen conference coming up, environmental and carbon based rhetoric has been scaled up to a feverish pitch by both sides.

Often lost in this debate is the importance of the people in the societies affected by the environmental legislation and non-legislation. I once had a history teacher tell me the purpose of governments is to protect and serve the people. Currently, with regard to environmental and social sustainability, I would argue many governments are doing neither, and it’s not for lack of resources. On the contrary, resources are spent on the very products that endanger human life. Government protection from toxic chemicals, predatory and dangerous business practices endanger the lives of people. We’ve had a very startling example of this in the recent financial crisis. Yes, that has little to do with the environment, but it has everything to do with community. Had those firms been properly regulated and sought to protect long term stability instead of quarterly profit, that whole crisis would have been averted, people would still be in their homes and employed. And people who are comfortably employed and in their homes are more likely to look at challenges beyond their own, such as the environment.

When the definition of sustainability is expanded to include people and principles within that definition are explored, there’s so much more to sustainability than better business practices. How about tackling the federal deficit or universal health care, or offering workers more time off to allow their personal lives and relationships to flourish? There’s genuine progress being made on at least one of those fronts in the US, but my point is there’s so much more to be done and changed. In a truly sustainable society, no action would compromise the future of that society, and our current practices endanger the survival of businesses and people in the next decade, not to mention looking at the ability of future generations to thrive.

So where does that fit in to today? It’s a bit of an obscure connection, one which doesn’t even have to do with sustainability. But for me it answered those questions I first posed with a resounding yes, especially since it came in regards to events far more destructive and traumatizing than our governments’ non-action on sustainability and disregard for citizens. Like Veteran’s Day in the US, November 11^th is Remembrance Day in many countries, and at 11:11 AM the Canadians in our class led us in a traditional moment of silence to remember the sacrifices soldiers have made to protect their countries and the ideals for which they stand.

And here I was, remembering people I know who have fought in foreign wars, people I know serving in our military now and praying for their safety. And it dawned on me. I was in a room full of people, people from countries who not long ago were engaged in brutal conflict with one another, countries hell bent on destroying each other with leaders who had little regard for the life of their citizens. And here we were, as a group: Italian, Canadian, American, Japanese, British, Irish, German, Israeli, Iranian, Indian, Turkish, Chinese, and so many more remembering those who had fallen in wars against each other. And when the minute was over, we were back to working towards solving the world's next great crisis. So yes, the trauma happened, but the strength we have created by finding a new challenge and new hope for solutions has moved us so far beyond the despair felt by the world 65 years ago. That is powerful, and so crucially important as we continue to create momentum to move our societies against the status quo.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry about the gap between the blog postings; it’s been an incredibly busy couple of weeks. We’ve finished our first series of units here, and have begun our next set of classes and two big projects. I’ll be looking at a life cycle assessment of a smart solar and battery system which could be used to build a house or building entirely off-grid. I’ll also be looking at the sustainability impacts of a fluorescent light bulb manufacturer here in Karlskrona. Both groups are with new people, and so far we’ve had some great lectures on group organizing and group dynamic, which we’ve already put into practice. It’s too bad I didn’t have some of this experience and knowledge working on projects before, it makes the meetings so much more effective!

I love playing soccer with the European crowd, as well as a few North Americans and Asians. Though I’m not much more than a warm body on the field, I’ve been picking up on a few things and having a good time. Basketball on Wednesday nights has been enjoyable as well. And speaking of exercise, now that the winter winds… let me rephrase that… gales have kicked in, even getting to school can be a cardiovascular adventure.

I’ll keep you all posted on some upcoming class adventures. We’re headed to Volvo in a couple of weeks to look at what they’re doing in their management to encourage sustainability in their company. Beyond seeing an exciting and established company and its sustainability pursuits, it will be nice to get to see a new city in Sweden. And while in Gothenburg, I’ll even get a chance to catch up with some long lost family (though I suppose I’m the lost one, given the fact that they’re still in Sweden), which should be quite fun! We’re also headed to Malmo (just across the Baltic bridge from Copenhagen, Denmark) during the upcoming climate talks to revamp the Kyoto protocol. We’ll present research on sustainable and renewable energy products there at the World Trade Center on Saturday the 9^th, and get to move in to Copenhagen to take part in some of the events on Sunday. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to head down there early on my own and spend a couple of days taking the feel of a city hosting a summit of world leaders.

I hope everyone is still getting a chance to read and enjoy these. Keep in touch; I’d love to hear from folks from home!

Hej,

Wyeth

What makes a leader?

So I’ve picked up on a few signs I’m really in Scandinavia (just in case there was any confusion, which thankfully there hasn’t been). Today I saw my first roller-ski commuter, ski poles, backpack and all. It was pretty cool! And yet another example of doing more with less, a standard construction company vehicle here seems to be a Volvo station wagon towing a trailer. Apearantly the idea of driving a massive work truck is just a bit foreign to them. Similarly, mail trucks are more like glorified yellow ice cream truck scooter things. We’ll see how that works out during the winter.

I feel like I had to put up just a little post as a reflection of the day. I’ve been increasingly impressed with our Friday leadership thread workshops here. The first ones had me a bit wary of what the rest of the thread would entail, but in the last two weeks in particular, it has thoroughly redeemed itself and captured my full attention. Last week was a Human Dynamics workshop, and it was incredible to see how different people process information. I felt as though it was a great way to learn how to connect better with people who think differently, and raised my self-awareness about the way I process information. As our workshop leader clearly explained, this is not hard science (hallelujia!) and people cannot be clearly grouped into 4 categories. But the learning really came from appreciating how different information processing styles really value different means and amounts of communication.

Today we had a session called the World Café or Leadership Café. Arriving to a morning session with coffee and snacks sure was a welcome surprise, and we took our spots at café style tables with 4 other people. The first two half hour sessions (switching tables and people in between) we discussed what leadership means to us. Our discussions were incredible, sighting examples in nature of group leadership, efficient use of materials and energy, and compassion. Among other themes in our discussion was the concept of humility. True leaders are humble enough to ask for the help of people who know more than them, are humble enough to understand when it is time to let someone else lead, are humble enough to see their own strengths and weaknesses. Also linked to humility is the ability to see the strengths of others. We discussed how even though we may see other’s strengths, we don’t often say what it is we admire. Perhaps its time for true leaders to start by complimenting more.

The last half hour session we discussed what aspects of our previous discussions did we want to incorporate into our leadership and why. It was a fascinating morning and the conversations were meaningful and flowed very easily. Cultural ideas about leadership and personal strengths were fascinating to bring into the conversation. I must say, after today, despite the intense and deep nature of the discussion, I felt energized and renewed in my focus of study here.

Well that’s all for now. I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Wyeth

Ready…set…WINTER

The big man upstairs must have flipped the weather switch. Wednesday started as another perfectly sunny day in Sweden, and by the end, our mini golf game was hampered with Baltic wind and rain affecting our otherwise strictly professional drives and putts.

It’s been a while since my last blog post, I know, so I have a lot to fill you in on; but there’s one theme that runs through all but the last few days: sun. It’s been surprising and incredible, not only for those of us from warmer climes, but also the Swedes.

Shortly after our sailing expedition we headed north for our MSLS retreat. Our first stop was the city of Vaxjo, the “greenest city in Europe” to see some of what they’re doing to help minimize their climate impact. There are some really innovative ideas there, some old ideas that have resurfaced in modern reincarnations, some encouraging political progress, and some downright surprising holes in their sustainability practices. The city has a biomass (we pressed, and found out its mostly waste wood) fed electrical power plant, and the waste heat is used to heat water for municipal heating and hot water. That heating is available to residents and businesses alike. The city is also working on changing fuel rules in town to ensure that only biofuels are used by any government vehicles. We toured a modern wood city, where they are constructing 7 story buildings with timber as the main material in an effort to explore which materials are viable and sustainable, as well as a few developments designed with people and their needs in mind.

The powerplant in Vaxjo

Modern Buildings made with timber as the main structural material

Next we travelled to Blidingsholm house where we spent the weekend in seminars. It was an absolutely beautiful location, with canoes on several connecting lakes and ponds. I went on a run through the retreat property in the morning, and enjoyed some beautiful mists rising from the lakes and ponds, and explored the old logging and farm roads. If Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes, Sweden is the land of 1,000,000 ponds. They’re all over the place. Our day Saturday was spent in workshops for deep listening, cultural awareness, and communication styles. Saturday night we had a big barbeque, and yours truly was the grillmaster. Or at least I tried. An ingenious setup of a grill hung by a cable over a fire pit allowed us to raise and lower the grill, but it was still so blooming hot I lost pretty much all of my knuckle hair and was beginning to fear for the safety of my eyebrows. I must say, I thought I knew what serving large groups of people entailed after my time catering, but I’ve never had to cook for 70 hungry people before. That is an experience.

Sunday we toured a car graveyard (basically a junkyard that somehow got turned into a national historic place). It was interesting to see the way the forest is retaking the cars, and how different parts break down at different rates. Sadly my camera ran out of battery here, so I only have a few pictures to offer. I recharged for the Wanas foundation tour. The foundation is a sculpture garden on old castle grounds. Some were very interesting, and they had a sustainability exhibit going as well. We turned one art project into an interactive human art project. It was an awesome tree with about 10 swings in it, and we filled every one. So that’s what college students apply their energy to…

The next week (last week) in classes was primarily spent discussing the scientific basis for the need for sustainability. It has been interesting, and there has been some new information, despite my degree being in science. I have to always remind myself to take a look with a larger lens. I can get lost in the science and then forget to see how it connects to sustainability.

That Friday we had our first party at Club Zebra (our beloved abode). Costumes were required, of course, and it was a lot of fun to see how creative people were. True to form, the 5 of us living here dressed as zebras (black clothes with masking tape, and fancy hairdos to look like a mane) and decorated the house to the nines. It’s amazing what you can do with just a little creativity.

This week brought about a bit more discussion of scientific principles, and then a shift to focus on social sustainability, an area of interest for me, particularly since I have such a limited background in social sustainability and social science. The introduction was interesting, but the workshop on Friday was really incredible. Not knowing what Human Dynamics was going into it, I was a bit hesitant, but was really impressed with the facilitation of the day, as well as the conversations it created among the students. It offered incredible opportunity to learn about other people’s processing styles and how we can best work with them.

So that pretty much brings us up to speed, if you want to know more, shoot me an email! I’m looking at going to Poland in 2 weekends, which should be quite a trip (hopefully there’s space left when I check on Monday!)

So it’s about time for me to hit the sack tonight. Listen to the pounding rain and howling wind (yep, winter is here full force). It’s also incredible how fast the amount of daylight changes here. Just in the last 2 weeks we’ve lost an hour in the evenings.

Ciao for now. I’ll try to write again soon. And if you're interestested in more pictures, I added them to the Picasa album here: http://picasaweb.google.com/wglarson/AllTheShotsFromSweden#

Wyeth