A Donation from the Web Site. February 21, 2006

February 21, 2006
A Donation from the Web Site
It's so easy... Hi folks, just got our first donation through the web site from an Hopkins pal of mine, Ming for 2500 rupees...I think, at some point in the near future, each of us needs to make a push at our friend network to raise some money for paavima.org. All of us (at least the local crew) have agreed now, that new donations will only be used for material needs of the local operation...equipment, etc...Not travel or lodging. It really doesn't make sense to spend 1000 bucks on one of our tickets, when that single payment can set up an entire operation here. If we want to raise money for travel, we should do that individually and not use Paavima.org directly do to so. If any of you take issue with this, please say so. I think the local crew has signed off on it as has Kirk and Jason. So the engines have been picked up...let's hope there is money right behind them.

Other news is that many of the guys are taking off for Kalwella near Trino...already about 6 have left with more on the way. So I'm not sure how much off season training can happen...but I know a few are staying including Indika, Chamlie etc...

There is lots of talk in the village about the donation of 14 boats/engines and 70 tanks by SOS Malta in Polhena. The talk is that Madiha didn't get any because of the dive shack that we have set up. (The locals call it the dive center...) I have explained this to Thusita and others that this is not true...And to prove it I called Claudia in front of him and spoke with her. I really don't think they're donating equipment in the right way...everyone here knows that it's doing to be a dive operation for the Polhena Reef Garden hotel, which she's calling it a 'foundation for the community'. We'll see how many of 14 boats are left at the end of the season. Today I went diving with Charles, Prins and Chamlie.

Today I wanted to head towards Dondra and after running into Damit on the water, we headed out with them. The water around Matara is very interesting as even though the river is largely stagnant, it has quite a wide delta extending more than Km out into the ocean. Today prins explained something that makes perfect sense...A westerly breeze means diving near Madiha will be terrible...easterly means it will be good. Today the wind was going lightly west so we headed to about 2 KM of Dondra lighthouse. I called it Rubble Reef although 'Reef' is a bit of a stretch...lots of height, boulders and many fish...lots of splotches of what looks to be new coral growth, if I didn't know any better. So that, a few big lobsters, a giant red lionfish and a couple dozen man-o-wars, and the day was over. So now we have 3 way points and counting.

Tomorrow I have scheduled a meeting with the guest house owners of the area. We'll talk about the shack, the commission system and the business model. In exchange for their cooperation, I have guaranteed them a web presence. At sign in, they will fill out a form with information about their guest house, which we will list on our web site. I have visited about 12 of them and met most of the owners, all were friendly of course. But there has been talk that the dive shack will take away business, so that is something to be sensitive to. I'll let you know how it goes...

Tomorrow a river trip with Roshan...He just got accepted on to an oil tanker bound for Dubai. It's big money for him and he's tremendously excited...it'll be sad to see him go, but it's such a great opportunity. Ok, that's all for now. Phil
February 21, 2006

Egos and Philanthropy. February 16, 2006

Egos and Philanthropy
The below message was one I sent back at the beginning of the project, where we went around and around for weeks about picking a damn name. At the time I felt very strongly that people were using this effort as an outlet for their own personal gain and creativity and my frustration and anger came through on this email. In retrospect, it makes interesting reading. -Phil
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Ok ok...I'm the odd man out again...
This isn't a brand we're talking about, nor some useless .com (which I also have experience in)...it's helping people! Branding ourselves I see motivated by ego. That and self promotion are fundamentally incompatible with philanthropy folks. Ask yourselves, if you weren't able to tell anyone else in the world what you've been doing with Madiha and Kirk and Jason, would you still have come?
If we need to resort to catchy-name or over-sexed-marketing efforts to raise money, than we should re-evaluate what is it that we are trying to accomplish...because the mission statement of "improving living conditions through the creation of a sustainable and eco-friendly local tourist economy" doesn't require branding...it requires awareness and communication...Francesca knows this better than anyone after arranging all this with a bunch of passionate emails/convos and a few toothy smiles! Now selling inflatable sheep on the web or funding Sally Struthers' rehab trips to Africa...that requires every trick in theook.
Many volunteer projects, including one major one on which I have worked, don't have the benefit of web designers, videographers etc.....and the fact is, the projects get done. Now I'm not tooting horns, I'm just providing a data point...For the village in Nepal, we've raised over $250K and spent it on things like tele-teaching, inter-village networking, fish-farming, duck incubators, 2 telemedicine installations and a brand new high school for 200 people, all without worrying about a domain name, a team name, blogs, business cards, or a documentaries. All donations were raised by a) well placed phone calls or conversations followed by b) quantitative and highly detailed proposals with explicit budgets, time-lines and resource constraints. The latter was far moremportant to the aid agencies (WHO). Donated dollars are not spent on promotion, and whenever volunteers show up, they are put to work. When promotion is done, it was done by those volunteers who wereff-line/site in response to a specific Request For Proposal (RFP) from a possible funding agency. Priorities dictated that all local hands wereeeded for building houses or connecting wires...every dollar went directly to necessary material cost...labor was provided free from volunteers who paid their own way.
Nuff said, I've never needed to call myself anything or have been part of a catchy team to make a difference. I am very proud to be working with so many creative people in this project...I just think we all need to counter-balance our natural tendency to gravitate to areas in which are experts with the bigger list of priorities. In my case, there areany more important things to be done other than developing our IT infrastructure, most of which I have only the slightest idea about how to accomplish 8-), thus I need to spend my time on them.
So instead of abstaining, I vote to leave it as it is...ScubaPOP, even thought I have been overheard saying it sounds 'gay' 8-)...in the hopes that we'll get back to other work.
-Phil
P.S. If you care or are interested....
www.nepalwireless.net
www.himanchal.org
February 16, 2006
Donation for a Boat Ladder!
So some news, which you may have already heard. But Indika got us this dutch guy who we took diving from the shack. He did 2 dives, each of 3 guys on the boat made 800 rupees and the shack made about that also. Hey had such a good time and, since he was a philanthropist himself, he donated 200 euro to us, waving us down as we were speeding off in a tuktuk. (To fix the flat tire of the bike and do some other bits in town.) He said to put it towards a boat ladder, which we will, as well as other needs of the shack. I've already bought the stainless steel and met with a metal smith, courtesy of indika's help of course.
Last night, Mahesh took the money from us (400$) for the engine. SO it appears a done deal. I was told by my sources that he went out and spend 1000 of it on a Arak party...of course. Anyways, we know have a solid engine and it's the fastest on the beach. This latter point is actual a source of grief, since the boatmen seem to have no concept of the word 'throttle'.
Tomorrow I'm supposed to go on a boat trip with Roshan 'up the
river'...one of the activities of the shack is bird watchin' and croc spotin'. We'll see if it happens...These guys do not have calendars and as such, 2 days from now may as well be next year.
That's all for now.
Phil
February 16, 2006

Encounter with the Cement Guy. February 16, 2006

Encounter with the Cement Guy
More news folks, I'm feeling verbose these days...this is what happens if you lock up a perfectly good engineer with 2 creatives.
Vlad finished up four more guys today on Open Water...Salvador and I DM'ing for him. We also met with the guys about rescue course and everything else related...
Other news, as of the party the other night, I was talking with Mahesh and he mentioned he had an engine, a 25 HP gas one that was not used very much. It was his brothers and naturally they were selling it because a) they were given a new one by a different NGO and b) it runs on gasoline which is no good for the fisherman as it reduces their profit margin. Anyways I jumped on it, since we are desperate and arranged a trial run today during our dives. (2 boats...) The engine ran beautifully and even started on the first pull...As opposed to my harrowing experience being burned to near bacon the first time because of Thusita's 'reliable kerosene engines'. Everyone knows kerosene is for lamps not engines. 8-) Anyways, Salvador can certainly be happy because if I hadn't had 2 glasses of Arack punch as well as 2 beers, I probably wouldn't have been as verbal with my frustrations. So thanks to Salvador for that one...Who needs Norwegian girls? Oh yeah...we do! One other thing about the party, Srinath happen to catch me at the beginning looking rather forlorn at the lack of Scandinavian females bearing hard
currency in hand...He came over to me and said in the Srinath voice "Pheeel! Don't worry! Leeetle-bit, leetle bit. First we get 2, then we get 4. Step by step, step by step." Srinath, in his own wisdom, just slapped me upside the head with a) my very own words and b) absolute impeccable timing. ;-)
Anyways, Jason agreed that this engine was best so we can move forward with everything and we don't have to wait. So Jason will basically loan Paavima.org the 400-500$ until we raise money. The list of loans is getting longer...sooner or later we're going to have to stop the hemmorhage of money...Vlad and I are putting in for the 100$ sign, Salvador basically funded the finishing of the shack and I'm ponying up for the cement lock box still to be built by salvador in the shack. The funny thing is, no one minds, because we're so f******g close to making
it all come together. Yes, divemasters are still a ways off, but you guys are one course away from starting their training.
Last week, the three of us got together to see what we could do to stop the loss of spirit around here...both amongst ourselves and amongst the students...all of us were amicable, but privately there was not a good feeling and everyone was somewhat disappointed in each other. I feel, and I can say this because I am the 'negative' one of the group, that we really have recaptured some spirit. We all agreed that MOMENTUM was the
only thing we could do...we couldn't change anyone elses feelings about the project, only our own. In doing so, we also changed their perspective...for the time being; no guarantees for next week of course, but then, does next week really matter when your living on the southern coast of Sri Lanka?
Enjoy.
Philip
P.S. Oh yes, I have to tell you the craziest Sri Lanka story yet...better than that nurse jamming hemostats into my toe. So I went to the cement brick shop the other day to order some bricks for Salvador's storage bin. The young man came out and in between pricing bricks, he kept saying 'I like you' which I ignored. So later I SMS'd him the exact details of the transaction, and these are the SMS's I received in return, copied directly from my phone. I've only corrected the english and spelling where absolutely necessary.
Kamal: "I can supply your order. But I want to meet you. Therefore please come our home tomorrow morning. Everything will change very soon. But I like "idantyfaive"(?) you. Can you be a friend of mine?"

Kamal: Did you give a my SMS kamal? Never forget me.

Kamal: I came to see you. But I can't find where do you stay.

Kamal: You are very handsome. I need you. Do you want me? But don't misunderstand me, only I like you and your body. Please come to our home tomorrow morning. I'm Kamal. Take care.
Phil: Thank you for the compliments. But I only like women. I will come tomorrow morning to order the cement.
(Planning on bringing Salvador as insurance...)
Kamal: I like your "humens"(?). Therefore I want to do a love someone. Can u help me? I like meet your a good friend. But I'm very afraid. If u can think about my work, I believe that you wont misunderstand me. Ok, bye. Sweet dreams. Sorry disturb you.
Needless to say I didn't make it...I went diving instead. ;-)
Phil Mucci
February 16, 2006

Today was a good day......February 07, 2006

From Phil:
Today was a good day......
"And I didn't even have to use my A.K." -Ice Cube
(an entry from Phil Mucci the resident dmc and super-rennaisaance man)
Yes, you know I hate long emails, so this will be short, but some worthwhile things happened today.
1) Vladimirs EFR course with the guys is finished. After the session, the guys took the exam and I'm pretty damn sure they passed. I received numerous comments that indicated they actually understood my english, for I was hanging about during the grading of the exam, adding explanations
where possible. The actual comment was "We can understand you because you speak slow." A lesson for you fast talking slicksters...
The students in the EFR class were:
Mahesh
Indika G
Indika
Buddika
Charles
Ravindra
Prince
Chamin 
Sameera
Srinath
Jayanthadas
Roshan 
Gamini
Chamlie
2) Salvador cold-sold a group of Norwegian 20 year olds on having a party at the shack late night. He's out preparing for it now with the girls...The plan? Make money the old fashioned way...Sell booze. Then, as with any good drinking establishment, the staff will attempt to seduce the patrons. I'm hoping and praying they show up because Salvador really went the extra mile on this one. 
3) Met with Nick from Adopt Sri Lanka, the agency from Weligama. He informally promised to look into donating us one of the used engines they collect from the fisherman (after they give them new ones). They do not seem very keen on giving us direct donations of gear or money, but this guy is a low one on the totem pole. He took a bunch of flyers as well as the latest project overview (attached, many more edits coming), to his boss Sharon. She is the hired gun of the rich brit who owns the whole show. Nick was asking for some information around about who needs what to make sure their donations don't end up 'Anora-ized' or sold. I will speak with him later in the week. Anyways, yet another engine lead...
4) Managed to get the web site out to Topher. To install it just takes two commands hopefully...I'm the only one with email from Madiha at the moment, but Salv and Vlad have been using the cafes, so have patience with their responses. Hey Topher, can you get this up this week? Oh Please? (In my best Ren and Stimpy voice...)
5) Salvador went to check on the BIG sign we have for the shack, which Vladdy and I are splitting and he sez it looks bad-azz. Should be up by the week.
6) After much banter, Salvador and I agreed that the best thing (i.e. cheapest) for a lockable container for the shack is a cement and brick structure with a steel top that opens. The other options are too darn expensive...
Ok, this email is 243.7621 words too long, so I'm leaving now. 
Phil
February 07, 2006