Daniela Papi's Blog

Greetings from Luang Prabang. I'm leading a one-time non-PEPY tour, in support of Digital Divide Data (DDD), which ends here tomorrow in Laos. www.digitaldividedata.com is an amazing organization with offices in Cambodia and Laos. Basically.... they took your basic data entry company idea, most often attributed to India, but then gave it a philanthropic spin. DDD employs landmine victims, people with polio, and ex-trafficked women, teaches them basic computer skills, and then works them into more advanced data entry and programming projects, and ta da! A sustainable non-profit model with a for-profit arm, bringing in revenue to support their amazing work! All of their employees work half day and must be enrolled in school the other half of the day with the goal being that they then move on after graduation. The revenue from the company is reinvested to pay half of the employees' school fees and further develop the company. On average, those who "graduate" from DDD are making $150+ per month, over 6x the national average of $25 per month. DDD is changing lives and I have really enjoyed being a part of their 5 year anniversary tour.

Their model is such an inspiration for anyone who is working to bridge the gap between the "non-profit world" and the "for-profit world". As Tom Suddes of ForImpact.org would say, those in the non-profit world don't wake up everyday and shout "WOOHOO! We're not making any money today! WOOHOO! Let's go out and not make any money today!" Instead we measure our impact, our "double bottom line", our work as it is in line with our mission. There is this grey area of companies who don't just define their mission as "we're gonna make tons of money" or "we're gonna save the world", but somewhere in the middle with "we're doing something sustainable that brings in funds and changes lives and lets us do good without having to walk around all day with a collection hat". That is where DDD is, sustainable, changing lives, filling their social mission, but also making money and using it for good. It took DDD only just under 5 years to get to this point, where their company is self sustainable. PEPY is getting there, step by step, and it's great to have a role model to follow.

It's late, 1:17 AM, or so my computer says. Pretty late, but not as late as I was working til at home I guess. I have been pretty relaxed, for me, in terms of working hours, these past few weeks since arriving in Cambodia. (I can just see the interns' faces now, "She calls THIS relaxed?!")

Maayan, from Israel, and Doug, a Yankee, have arrived to complete our team of 5 here. Perfect number really, as we all JUST fit on one tuk tuk, when we're not riding our bikes of course. We have PEPY orientation tomorrow.... man, WHO would have thought that I would be here, in CAMBODIA, doing an ORIENTATION for an educational non-profit/voluntourism project.... not me I tell you, not me.

Adam joined us here after 2 years in Japan, and he was saying how he can't really remember what he, and his life, were like before Japan. I feel the same way about PEPY. What did I DO before PEPY? Relaxed more, probably. I really can hardly remember and can't imagine a time when I didn't feel like I had things to do and deadlines to meet and an organization to grow.... But, with 4 amazingly talented teammates, an office, and a printer, I'm starting to feel a bit more settled and capable of all the high expectations I have set out for myself, my team, and PEPY.

I'm also feeling more settled in my expat life. This is my 5th year abroad (WOW!) and I used to feel a very strong pull homeward whenever there was a birthday, a birth, or a family holiday that I missed. This past Saturday was my high school 10 year reunion. I knew I would be sad to miss it, but I was worried I would feel crushed when I heard all the great details of who declared their 10 year undying love to whom, who proved everyone wrong and made it big, and all the fun gossip and catching up that comes from going to school in a small town with the same kids from kindergarten through 12th grade. I did feel sad, and as always I wished for a teleporter (Get ON it scientists!), but I felt really content in my life too. I was happy to hear the stories, and of course wanted to be there, but when I weigh the choices, I'm glad to be here.

This is the first time in a long time that I have been in one place for a few weeks and I'm looking forward to LIVING here, not just passing through from here to there and everywhere. There still will be some of that of course, but I feel much less of a pull to travel right now. PEPY won the CIMPA Humanitarian Travel Award which will be presented at a castle in Prague.... I have always wanted to go to Prague... but the thought of flying there, and back, and yikes! Nope. Can't do it. Need to plant myself here for a bit a just be for a while. This coming from the girl who did 150 million things at once as a kid before today's age of over-ADD-diagnosing everyone. Wish me luck :-)

Yesterday Adam, another PEPY Intern arrived. Right away he said, "You know, this is the closest thing to a real job I've ever had." Got me thinking..... "Real" job, "Real" world. If THIS isn't real, I'm sorry, but stock markets sure aren't.

I worked as a consultant (that ambiguous word meaning "doing things no one else wants to do on their own") right out of school. I looked at numbers all day on a database, checked discrepancies, made plans to make this time shorter or that price lower, and typed up reports about it. Is THAT real? I almost never saw the things I was buying, met the people whose data I was editing, saw the final product go to market, watched the mining tool whose ball bearings we had sourced mine. My whole job took place in an imaginary world of cyberdom.

Here on the other hand we are doing research, buying bikes, delivering them to kids, seeing them smile, raising funds, building schools, taking people on tours and WATCHING their lives change. If that's not real, then I want to live in this la-la-land forever.

I don't think we are really "Delaying the Real World." We are avoiding the imaginary, trading/analyzing-things-online-that-you'll-never-see, working-for-outcomes-you-don't-believe-in-or-really-care-about life.

I think this is about as real a job as Adam or I will ever see. And we know it's real, cause we live it, from start to finish, and see the results. That's not to say we don't make mistakes, we will and do, but we see those mistakes as they are happening and are able to make changes, adjust, be personal with what we do.

Here's hoping PEPY can continue to do just that.

Wow.... have I really been here for a week? I landed in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital, on Monday - headed straight for an appointment with a real estate agent which a friend had kindly set up, looked at 10 places, and then signed on the one I had seen first (as it always goes ;-)).
PEPY now has an office/apartment and a real physical presence in Cambodia. Feels great. All still getting settled in, internet still to be turned on this Friday, towels still awaiting purchase, and some more life still needed to make the PEPY office a bit peppy-er, but overall a very successful week.

PEPY has 4 interns who will be joining me this fall here in Cambodia. One, Erin, is already here and has been a huge help. It's been fun watching her fall in love with Cambodia - seeing all her energy, excitement, and drive come out with her belief in this project. For a while now, PEPY has been a "virtual organization" - amazing people from all over the world working together for a common cause rocks.... but having someone next to you to say "Hey, will this work?" rocks. Having a team to work with, in an office, will make PEPY a whole new thing for me. I am loving it even more already.

OK, so what IS PEPY, you ask? Funny you should do so, as I seem to get that a lot. And the answer changes a lot. I, of all people, should have my elevator pitch down pat. But even I waiver. Today's definition of PEPY is:

PEPY: a non-profit organization supporting educational projects in Cambodia including building schools, a Bike-to-School Program aiming at increasing access to education, and support for a variety of education initiatives across the country. PEPY gets 70% of its funding from voluntourism efforts. PEPY offers cycling and volunteer tours through the Kingdom of Cambodia and the profits from the tours support our education initiatives. Further funding largely comes from individual donations, though some grant apps are out, with more to come (Yeah awesome interns!). PEPY Tour participants are able to impact Cambodia through funds raised as well as through volunteer opportunities mixed with the chance to experience a country you should see NOW, before the throngs come.

Oh... and they are COMING I tell you. My goodness. This place changes daily. I have not been up to Siem Reap (next to the world famous Angkor Wat temple complex) since I got back from four moths in the states, but I am sure I will hardly recognize it even after such a short break. It changes ever time I come back - even if within a few weeks. It is estimated that 5 million tourists will visit Cambodia per annum in the coming years while current numbers are closer to 1 million. What will happen to the temples? They are starting to get crowded now, with only 1 million.... how will they look at 3 million? 5?! Disneyland? I hope not....

"But you are adding to tourism Daniela," you say? Well, not much. Mostly I believe we are getting people who are going to Cambodia anyway, but are looking for a way to give back while they do so. Also, the average tourist stays for 2.7 days in Cambodia - flying in and out of Siem Reap, seeing the temples, staying in western run hotels, eating imported foods, never visiting the countryside to bring their tourist dollars out of this elite area, and then heading-off without ever seeing what I for one think is the real wonder-of-the-world. Angkor Wat is spectacular, don't get me wrong, but rural areas, flat lands dotted with palm trees, rock "mountains" jetting out now and again to break up the flat flooded plains, kids riding to school on their bikes past sunsets silhouetted by farmers hand-planting rice, small sugar-cane stands when no-one else appears to be around for miles..... for me that is the mystique and allure of Cambodia. PEPY is bringing people there. No one else is going there.

"But is THAT good?" you say. Good question my friend, good question. I do think so. In small doses, with good intentions and real goals and thought-out projects. PEPY's two August tours built rainwater collection units in rural villages at schools. Now those children have access to clean water every day, in both the rainy and wet season, with even enough to bring home to their families. With water related illnesses being one of the biggest causes of death in this area, I think that's a pretty good reason to head into these untouched areas. And the people we have met, and those we have brought, seem to think so too.

So, that's me today. Thinking away on a friend's computer, looking forward to having internet at Chez PEPY, wondering which of you will some day join us here in Cambodia and what impact you and your PEPY Tour will have...... a great one I doooo hope.

- Daniela