I arrived in Chennai on Sunday and since then I have been just blown away with how great this course is. I have a feeling that my awe is equally due to the content and quality of the information from the sessions as from the vibe/energy/intrinsic motivation of the people around me. So, what is this all about?
My "job" in India is 2-fold. First, I was hired as a research assistant by my professor at Duke to head up his bednet malaria project. This is what my previous links have been about. Secondly, I am an intern with the CMF (Centre for Microfinance). These 2 jobs are confusedly linked in that the bednet project is one of the projects that CMF runs and that interns are working on. I am in a unique position that insted of just working on the bednet project under an RA (research associate) like the other interns will be for their projects, I will BE the RA for my project. It's a strange combination of intern/employee for CMF. I think I am just now starting to figure out exactly how it will work...
As an intern, I am attending this 2 week course in microfinance in Chennai. After only 2 days I have learned more about the microfinance industry than in all of my previous studies. In fact, while I am the farthest along than any of the other interns in my academic career, I can tell I'm in the lower range as far as my familiarity to microfinance (the Indian microfinance sector in particular). It is very humbling, but more than that, fascinating. In general, the sessions are approached from an academic perspective, but are focused just as intently on the humaninatarian goals of the sector. There is a lot of talk about whether MFIs (micro finance institutions) should be "businesses" where they focus on profit margins and sustainability instead of relying on grants and donations to fulfil a social objective. By and large, we all recognize that there has to be both, but in the end, if there is no profit, that there is no long-term sustainability.
I won't go into any more details, other than to briefly describe an acacdemic (theoretical) model we were presented with the first day. I could tell that most of the other people didn't think this particular session was that interesting - "too much math" I heard someone say afterwards. But it was exactly the type of thing that I had been learning for the past 2 years in my program, but applied to a problem that I actually cared about. Essentially we were shown a model that shows if you want to lend money to people that have no collateral, that the banks have to set an interest rate such that there is a suboptimal amount of social surplus. Consequently, when you introduce group borrowing into this model, you can see the scope for achieving the "first-best" equilibrium WITHOUT requiring any collateral. A game-theory-esque type proof about microfinance...I was enammered.
Aside from the content of the course, it's so fun to be around other people in the same situation as I am. There are probably 20 other interns from all around the world. Everyone has such varying backgrounds and levels of experience, but we can all connect because we are (relatively) new to the industry and new to India. My roommate, Esha, is from Bombay and is starting her PhD this fall at Boston College. It seems like about half of the other interns are still in undergrad and a few others are in masters programs. I think I am one of maybe 3-4 people that are currently in PhD programs, and I think the rest of those guys are a year behind me. I guess it makes sense considering the work I was brought here to do is what these intern's bosses will be doing. It's pretty strange. And also strange that these undergrads are younger than my sister! (sorry Erica, it's just a good benchmark for me as to who I should be able to relate to -ha!) But honestly, I haven't felt older than them for the most part. I mean, we're all new here, so I'm just as lost as everyone else, and they seem just as interested as I am....it's so good for them to get an experience like this so early.
So, that's what I've been up to lately. I'm having such a good time I'm not looking forward to going back to the solitude and hard work waiting for me in Bswr. But for now, I still have a week of constant human interaction and entertainment (they screened a Bollywood film for us last night - I'd seen a few older ones but these new ones are great...I'm definitely going to buy some and start collecting them. They're like musicals but on crack. Ok Durham, you have 2 months to prepare for all the Bollywood movie parties!!!)
The only bad thing so far is that I still haven't gotten my luggage back. I'm going to the airport tonight to get compensation from the airline and from what I understand they are willing to compensate me for even much more than the bag and its contets were worth. If that ends up being true it won't bother me quite as much, although I'm still holding out hope that I will get it back...eventually.
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