Epilogue — There and back again.

Saturday, November 15 — I've been home from Guayaquil for an entire week. I'm finishing my Starbucks venti black coffee, and my iPhone is playing music from the Bard. (Getting a good cup of coffee was not easy in Ecuador.) I'm back to my routine of early-morning dog walks, busy workdays, and evenings of relaxation with my wife, Galina.

It's almost a month exactly since I first met my CSC-Ecuador teammates. Most of the fifteen have returned to their respective homes, in eleven different countries. The final group — wrapping up tours of Incan wonders Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu in Peru — are returning to their Pacific-Rim homes this weekend. The chapter has opened and closed.

The complete CSC-Ecuador team atop Cerro Santa Anna, Guayaquil, Sunday, October 12, 2014.

Some obvious changes occurred during my four-week absence. Most-conspicuously, late-Summer gave way to Autumn. The difference is particularly pronounced considering the climates. I left equatorial Guayaquil, where the temperature is presently 79º F (26º C). The temperature here was 29º F (-2º C) this morning. 

The days are also much shorter. We enjoyed slightly more than twelve hours of daylight in Guayaquil. I only see ten, here near Washington, DC. My European colleagues — like Sophie Asmus in Berlin — sees fewer than nine. 

And, I am beginning a new role within my current employer. This opportunity ostensibly offers me the opportunity to more deeply specialize in a particular sector — education technology. It also potentially involves opportunities to work more globally. The passion for exploring different parts of the world and their cultures explains why pursuing the CSC involved so little deliberation for me.

An early-morning dog walk near Vienna, Virginia, USA, Wednesday, November 12, 2014.

Facebook posts from Fundación E.dúcate reveal that they continue their noble work of bridging the digital divide. This week they inaugurated five new Más Tecnología/APCI learning laboratories at Escuelas Particulares Populares. These low-cost elementary schools serve Guayaquil's least-advantaged children. To the extent that computer literacy is a prerequisite to reaching the bottom rung of the socioeconomic ladder, these computer labs offer these children one of their few chances.

Scenes from a ceremony for the opening of Más Tecnología/APCI computer labs for five Escuelas Particulares Populares in Guayaquil, Ecuador, November 12, 2014.  Guayaquil Mayor Jaime Nebot — standing in the photo on the left — officiates.

So, things appear to be returning to "normal." But what of the longer-term repercussions of this month spent in Ecuador? That IBM's Corporate Service Corps (CSC) program seeks to change its participants while accomplishing corporate social responsibility (CSC) represents a key point of its innovation. This is brought to light in a timely piece from Harvard Business Review. 

How was I personally changed? I complete diagnosis may yet be premature. But concluding my Ecuadorian story is now timely. Casual introspection offers some preliminary observations. The rate with which our experiences percolate into inner change is hard to measure and predict.

Being forced to think seriously about the material needs of others is perhaps the first — and foremost — consequence of my Ecuadorian experience. Working with E.dúcate forces these issues out of the realm of the theoretical into the domain of the practical. They have for more than a dozen years developed very practical attempts at surmounting socioeconomic barriers. 

I have previously visited places blighted by abject poverty. My time as a junior Navy officer in the U.S. Pacific fleet took me to such places. We did not think much about them however. We looked askance at shanty neighborhoods as we walked past them en route to our intended diversions.

That this transition from theoretical concept to reality required a trip of 2,800 miles surprises me a little bit. This type of need does exist in my home country, the United States. We share one aspect — the digital divide — with Ecuador. The proportions of our ensnared populations may differ. This digital divide represents a very real barrier to upward mobility within both countries. 

A sales leader from an IBM education-technology partner recounted an illustrative anecdote during a meeting this week. She had visited a school within which teachers were instructing students in how to use the computer interface for the high-stakes standardized exam they were about to take. These students were largely computer-illiterate. This preparation occurs, of course, at the expense of reviewing content for the high-stakes exam itself.

The digital divide within the U.S., represented by home broadband penetration.  Source: Financial Times. 

I suppose that deepened confidence in my cultural adaptability is the second obvious consequence. I had previously travelled extensively — to about 25 countries on six different continents. I had also experienced complete cultural immersion when eleven years ago I traveled with my new bride Galina to her home to subject myself to inspection and acceptance by her family.

Ecuador however represents the longest period of time in which I have been throughly immersed. We of course had a robust support network. But we were left to our own devices to figure out where to eat, how to get around, which places to see, and how to do without familiar comforts. 

What about my biggest impressions of Ecuador? The youthfulness of the population struck me particularly. The population of Ecuador is so young! Its people were becoming parents at young ages. The contrast of a largely much-older American populace in the airports and on the flights home was inescapable.

Representative population pyramids for Ecuador and selected countries represented by the CSC-Ecuador team.  Ecuador is a particularly young country with a growing population. Source: http://populationpyramid.net/

The four weeks in Ecuador passed within the blink of an eye. Program commitments filled most of our time during the workweeks. We filled the remainder with social activities and sightseeing. Did the pace of things influence our capacity to fully absorb our environment? I suppose it depends on the individuals.

A camaraderie among team members is the other lasting effect. The CSC experience might share some characteristics with a military boot camp. It of course lacks martial training. But it involves throwing a group of fifteen people together into an alien environment. Our success requires us to get over whatever cultural idiosyncrasies we discover in each other. We have four weeks to execute a project that makes a difference. The resulting bonds sink much deeper than the professional.

Panorama shot of Guayaquil from the top of Banker's Club building, November 7, 2014.

Wrapping up our project with E.dúcate

November 7, 2014 — Our closing ceremony capped four intensive weeks of multicultural immersion as well as consulting work. One of the several news articles about our well-covered presence emphasized that we worked the same hours as our clients. My employer presumably wanted emphasized that this was not a boondoggle.

My colleagues Sophie Asmus, Aideen Dunne, and I — like consultants everywhere — aspired to absolutely do the most we could for our E.dúcate client. Changing anybody's world in four weeks is a difficult thing. Any ambitions this grande are regrettably unlikely to be realized.

The fact is, our client — like most — actually knows what they are doing. E.dúcate was founded and is run by a very prominent, well-connected Ecuadorian family. Members of the family all completed advanced education. They understand the challenges of working in their environment far more clearly than we can even begin to suspect in four weeks. This requires us to rise to a very high consulting standard if are to contribute something of any meaning to E.dúcate.

Our workspace in E.dúcate's office as we left it upon departing for the final time.

Our client E.dúcate enjoys a twelve-year track record of remarkable innovation in education technology. Their mission emphasizes giving all Ecuadorians access to at least the bottom rungs of the economic ladder. Bridging the digital divide is one of E.dúcate's primary points of attack.

E.dúcate's crown jewel is a classroom-learning software application called Aprendeje Personalizado Complementario y Interconectado (APCI) (Personalized, Interconnected, Complementary Learning). More than 250,000 students in Guayaquil use APCI twice per week in in-school computer labs. 

APCI supplements traditional classroom instruction in math and language (Spanish). Students find APCI fun and engaging. It gives teachers very precise information about how each student is progressing towards mastering national learning standards. Many U.S. school districts — even those that are highly technologically enabled — still struggle with figuring this out. 

E.dúcate delivers APCI to all public schools in Ecuador irrespective of their socioeconomic status. APCI is also delivered to low-cost private elementary schools, Escuelas Particulares Populares (EPPs). EPPs serve some of Guayaquil's most-marginalized neighborhoods. Some schools' students mostly have computers and Internet at home. Some barely have connectivity anywhere in their neighborhood. 

A Friday, October 31 working session at E.dúcate's office.

E.dúcate's remarkable accomplishment may have fallen victim to its own success. It is not novel anymore. E.dúcate continues to launch new computer labs at EPPs. EPP labs get refurbished hand-me-down equipment donated by businesses and individuals. One may be forgiven for mistaking APCI with old computer equipment, and in turn asking for something new and innovative.

Other technology investment projects by the Ecuadorian public sector — both at the national and municipality levels — introduce opportunities for APCI to grow and evolve. Guayaquil Mayor Jaimie Neto signed on October 7 a major contract to deploy 6,000 free, public WiFi access points throughout the city. Other national-level initiatives are planned.

The "Cool Shades Crew" (CSC): The "greater" team for the E.dúcate project (l-r): Valeria Celi, Pyxera Global; Aideen Dunne, IBM; Johanna Meza, E.dúcate; yours, truly; Sophie Asmus, IBM; and Gabriel Guavera, intern with Pyxera Global.

Ubiquitous WiFi creates the opportunity for APCI to escape from the in-school computer labs within which it is now imprisoned. Isolated in computer labs — within which each screen is fully scheduled for the entire week — APCI cannot grow. It cannot be expanded to cover more courses in Ecuador's curriculum. Teachers with whom we spoke all want more APCI. They cannot get enough of it!

The IBM team working with E.dúcate suggested they explore reengineering APCI for "the cloud". Cloud APCI would allow students access to it from every classroom and for every course. They could use simple, inexpensive Netbooks. These are very simple laptops that only connect to the Internet. Google Chromebooks and specially designed laptops by the One Laptop per Child foundation are examples. 

E.dúcate team member Sophie Asmus (misidentified as "Perdriset") and two other IBM CSC-Ecuador colleagues were featured in an article in the newspaper Expreso.

We leave E.dúcate with key elements of an outline of a relatively comprehensive business plan. Our recommendations included a technology strategy and roadmap; a fundraising strategy; and a marketing and communications strategy. We grounded our recommendations in agendas by the Ecuadorian government and fundraisers, and in trends in the Ecuadorian economy and labor market.

Little of what we recommended had not occurred to E.dúcate before. I previously observed that the foundation is run by a prominent family whose members are all well-educated. What then of the value of our contribution to this remarkable organization?  Maybe we suggested a few things that they haven't suggested before.

Also important, we refreshed their perspective. The foundation's leaders are consumed by small, day-to-day battles to keep the piece-parts of the organization funded and operating. It is easy to loose sight beneath the daily struggle that one's work directly touches a quarter of a million young people twice per seek in E.dúcate-supported computer labs.

In conjunction with this, we perhaps helped E.dúcate look at things from a more strategic view. Many of our recommendations are things they have tried — and done successfully at times — in the past. Perhaps combining these things in a new configuration will lead to a successful new trajectory for growth.

In the end, activities like IBM's Corporate Service Corps (CSC) really are two-way streets. Sophie, Aideen, and I were novices at working in developing-market environments. Doctora Particia Hernandez de Soza, E.dúcate's director, made a substantial commitment of her valuable time and energy to get and keep us pointed in the right direction. We would have been lost without Patricia's investment in our success. In this regard, E.dúcate's investment in a small piece of IBM may yield returns that endure as long is IBM's small investment in E.dúcate. 

A holiday weekend in Guayaquil

November 1-3, 2014 — The E.dúcate CSC team remained in Guayaquil for our final weekend in Ecuador. While the remainder of our colleagues went to the beach or to Quito, we chose a slower-paced weekend. We spent some time struggling through unresolved complexities of our project. Most importantly, we also soaked in some of the ambience of the locale that served as home during our four-week stay.

Panorama of Guayaquil looking north from Cerra Santa Anna.

Ecuador aspires to become a recognized destination for tourism. Its government set the goal for tourism to generate around 64% of the country's total service income. We repeatedly saw billboards with the words "Ecuador Potencia Tourística" (Ecuador tourism power) on our road trips through the countryside. These messages encourage Ecuadorians to be polite and honest in their dealings with visitors. They also seek to promote pride in the country's cultural and natural treasures.

Ecuador's main touristic assets include destinations in the highlands (e.g., Cuenca); clean, sandy, Pacific beaches; the Galapagos Islands of Charles Darwin fame; and its own corner of the Northwest Amazon basin. Guayaquil is less prominent among Ecuador's tourist destinations. It serves not as much as a magnet for expats or for tourists.

Guayaquil is a working city:  An economic engine. It contains Ecuador's largest seaport. Refineries and tankage for petroleum — Ecuador's largest export — sit outside of its suburbs. Guayaquil is a city where people come to work. 

The local newspaper estimated that as many as 120,000 residents would travel away for the long holiday weekend inaugurating the month of November. Some are headed to beach resorts. Many are visiting family and friends in the homes they left to seek economic improvement in the big city.

Looking down Avenida 9 de Octubre — one of the main streets in Guayaquil's center — from the Parque 9 de Octubre towards the Malecón 2000 river walk.

Guayauqil is, nonetheless, genuine Ecuador. If pursuit of a glimpse of life through the eyes of others is part of the reason we travel, then we have to see places like Guayaquil. Guayaquil is genuine. 

I am ironically just beginning to feel comfortable within my clean, well-policed corner of Guayaquil's downtown. I've found the two places in the neighborhood at which I can get a good cup of coffee. I know where the good places to eat are — as well as those fraught with gastrointestinal peril. I can find my way to the Malecón 2000 river walk, and to the Parque de las Iguanas without getting lost.

I have somewhat adapted to Guayaquil's sweltering heat, its grittiness, and its erratic traffic. Crossing the street requires a certain degree of vigilance. I learned to look past the not-so-attractive parts and see the city's beauty. And I've become acutely aware of the warmth and friendliness of the people.  

And the juice:  Don't forget the juice. Ecuadorian cuisine certainly does not follow the principals of ayurvedic diets. It involves lots of starch — usually in the form of rice — served with meat. "Seca de (insert your favorite meat here)" consists of meat with gravy and lots of rice. Nearly every meal includes a side of plantains prepared in one way or another. And the portions are usually large.

But the Ecuadorians love their fresh juices. And their many juice bars serve exotic, tropical fruits from the Amazon. I've become a big fan of lucuma batidos, freshly blended smoothies containing milk (soy milk optional) and fresh, exotic fruit. Many places also have yogurt shakes.

The corner juice bar — a convenient place to get a quick, light, relatively healthy meal. I probably ate here for about one in five of my meals in Guayaquil.

E.dúcate-project members Aideen Dunne, Sophi Asmus, and I spent our final weekend in Guayaquil taking in some of the local scenes. We first returned to El Mercado Artesanal to finish souvenir shopping. We patronized for the second time one particular vendor, whose day we probably made.

Sunday was our busiest day. We first took an ill-advised stroll through one of Guayaquil's less-policed neighborhoods to get to the historical central cemetery. This location has provided the final resting place for nearly two centuries of Guayaquil's elite. It resembles New Orleans' cities of the dead. 

Many well-off Guayaquileños spared no expense in memorializing their departed love ones. The grounds are filled with classical, gothic marble sculptures. Many are quite touching. They can be very personal expressions of grief.

A memorial from Guayaquil's central cemetery commemorates a mother's grief over the loss of her son.

We then took a taxi to El Parque Historico. This contains three parts. The first is a combined zoological and botanical gardens. We emerge from the stroll through the gardens into a partially restored or reconstructed slice of nineteenth-century Guayaquil. The park walk concludes with replicas of villages for both indigenous and earliest-colonial occupants of the coastal lowlands. 

Finally, on Sunday, we took a river cruise. We rode on the Captain Morgan's Pirate Ship. It was a cocktail cruise that lasted for about an hour. We circled around the river between the two major bridges that cross the Rio Guayas. Our 7:30pm cruise appeared to be a popular date activity. It was filled with young couples enjoying their evenings together.

Guayaquil from the river by night.

Overall, downtown Guayaquil is quite different on the weekends than what we experienced during the rest of the week. The city is abuzz with families out doing things that families everywhere do on the weekends. They are out shopping, dining, and enjoying the beautiful parts of their city. Families — including children — remain out on the Malecón until late in the evening. In these regard, perhaps Guayaquil doesn't seem quite so exotic after all.

Guest Lecturing at La Universidad de Guayaquil

October 30, 2014 — IBM's Corporate Service Corps (CSC) program requires all participants to perform a small number of hours of community service. My CSC Ecuador team accomplished this by delivering seminars at the La Universidad de Guayaquil (UG's). We delivered five sessions:

• Marketing and sales;
• Consulting;
• Career development; 
• Project management; and
• Social media.

Information about UG's total enrollment was not easy to find. But it contains most of the schools that a U.S. university usually contains, including medicine, business, and engineering. Students attend UG at relatively little cost. In this manner, Ecuador pursues policies that resemble those in Europe.

Guayaquil is also home to several other universities. Pyxera Global, a non-profit organization through which IBM administers CSC in this region, is well-represented by graduates of Universidad Especializida Espíritu Santo (UEES). UEES is a private university. Representatives of Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil were inviting us to deliver a similar workshop for their faculty.

La Universidad de Guayaquil is a public university located in the heart of Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city.

I participated in the session on Marketing and Sales. I never would have anticipated a few years ago that this would be my first choice. Marketing however was one of the business-school courses I enjoyed most. Most of my time at IBM has been spent in business development. Our comfort zones can migrate in surprising directions during our lifetimes.

Our session was well-attended. Our classroom started out at two-thirds full. It was nearly full by the end. The attendees were attentive throughout. They asked us thoughtful questions. Omar Valero, one of the business school professors, translated for us. 

Instructors from the business school at La Universidad Guayaquil participate in a Sales and Marketing seminar conducted by members of IBM's CSC Ecuador team.

I led a discussion that described how foundational concepts from marketing have practical consequences in our industry. I started with the Marketing "4P's." I then linked that concept to a very useful paper on software-industry business models. I concluded with describing how apply a model for sales transactions to craft messages tailored to specific stakeholder points of view.

Explaining how fundamental concepts from marketing apply to the software and IT industries.

Learning what IBM colleagues do was perhaps the most-interesting part of the exercise. Su Young Seo, IBM colleague from Korea, studies potential new clients for our outsourcing business. She examines their financial statements for hints about how IBM's services might provide strategic benefit. This resembles work I did during a business-school residency in Istanbul. IBM India colleague Suprio Kar talked about data mining of social networking traffic to develop maps of influencers.

The team that conducted the Sales and Marketing seminar for Universidad de Guayaquil (UG) business school faculty (l-r): Supriyo Kar (IBM India), Omar Valero (UG business professor and translator), Su Young Seo (IBM Korea), and yours truly.

We held a side discussion with the Dean of the Business school. Ecuador has a national policy that university students must perform a total of 400 hours of community service and pre-professional internship in order to graduate. This is a potential source of human capital for our CSC client E.dúcate. We also asked him for his perspectives on technology use in the university, and students' preparation for university study.

I found the university visit very rewarding. I got to observe first-hand a challenging environment within which to deliver higher education. Improving access to education is a national priority for Ecuador's development. Universidad de Guayaquil represents an important contributor to that goal.

Cuenca — An Andean Expat Destination

October 25-26, 2015 — Cuenca was the primary destination of our Andean excursion last weekend. I arrived in Ecuador with the knowledge that the country is diverse. That diversity was merely theoretical for me before our excursion to Cuenca.

Cuenca combines factors in a city that I've never experienced before. Two data points from personal experience provide a rough point of comparison: Transplant Seville, Spain to the location where Colorado Springs, Colorado sits.  Cuenca brings ambience of a Spanish city. It sits at about the elevation of Colorado Springs (about 7,500 ft or about 2,300 m).

This comparison however understates Cuenca. Cuenca — with indigenous Andean influences — brings a sense of the exotic that Seville lacks. Its architectural beauty does however compare well with Seville.

Cuenca's Andean climate is also quite different from that of Colorado Springs. Cuenca enjoys a perpetual "Springtime in the Rockies." It lacks the moderately harsh Winters of a city on the Front Range of the Colorado Rockies.

Cuenca, a city of about 500,000 sits in an Andean basin at about 7,500 feet (2,300 m) in elevation.

Cuenca is one of the reasons why InterNations recognized Ecuador as the world's top destination for Expats. It shatters the stereotypes with which Americans in particular are burdened regarding Latin America. Cuenca is a clean, relatively well-organized city. One could be forgiven for mistaking it for any number of cities in Southern Europe.

Cuenca is a popular Expat city in Ecuador, the world's top destination for Expats. (Source: InterNations)

We spent most of our time in Cuenca in the historic center. Our hotel however was located outside of the center. We also ate lunch upon arrival in another neighborhood closer to Cuenca's suburbs.

The city is bisected by a small mountain river.  Several pedestrian footbridges across it help residents of this walking-friendly city get around. Parts of the historic center also sit on a hill. Visitors get their exercise from climbing lots of stairs.

A Sunday-morning flower market in the yard of a downtown-Cuenca church.

Cuenca's central square provides a terrific place in which to pass a Sunday morning. The area buzzes with leisurely activity of people going about their weekend business. Cafes are abundant. Open-air stalls indulge the curiosities of souvenir seekers and bookworms alike. Indigenous music fills the air.

Indigenous Andean sounds influence the color of Cuenca's ambience.

Lunch in the city market gave us an Andrew Zimmern experience. The grocery part of the market offers parts from domestic livestock that Americans commonly discard. Guinea pigs roasted on sticks are also available. 

I settled for a less-adventurous lunch on this occasion. Encebollado is Ecuador's "national dish." It is a hearty fish stew with onions and potatoes. A satisfying bowl set me back $1.50.

Lunch in Cuenca's city market provided us with an Andrew Zimmern experience.

For another dollar I scored a bunch — about 20 — of tree-ripened "miniature" bananas. These were about half the size of bananas to which Americans are accustomed. They are also sweeter. I cannot tell whether this is attributable to being ripened on the tree, or whether they are naturally sweeter.

CSC-Ecuador teammates enjoy a Saturday-evening walkabout through Cuenca's historic center.

A brief tour of two of the "many" Ecuadors

Saturday, October 25, 2014 — Ecuador is a geographically diverse country. That was only an abstract concept before this weekend. I had, since arriving two weeks ago, only seen some of the costal area. This mostly included the area immediately around Guayaquil. We also visited the beach.

There are — at a coarse level — three Ecuadors. Guayaquil sits in a low part of a costal plain. Beyond the plain, the Andean highlands soar into the sky. The eastern slope of the Ecuadorian Andes gives way to the Amazon basin. My time in Ecuador regrettably affords me no opportunity to see thee the Amazon side.

Ecuador consists of three principal geographic regions — a costal plain, the Andean highlands, and a corner of the Amazon basin. (Source:  worldofmpas.net)

My IBM CSC Ecuador team embarked on a weekend outing into the highlands. Cuenca — Ecuador's third city, after Guayaquil and Quito — was our primary destination.  (I'll talk about Cuenca in a later installment.) We made two side trips.  We stopped first at Ruinas Ingapirca, an important indigenous ruin. We also visited Cajas National Park. Radical changes in elevation was a key feature of our trip.

Our chartered bus allowed us to view en route a considerable amount of countryside. We began by transiting Ecuador's coastal plain. This relatively flat expanse bridges between the Pacific coast and the Andean foothills. The plain resides mostly below about 500 meters in elevation.

The coastal plain is home to much of Ecuador's agriculture. We saw vast expanses of banana plantations. These were interspersed with cocoa, rice, and a variety of other fruits. Ecuador presently enjoys robust growth in its agriculture output. Numerous new banana groves are evidence.

Ecuador's coastal plane provides much of the country's banana production.

Our introduction to the Andean foothills was obscured by cloud cover of the overcast morning. We witnessed a spectral unveiling as we climbed through about 1,500 m. The mountains gradually revealed themselves spectacularly. Once above 2,000 m, we enjoyed an unobstructed view of the peaks ahead of us.

The terrain almost could have been the Colorado Rockies of my youth. The mountainsides were rugged. We peered down into plunging canyons. The vegetation was however radically different. These plants of the equator know no changes in the season. They live in a perpetual Spring.

The Andean foothills were masked by fog when we first climbed into them.

We reached our first stop — the Ruinas Ingapirca — at around 3,100 m (10,000 ft) in elevation. This was a spiritually significant place for two pre-Colombian civilizations that chose to live at high elevations. The Cañaris occupied the site during about 500–1400 AD. They were supplanted by the Incas, who reined there until completion of the Spanish Conquest in about 1572 AD.

Las Ruinas Ingapirca demonstrate the Cañaris' surprisingly sophisticated grasp of astronomy. The geometry of the site is aligned to the sun's transit between its Summer and Winter solstices. The Cañaris — and their Incan successors at Ingapirca — were acutely aware of the celestial cycles. 

Our tour guide, apparently of indigenous extraction, showed us a crude Cañari sextant. It consisted a large rock with holes into which water was poured. Its users observed stars' reflections in these little pools of water to divine the seasons and other things that mattered to them.

The active period of the Ruinas Ingapirca spans both the Cañari and Incan periods in South America.

Ingapirca compares modestly to the larger and more prominent Machu Picchu. It provides however a glimpse into Cañari culture. In this regard, it is distinctly Ecuadorian.

Member's of IBM's Ecuador CSC Team examine the interior of a residence built to resemble those used by the Incans.

We visited the following day one of Ecuador's natural wonders. Cajas National Park sits on the South American continental divide. This is the path along the top of the mountains that separates the continent into two drainages. Water on the West side ultimate drains into the Pacific. The East side drains into the Atlantic.

Cajas reminds me of Rocky Mountain National Park, near which I passed much of my youth. Both sit mostly above timber line. This is the altitude above which trees and other large plants can no longer survive. Timber line in the Colorado Rockies occurs at an altitude of about 10,000 ft (3,086 m). The visitors' center in Cajas sits at 13,539 ft (4,180 m).

The Cajas National Park sits astride the South American continental divide.

A diverse variety of other plants do survive in this rarified atmosphere. These include specially adapted grasses, lichens, and mosses. Their Colorado "cousins" are quite delicate. They grow slowly. These Andean plants may be slightly more robust, unconstrained by very short growing seasons.

The flora in Cajas National Park consists of a variety of grasses, mosses, and lichens. 

My brief Andean visit elicited both nostalgia from a mountain childhood, and the excitement of a place that is new and exotic. Americans have a saying, "You can take the boy out of the mountains, but not the mountains out of the boy." There still are some mountains left in me. I find however that I am no longer adapted to higher altitudes.

The Andean environment is however very different however from the Colorado Rockies. The climate is severe enough to claim human lives. The site we visited — Las Tres Cruces — contains evidence in the form of three memorials. The Ecuadorian Andes, so near to the Equator, enjoy a perpetual Spring, by standards of the North American Rockies. That imbues them with a sense of strangeness and wonder.

A Trip to the Beach — Building Foundations for Business Relationships

Saturday, October 18, 2014 — IBM's Corporate Service Corps (CSC) program accomplishes corporate philanthropy through donating its employees' labor to help with grass-roots projects in developing locales. This approach however yields benefits that extend far beyond attainment of goals for corporate social responsibility (CSR). It casts employees into intensively multi-cultural settings. My CSC team includes 15 IBMers from 11 different nations.

First-hand experience in dealing with clients from different cultures represents a key dimension. Much of the world approaches business differently than Europe and North America. Characterizing the unique ways in which different cultures approach business and other relationships is a topic of serious research (e.g., McFarlin). Most MBA programs now contain courses in international organizational behavior.

Our project with Edúcate gives us first-hand experience in a key aspect of this. North American and Western European business cultures emphasize formally and comprehensively defining roles and responsibilities at outset of a business relationship. Many other cultures emphasize first establishing a sound interpersonal relationship. The details work themselves out if the partners first understand and trust each other.

E.dúcate Fundación Directora Patricia Hernández de Sosa provided members of the Ecuador CSC Team with a personal demonstration of this principle. Teammates Sophie Asmus, Aideen Dunne, and I were Dra Hernández' guests at her beach house. We accompanied her to Manglaralto, on Ecuador's Pacific Coast. Manglaralto is a comfortable stroll along the beach from Montañita, one of South America's "surf meccas."

Manglaralto and Montañita are located on the Ecuador's Pacific Cost, between the two Westernmost points on the South American continent.

Manglaralto — literally translated as "mangrove" — contains many beach homes for Guayaquileños, residents of Guayaquil. The local economy is based mostly on tourism and on the fishing industry. Tourist guides suggest it as a quiet refuge from the more-frenetic atmosphere of Montañita, the beach resort-town immediately to the North.

The Hotel Manglaralto is a local landmark along the stretch of coast we visited.

Manglaralto — like many costal communities — faces a threat from teach erosion.  The home of our hostess was originally part of the second row of homes from the surf. The sea claimed the first row. A stone seawall now stands guard between he surf and the houses.

A stone seawall stands as a barrier between Manglaralto and the eroding beach.

Tourism and fishing are the two leading local industries. Fresh seafood is an inescapable part of the diet here. Patricia treated us to a sublime ceviche dish. It was based on an old family recipe. 

The stretch of Ecuador's coast between Salinas and San Lorenzo supports a robust fishing industry.

The sand along the shore between Manglaralto and Montañita is rich with life. Sand crabs scamper on the surface, plunging into their burrows as we approach within five or so meters. Sea snails' shells protrude from the sand like studs.

Montañita — literally "little mountain" — exudes a colorful, tropically rustic ambiance. Brightly colored umbrellas occupy the front line facing the surf. Vendors peddle everything from fresh-cut coconut drinks to local artesianal jewelry to ice cream. 

Restaurant/bars provide the backstop for the beach scene. Many of these establishments include hostels on their upper levels. These abodes appear perfect for surfers seeking to "rough it", immersing themselves in the austere setting. More comfortable accommodations appear farther inland. The architecture particularly colorful one suggests an abstract-modernist interpretation of Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.

Clean, sandy beaches are one of the key assets Ecuador leverages in its quest to become a world-recognized tourist destination.

Our time in Maglaralta proved eminently relaxing. There was time during the mornings read while relaxing on a hammock strung from the porch's rafters. Each of us successfully resisted any temptation to discuss work, although the challenges of our project were percolating in the back of all of our minds. This is the essence relationship building, the foundation of business in many parts of the world. 

With colleagues Sophie Asmus and Aideen Dunne from the IBM CSC team in the town of Montañita.

Artisanal Jewelry from Cocoa Seeds

Saturday, October 18, 2014 — Our E.dúcate hostess treated us this weekend to a visit to the shop of a local artisan.  Herlinda Gonzales' shop — located near the Ecuadorian beach resort of Mangaralto — sits in a rural neighborhood that neither Google's nor Apple's mapping applications recognize. 

Near the beach towns of Manglaralto and Montañita, the Artisanal shop was "off the map", as far as Apple's and Google's map locations are concerned.

The Gonzalez' neighborhood consists of many such shops. Many are dual-purpose dwellings. The workshop sits on the ground floor, and living spaces upstairs. The tropical climate does not require them to be heavily insulated, or completely closed in.

The Gonzalez' shop is located in a rural neighborhood containing other shops.

The Gonzalez' operation is completely organic. They receive raw materials from the rainforest. Their raw stock consists mostly of seeds. They add silver wire stock, elastic, and other connecting materials. The entire process occurs in their workshop.

They perform their work using common power tools.  These include grinders, sanders, and drills. These tools break down the the raw materials — tropical plant seeds — into pieces of the size and shape of their finished products.  They then polish the pieces to a high-gloss finish.  Finally, they paint and assemble them.

Herlinda Gonzalez and her husband use common wood-shop power tools to produce finished jewelry from raw, rain-forest products.

Tagua nuts are one of their main products. Tagua nuts are rock-hard. Each is about the size of a walnut. The "raw" tagua nuts dry out in the sun for eight months before they are ready for use. Once properly aged, the Gonzales' remove their outer shells. The inner nut has a creamy color, and the texture and shape of an animal brain.

Seeds from Tagua plams dry in the sun for eight months before they are ready to become jewelry.

Tagua trees are "cousins" to cocoa treas. The Gonzalez' work with cocoa nuts when available. Having other obvious uses, cocoa nuts are often unavailable.

The Gonzalez cut the round nuts mostly into flat shapes. The highly polished pieces are painted with bright colors. After polishing, the finished products shine with a high gloss.

A finished bracelet manufactured from Tagua seeds.

Guaya oro — Guayan gold — is one of the other raw materials. These nuts are about the size of a peanut. They become shiny, bright-colored beads for necklaces and earrings. 

Hermanas de pendientes — CSC colleagues Aideen Dunne and Sophie Asmus show off freshly made earrings from "Guay Oro" seeds.