First of all, our project team fully delivered on all we set out to do. While success was in doubt up until the last minute (why do I work in technology?) we pulled it out at the 11th hour. Literally–11pm the night before we left. I look at what we did and we really nailed every aspect. The hardware we brought is high-quality and well configured. We got all the server software running in the configuration required. The electrical infrastructure is sound and protects the hardware. And we documented the systems very well.

It was really interesting going to Rwanda, such an amazingly different place from where I live, and then spending a lot of time working with technology. Every day felt like two days. There was the experiential part–meeting people, taking in the bustle and beauty, and eating amazing food. And then there was the volunteer work. Every day we were focused on moving toward project success. It made for a trip that went by quickly, but at the same time seemed to be a month long.

And I wouldn’t do it differently. I highly recommend going to Rwanda and Kenya. And I really recommend going there with good work to do. Volunteer. Help out. Contribute to the country while you experience it. You’ll get more out of your time there. You will spend more time with Rwandans and Kenyans. You will connect deeper with the place and the people then you would as a tourist. When I go back to Rwanda, I will be going with some good work to do. Maybe technology related, maybe not. But this kind of travel really resonated with me.

Here’s a quick recap of the project and why I was there:

Medical Missions for Children sends doctors to the hospital in a town called Gitwe a couple times a year. These doctors volunteer their time and perform surgeries on kids and adults. Things like repairing cleft pallets and resectioning goiters. Surgeries that are common and easy in more wealthy countries, but just don’t happen in poorer places. These cosmetic surgeries can be absolutely life changing–much like the impact of homeless people getting free dentures in San Francisco. It turns out that these kinds of procedures can change people’s lives–giving them confidence they’ve lacked for years because of their limitations. The freedom to smile, and not feel self-conscious, re-connects people with society and their families in profound ways. These cosmetic procedures can be truly life-changing.

Lucky Gunasekara was the project lead and he assembled the team–me, Jordan Smock, and the incomparable Canadian, Dale Zak. I didn’t know any of these guys going into the trip, and I came away with real friends I know I’ll stay in touch with.

Our task on this trip was to install a computerized medical records system that could be used by Medical Missions for Children to record the patients they worked with. When you’re performing surgery, it’s really important to know the patient’s medical history so that you don’t inadvertently harm them with drugs they are alergic to, for example. Phase one of this project was to get the system in place and have MMFC use it after we left. Phase two is for Gitwe Hospital to use the medical records system more broadly–allowing for better care for the 300,000 people who turn to the hospital.

Gitwe Hospital is owned and operated by the wonderful Urayeneza Gerard. He was our gracious host during our time there. Everything we requested to get the project done–server room with a padlock, upgrade to the electrical system, curtains for the windows–was gotten on short order.

Because of limited prep time for the trip, we purchased the hardware in the US and carried it on the plane with us. 2 Netbooks, 2 small desktops, a server, a backup power supply (UPS) and a million cables, surge protectors and other miscellany. Surprisingly, everything made it to our destination safely, and worked when we unpacked it. We did the unpacking in Kigali, where we were more confident we would have reliable power and Internet access. One of our hotel rooms turned into a makeshift server room as we built up the hardware, the network, and the software.

The biggest issue we ran into while unpacking things was power. Rwandan power turned out to be reliable and clean, but it comes out of the wall at ~250V. The power supplies in all of our devices were rated to 240V, save the most important one, the UPS. Luckily that required an awesome day of walking around the commercial district searching for a solution. We found one with the amazing folks at Bricotech. They sold us a voltage regulator which would serve the dual purpose of stepping the voltage down to 110V and protecting our equipment against power fluctuations. They also put a British plug end on our UPS, solving our other issue.

We were now ready to leave the big city for the rural outpost of Gitwe. We packed all our gear and made the 2+ hour drive south to the hospital, stopping along the way for a Mutzig in the van.

Gitwe is an amazing little spot. It’s not really a town, more of a collection of shops and homes. The main centers of activity are the Hospital and Esapac, a technical school with about 1000 students. So while it was a tiny little place, it bustled with activity of people coming and going.

Over the course of five days we took an empty room at the hospital and transformed it into the Gitwe Hospital server room. Here are the before and after pics:

We worked side by side with the IT staff at the hospital–Innocent and Charles, setting up furniture, hardware and software. The technology we brought in is somewhat new to these folks. They haven’t used the medical records system before, and they need to come up to speed on Linux systems. We’re hoping to get them involved in an intensive nine-month training course offered by the Rwandan government to train folks to work with medical records systems. It’s a plumb placement, and a great opportunity if it comes through.

OpenMRS was our steepest learning curve in this project. We ended up running up against a problem with a bad install file posted to their website. Things just weren’t working for the first 3 days of our stay. We tried every angle we could think of, and then used our cellphone modem Internet access to throw a hail mary out to Dave Thomas, who works at the other end of Rwanda for Partners in Health. He saved our bacon. Completely. With his help, we were able to get the system functioning on our last day, and then spent the rest of the day and night configuring it for the special needs of MMFC. At midnight we headed back to our rooms for a beer, a bit of whiskey and Coke, with a palpable sense of relief and accomplishment.

The next morning we had breakfast with Gerard and his wife Justine, like we did each day in Gitwe. After breakfast Gerard said a prayer for our travels and really got us choked up as we realized how important this contribution is to him. He’s doing amazing things for Gitwe with the school and the hospital. He is by far the largest employer in the area, with the hospital alone having 1,500 employees. And he has no plans to slow down–Gitwe will likely be the home of the second medical school in Rwanda. I can’t wait for that to happen!

Now that our work was done, we could enjoy a little tourism. But, Lucky, Dale and I aren’t your average tourists. What we like to see are real people, and amazing good work. So, naturally, we headed up to Rwinkwavu to get a tour of the Partners in Health operation. It was the most amazing download of information I’ve had in a while. Hearing about the innovative things they are doing to ensure the health of the poor in northeastern Rwanda was nothing short of amazing and inspiring. PIH is my favorite nonprofit, and I highly recommend reading Mountains Beyond Mountains if you want to learn more about how comprehensive healthcare can be provided to people with no money. Thanks to our hosts Cheryl and Dave, we had plenty to think about on the long drive to Kigali.

I can’t say enough about the experience of working side-by-side with great folks in an amazing setting. It’s a great feeling to visit a place and leave behind something of value that can be built on. I hope to go back and contribute some of that building. I’d love to have more time to focus on knowledge transfer and skill building with Charles and Innocent and whomever is interested. This trip felt like a first step into a longer relationship. I hope that’s the case and that Gitwe moves forward as fast as we all want. There are governmental plans to bring fiber optic Internet to all the district hospitals in the next year or so. Gitwe could be transformed in short order if that’s the case. I’d love to witness it first hand!

Thanks Pete! Very thoughtful and there is nothing like the gift of play. I’ll try to get some pics and video of the balls in action once they get on the feet of kids who can use them!

We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families Gourevich’s book on the 1994 genocide goes so far beyond just a history, it almost feels timeless. He uses the genocide to allow us to consider what it means to be human. Everyone should read this book…

As We Forgive: Stories of Reconciliation from Rwanda Larson takes a look at what it means to try to carry on after the genocide. She presents dozens of real-life tales of reconciliation that are heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time.

Mountains beyond Mountains Tracy Kidder tells the tale of Paul Farmer and his work in Haiti. President Kagame asked Farmer to Rwanda to help remake the country’s health care system. Farmer’s melding of liberation theology and public health is nothing short of brilliance.

And David Brancaccio has an amazing segment on Farmer’s work in Rwanda. This half-hour is amazing–take the time to watch it to see just how attainable conquering AIDS in Africa really is.

I’m really excited to work with Lucky! This project will be amazing, and Lucky has a longer-term vision. He wants to answer the question: does cloud computing have a role in health systems in rural Africa? He’s planning some really interesting efforts in Kenya later this year. In time, I think Salesforce.com can be a boon in rural Africa, and I’m really interested to start the work to figure out if that time is now, soon, or farther down the road. I see this trip as a great first step on that path.

When I started working with Salesforce.com five years ago, I felt part of my role was to go down the path of trying to deeply customize the platform for nonprofits, and then to report on that experience, warts and all. I really enjoyed that work, and I hope to do similar work and storytelling around Salesforce.com in parts of the world where people assume the cloud can’t work.

But most of all, I’m really excited to have all my assumptions and expectations blown out of the water! I can’t wait to walk the roads, meet folks, and most of all listen and learn. I will be arriving with no answers, and I don’t expect to leave with any. For me, it’s all about getting to the right questions. There will be so much to take in, to start orienting myself to this new set of challenges.

Only just a week ago a friend pointed me to this piece by David Brancaccio on Partners In Health’s work in Rwanda. I was floored by the outcomes they are getting, and the thoughtful design of the community health program. I recommend watching it–it’s amazing.

So many times people look to technology as a savior. That never works in my estimation–human systems are how problems are solved. Technology can augment and transform those solutions, but it isn’t the answer. I’m incredibly excited by what’s already working in Rwanda, and am fired up to start thinking about how technology can help extend that impact.

I watched this video and emailed the link to a friend of mine with the message, “this is the work I want to do with my life–helping people build community-based systems that really work.” Four days later I got an email from Lucky inviting me to Rwanda, to the very region where that video was filmed. Serendipity is a fabulous thing!

Ahh! I’m going to Rwanda! I still can’t really believe it. It all feels so fast and so amazingly exciting. Of course I’ll be writing about the experience, as well as taking tons of pictures and videos. So much to do to prepare!

I’ve started connecting with interesting NGOs and entrepreneurs working in Africa. Through my contacts at work, I’ve been learning about some of the work being done in some of the countries in Africa. These conversations have been very interesting and helpful. I wrote a bit a while back about the cloud and the stack of infrastructure it relies on. This resetting of the landscape is an excellent process to undergo for me. It’s a process of understanding new constraints. Feeling out those constraints is key to critically thinking and solving problems. Knowledge workers who don’t understand the constraints they work under are doomed to come up with solutions that will not work.

And it’s been amazing to know those constraints but to keep in mind that boxes need to be broken out of. While constraints make you think creatively, blindly accepting those constraints is unacceptable if we want to bring about transformative change. Last week I changed my status message on IM from “constraints breed creativity” to “constraints are for suckers” to try to get at this duality. Understand, but do not accept the binds you feel!

A great place to get grounded in some of the newest thinking about Africa is to watch Africa-themed TED talks. So many of these talks are mind-blowing. In 2007, TED Global went to Tanzania and there are many amazing talks from that conference. If you’ve ever talked with me for more than 20 minutes, I’ve probably recommended a TED talk to you. I recommend watching them all! Stories about leadership, entrepreneurship, the economy, banking, the list goes on.

I’ve found a great way to follow what’s going on in Africa is to find the amazing folks on Twitter interested in the topics. I’ve created a list of Africa-related Twitter accounts I follow. Many are technology related, but not all. Feel free to peruse or follow the list if you want daily info on what’s happening in Africa from some amazing people.

Following Twitter will point you to all these blogs eventually. They’re all great:

• Afrigadget – making in Africa
• Appfrica – TED Senior Fellow Jonathan Gosier’s blog
• naijablog – Jeremy Weate with great stuff out of Nigeria
• Texas in Africa – Laura Seay, a professor at Morehouse
• White African – Founder of Afrigadget and Ushahidi Director of Operations, Erik Hersman

We question whether offline access is even necessary. After all… in today’s world, you’re never too far from an internet connection. We concluded that offline access is important now, but less important with each passing day.

In the US and Europe that may be the case, but I’m realizing just how much we take for granted with technology. We talk about turning computing into a utility, while in many places the utilities don’t even run like utilities. It’s been a good shift to start thinking about what we need to do so that the rest of the world can take advantage of the cloud.

The cloud is actually way up on top of a very tall stack of infrastructure that includes:

• clean water
• social stability
• reliable power
• functioning local economies
• accessible banking systems
• and then, finally, affordable, redundant Internet access

That’s quite an infrastructure just to get a service like Salesforce.com or Amazon EC2 to run. And most of the people in the world live in places that are missing big pieces of this stack, so we’ve got lots of work to do before the world can make powerful use of cloud computing, the least of which is HTML5-based offline access.

Great infographic documenting the current state and near future of Internet access in Africa. What I see in these numbers is amazing growth that is poised to explode as the cost per MBPS is expected to drop 90% in the next year. Wow. Another amazing stat–27% of African Internet users are in South Africa.

From Appfrica an entrepreneurial incubator in Uganda.

But I left Dreamforce feeling transformed–personally and professionally. I didn’t expect it. And I’m not exactly sure what to do with it.

I realized last week the reason I took my current job. People ask me all the time. It was clearly a good fit for my skills. The people are great. And it’s a lot of fun. But I realized the real reason last week.

I took this job so that I can help create better lives for millions of people.

Not tens, not hundreds, but millions. Even hundreds of millions. That’s why I’m on this earth. That’s what I think I can contribute to our shared existence. And I think I can do that in my job.

What brought about this clarity? I met some amazing people. I met one woman who has an amazingly clarity of her purpose in life, and that purpose is to help Africa transform itself. To break the colonial, top-down models and return to self-organized, systemic change, completely in partnership with Africans. No more $1M schools dropped from the sky. Holistic, collaborative, community-based change. Generational change. She burns with this goal, and nothing will stand in her way.

Her passion lit a fire in me. And caused me to ask questions of myself. How does my bug fixing contribute to the reemergence of Africa? Am I making the kind of difference I need to make? What can I do differently?

I met a man who has a full-time job and volunteers with a group working in the Sudan. They are building a school from compressed soil, hand dug, hand compressed, and it will be hand built. I had talked to him about his Salesforce needs before I realized he was a volunteer. I thought he was an employee. But it turns out his organization only has one employee. He quietly does this work in his spare time, because he can’t possibly not do it. That wouldn’t make sense to him. And his work is infectious. He asked me, “do you want to go to the Sudan?” Hell yes I want to go to the Sudan.

I met a woman who is taking a holistic approach to education in Tanzania. Children found abandoned in garbage heaps find a home with her organization. They learn and grow because of her work. Their lives are forever changed. She does this work which has nothing to do with her professional history. She was called to it. And is phenomenal.

These people showed me their fire, their passion, the absolute unacceptability of doing nothing. The necessity of action today. The absolute need for impatience and patience all at once. It bowled me over. I’m reeling from it still.

It has caused me to look at my work differently. I will continue to do the best work I possibly can with the responsibilities I have. And I feel compelled to start initiatives of my own. The first thoughts I’ve had is to make Salesforce.com the absolute standard for use in Africa. Here’s what I think needs to be done to show that Salesforce.com can excel for nonprofits in Africa:

Nonprofit Starter Pack

I need to make this code base the best it can be. I want no software bugs standing in the way of this work. It’s the easiest place for me to make an impact on Monday, and I will.

Language Support

Salesforce is translatable into many languages. At this writing, that list includes 20 languages. English, French and Spanish are official languages in many African countries, and those languages are supported currently. I want Salesforce.com to be available in the next tier of African languages: Arabic, Swahili, Portuguese (Brazilian Portuguese is currently available, and maybe that’s close enough?), and perhaps Afrikaans. There are over 2000 languages spoken in Africa, so we may never get to support Berber, Hausa, Xhosa, and the countless others.

Are these the right languages? I’m new to this, but Arabic, Swahili, and Portuguese seem like the place to start. Arabic is a right to left language, so Salesforce.com first must be able to be switched to that mode, but once that’s possible, I want Arabic the next day.

• Vote for Arabic support on the Idea Exchange.
• Vote for Swahili support on the Idea Exchange.

And as soon as Salesforce.com supports a language, we’ll start the work to translate the Nonprofit Starter Pack to that language.

Offline Support

As you know, much of Africa lacks reliable Internet access. Much of Africa lacks clean water, electricity, and other services much more basic than that. So to support Africans working to transform their countries, we need rock-solid offline tools. Salesforce.com has had offline support in Internet Explorer for years, and many African nonprofits are currently using that to successfully support their work.

Salesforce.com recently released Adobe Flashbuilder for Salesforce a toolkit that includes easy to use offline support. I think we need to build some killer offline apps with this toolkit to show the way in this space. Classroom attendance, health clinic service tracking, micro-finance payment collection. We need to build these and share the source code.

Deep Case Studies

I want to work with a few nonprofits in Africa to go deep in their usage of Salesforce.com. I want to hear the stories of how this helps them achieve their goals, and I want to share those stories with the world. Knowing what’s possible is an important step in the path to impact and excellence. We need to prove it, show it, tell it.

I normally don’t share my goals publicly. I like to under promise and over deliver. That’s worked for me for years. But I can’t seem to contain this new fire I feel. So I’m laying out what I want to see happen and I’ll do what I can to bring it about.

If you feel a stirring when you read this, join me. What will we do? I don’t know. How will we do it? We’ll figure it out. But I need to act today. If you feel that need, drop me a line, and we’ll help Africa together.