A motorcycle diary
In the grand Pan-American Highway tradition, Salvador Carlucci is traveling by motorcycle from California to Argentina “to study the state of health care in Latin America”. His adventure begins in August, and he will chronicle it with (surprise!) a blog. Read his recent post about C.K. Prahalad’s “Bottom of the Pyramid” (BoP) philosophy. Carlucci ties the BoP theory to health care and provides an interesting example of a cataract surgery center in India inspired by McDonald’s. Also see Salvador's post on NextBillion.
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Dear Christine,
Thank you for putting a post about my trip in the PSD Blog! I’m currently in the process of finalizing a Research Proposal to help me find additional resources to successfully complete this trip. I would like to send you a copy once it is complete. Please let me know where I can send it to. Again, thank you very much!
Best regards,
Salvador
Posted by: Salvador Carlucci | May 26, 2006 3:57:37 PM
Dear Salvador,
I look forward to following your trip this fall. PSD Blog doesn't give funding, but you're welcome to send us a copy of your proposal. The address is Christine Bowers, International Finance Corporation, 2121 Pennsylvania Avenue, MSN F4K-408, Washington DC 20433
You might want to check out this page on World Bank grants:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/OPPORTUNITIES/0,,contentMDK:20061756~menuPK:96315~pagePK:95645~piPK:95672~theSitePK:95480,00.html
Good luck!
Christine
Posted by: Christine Bowers | May 30, 2006 2:48:52 PM
Dear Christine,
As of today, I’ve been traveling for more than 2,000 miles visiting small villages in Mexico and interviewing local pharmacies and physicians physicians. Soon I hope to expand the pool of interviewees to include manufacturers, distributors and hospitals in order to get a global understanding of the barriers to healthcare access in Latin America.
My usual riding day includes waking up around 6 am. Make coffee with the camp stove in the room and eat a pastry that I purchased the night before. I have to pack all my stuff on the motorcycle wich can take between 1 to 3 hours depending if I’m camping or not. Then I get on the bike and ride anywhere from 200 to 350 miles onroads that are filled with animals, oncoming traffic in your lane around corners, potholes and trucks that pass you almost touching you. Once I get to my destination I have to ask around if it is possible to camp or look around for the cheapest hotel. Walking around with all the gear gets really hot and sweaty. (In Nombre de Dios a small town outside of Durango there was only one hotel with really old facilities. The next day I woke up with my whole body itching – who knows what insects where in the bed) Once I find the hotel I need to unpack, charge my electronics, take a shower and do laundry in the sink hoping things will be dry by the next day. Then I go looking for a cheap place to eat which usually is a stand on the street and I drink tap water to save money.
Even though the life style is hard it is much easier than most of the people I have met so I keep moving. However, my current conditions limit the quality of the research that I’m conducting because I have to run from town to town while I would need to spend a couple of days per town to be able to conduct in-depth interviews.
I hope once I reach South America I`ll be able to camp more often and spend more time interviewing healthcare professionals.
I hope everything is well there!
Salvador
Posted by: Salvador Carlucci | Aug 24, 2006 9:32:09 PM
A few years ago, it was difficult to find synthetic motor oils, and equally difficult to find someone who admitted to using them. Nowadays, however, you can find synthetic motor oils on the shelves of Wal-Mart, and other retailers, and the number of people turning to synthetic motor oils, particularly in light of the recent events affecting fuel prices, has risen greatly.
So why do people use synthetic motor oils rather than sticking with the old petroleum based stand-bys which are admittedly cheaper?
1. Let's start with the cost per quart issue. Synthetic motor oils ARE more expensive at purchase. However, these oils last longer, requiring fewer oil changes. As a synthetic motor oil outlasts several changes of petroleum based lubricants, the ultimate out-of-pocket cost of the lubricant is less. This cost savings becomes even greater if you have someone else change your oil for you rather than doing it yourself!
Posted by: motorcycle oil | Mar 9, 2007 8:05:55 AM