To the Field and Back Again!

Hi everyone!

Well, I am happy to report I have successfully completed my first (research related) field visit. Everything went as smoothly as could be expected. I must give a special shout-out to my field coordinator / partner-in-crime / all around cool dude, Anantvijay, for his hard work in setting everything up ahead of time. I had become used to things running smoothly during my stint with summer school (thanks again to impeccable planning), but as you may have guessed, that is not the norm here in India. The fact that I have a research grant and was able to pay for these extras seems to have made all the difference (thank you, DGHI!!). Plus, I think I am lucky to be placed with a great team who really value the project I am working on.

As you can see, I did find a translator after all. I had an AHA! moment and reached out to a colleague that my advisor introduced me to while he was visiting in June, and she found me someone very quickly. His named is Dev Vrat and he is an MBA student in Udaipur doing translation work on the side. He came along and led two focus group discussions yesterday. Admittedly, it took him a bit to find his stride, hence the first group went very slowly. He was open to suggestions and ended up doing much better for the second group. I am looking forward to working with him for the rest of the coming week.

I admit, I am feeling quite anxious about the level of work I have to accomplish in the next few weeks here. Not only am I responsible for completing these focus groups, but I will also have to write a report and give a presentation to the NGO. Also, I have been asked to work on setting up the next round of surveys for my advisor, which will hopefully take place in November/December of this year. I am adament that I have at least SOME time for travel and fun, especially seeing as I will be celebrating my 26th birthday here! Others may not agree with me, but I can already feel my stomach tightening with anxiety at the thought of everything I have to do. Beeing cooped up in Udaipur isn't going to help me get anything done any better. So, I am planning short trips to Mumbai (August 7 - 11) and Delhi (August 14 - 17) to see friends and have a little fun Then, I will come back and present my results before heading home on August 20th.

One thing that might de-rail my plans are the rains. It has been heavily raining since last night, and I am headed back to the field Monday - Friday. There were already some bridges that had been washed out and huge rocks that had fallen and were blocking roads yesterday (Friday). If the rain really picks up it could make going to the villages impossible. Which means I will have to go back to the drawing board! We shall see what happens ...

Yesterday was a bit dreary, but I did manage to snap a picture of Kherwara during the monsoon season. I will post a picture from a few weeks ago for comparison :) Granted, these are different villages, but you can see a definite change in the vegetation already!

Pareda village, Kherwara block (mid June)

Sagwara village, Kherwara block (late July)

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be in the field all next week, but will update when I get back (a promise  of more pictures for next time, even if they are a bit dreary)!

xoxo

The monsoons have come!

Dear Monsoons,

So glad you are here, truly! The rain is much needed and I know the farmers are rejoicing. If you could just please stop dumping bugs everywhere, I would be much obliged.

Love,

Alec

(After I just murdered 15 flying ants that are invading my room at the moment)

All joking aside, the monsoons have come to Rajasthan!! You all must think I am crazy to celebrate, but this actually is a good thing. The weather is finally starting to cool down and Udaipur will rapidly become lush and green. It's beautiful as it is, but I can only imagine how beautiful it will look in two more weeks! Not to mention, it is truly something to behold when the rain comes down SO hard for such long stretches of time. It sounds amazing bouncing off the tin roof. Mother nature at her finest!

In other news, the summer school program has finally come to its end. I have said goodbye to so many people over the last 3 days ... its been bittersweet to say the least. There are only four of us left and by tomorrow there will be only three. Luckily for me, the other two are staying until mid-August so I will have friends in Udaipur up until almost a week before I leave!

Tomorrow I will be officially starting my research project with the NGO. I have already been in talks with them to try and set up the few things I need from them. They seem to be very excited about my project, which is great because it makes me feel excited too! This is going to be a big learning experience for me, and I would be lying if I didn't admit I was a little nervous. I will be holding a series of focus group discussions with people from many different villages to assess demand for three water and sanitation technologies: (1) a ceramic filter (which you all heard about in earlier posts), (2) community level chlorination tanks, and (3) a composting latrine. All of these actually build off of the project I have been working on for the last few weeks, and I am feeling happy to know that I get to go back to the same block I have been working in, even though I will be in different villages.

As far as our project goes everything ended up very nicely in the end. My team and I had some issues with how the work was split, and one of my team members completely checked out near the end and didn't do much of anything. Come to think of it, this person didn't do much of anything for the entirety of the program, but I was willing to overlook it thinking things would improve with time. NOPE! Oh well, all is done with now.

During the last field visit we took two samples back to Udaipur (on ice) to analyze for fecal contamination. Turns out, there was a low level of fecal coliform in both samples, one was from an open well (no surprise) and the other was from a household vessel that contained water from a hand pump. This, coupled with the results of our household survey (granted, we only surveyed about 8% of the population due to time constraints) which showed that 62% of monthly health expenses were going towards the treatment of diarrhea and stomach issues like vomitting, abdominal pain, gastritis, etc. I told you guys about Potters for Peace a while back (whose office is actually out of Greensboro, NC - go figure) and we were really interested in bringing the technology here. Anyways, once again, due to time constraints, we ended up going with a similar option that is available here in India. The product is called Terafil and it is also a clay filtration device of sorts that can be locally produced and sold. The training to manufacture the device and the liscensing agreements have already been sorted out by the government, so we figured this option was more viable in the long run.

From what I could tell, the NGO was pretty happy with our results. I even got an off-hand "well, I might just have to hire you and let you figure out how to bring the technology here," although I'm not entirely sure that was serious ... That said, I have been talking a lot with my friend Siri about some of the issues I have been seeing (she worked extensively in the same block that I have been in) and I am starting to seriously consider coming back to do water and sanitation work in India. There is so much to be done and so many great organizations working on amazing projects. I'm not saying anything for certain, just keeping an open mind about the future. Working here has reaffirmed my passion for what I have set out to do, at Duke and otherwise. I really do believe the world would be a better place if everyone had access to clean water and toilets, and the need for those two things is very great here.

So yes, I have felt equal parts frustrated, excited, tired, happy, hopeless, and hopeful during my time here. It is difficult to see the potential these people hold and not want to do everything in your power to help them! These first six weeks have been an incredible introduction to development work and I am so glad I was able to participate in the program. I hope the next five weeks are just as rewarding.

On that note, I need to go and get ready for bed. Wish me luck on my first "official" day at work!

Planning to post pictures tomorrow. xoxo

Field Visit 3 & the Last Week of Summer School!

Hello to all!

Apologies for such a late posting ... I came home from the field last Wednesday and promptly started organizing and analysing the data from our household survey. Then, I was working with my group members to turn in a draft report to our academic mentors, which was due yesterday. We've already received comments and we are now in the last and final stretch: final reports and final presentations are due on Friday! Whew!!!

I will admit this program hasn't always been rainbows and butterflies (as much as I do love it here). Although, I will save my true reflections on the program and my experience until next week when the program is actually done. I'd really like to keep this as a short update post for now.

Back to field visit 3 .... it was actually a very laid-back time for me. In the interest of time, we decided to delegate tasks this go-round so we could make use of each person's skills and be ready to leave earlier (we needed to get back and start the report writing as we have no internet in the field). So, my teammate Anita and I stayed back at the health center and did data entry as Pallavi and Manuj went to the field and administered the surveys. The survey was quite long, so it was better to do it this way so we wouldn't have a back log of data to enter in the end. Due to this fact, I didn't get as many pictures of village life. Although, I did take pictures of the health center and I will also post a picture below of my team and I with the cook. He was awesome!

Most of the group went out for a big dinner last night, so I also have a few pictures from that as well that I will post.

I will be in hibernation until Saturday when I can finally breathe a sigh of relief that this project is over. I will be sure to write an entry again soon to tell you all more about what we have decided to do :)

For now, I am exhausted and heading to bed.

Reflections on Week 4

I can't believe I'm at the one month mark already!! Time is flying by lately (like it always seems to do).

So, I updated you all when I got back from the field last weekend, and guess what?! I'm leaving for the field again tomorrow! :) The last week has been a whirlwind of class, interim presentations, and preparations for the next round of data collection.

My team and I have had meeting after meeting with our academic and NGO mentors to try and figure out how we can incorporate what we've already learned with something measurable (after last weeks test results didn't leave us any direction to go forward with). We finally decided to try and link waterborne disease to high health expenditures. We heard during many of our focus group discussions that health issues like diarrhea and vomitting are common during the monsoon and summer seasons. I will have much more concrete information after this next round of questionaries, so I will be sure to share the numbers with you all.

The question is what can we do about it? We are planning to conduct very basic demand assessments of a few water treatment options that we might be able to implement in the community. The trick here is to make the options sustainable, so that the community can take on whatever project we suggest with very little assistance from Seva Mandir. We are hoping to work with the women's groups and gauge interest in a business initiative where they could possibly construct the filtration devices and sell them for income. We know they have the capacity to make the clay tiles that they put on their roofs and they also make big clay water containers, so we are thinking some clay filters could be a good recommendation that could be locally sourced. I highly recommend you all check out Potters for Peace if you are interested in learning more about what I am referring to by as a clay filter (Google: Potters for Peace Clay Filter Project).

Anyways, we've gotten really great feedback from all of our mentors and we did very well on our presentation. I am feeling good going into these final weeks that we can come out of this with a solid project report and recommendation for our NGO!

Other than that I have had some free time to enjoy the company of new friends and a few chapters from my latest book (I'm reading the Outlander series and loving it!). We have spent quite a few of the past nights watching the World Cup games. Unfortunately we get a bit screwed over with some of the times being 10 hours ahead of Brazil, but we can usually catch the 9:30pm games. Speaking of that ... GOOOO CHILE!!!! They play Brazil tonight :)

Sorry I don't have much more to say ... my week has been relatively boring compared to past weeks.

I hope you all are well! Will update soon with reflections from my final field visit.

Field Visit 2: Pareda Rawla & Pareda Nichla

Ah, back from the field and it feels so good to be beside this window with my cooler blowing on me once again ;)

But seriously, the field visit this time around was MUCH better!! The weather was much more bearable and the cook made a concerted effort to make the food less spicy for me. To be honest, it was still spicier than I was used to, but I made an effort to eat as much as I could so I wouldn't lose too much energy. I think we were all much more prepared about what to expect this time around. For instance, I brought more snacks and I really stayed on top my water situation so I didn't get dehydrated or exhausted. I also got heat rash last time so I came stocked with goldbond powder and calamine lotion in case that happened again, which luckily it didn't! We covered a lot of ground and met with some really incredible groups of women. We also got our water kit on the last day (yesterday) and went crazy collecting samples in the morning and then analyzed them all evening - will share more about this later.

It was quite a nice experience. I don't think I can explain how beautiful the landscape is in the area I'm working in. It is truly a joy to bask in the picturesque views everyday. Its like discovering a small piece of paradise (in my humble opinion). I will be sure to share lots of pictures at the end of this post in hopes of conveying how lovely it is!! After speaking with my teammates, I am even more excited to go back during the monsoon season to see how beautiful and lush it will look when everything is in bloom after the rains.

We got in late Monday afternoon and decided to wait until Tuesday to head into the field. Like I mentioned in my last post, we are focusing on water quality and in particular on fluoride. We met with one of the village elders on Monday to rack his brain on the issue and to find out what he knew (if anything) and how we might best proceed with our questioning. Then, we spent a few hours hammering out some questions and some semblance of an interview guide that we followed for the rest of our vist, albeit somewhat informally. Most of the questions were centered about water quality, awareness and prevalence of waterborne disease, treatment and storage techniques (if any), general health issues, general questions about food and milk consumption (many people laughed at this, but the idea behind asking about food was to find out if the foods they were eating were also high in fluoride and also if they were ingesting enough calcium to offset some potential fluorosis), and then we delved into these women's self help groups (SHGs) to find out more about how they worked, how they were formed, what type of activities they undertake, etc ... These were informal interviews and focus groups, so our conversations often took other directions. For instance, we were told that alcoholism and domestic violence were issues throughout the community. Additionally, we probed people's interest in some kind of water storage system, like a rainwater storage tank to help battle water shortages.

We spent Tuesday through Thursday in the field. We held a total of 11 focus group discussions and two informal interviews (one with the Dr at the health center and the other with the Block Coordinator from Seva Mandir's Kherwara office). It is just now donning on me how much we did in three short days!! We visited very poor houses with malnourished children and poor water quality to more affluent households with latrines and borewells and healthy looking families and everything in between. Even those who are poor were often very generous. They went out of their way to find us chairs or beds to sit on (they sat on the ground), they offered us water (and sometimes chai), or they gave gifts of herbal plants or fruits. Seriously, some of the loveliest people I've met. There was one group where a lady was so entranced by my hair. She kept touching my ponytail and patting me on the back and was asking all these questions about me. It was so sweet! The kids are so cute too. They can't help but stare at me, but when I catch them at it they turn their heads and give me shy little smiles. The moms with babies were always encouraging them to go to me, with lots of smiles and hand motions. It usually didn't work but it was sweet just the same.

Anyway, long story short, we spent all of yesterday morning (Friday) collecting our precious water samples - 20 in all - and then spent the afternoon analyzing them with the help of a field water testing kit. Unfortunately, it seems that the fluoride reagent is a dud. I will be testing this again at the hostel again tonight to be sure, but it seems unlikely that all the fluoride concentrations were the same between the different sources, and thats exactly what it was telling us. This is dissapointing to say the least. We may need to look into the professional route (e.g. sending the samples to a laboratory for chemical analysis) so we can find out for sure. The reason I think it is a dud is because the clean, filtered water that we used as a control also came out with the same fluoride concentation. This is highly unlikley seeing as we know it was purified through reverse osmosis, which is generally known to remove fluoride.

Back to the drawing board for now. My group and I will have to discuss more options later.

In between all of the running around, we found time for group fun. The girls and I (Anita and Pallavi are my female group members) had fun talking, watching movies, listening to music, and I often read from my Nook. Pallavi also did a beautiful henna design on my hand - she is quite talented (see below for picture)! Manuj, our fourth group member often joined us, as well as Naresh, our local field guide.

Lets get to the pictures!!