Our training concluded at the Hanoi Country Office in Hanoi on Wednesday. Khahn, the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist caught on very quickly. I soon discovered that he has a broad background in the PC database application Microsoft Access. This helped him to write the form scrips that enabled the skip questioning and other form objects that extends the basic design software.
By the end of the day, we had pretty much completed the test form which we were to take out to two health centers in the Tranh Hoa province about 4 hours south of Hanoi. During lunch I learned that Khahn is married with two boys, the youngest being less than two months old. With less than an hour until office closure on Wednesday, I could see that 90% of the form was finished, but could use some tweaking of a particularly elegant navigation script that was not quite working. I could see Khahn valiantly trying to change it to become functional. He, at last succeeded, but was running out of time to make the form fully usable in small ways. I suggested that I finish it up, but his work ethic was making this suggestion uncomfortable to him. Knowing he had a wife at home with two small children, I pulled rank on him as the consultant and told him it would be complete and loaded on 5 PDA's by the morning.
We discovered that the native Windows Mobile keyboard lacks sufficient Vietnamese accented characters. This was of great concern to me, but Khahn said that the Vietnamese characters are Latin-based, but understandable, to most all people even lacking the accents. The forms were fully translated into Vietnamese, sans accent marks, for our field testing on Thursday and Friday. Ngoc anh would accompany us, and she would provide logistical support for our trip in order to allow Khahn his full focus on the field testing. Ahn is a health program assistant and also very fluent in English. She will also conduct some of the interviews on our first day. I appreciated that I would be able to observe the differences in how the mothers experienced interviewers from both genders. I love this part....
I had also wanted to place a branding logo for Save the Children at the beginning of the form, as well as the form title. This might seem like candy-coating, but those PDA screens are tiny compared to a big sheet of paper. It is simple to determine the form your are going to select while in an air conditioned office, but not so for a health worker in the clinic environment.
We arrived at the Bach Lim hotel, which was rather nice, early in the afternoon. It was very warm and humid, but I was delighted to see an air conditioner in my room. I am finding that hot water is irrelevant in many tropical locations since the water is already warm. After a brief rest, we packed up and headed for the first health center.
But first we would stop at the District Health Clinic to meet the Director and his staff. Save the Children partners with the Ministry of Health providing management of the health program and technical assistance. I was soon to discover that protocol and visibility was important, especially for a foreign visitor - me!
After a demonstration of the PDA's, the director wedged into our vehicle and we arrived at the first health clinic as the mothers were arriving. Pre-planning was evident, with two tables set up outside the clinic for the interviews. One by one, them others sat with either Anh or Khahn and went through the interview.
We had placed a digital signature field on the form asking for each respondents permission to conduct the interview. I have added a data security and data privacy section to my training package, so here was another opportunity to see how trust is engendered between interviewer and respondent with technology squarely in between.
We quickly went through the 20 interviews and I thought we would then depart. Was I wrong. Khahn inidcated that we would have a summary meeting. It was towards the end of the interviews that I saw the director walk over and greet a newly-arrived group of men. I now found out that this was the People's Committee for the village.
Now then, in 1970, after finishing hish school, I awaited my lottery number that would determine if I would be drafted unvoluntarily into the U.S. Army for a trip to the southern portion of this then-partioned country. I had strong feelings, like many students of this era about going, however I am not confident of my altruisitc beliefs at the time. I did not want to go. A high draft number kept me at my production assistant job for an electronics firm (not bad for just out high school. My father had me working part-time with him at small electronics companies since I was 14 (post-high school, I was able to avoid a fast food franchise income like my friends).
So, here I was professionally representing one of the largest NGO's in North Vietnam, and the local Party leadership had come to see what was going. I knew that news of my arrival had been given to these particular men before I had ever disembarked off of the plane. I had emailed my Statement of work and a copy of passport for the visa application process. Now, they wanted to see in person who I was and what I had come to do. This was fascinating.
We all sat at a table as I listened to dialogue which seemed more like speech-making ot me - ery formal and deliberate. It was hot and humid and it had been a long day and I was ready to go. But, I knew that this was, once again, a rare opportunity to represent not only Save the Children, but also America. I am very aware of this representation. I, unlike most toursits, often travel to remote locations where the polite stares tell me silently that, other than on CNN, I am the first glimpse of a Westerner. A chance not to be passed up.
Ahn was translating for me as the speeches continued. I knew what was coming, so I opened up Pocket Word on my PDA and began jotting down a few remarks. Sure enough, Ahn asked me during a pause in the conversation if I would like to say anything.
I do not know how well it translated, since my translators all over the world oft freely adjust my comments to our mutual benefit. After thanking thme for allowing us to conduct the surveys, I told them that I was impressed with their leadership for encouraging this pioneering effort in their village. This seemed to go over well, and smiling faces and eyes turned my way. The People's committee leader directed refreshments to be brought and we soon toasted each with Vietnamese beer (Halida).
Grievences redressed, at least on a personal, local level.
We returned to the hotel and went out for dinner at a nearby eatery. Khahn in particular has enjoyed watching me encounter various foods with an abundance of invertebrates. Aha, but he did not realize that I was passionate about invertebrate zoology in my first college foray. In fact, I described to him how my personal email address is actually the genus of a nearly universally-distributed fresh water snail (the cloak comes off...) which happens to be rare in that it's shell whorl is left-handed (yes, I too, am a south-paw). My rule overseas, is if my hosts eat it, I will eat it. Except for those fried chicken feet in the Philippines (I don't knw where those chickens had been walking!)
The air conditiong went out late at nightr after Khahn and I made some last minutes changes to the forms. all had gone realy well, and my PDA field feedback notes that I took during observation indicated no problems. In fact, I was surprised at how easily the forms worked and the respondents interaction with them. The next morning everyone asked how I slept, partly in curiousity in how a sweating Westerner took the heat. I actually fell asleep quickly and awoke refreshed. A quick breakfast of Pho and we were off for an early start to our 2nd health center.
The People's Committee leadership was noticeably absent, so the beer and my well-translated speech did the trick. This time the interviews were to be conducted by the health workers (HW), therefore we would quickly train the HW's to the PDA's and how the forms work. I just love this part, because it is at this level of interface all of my work proceeds.
I watched as Ahn and Khahn expertly emonstrated the use of the PDA's and the intend and function of the health questionnaires. I noticed four of HW's trying to look over their shoulders, so I grabbed another PDA and gently approached them from the side. Now, before all of this started I noticed a rather severe dispositioned lady walk in. She stood nearly a head taller than the rest (my height) and seemed to be the senior member. When she entered the room and looked and me and made a comment without smiling. I asked Ahn, and she told me that the lady asked if I understood any Vietnamese. Put into my place again. Anyway, as I began to demonstrate, the serious lady moved immediately towards us and displaced me with her newly-acquired knowledge of the PDA form and began instructing the HW's. Instead of a slight, I just moved away and reveled at the success of peer-to-peer training unfolding.
Oops, it is late Sunday night, I must do a little packing before I head into the office for a final bit of training and my summary and recommendations presentation to the CO Director and his staff.
This is why I do this work:
More later on my visit to the huge, elaborate mausoleum/museum (etymologically related, those two words?) of Ho Chi Minh, and the Army War Museum to view downed U.S. planes....
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